center for tropical agricultural research and education (catie)

Basically, it is very insufficient for the fee asked. Go to the neay by Lankester Orchid collection instead.

The gardens are lovely to stroll through with many different plant species. There is a small lake which is an ideal place to see different birds and cayman. It is easy to spend a whole morning there as the gardens are extensive. You can hire a guide too for extra information and to help spot the birds although it's easy to see plenty without. It is a peaceful place and very attractive on the eye.

We had a brilliant little tour around CATIE one afternoon. Picked up a number of birds around the lake and satisfied the botanist in our group with a walk through the botanical garden. I left an umbrella behind which was gone when I went back for it. Further around the lake, a CATIE employee saw me and gave it back to me. He had noticed that I had left it behind, retrieved it and looked out for me so that he could return it to me

Please can anybody advise cost to enter both botanical garden and lake area with a guide?We are visiting soon and need to know how much to budget.

Go with a guide to bird the lagoon at this location,because it is otherwise not open to the public. It has a large number of heron/egret/ibis/ jacana species. The Botanic Garden is a paid admission.

This was just great, friendly, helpfull people and what a big beautiful garden. Lots of fruits on the trees.It would even be more informative if there where more labels at the plants and trees

CATIE is a place that everyone who is visiting Turrialba should go and see. It is actually a Tropical Agricultural Reserch Center where people go to get a masters degree in Tropical agronomy but there they also study many traditional and non traditional tropical plants such as coffee, cacao (chocolate), and bananas, etc. and they are always working on disease resisitant strains. You can visit the lake near the main entrance. Spending the morning walking around the lake will give you a pretty good list of birds if you are a birdwatcher. You will see the Boat-billed Herons and Black-crowned Night Herons nesting on the island in the bamboo along with the Snowy Egrets and the Cattle Egrets. Not to mention all of the parrots and Toucans that are always around. If you get lucky you will see the Green Ibis there also! You can walk through the section of the Botanical Garden near the entrance closest to Turrialba and it is very nice there. The Garden has a good collection of tropical fruiting trees as well as many exotic palms. Most of the trees have been there for many years and are very large and impressive. They even have a section where locals can go and buy tropical fruit trees and native species of tropical hardwood trees for reforestation on thier fincas at very resonable prices. Some people take the tour with a guide but I always prefer to go on our own so as to take the time to see everything. Entry fee is $10.00 and guides are not always there.

For us it was a glimpse into old Costa Rica. It doesn't look like much has changed there visibly since my last visit 35 years ago. You will definitely want to arrange to have a guided tour. Is it worth the bucks? ..I say yes if you like the idea of supporting horticultural and agricultural research or the grad students themselves (I don't know how the guide fee is processed, hope the guide keeps it) . This guided tour is low on the excitement scale but good for people interested in what they do at CATIE. A special part is the close viewing of the exotic oropendola birds who make hanging, swinging nests...google it.

I was very excited to visit the botanical gardens at CATIE as part of our Eco Tour. I am a biology teacher and find this kind of facility very informative, but unfortunately, when we arrived there was no one there to give us our tour! Swiss Travel tour guide José was able to tell us what he knew, but I was very disappointed to not have the full experience.The gardens were lovely, and there were lots of birds to be seen and heard, but without explanations from a CATIE staff member, the experience wasn't what I had expected.

I went to the Garden of CATIE with my wife and two friends, and we had a naturalist conduct a tour which made the place come alive and was very interesting. There is a lot in a small space and the total walking distance is about a half mile on level ground. Entry fee is $10. One of the leading tropical research centers in Latin America is on adjacent property.This is a beautiful place and provides a great overview of the botany of the country.If this review is helpful then please indicate so below.

You can stroll through the acres and acres of fruiting trees and flowers and orchids and learn about the research that impacts our world related to agriculture. Highly recommended if you are interested in the Botanical world.

I visited CATIE to explore the botanical gardens and also to see the library. The only weak point is that I think the $10 admission for foreigners is a bit steep. I enjoyed walking in the botanical gardens, through the research farm, and onto the main campus of CATIE. It is a very peaceful and quiet place.You will see a wide variety of tropical trees and heliconias....but unfortunately there is not a specialized orchid nursery. There are extensive demonstration plots of tropical crops ranging from palms to plantains! For example, there are Ethiopian coffee varieties that have superior resistance to plant diseases such as the "roya" that is attacking Central American coffee.I saw some displays of plants adapted to various biogeographic zones, but did not see extensive demonstrations of organic gardening techniques such as companion planting, organic pest and insect controls (example: garlic-hot pepper-onion mixture for insect control). It would be nice to see a butterfly garden and a demonstration multi-species organic garden.One good thing that CATIE offers is a seed bank. If you are living in Costa Rica and want to grow your own food or sell vegetables at the Ferias, consider CATIE'S seed bank for unique varieties! I may have missed some things, as my time was a bit limited.The library is of strong interest to researchers in tropical agriculture. Unfortunately, there is no a/c and since Turrialba is in the humid low cloud forest zone, some of the books have developed a mildew problem after years of storage in sultry humid air. This may pose a problem for those with allergy problems.Overall, CATIE is a very interesting place to visit although those who are interested in tropical organic gardening or orchid culture may not find everything in which they are interested.

What an amazing place to visit. For $10 you can tour around the lake and Botanical Gardens. We photographed many species of herons including the Boat Billed heron also Jacana, Gallinule and many other species of birds in the surrounding plantations on a short drive between the lake area and Botanical gardens. Easy flat walking or drive round. Shop and WC facilities in the Botanical gardens.

The guides have amazing knowledge of the tropical plants and you get to sample seasonal exotic fruit, veges and spices. I have been a few times and each time learn something new. Even if you are not into botany you will still find this a very interesting tour. You must take a guide or you will not have the same experience.

Its been a few years since I last visited the gardens.I forgot how lush and beautiful they are!This time of year is excellent as there is plenty of fruits & flowers for pictures, the Botanical Garden has a dislay table that you can see & touch the specimens!The guides are super friendly and informative and obviously love their job!The history of the gardens is impressive and the speciens from all over the tropics too!Recomended for birders and botanists!