Travellers' Reports for Costa Rica

Almond and Coral

Birding in Monteverde

Tortuguero

Motorcycle Expedition


Rafting

Christine - UK, Wonderful Costa Rica (Tortuguero, Arenal, Monteverde, Tamrindo Beach...) and rafting .... 07/2004

Dear Dany,
I had every intention of sending you some comments about our wonderful holiday - I was just trying to get on top of my e-mails and the backlog of work.
We had a fantastic holiday. Costa Rica is a beautiful country and we enjoyed every minute we were there. INBIO was an excellent introduction to the country, the wildlife and the conservation efforts of the government - well worth a visit.
White water rafting was exhiliarating and the scenery was stunning - great adventure. We loved Tortuguero - the dense vibrant forest, the waterways teeming with life, the wildlife, rich and varied, and the fact that you could only get there by boat.
What can I say about Puerto Viejo - probably one of the most beautiful beaches we have ever seen and the town is so friendly and laid back. What could be better than relaxing on a Caribbean beach, white sand, drunken palm trees, white surf, with the sound of reggae in the background. We also liked the accommodation at Almonds and Corals, being woken every morning around 5 a.m. by howler monkeys, flaming torches to light our way to bed every night and a private walkway to the beach.
Arenal was pure luxury - a wooden chalet with hot spa pool where you could relax and watch the erupting pyrotechnics of the volcano, and the waterfall was beautiful too.
Monte Verde - I loved the quiet remoteness of the area and the rich diversity of the forest. Manuel Antonio - beautiful beaches in the national park and swaying rope bridges through the forest in the Rainmaker Reserve.
I could go on for ages, in fact I have written a 20 page diary about all the wonders we saw. Thank you for arranging such a great trip for us. Everything went smoothly, everyone was friendly and helpful and we truly had a holiday we will never forget.
Here are a few comments which may help you when planning journeys for other people. I was generally impressed with the conservation efforts in most of the places we stayed and was pleased that there was general awareness of environmental issues. We had hoped to leave as small a footprint as possible in the natural environment - that is why we wanted to travel round by bus rather than air, and stay in accommodation that had clear policies about environmental protection. Also we were keen to spend our tourist money on national conservation efforts and private initiatives that helped the environment rather than on pure tourist adventures and where ever possible we tried to buy local food from local shops and restaurants.
Most of the accommodation was much more sophisticated than we had expected and indeed than we are used to. Everywhere was very clean and well presented and all the bus drivers were courteous and efficient even though they couldn't speak English and we couldn't speak Spanish. (This didn't cause us any problems) The Trapp Family Lodge was lovely but we felt it was a little far from the nearest shops/restaurants, although it was near the national park. (In Puerto Viejo we could hire bicycles to get around but there weren't any here because it was mountainous) I noticed some nice eco lodge type accommodation nearer Saint Elena that we would probably use if we came again.
The only place we were disappointed with was Divisimar Hotel in Manuel Antonio. It had no restaurant and did not give us a room with 3 separate beds. The owner said he hadn't been told we had requested 3 separate beds and he didn't have any spare ones. I insisted and in the end he said we could go in a smaller less expensive room that did have 3 beds - he also muttered something about a refund but when we checked out he was not around and the person on duty said he knew nothing about a refund. The breakfast was rubbish - everywhere else had great breakfast but here you got a bit of fruit and a piece of toast!! This is because there were no catering facilities.
Manuel Antonio generally is far too touristy, not as clean, not as friendly, more expensive and not as nice as the rest of Costa Rica - you can't even buy Costa Rican food easily - it is all burger bars and steak houses. So although the beaches in the National Park were beautiful we wouldn't go there again and we definitely would not stay at the Divisimar. There were some cheaper lodges nearer the beach that seemed much more friendly, had restaurants and seemed more aware of the environment - Divisimar had no environmental policies. I am not being critical here, just letting you know what we thought.
Also, although the buses were great we found out that we could have cut out a few return trips to San Jose because you can change bus en route and go for example, from Tortuguero directly to Puerto Viejo without returning to San Jose in between. This is just some information for you to consider when planning future holidays and I fully appreciate that every traveller will have different requirements.
I think you did a wonderful job for us and I would recomment you to any of our friends that are considering Costa Rica.
Once again, thanks for a brilliant holiday.
Another satisfied customer

Hilary - UK, Wonderful Costa Rica (Tortuguero, Arenal, Monteverde, Tamrindo Beach...) and rafting.... 15/03/2003

Danielle,
I am sorry that we have taken so long to reply, but we have had so much sorting out to do after our honeymoon.
Finally we've found a chance to put type to email and we'd just like to say that we had a wonderful trip and pretty much everything worked out well.
You sent a lovely chap to pick us up, who was waiting for us on our arrival and he promptly gave us all the relevant information we would need for our trip. The white water rafting was great fun, although the river could have done with a little more water. Tortugero was a little too organised for our liking, but having said that we really did have a great time there and saw some spectacular scenery and wildlife. The Arenal area was definitely our favourite, the Arenal Paraiso was great in terms of location, accomodation and the food. Having not done much exercise since arriving we were definitely ready for the mountain biking trip, however our guide didn't fair to well as he fell off and hurt his wrist but was very accommodating and certainly didn't allow his injury to impede our fun. Watching an active volcano at night is certainly a site we won't forget in a hurry. In Monteverde the Belmar hotel was very very nice, our only critiscm would be that it lacked a bit of atmosphere. We had our best meal in Monteverde at a little steak restaurant called Cafe Louis, and the Pizza restaurant Pizza de Johnny was also very very good. Rincon de la Vieja was our only disappointment, this was for two reasons, the first was that we did not like Buena Vista Lodge it was like a Costa Rican holiday camp, we do not know but believe that it must have been taken over since the rough guide was written as it had no resemblance to the write up in the guide. It was also too isolated from Rincon de la Vieja to get there in the day, as you lost over three hours just getting to and fro from the park. The second dissappointment of this area is that a hurrican blew up and everything was closed including the park and all the activities at Buena Vista. There was also no electricity as all the lines had been blown down, they said it was very exceptional for that time of the year. We therfore only stayed there one night and checked out (even though the second night had already been paid for) and went early to El Milagro (Tamarindo) and paid for an extra night there. We liked the hotel and loved Tamarindo. The Presidente made a good reasonably priced hotel for a base in San Jose and was a nice place to start and finish our trip.
So all in all it was a very good trip and rounded off a wonderful wedding. Thank you very much for arranging it all for us, we will certainly pass your name on to anyone we know who is thinking of going to Costa Rica.
Costa Rica is certainly a beautiful country, filled with lovely people and an abundance of wildlife and one which will hold many beautiful memories for us.
Kind regards

Glenn- UK, Wonderful Costa Rica (Tortuguero, Arenal, Monteverde, Tamrindo Beach,....and Nicaragua extension 11/2004

Hi Gilles
We had a great time in both countries and thankyou for all the effort and connections.
Please convey our thanks to Alexa Delgado in Costa Rica for all the help she gave to us.Also we would like you to tell the people in Nicaragua how excellent our guide for 3 days was. His name was Julio and he was the best guide since Adriana in Chile.
Just a couple of things
We would have prefered 2 days in both Monteverde and at the Hacienda as the time we had there was too rushed to enjoy the environment
The hotel in Leon was not good and there were others available, with all the money we spent to be restricted to one item for dinner and for breakfast was not suitable and the quality of the room after a hard day was poor. Next time please give us the optoin of paying more for more suitable accommodation.

Roger, US - Motorcycle Vagabundo Expedition , and Rio Reventazon & Pacuare Rafting 01/02/2002

Danielle,
We just returned from our motorcycling trip to Costa Rica. I wanted to drop you a note to express my satisfaction and sincere thanks. Everything went without a hitch. The places chosen for lodging were excellent and the destinations seleted were all interesting and different.
We particularly appreciated staying in different places every night although another day in Tamarindo would have been nice (part of the typical itinerary). San Jose is nothing special and it would have been a drag to return there every night.
Wilhelm was very helpful with providing the motorcycles fully prepared and making sure that we would be able to reach him should we have any problems. Other than a few maintenance issues with Jim's BMW, there were no problems. Please extend my gratitude to him next time you confer.

The rafting trip was very exciting. Our guides were well educated, intelligent, witty and friendly. Very nice!
The roads were not as bad as we had read in the guides but Jim had a funny insight: Question: How can you tell a drunk driver in Costa Rica? Answer: They're the one's driving in a straight line. :-)
Warm regards,

Dave, UK - Motorcycle Vagabundo Expedition , and Rio Reventazon & Pacuare Rafting - 01/02/2002

Danielle,
We just arrived home this evening. Everything was beyond our expectations. The hotels were great, the rafting was super. Overall a great time.
As a side activity I write for a magazine in the US called Roundel. It is the national magazine of the BMW Car Club of America. (Circulation 65,000.) I am writing an article for the magazine since we were on BMWs, albeit two wheeled versions. If you're interested I'll send you a copy. Lead times running what they do I don't expect it to be published until May or June at the earliest.

Rowena, US - Almond & Coral , Tortuguero, Monteverde - 01/08/2001

Dear Danielle we had been meaning to drop you a line.
Yes, on the whole everything went really smoothly and we loved Costa Rica. The only negative things I can think of are: we didn't find the Hotel Don Fadrique in San Jose very friendly and they didn't help us in or out with our bags at all, except the night porter a couple of times. Also, our vouchers said breakfast included, but the Don Fadrique didn't seem capable or willing to let us have any food on the days we had early departures. They could at least have let us have some fruit or something. [Text cut]
Really everywhere else was fantastic, good comfortable clean hotels etc, helpful staff, all the tour guides were excellent and all the other transportation was fine. We loved Almonds and Corals; they were a bit disorganised re: the organised activities, but it was fine in the end and we had a great time there (aside from the mosquitoes!). We did meet Philip and he said to send his greetings. We also got to see the Arenal Volcano, which came out of the clouds after a couple of months of no-one seeing it at all, and turtles laying eggs at Tortuguero, both very special moments. We were very happy with the itinerary, other than Tom would have liked an extra day at Monteverde - amazing birding!! (Also Cano Negro was a great tip for birders) For people interested in the wildlife you could drop the Tortuga Island, and add extra time at Monteverde. Tortuga Island was great fun though, we went on the Manta Ray catamaran, which was very exciting, but there isn't much to see on the island really. Good swimming though. As you know, we chose our own hotel at Tamarindo - Las Tortugas - I don;t know if you've been there, but it has a really wonderful location, quite isolated so not for everyone, but we much preferred it to Tamarindo itself which was too busy and appeared to mostly consist of building sites! I think that's about all I can think of. Thanks for all your suggestions and information, we did feel we got to see just about everything we wanted to - just need to pop back for the Osa Peninsula ...
best wishes Rowena &Tom