South America Natural Adventures

COSTA  RICA

Costa Rica is wildlife, beaches, rainforest and adventure. It is pretty much an entire country devoted solely to nature tourism, and a leader in the field. If nature and the outdoors is your style of vacation, then Costa Rica has plenty for you. It doesn't matter if your style is backpacker or deluxe, there's somewhere to stay, and lots to do. You can be sitting in a cloud forest observing spectacularly colorful birds before breakfast after being woken by the Howler Monkeys, have a look at the extremely cheeky Capuchins on the way back to the hotel, and keep an eye on a Green Iguana while enjoying some of the world's best coffee during breakfast. Afterwards zoom through the rainforest canopy on a couple of thousand feet of ziplines, ride horseback to waterfalls, and ease out the bumps with a relaxing loaf in a thermal hotspring, followed by a massage. Enjoy dinner watching one of the world's most active volcanoes through rocks and fire into the air.

Then think about your second day in Costa Rica.

Flexible Self-drive Itineraries.

While organized multi-day tours are a great way to see the gems of Costa Rica, a self-drive itinerary is also a popular way to discover this small but rich country. We can offer flexible tours, including 7 nights of hotels spread throughout the country - Arenal, Monteverde, Jaco, Guanacaste, Sarapiqui, Montezuma, Manuel Antonio to name just a few areas - plus an unlimiterd mileage 4x4 vehicle with CDW insurance included, 7 nights of accommodation chosen form 124 hotels, meet and greet at the airport and transfer to your first night's hotel in San Jose, plus a personal discussion at the hotel about your upcoming travel with professional and knowedgeable local advice. There are different levels of cost, from $510 to $660 per person double occupancy, depending on style and range of hotels and vehicle. Other than your first night, nothing is pre-booked, just take off and enjoy; so of it's raining in the mountians and fine on the coast, just head on down. A call ahead each morning checks availability and confirms your room at your choice of hotels for that night. This tour has all the flexibility of a self-booked tour, but in addition to the reduced hotel prices you also have the advantage of a phone number to call with problems, or in the rare event that there doesn't seem to be a hotel in the area you want to visit - your local person will help arrange an alternative. Given that it is unfortunately not uncommon in Costa Rica for a room booked on the web, or even directly by phone with a hotel, but not available on arrival, to be able to call a professional who is familiar with every other hotel in the area is a nice back-up.

Costa Rica Condo rental
Accommodation in Costa Rica covers a wide range of options, from simple lodges to five star resorts. But while most people visit Costa Rica for a relatively short time, and move about to different areas, others and second time visitors prefer to stay in one place for a while, and savor what that area has to offer. In some areas, especially the west coast, a great option in this latter case is to rent a resort condo, rather than stay in a luxury hotel. You can have all the amenities of a luxury resort while enjoying the perks a five-star condo has to offer - different rooms, full kitchens, private areas, and lots of room to move. For a small group of friends or a family this can be more cost-effective than a two or three much smaller hotel rooms. One of our favorites has much that Costa Rica has to offer - national parks, wildlife, beaches, surfing, ziplines, horseback riding and lots more all within an hour's drive - and no need to pack and unpack every couple of days. Contact us for more information.

We're rebuilding these pages, so please bear with us - more to come. However, here's a couple of photos I took with a point & shoot camera, in different hotel grounds, within a few yards of my room. Imagine what's out in the forest away from civilization.

Information about traveling to and in Costa Rica, from visas to dining to driving, and a lot more, can be found on our Costa Rica Information page.