About Us

Hotel Savegre, owned by the Chacón family, reflects a story that began half a century ago in a place never before visited until their arrival.
During a day's hunting in 1954, a group of men lost their way while following their quarry in the mountains. They continued walking without direction until night fell and they had to set up camp. Efraín and Federico Chacón were part of that group, who until then had been working as farm-hands on a coffee plantation in the Los Santos area. It was a cold night endured by the group, but as the first rays of the morning sun shone on the beauty of the place, the two brothers shared a dream that here was where they wanted to settle to work the land and support their families.
Once safely home, the idea continued to grow of returning to the place where they had spent that chilly night, until one day they finally decided to embark on their adventure. For the first few months, Efraín and Federico lived in a cave carved out of an enormous rock and worked at clearing the mountainous woodland with nothing more than a couple of axes and the strength of their dream. Many were the times they were plagued with doubts that they were not doing the right thing.
Time went on and now with other men who had joined their exploit, they decided to bring in their families and establish themselves permanently in the valley, founding the town that is now called San Gerardo de Dota.
Those first years lacked every basic comfort and access was only possible on foot or horseback. Back then, the families supported themselves through agriculture and selling cheese off the farm.
Tourism started thanks to don Efraín introducing a few trout fry into the river. They adapted perfectly and began to breed rapidly. News quickly got out among the fishing fraternity about the trout of the Savegre River and they began arriving at San Gerardo to fish the river. However, the difficult access meant it was often impossible to get back to the Central Valley and they would ask for lodging in the Chacón house, where the fishermen would share the table with doña Caridad, don Efraín and their eleven children.
Eventually, it was impossible to receive everyone at the house, so three cabins where built for visitors, who were looked after by family members. For several years, the only obvious attraction was fishing, but one day at the start of the '80s a group of nature-loving foreigners braved the recently cut transitable road and arrived at Savegre. They were awe-struck by the vegetation and the number of bird species, but mostly they were amazed at the abundant number of quetzals that populated the region. This was the precise moment when Savegre's huge potential became obvious: eco-tourism.
From then on and thanks to the wide choice of natural attractions, tourism took off in the region.
Today, after many challenges and plain hard work, you can see a flourishing community based on tourism along with orchards of non-traditional fruit crops. Hotel Savegre offers 41 rooms of two different standards, bar, cafeteria and restaurant, conference room, day spa, and convenience and gift store surrounded by our private nature reserve with trails into virgin forest, guided hikes, horseback riding and trout fishing.
We are still a family-operated enterprise, now into its third generation and offer our guests the typical hospitality of a Costa Rican family.

Hotel Savegre is 89 km. (55.3 miles) south-east of San José on the flanks of the Cerro de la Muerte, in the village of San Gerardo de Dota at an elevation of 2200 meters (7,200 feet) above sea level in a valley deep in tropical cloud forest.

To drive there, take the Pan-American highway south (Route 2) until km. 80 then take the side road for 9 km (5.6 miles) that leads to the hotel. The turn-off is well marked for San Gerardo de Dota and also for Hotel Savegre.

The hotel's coordinates are:
Latitude 9°33'2.46"N
Longitude 83°48'27.66"O

On 23 August, 2009 the Costa Rican Tourism Board awarded Hotel Savegre a level 4 Certificate of Sustainable Tourism (CST), which recognizes the hotel's commitment to preserving the environment and supporting the social and economic growth of the community, San Gerardo de Dota.

What was most gratifying for us, is that when we began the certification process, we had to make only a few minor changes to our daily activities, which means Hotel Savegre has been an environmentally responsible enterprise for many years.

We invite all our guests to take part in the conservation efforts carried out by Hotel Savegre.

The hotel can provide ground shuttle services to most destinations in Costa Rica for up to five passengers. We ensure comfort and quality of service using professional drivers and first-class vehicles. Please see our list of prices to the most popular destinations. If yours is not there, just contact us and we will be happy to calculate the rate.

Net Prices, per way. Private Service, Max 5 Passengers