FOR YOU, FOR FREE: 18 years' worth of firsthand Costa Rica trip planning and travel advice compiled into hundreds of articles, plus exclusive discounts. Created by a Costa Rican and a four-time published Costa Rica guidebook author. Welcome, amigos, and as we say in Costa Rica, pura vida!
Nikki is the CEO of Pura Vida! eh? Inc. (Costa Rica Discounts), and the author of the guidebooks Moon Costa Rica (2019, 2021, 2023, and 2025 editions) and Moon Best of Costa Rica (2022 edition) from Moon Travel Guides. Together with her Costa Rican husband, Ricky, she operates the Costa Rica Travel Blog, created the online community DIY Costa Rica, built the Costa Rica Destination Tool, oversees the brand-new (summer 2023) Costa Rica Travel Shop, and designed the Costa Rica Trip Planning 101 E-Course. Also, Nikki wrote the Costa Rica cover feature for Wanderlust Magazine's sustainability-focused Travel Green List issue, showcased Costa Rica destinations and experiences on Rick Steves' Monday Night Travel show and podcast/radio show, and served as the Costa Rica Destination Editor for Essentialist, a luxury travel brand. Want to show your appreciation for her free article below? Thank Nikki here. ❤️️
The revered Latin American female writer Isabel Allende once advised: “Write what should not be forgotten.” Inspired by the quote’s brevity and the subject matter of lasting significance, the articles in our Memorable Costa Rica series are concise and highlight what we feel are the most memorable aspects of featured Costa Rica experiences. If you don’t want to waste time rereading the repeated facts and long-drawn-out paraphrased summaries that some other Costa Rica resources offer, then the personal briefs in our Memorable Costa Rica series are perfect for you. Use them to discover the unique qualities and unforgettable moments that we believe each Costa Rica experience provides, so you can easily decide which experiences are worth incorporating into your trip, and in only five minutes or less. 👍🏽
Estimated reading time for this article: 4minutes
Get the Costa Rica info you need by browsing our article's TABLE OF CONTENTS:
El Toledo Coffeeisn’t your average coffee plantation. It’s a small-scale coffee farm run by three generations of a welcoming Costa Rican family with big hearts. Here, among the fertile hills of Atenas (roughly 40 minutes west of downtown San Jose), you can spend time with grandpa (Don Gerardo), grandma (Doña Sole), dad and lead tour guide (Gabriel), Gabriel’s helpful daughters, and other members of the family while learning how coffee is made on a coffee tour. (The coffee tour at El Toledo Coffee is a family-friendly walking tour to coffee production stations around the farm’s walkable grounds.) Although El Toledo Coffee produces delicious organic coffee, the most impressive thing about the operation is the family’s commitment to sustainable coffee farming. At this particular coffee farm, trees aren’t cut down to create space for manufacturing, there is no use of harsh chemicals, which can harm the environment (not to mention the health of coffee consumers), and coffee production is zero-waste. (Ask how El Toledo Coffeerepurposes discarded coffee fruit to create coffee tea, coffee juice, coffee wine, and coffee marmalade.) What’s more, Gabriel’s passion for environmental conservation and his family’s efforts in this realm, as well as his interest in sharing what he has learned with curious folks, is heartwarming and inspiring. In a world where coffee has become synonymous with the commercial success of Starbucks, Tim Hortons, and other popular chains, El Toledo Coffee‘s authentic, age-old perspective toward coffee production (evidenced in part by the farm’s use of rudimentary, hand-operated equipment) is a refreshing cup of humility that trades pomp and frills for simplicity and sustainability. Go for a taste of the home brew or a whole new outlook on how one of the world’s most desirable products, coffee, can and should be produced in gentler ways.
El Toledo Coffee photos
El Toledo CoffeeEl Toledo CoffeeEl Toledo Coffeecoffee fruitcoffee beans stripped from their fruitcoffee bean drying stationRicky; learning about coffee production from El Toledo Coffee owner, Don Gerardocoffee production at El Toledo Coffeecoffee production at El Toledo Coffeecoffee wine at El Toledo CoffeeRicky; picking coffee fruit (like he did as a young boy) at El Toledo CoffeeRicky; with Gabriel at El Toledo Coffee
Map of the El Toledo Coffee farm
More information about El Toledo Coffee
For more information about El Toledo Coffee, including reservations for their coffee tours, please see the coffee farm’s website.
Pura vida!
Do you have questions about El Toledo Coffee, want help deciding if this coffee tour is worth doing based on the experiences you’re looking to have, or need help determining how to best incorporate a visit to this coffee farm into your vacation? No problem! When you’re ready, make an appointment here to communicate with me (Nikki) privately and we can discuss these and other topics to get your questions answered fast and your Costa Rica trip poised for success. Pura vida, amigos! 🙂
Hey, Costa Rica Travel Blog reader, thank you for visiting and reading our blog! We're truly grateful for your time and preference.
Do you know that your spam-free reading experience is most important to us? Unlike some other Costa Rica blogs, we do not to sell your personal information, and we choose not to display ads, sponsored content, or affiliate marketing on our blog so we can keep your visit as distraction- and junk-free as possible. Because we prioritize your privacy, we don't earn money when you visit us, when you sign up for our e-course, or when you click on our links, which means the time and work we put into this blog—including its 300+ articles—is entirely voluntary! If you find our content valuable, and you'd like to thank us for making the trip-planning process easier and your Costa Rica vacation more enjoyable, please consider making a small donation ($1, $2, $3, or an amount of your choosing) to our blog. Doing so is a great way to pat us on the back if you feel we deserve it. 😊 Pura vida, amigos!
Click on the button above to donate through PayPal. (If you cannot see the PayPal button above, click here.) A PayPal account is not required to make a donation; credit and debit cards are also accepted. PayPal donations are confidential; we never see your payment details.
Love our blog? Check out our other Costa Rica-related projects, too:
Summary
Article Name
Visiting El Toledo Coffee—Photos And Brief (5-Minute Read): Atenas, Costa Rica
Description
We describe the most memorable aspects of the family-run El Toledo Coffee farm in Atenas, Costa Rica, plus share photos from our visits.
The comment section of this article has moved! If you have a question or comment about our article above or Costa Rica travel in general, please post it in our Questions and Answers Forum on DIY Costa Rica, our sister website, where you can also access our private Costa Rica recommendations, our Costa Rica Destination Tool, and our Costa Rica Recommendations Map. See you there, amigos! 🙂
Author
Posts
Viewing 0 reply threads
The forum ‘Costa Rica Travel Blog Forum’ is closed to new topics and replies.
Short on time? Use our FREE electronic quick guide to instantly locate the exact Costa Rica advice or information you need among the hundreds of articles on our blog. No email or personal information required.
P.S. Did you know that, unlike several other Costa Rica blogs, our website is ad-free, affiliate-link-free, sponsor-free, and A.I.-free? Providing authentic, trustworthy, spam-free content is more important to us than earning money off your visit. Enjoy, amigos! 🙂
This website uses cookies to operate and provide you with the best user experience possible. To ensure you're aware of and okay with this and our other privacy-related practices, please review our Privacy Policy, then click the button below to accept it.
If you do not accept the policy, we respect your choice 100%. Unfortunately, several of our website’s features, including our Questions and Answers Forum, rely on cookies to operate. Most are also run by themes, plugins, and other add-ons to our website that we do not and cannot control, which means the cookies you receive are mainly provided by third parties. Because simple actions like reading our articles, asking a question, and even visiting our website’s homepage require the use of cookies, it is not possible to explore or use our website without them. If you would prefer not to receive cookies, we kindly (and sadly) ask that you do not visit our website. (Alternatively, you can try setting your browser to remove or reject browser cookies before visiting our website, but you may find that our website doesn’t function properly without them.) By visiting or submitting information through our website, you acknowledge and accept our use of cookies, and the use of third-party cookies. For more information, please see our Privacy Policy.
Thank you for understanding!
Remember my preference
In order for our site to remember that you accept our policy, please enable the Strictly Necessary Cookie.
If you leave the Strictly Necessary Cookie disabled, we will not be able to save your preference. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to accept the policy again.
Tagged: alajuela, arts, atenas, coffee, costa rica, costa rica travel, costa rica vacation, culture, doka, el toledo, national theater, nature, plantations, rescue centers, sustainability, travel, travel tips, wildlife, zooave