Discovering La Pura Vida in Costa Rica

We had a wonderful time in Costa Rica and spent our time in La Fortuna and Manuel Antonio.

We were welcomed at the airport by a driver and tour guide, and transferred to La Paz, where we had a great tour of the gardens, waterfall, and wonderful wildlife (including sloths), then continued our drive to the resort near La Fortuna. The hotel was beautiful, with magnificent rooms, volcano views, and a spectacular, expansive buffet each morning with an omelet station, fresh fruits, and an extended selection of local, delicious foods, including a smoothie station. The hotel staff were friendly and provided great service. On the first night, we ate at a restaurant at the hotel which had a limited menu for our family.

We had a wonderful guide on day two who brought us to the Arenal rainforest, with hanging bridges, an aerial tramway, and a zipline which was beyond a spectacular, adventurous experience that we will not forget. We enjoyed the hotel’s thermal pools and excellent dinner in La Fortuna (varied menu and open to substitutions).

On day three, we had another day of adventure on the Balsa River for whitewater rafting. Our family of six had a spectacular guide who kept us exhilarated and safe! It was a blast and perhaps the best family activity! We enjoyed dinner at a restaurant in La Fortuna (good food, but pricey).

We had another great guide for our hike in the Arenal Volcano National Park on our fourth day and dinner at a local place with a very limited atmosphere, but a spectacular meal brought out on grills to continue the cooking of steak, chicken, shrimp, and fresh fish, with delicious sauces on the side. It was plentiful, wonderfully displayed, and delicious.

Day five was supposed to be a five-hour transfer to Manuel Antonio to include a crocodile encounter and lunch. Due to the Easter holiday week, it took 10 hours, but our driver was kind and patient, and we enjoyed our time together. We learned a good deal of Spanish on the way. We arrived where rainforest and beach meet at the hotel. The hotel was beautiful, but rustic, overlooking the water, and we had dinner. The staff were all great and helpful, getting our luggage handled at 5am and transportation as needed for restaurants.

On day six, we enjoyed the morning at the adult pool. There were monkeys all around us in the canopies and trees. It was exciting to watch and take photos! We had lunch at the hotel and then the guide picked us up on time and took us for a fun adventure on Damas Island: an estuary and mangrove kayaking tour. We enjoyed the dinner provided with the kayak tour, then had a late-night BBQ at the hotel!

Day seven was action-packed, with a transfer and spectacular, passionate tour guide for our outing to Manual Antonio National Park. We had lunch at the hotel and then another very exciting ATV adventure! We had a fabulous dinner at a café with a beautiful atmosphere.

On our last day, we were transferred very early to the airport and said goodbye to an amazing, adventurous family vacation.

We want to thank Zicasso’s travel agents for all their help in planning this vacation. They were patient, attentive, and accommodating of our relentless changes to the plans and restaurants. They were with us all the way from planning to arrival, and always available for any questions or guidance. All the plans were executed seamlessly and on time, with quality recommendations and team support. Thank you for all the great moments and memories!

I talked to three different companies before choosing our travel company.  Our travel specialists arranged an amazing trip for myself, abuela, my daughter, and granddaughter (9 yr old).  I requested an active trip with wonderful hotels and they did not disappoint!  To accomplish our aggressive itinerary we flew for two of the legs.  Sansa to Tortugero and Aerobell to La Fortuna. I will say that $200 was taken from a checked bag at Sansa. No fault of your company.  All flights were great.  If I did this itinerary again I would fly from La Fortuna to Quepos.  The roads are a bit scary and long.  Our Driver was superb, very good driver.  We felt very well taken care of during the entire trip with him.  The hotels were in a beautiful spot in the tropical rain forest.  The staff was incredibly accommodating and very friendly.  I know now that there is only one hotel with air conditioning but the heat and humidity are intense and make sleeping difficult.  Food was good and the tours were wonderful with terrific guides. The hotel in La Fortuna has beautiful grounds and the bar at the pool is top notch.  The best pool bar of the trip. The bathroom is a little strange with the waterfall shower painted orange and green and the regular shower unusable due to the way the water leaks out all over the bathroom floor.  The jacuzzi did not work and with it's outside location makes it difficult to use without a bathing suit! So again a little strange.  Our other hotel had the most polished staff of all the hotels.  From an exceptional check in process to wait staff in the restaurant, all were very well trained, friendly and accommodating.  Absolutely beautiful location and the pool area is beautiful. Food is also very good.  The activities in La Fortuna: It was the first time for all of us to zip line.  This company could not have been more professional and well trained along with being kind and helpful while providing a heart pounding experience.  Highly recommend! The Conservation Center for animals provided important information regarding the conservation of the native species and up close viewing of many species, monkeys, birds, peccaries, and marguay.  This is a great experience for kids. In Quepos; the white water rafting was also terrific.  The personnel and equipment was very good. Our guide took great care with us especially since we had a young child. Due to lack of rain the rapids were not high and this was perfect for our group. The instruction before setting out was well done.  A very professional tour group. The hotel in San Jose; was only a transfer hotel due to our early flight the next day.  However I did find the front desk  staff to be somewhat indifferent.  Our wonderful experience was made more comfortable by always having the ability to contact our travel specialist to ask questions whenever we needed to do so.  She responded immediately. Our driver was always on time and transported us safely along with being kind.  We felt well taken care of always!! PURA VIDA!!!! COSTA RICA!!!

Our travel agency organized the perfect tour of Costa Rica. Our small group of 4 were treated as VIPs from the moment we arrived at San Jose airport, until the day we flew home. We even received a "welcome to Costa Rica" call and special "goodbye" call from our agency. Every transfer and guided tour was on time and the drivers were good. There were no worries or concerns, each day was perfectly organized and each hotel was informed of our itinerary. Our travel agency provided us with a free cell phone for local calls as well as walkie-talkies to stay in touch with each other. This added an even higher level of security to our trip.

We wanted to experience an environmental tour that would introduce us to the rain forest, the flora, fauna, birds, reptiles & animals of Costa Rica. We were amazed by the scenery and the knowledge of our guides on each of our tours. Costa Rica is truly magical. All of the hotels were interesting and clean, the staff friendly and efficient.  We stayed in bungalows & cabins in the heart of the rain forest! The food was very good and served in more than ample quantities. Our last few days were spent at the Belmar Hotel in Monteverde and the luxury of that small inn and stunning views of the Pacific Ocean, were a great way to end our stay.

Our only disappointment was that our internal flight with Nature Air from Tortuguero National Park turned out to have a connection at San Jose airport with a 3.5 hour wait for the second flight to Arenal. We were expecting a direct flight, and more time to explore the village of La Fortuna.

We would definitely recommend this travel company and will use Zicasso Handcrafted Travel to help us book holidays in the future.

Zicasso's tour operator put together an absolutely outstanding tour of Costa Rica. Responsive and responsible, she was there for us at every turn, before and during our adventure. We cannot praise her highly enough and consider ourselves fortunate to have been able to work with her.

We would also like to commend our driver from San José to the Arenal Volcano. He was an excellent driver and conveyed us through heavy San José traffic and long stretches of country roads. We very much appreciated him and how safe and secure he kept us.

The best guide had a marvelous demeanor; a great sense of humor mixed with knowledge that wasn't overwhelming, but met the various aspects of the day's hike at the Tenorio Volcano and Rio Celeste National Park, and lunch (which itself was outstanding).

The hotels selected for us were outstanding, although the lodge in Tortuguero that had no air conditioning presented some challenges in terms of the humidity at night. Everything we had, including our money, got soggy. That all cleared up in La Fortuna. From that point forward, our accommodations were enviable in terms of their amenities, surroundings, and views. From manicured gardens to a variety of wildlife, we were treated in a first-class manner.

I got back home yesterday from the week-long trip the travel company put together for me and my daughter, Vanessa, in Costa Rica and I woke up today with a huge smile on my face. This is to say that we had a perfect trip.

My daughter had been to Costa Rica 15 years ago and when we decided to travel together this year it was Vanessa who said Costa Rica. I wasn't so sure about it, but I fell in love with Costa Rica. It was beautiful beyond my expectations and unlike anywhere else I have travelled. The people are warm and welcoming.

I have to say that the travel company went above and beyond in providing a unique and magical traveling experience. As you know, I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to do all the "adventurous" aspects of the trip because I am "older."  I was assured me that I could not do anything I didn't want to, and that helped. But, I was determined to try and once we started the tour I just didn't want to not experience it all.

I have to mention the travel company people who made this trip for us, starting with our guide in the Arenal area. I did not expect him to come with a tripod and binoculars on the Mystic Bridge and Sloth tours, but he did and we have so many fantastic close-ups of such wildlife as an eyeless pit viper, tarantulas, an ocelot, howler monkeys, spider monkeys, and many more. (He kept us at a safe distance.) Vanessa is an entomologist and she and our guide really connected over searching for insects. I am not a nature girl, but walking the jungle bridges and seeing the sloths was so beautiful.

The 3 lunches that the company arranged were beyond my expectations. Our first lunch was at a local's house and it was delicious and they were so, so welcoming. Our second lunch was when a chef from La Fortuna came to the Sloth farm and cooked for us and it was also fabulous. Finally, making tortillas with a woman at her home was a super special experience. I have travelled a lot, but can truly say that I have never been welcomed into the homes of the people of that country, and served the foods that are from that country. I hope the travel company will continue to arrange such experiences for other clients. Our guide translated everything for us and we really got to know the people. I feel like they are my friends and would welcome them to my home.

You can be proud of our guide in the Arenal area, because of his professionalism, knowledge, and focus on detail.

I also have to mention our driver, who drove us to Taramarindo and back to the airport. He was so helpful, answering questions for us throughout the drives. He took us to a great place for lunch and his recommendations on what to order were spot on. We asked for a restaurant in Taramarindo and the one he suggested was outstanding. We wouldn't have found it on our own.

The Arenal Volcano area resort and Boutique Hotel in Tamarindo were both excellent. I was sitting on the porch of my room at the Arenal resort when a Coati came out of the jungle and sat down near the edge of the porch. I was just drinking my coffee, and he and I hung out together. I have a video of it and it was such a special moment. Coatis are my new favorite animal. The Tamarindo hotel staff couldn't do enough for us. I wrote a note to the manager thanking him. I had two spa treatments and they were wonderful. The farm to table dinner was fantastic and their breakfasts and dinners were excellent.

Now, I want to compliment Catalina on all the work she put into this trip. Catalina is a truly a professional travel advisor and a credit to the company.

I have already recommended the travel company to my sister and two friends.

We absolutely LOVED our trip.  It was a terrific family vacation (kids ages 9 & 6), and we were so happy to enjoy so many special experiences - animals in the rainforest, gorgeous beach time, a daily sense of adventure and fun.  The travel company did a great job addressing issues as they came up, and we very much enjoyed the guides and drivers who the agency engaged for us.  Having an in-country agency gave us a lot of confidence to take our first big international trip as a family, and we appreciate their expertise in planning, as well as their customer service.  Our agent worked hard to craft an itinerary that encompassed a variety of activities, and that incorporated some of the things we were most excited about doing in Costa Rica (seeing poison dart frogs!), and she revised the itinerary several times to adapt to our questions and comments.   The Costa Rican people we met were universally welcoming, helpful, and kind.  Most spoke very strong English, and it was easy to travel without exchanging currency at all.  

We did have a few issues that came up both during the trip, and in the planning.  It would have been good to get our final itinerary further in advance (it came a week before we left, right before Christmas) and we didn't pay close enough attention to the timing of the daily schedule.   Our agent scheduled 3 days in a row of 7 am departures for activities, requiring 6 am wakeup and twice missing the included breakfast, which was brutal on our family.  We ended up canceling a much-anticipated activity, planned for New Year's Day, simply because we were exhausted.  We LOVED the lodge located in La Paz Waterfall Gardens Nature Park, but had to leave it at 7 am - ouch! We arrived into San Jose at 5am, and didn't have access to our hotel room until check in scheduled for 2 pm.  Our mistake in not requesting a hotel room, but would have appreciated if our agent had recognized the need for such given we were traveling as a family. Our agent had suggested we go to the newly-opened hotel at Playa Conchal. I had reservations about this, as the chain is not known for being family friendly, and there was just very limited information online about the hotel, and our agent didn't have much information on it as a family destination either, since it was new, but it all worked out well, and we were generally pleased with our stay there. (A note on the hotel: while they said they had a "kids club", we never used it, as it seemed closed the entire visit, and was a tiny facility). With all of that said, I would recommend both the agency and the agent again, with the encouragement to do a lot of research on your own (I found and requested two of the hotels where we stayed, which were both highlights of the trip).