Tour Company for Costa Rica?

[stmartinfan]

We're considering a trip to Costa Rica early in 2020 and wondering if anyone has a company they’d recommend for an organized tour, preferably small group. If it was just my husband and me going, we'd use Roads Scholar, but we'll be a group of 5 with our young adult kids, so don't think we can use them. I'd also consider having a company create a personal tour for us that included transportation, accommodations and guides for certain locations. We're usually pretty independent travelers, but not sure we want to drive ourselves.

Thanks for any ideas travelers can share!

 

["Roger"]

Road Scholar does have a family Costa Rica tour. Link That is probably your best bet.

Personally, for just the two of us, my wife and I like Tauck tours. They have a bridges tour to Costa Rica meant for grandparents and kids. They are first rate, but also very, very expensive.

 

[stmartinfan]

Road Scholar does have a family Costa Rica tour. Link That is probably your best bet.

Personally, for just the two of us, my wife and I like Tauck tours. They have a bridges tour to Costa Rica meant for grandparents and kids. They are first rate, but also very, very expensive.

Thanks for the link. When I look at the Road Scholar “family tours” they sound like 3 generation ones and include kids from 9-17. While that might be ok for some, I know it won't be of interest to my late 20s “kids.” They aren't parents yet and aren't that into other peoples' kids

There seem to be lots of travel agents in Costa Rica advertising about creating custom trips, so I may have to go that route. Seems like they want to squeeze some beach time in as well as some of the other activities.

 

[Glynda]

Check out Trip Advisor’s forums/message boards. I’ve found a number of good tour guides via their boards.

 

[LStormont]

Second TripAdvisor. Where are you looking into going? If you do kind of just want an overview of the whole country, Caravan's tour is very reasonable and gives you both coasts and Arenal.

 

[stmartinfan]

Check out Trip Advisor’s forums/message boards. I’ve found a number of good tour guides via their boards.

Yes, I'll spend some more time reading through Trip Adviser...good info but a bit overwhelming sometimes!

 

[stmartinfan]

Second TripAdvisor. Where are you looking into going? If you do kind of just want an overview of the whole country, Caravan's tour is very reasonable and gives you both coasts and Arenal.

I have a friend who enjoyed Caravan's tour and the price is good, but would rather do a smaller group than theirs, which appears to be 30-40 people.

 

[am1]

You know not stay away from any old people trip. Boring and probably overpriced as they are willing to pay it to just stay on the bus.

 

["Roger"]

Okay, I wasn't sure what you meant by young adult kids (older teenagers or adults in the twenties). While I probably won't be able to help you pick out a tour, I would suggest that you first decide what you hope to do in Costa Rica. (Slogging through the rain forest, rafting, kayaking and other active adventures, beach sitting at a nice resort with occasional forays in either or both of the former?) People go to Costa Rica for very different reasons. My wife and I are in the first category, but most of the people who ask us about Costa Rica are in the third category. With a couple of younger adults, you might be in the middle category.

Good luck in finding the appropriate trip.

 

[LStormont]

I have a friend who enjoyed Caravan's tour and the price is good, but would rather do a smaller group than theirs, which appears to be 30-40 people.

Hmmm. When I did it (back in 2011) we had fewer than 20 people.

 

[stmartinfan]

Okay, I wasn't sure what you meant by young adult kids (older teenagers or adults in the twenties). While I probably won't be able to help you pick out a tour, I would suggest that you first decide what you hope to do in Costa Rica. (Slogging through the rain forest, rafting, kayaking and other active adventures, beach sitting at a nice resort with occasional forays in either or both of the former?) People go to Costa Rica for very different reasons. My wife and I are in the first category, but most of the people who ask us about Costa Rica are in the third category. With a couple of younger adults, you might be in the middle category.

Good luck in finding the appropriate trip.

Good point Roger. In talking with “the kids” it sounds like they are in the camp of definitely wanting good beach time but with some chances to see at least a few of the other things as well. I had been thinking of more of along the lines of a tour to see rainforest and rafting, etc., so glad I clarified.

Think I'll start by first identifying some of the best beach places and then seeing whether we can do some side trips from there. We're used to Caribbean beaches, so hope I can find something comparable.

 

[stmartinfan]

Hmmm. When I did it (back in 2011) we had fewer than 20 people.

Caravan's website had the 30-44 number in an FAQ about tour size, and my friend's group had a full bus, so that would put it in the 30+ size.

 

[cowboy]

We did caravan tours about 10 years ago and were very pleased with them.

 

[stmartinfan]

You know not stay away from any old people trip. Boring and probably overpriced as they are willing to pay it to just stay on the bus.

Unfortunately I qualify as one of those “old people”! We recently did a Road Scholar trip to Cuba and thought it was great. It featured lots of opportunities to meet with local people involved in volunteer activities in their towns, so we didn't spend much time bussing past sites. We've done a few other group trips to places we weren’t as comfortable going on our own and have learned to pick the small group ones.

 

["Roger"]

...In talking with “the kids” it sounds like they are in the camp of definitely wanting good beach time but with some chances to see at least a few of the other things as well. I had been thinking of more of along the lines of a tour to see rainforest and rafting, etc., so glad I clarified.

Think I'll start by first identifying some of the best beach places and then seeing whether we can do some side trips from there. We're used to Caribbean beaches, so hope I can find something comparable.

Just so that you know, the Caribbean side of Costa Rica tends to be swampy. The best beach resorts are in Guanacasta. I think with most of the places they would help make arrangements to get you to the hotel from the airport in Liberia. (There are direct flights from the US to this airport.) You could contact these hotels and see what kinds of side trips they could arrange.

If you want to consider arranging everything yourself and going to two very different places, consider this site . It is near the Arenal Volcano. There are springs on site with water temperatures of about 110 degrees. (Wonderful to sit in.) While there are day passes, residents of the hotel can go to a private area with a number of gently rushing streams (pictured). Near the hotel are birding sites, the most extensive zip line in Costa Rica (not my thing, but many consider it peak experience), a river with gentle rafting. You can ask via email what sorts of half day and day excursions they would arrange. As far as getting there, they claim on their web site they can arrange transportation from the airport and to other hotels. If interested, contact them, ask if they could get you from the San Jose airport and then to Guanacasta. This option would involve flying into San Jose and home from Liberia.

Again, good luck.

 

[Glynda]

Yes, I'll spend some more time reading through Trip Adviser...good info but a bit overwhelming sometimes!

It can be. Narrow down from country to specific areas and activities. Read questions and answers from individuals. Read back a couple of years worth of posts on a given topic/area/activity. You will begin to see a pattern of people who respond regularly to questions and also reviews/testimonies from travelers. When you see one guide or tour company mentioned positively in numerous answers, reviews, etc. you can start to look those guides/tour companies up on their own websites. It can be a long process but it will get easier as you get to “know” the participants and guides mentioned.

 

[stmartinfan]

Just so that you know, the Caribbean side of Costa Rica tends to be swampy. The best beach resorts are in Guanacasta.

If you want to consider arranging everything yourself and going to two very different places, consider this site . It is near the Arenal Volcano. As far as getting there, they claim on their web site they can arrange transportation from the airport and to other hotels. If interested, contact them, ask if they could get you from the San Jose airport and then to Guanacasta. This option would involve flying into San Jose and home from Liberia.

Again, good luck.

Thanks Roger! Great suggestions! I've been reading about the Arenal Volcano area and think the idea of pairing a resort there and one in Guanacasta might work for us. We weren't interested in driving ourselves, but it sounds like we can probably arrange transportation. We've got a discount airline, Sun Country, that flies into Liberia from MSP so that would be a cost saver.