I am an avid traveler and normally plan all my own trips, but for our Costa Rica adventure I was short on time and when exploring the choices of what to do on trip advisor, I came across Costa Rica Expeditions and boy was I thrilled with the experience.
I should add that we had only two days in Costa Rica and I wanted as full of an experience as we could fit into the two days and they did not disappoint!
In short, I would highly recommend Costa Rica Expeditions to all my family and friends. When I return to Costa Rica I will certainly contact them again.
Below is a more detailed account of our two days.
My experience started with completing of a questionnaire that help our travel expert to propose an itinerary for us. Elena, our travel consultant, provided a very detailed proposed itinerary where I was able to clearly visualize our upcoming experience. After a few back-and-forths to tweak the itinerary we basically accepted her original proposal within a few days. Sooo easy! I'm very impressed so far.
For our first day we were picked up very early for our flight into the Tortuguero Rain Forests. We flew on a 4 person plane. The flight was fantastic with views of San Jose, plantations, rain forest, and most spectacularly, active volcanoes.
We landed on a landing strip in the rainforest and were met by the Lodge personnel where they swept us off to our Lodge, Tortuga Lodge. A wonderful breakfast awaited us, and then we were introduced to our accommodations, the property, and an overview of our upcoming tours. We took a self guided hike through the rainforest where we heard howler monkeys, and saw red and green frogs, a variety of birds, sloths, and spiders the size of my hand.
After our hike, we took our first trip to the local village where we heard about the Green Programs and saw where the giant sea turtles lay their eggs. Our local tour guide Fernando seemed to be tired of being a tour guide, as there was very little information shared, except when asked questions. It was nice to see the village and to see in the daylight what we will be seeing in the black of the night.
Upon our return from the tour we were greeted with fresh juice smoothies. The fruit was amazing for breakfast and the fruit smoothies were a lovely touch to be greeted with. Each time we took a tour we were greeted with the smoothies which I came to look forward to.
After lunch and a bit of a rest we headed out for our next tour, a boat ride through the canals of the rainforest. I really enjoyed this tour where we saw many different birds, spider monkeys, and quite a few cayman.
Back at the lodge we took a swim in their beautiful swimming pool.
After dinner we had our final tour, and highlight of our trip, watching the giant sea turtles come onto the beach to dig their nest and lay their eggs. Wow!
This was day 1 - a wonderfully full day of experiences.
The next morning we were picked up from our hotel where we flew back to San Jose and were greeted by our tour guide Jonathan and our driver Pablo. Both Jonathan and Pablo were a wealth of information and kept us engaged in conversation the entire day. I cannot say enough of the experience they created.
We started with a stop at a coffee plantation and the on to Paos Volcano where we had a spectacular view. After the volcano we went to La Paz waterfall gardens where we saw only one waterfall, but so many other wonderful experiences. They had a butterfly garden where the butterflies were so plentiful that it was hard to leave the habitat, then a bird sanctuary where we saw toucans, parrots, and many other beautiful tropical birds. In one area there were so many hummingbirds that I was able to capture in my photos four hummingbirds feeding on a single flowering plant.
I would highly recommend Elena, Jonathan, and Pablo of Costa Rica Expeditions and expect that you would find similar experiences with any person you dealt with in the company. The management clearly educates their staff to serve their clientele, but most heart warming was how everyone we encountered spoke very highly of their company.