Has Anyone been to Costa Rica?

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J T

Caravan Tours is a decent company. They have been around for a long time (over 50 years). It is a safe assumption that any hospitality company that survives for such a long time must be doing the customer right.

Their CR tour is a great mixed bag of tricks. A little bit of this and a little bit of that. It is a great way to get to know CR. Their pricing is very good also for all that they fit in to the itinerary. In CR there is Tico-pricing and gringo-pricing. Tico-pricing is what the locals would pay and gringo-pricing... yeah you get the drift. It is more. Since I go to CR with regularity, I had gotten a CR drivers license and that does help me out with paying less for things, but again with a tour company, you don't have to worry about that because their pricing is mostly all-inclusive.

That said, there are substantial drawbacks to using a tour company especially given your ages. These types of tours are generally homogenized to be appealing for all ages (mostly for the older traveler though). If you are looking for adventure travel, then you are not going to get it. You have to go everywhere they want to take you. Every second of your trip, you are on a schedule. If you fall in love with an area and want to further explore it, you cannot if it doesn't fit into the time-frame that you are given. Also, with Caravan Tours, you will miss out on the more adventuresome travel. If I were traveling CR in the summer, I'd want to go whitewater rafting for one day on the Pacuara River (class III-IV rapids), I'd like to hike down to the base of LA Fortuna Falls and go for a swim in the turbulant waters and take a zipline over the forest canopy. With Caravan, these are not an options.

I wouldn't worry about the accommodations. They are all very good.

Another thing to consider is the all-inclusive food. To some, this may be exactly what the traveler is looking for; worry free meals. To me, however, I like to pick and choose my own meals. If you are on a Caravan Tour, you will miss out on what I think is one of the best types of eateries in CR. These are the 'sodas' and 'autoservicios.' These places are a dynamite way of enjoying authentic cuisine. Most are set-up like cafeterias where you can pick and choose exactly what you want on your plate. Not only are they almost always great, it is very cheap too.

Over-all, the Caravan Tours is a good way of seeing and experiencing CR. Yes, it does have some drawbacks, but for worry-free travel and bang-for-the-buck, you can't go wrong.

After seeing CR with Caravan, you may want to go back and try to travel CR without a guided service so that you can spend time in areas that appeal to you most.

Warner Stevenson

Costa Rica is awesome! DonÂ´t lock yourself in a tour. Just book a decent hotel for a few nights like the Grand hotel or even the Holiday Inn and they will have a travel agent there who can recommend and book tours for a lot cheaper.

Urgi

I went to Costa Rica 2 years ago and it was AMAZING! You are going to have a great time! I didn't do a tour but one place that you do not want to miss is Arenal Volcano. It is awesome! One of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life! If you do go there, make sure to stay at the Arenal Observatory Lodge...at least for a night. It is at the base of the volcano, it is really a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

Hope you have a great time!

Schattenjagger CatÃ³lico

I live in Costa Rica.

Caravan Tours is a great choice.
http://www.caravan.com/tour/costa-rica

This trip is GREAT!!!

You will enjoy it a lot.

I have done it twice.

The only bad thing is the price... near $1000

Frightened Mom

You really need no tours. With a few hours of planning you can do it yourselves. Pick your places, book rooms there and commute to places using this

Some decent hotels we stayed.
http://www.hb.co.cr/ - in san jose, good gardens very good.
http://www.hotelarenalsprings.com/ - In Arenal, cozy, beautiful, good breakfast,
http://www.arcoirislodge.com/ - In Monte Verde
http://verdemar.com/ - IN manual antonio. This place was a bit of a let down. It was not very clean as it is very close to beach. But that is an advantage. Your backyard is the most beautiful Manual Antonio beach
and the MA National park is walkable along the beach.

Interbus - http://www.interbusonline.com/ has shuttles so cheap all over the country. You could use them to move around.
We also took a small 15 seater plane in http://www.flysansa.com/ from Manual Antonio to San Jose.

Don't miss zip line in monte verde. There is a Jeep-Boat-Jeep way of getting to or from Arenal to Monteverde which was fun.

AttorneyKearney

I do not know of Caravan tours but most of the tour companies are fine.
Here are some things to do while your here:
Beaches are very pretty all are different, white sand, tan sand and dark sand and shells instead of sand.
Visit one of the eleven different microclimates in the country such as the cloud forest, rain forest, activities such as hot water springs, beaches, volcanoes, canopy tour, Tortuguero canals, Tortuga Island, white water rafting, learn spanish, see and buy painted oxcarts, surfing, check out the local artists and artisans, go to art exhibits, go to concerts, walk along central avenue, go dancing, sing karaoke, visit little towns, go on train rides, rafting, sailing, fishing, swimming, boating, golf, canopy, snorkeling, bungee jumping, casinos,

Lic.Gregory Kearney Lawson.

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