Dreamy Costa Rica Eco Tour for Couples

From their first response to our enquiry, we had confidence that this travel agency had understood what we were looking for, from our trip to Costa Rica. They worked with us to fine-tune our itinerary and hotel choices, and made valuable suggestions when we were unsure of the best options. They responded promptly to all of our emails and phone calls before we left England, and were equally available throughout our time on Costa Rica. When they say that they are contactable 24/7, they really mean it.

On arrival in Costa Rica, we were met by the co-owner and his wife as well as our driver - this was a truly personal touch and showed their commitment to looking after us. They kept in contact throughout our trip - for example, speaking to us during internal transfers between the different places we visited. We felt confident that our travel agency would be there to solve any problems that may arise, and as with any extended trip, we did have a couple of problems. When we both picked up local virus, our travel agency arranged for the hotel to take us to a local clinic for treatment.

They offered an outstanding service when we missed an internal flight, due to heavy traffic, by arranging a private charter flight to ensure that we could reach our next destination. We were extremely happy with the standard of all of the vehicles and drivers that our travel agency used and felt completely safe on the roads. We enjoyed all of our destinations and the accommodation was excellent (with only one exception: our cloud forest lodge in the Bajos del Toro area which was very cold at night, as there was no heating. It really needed some).

In summary, this company are the best agents that we have ever used and we have no reservation in recommending them most highly.

This year we decided to give each other a trip to Costa Rica as our Christmas gift. I mentioned to our travel agent that we enjoy photography and want to shoot birds and animals in the natural habitat. We really did not want waterfalls since we were at Victoria Falls a month ago. 

Our agents greeted us at the San Jose Airport and gave us a Christmas gift and travel documents. Our driver was knowledgable and spoke English very well. He drove us to Arenal Volcano area. We were lucky to see the top of the volcano. The hotel had beautiful views, hot volcano heated pools, large suite with a hot tube viewing the volcano, delicious food and good, friendly service. 

The Canoe Adventure was our favorite tour in Costa Rica. Our guides took the time to help us get great shots of the sloth, crocodiles, birds, bats, monkeys and iguanas. After the rafting trip on the Peno Blanco River, we had a snack of tortillas, cheese, plantains and coffee. 

At night we had an Ecoterra guided night adventure which poured down rain so we did not see much. The homemade meal was ok. 

The next morning at 5:20 am we went bird watching adventure which was a wash out. Just rained so we did not see many birds. Very disappointing since we got up so early. 

Our driver picked us up and drove us to Bajos del Toro area to our lodge and spa. Even though he has broken English, he is a funny man who enjoys sharing the Costa Rica life with his clients. The lodge and property were beautiful and staff was very friendly. We enjoyed the outside hot tube, large cabin and snack time. We were disappointed that the chicken and beef were tough, trout was over cooked and not much on the farm to table menu that we liked. 

Our guide took us on a guided hike to the waterfalls which was ok. Later that day I took the private guided Cultural Adventure with another guide which was ok. 

We liked the Lodge and property but we felt it was not worth the cost compared to the other towns we visited in Costs Rica. We would have liked to spend time at the Corcovado national parks taking pictures of wildlife/Macaw birds. 

This travel company did a great job of quickly helping us pinpoint 2 specific destinations in Costa Rica (Rio Celeste & Punta Islita) which would give us a range of experiences (rain forest & beach) in a short amount of time (6 nights total). Our agent recommended destinations that we would have otherwise not known about or chosen (neither were covered in our travel guides). They fit perfectly with our desire to avoid major tourist spots but still offered unique experiences and high quality hotels with plenty of creature comforts. Both hotels were top notch and we would highly recommend them.  

Our agent scheduled several excursions for us that fit with our interests (hiking / nature, local culture). The only issue we experienced was with the forest hiking tour which was led by a guide who spoke no English. Had it not been for a kind Chinese traveler who happened to join our tour and who spoke both English and Spanish very well, we would have completely missed out on a wealth of information. It's not clear who was at fault. Perhaps our agent didn't specify this when booking, or perhaps it was an error on the part of the hotel who ultimately scheduled the guide. Regardless, this is the sort of detail we expect the agent to ensure goes as expected. 

All other aspects of the trip went just as expected and we had a fantastic experience. 

We had an outstanding trip to Costa Rica. Alex and Francisco are extremely professional and genuinely wonderful to work with. We were met by Francisco and his wife when we exited the airport in San Juan to welcome us to Costa Rica. The travel agency called when we moved between hotels and departed for home to check that all was going as planned. They were very responsive to questions we had while planning the trip.  We wanted to spend 4 days on the beach and 4 days in the Arenal area in the rainforest. We explained the type of accommodations we like when traveling and we’re provided with two hotel choices for each area. We selected a hotel in the Manual Antonio Beach area and another in the Arenal area. Both hotels were beautiful and offered us lovely rooms, great views and private pools. The one in Manuel Antonio Beach had only one resturant with a set menu. The food was good but did not offer as much variety as we would have liked. However our driver who met us at the airport and drove us to hotel showed us various other restaurants in area with wide range options. The resort in Arenal has multiple restaurants offering a variety of cuisines. The food was excellent at all of the ones we tried.

The staff at both hotels were very responsive to any needs we had. We did have internet trouble at the hotel in Arenal and the IT people were in and out of our room several times working on the issue. Without us even asking the hotel apologized and said they would comp our dinner that night.  We planned a number of activities as part of our trip. We are older travelers and have some mobility issues. Alex worked with us to ensure the planned activities would work for us.  For each of the activities we were met at our hotel by a driver and taken to the activity. The drivers were on time and very knowledgeable of the area we were traveling to giving us history and context of the area.