Panama with Canal Transit Tour
(5D/4N)
January 15-19, 2009
Panama is the
new “hot destination” for tourists, retirees and investors. Do
you know you can transit the Panama Canal without having to take
a ten-day cruise? You will take a full, ocean-to-ocean transit
(8 hours) on a 280-passenger
ship. On your Panama City Tour,
you visit the ruins of Old Panama; the gold altar of the
San Jose Church in colonial Casco Viejo; Miraflores Locks &
Visitor Center in the former U.S. Canal Zone, and enjoy a
typical dinner and folk dance show. You will also visit an Embera
Village along the banks of the Chagres River. It is like a
scene from National Geographic as the villagers show you
their traditional dances, medicines from local plants and their
hand-made crafts. You can extend your tour with a stay at a
five-star resort on the Pacific Coast or in the rainforest. If
you'd like to extend your travel in Central America, you
can continue on to our Costa Rica Variety Tour (Jan 19-25).
Costa Rica
Variety Tour (7D/6N)
January 19-25, 2009
Visit the most popular
regions of Costa Rica: Heredia Highlands, Arenal and Tamarindo
on the northern Pacific Coast. You arrive in San Jose and
overnight at a mountain hotel north of the city. On the
next day you visit Doka Estate, where you will see how coffee is
cultivate and processed. Afterwards, you visit La Paz
Waterfall & Gardens where your guide will lead a walk in the
rainforest to five waterfalls. You will also visit the
world's largest Butterfly Observatory, an aviary, a Hummingbird
Garden, and a reptile exhibit. You end your day in Arenal, where you may view the
lava flow from Arenal Volcano. Relax at Tabacon Hot
Springs & Spa, take a walk over multiple suspension bridges in
the rainforest, and enjoy free time for optional spa treatments
or sport activities, such as horseback riding to La Fortuna
Waterfall or a canopy/zipline tour. On your transit to the
coast, you will visit Las Pumas Refuge where you will see
injured jaguars, monkeys and birds being cared. Enjoy the beautiful beach of Tamarindo,
only feet from your hotel room, and your boat trip
through Tamarindo Wildlife Refuge. If Las Baulas National
is open, you can take an optional turtle nesting tour. On your transfer to San Jose, visit Guaytil where the villagers
make pottery like their Chorotega ancestors made 1000 years ago.
Also, you will have time to shop in Sarchi, the
crafts capital of Costa Rica. Your farewell dinner is a
gourmet treat at your art lodge near San Jose.
See
streaming videos of
Panama with Canal Transit,
Garden
and Costa Rica
Variety tours
These videos work best with Broadband access (DSL or
Cable). They are on the Photodex Corporation's website. You
will be asked to download the Photodex Presenter which takes
about 10 seconds. After the program loads, you
click on the Costa Rica or Panama icon to start
the show.
Costa Rica Nature
Tour: Northern Caribbean & Sarapiqui (7D/6N)
February
14-20, 2009
You arrive in
San Jose and directly transfer north to your mountain lodge in the
Heredia Highlands. The next morning, your Costa Rican
naturalist guide and your U.S. Tour Escort, a veterinarian with a specialty in
tropical birds, will lead an early morning bird watching tour on
the grounds of your lodge. Afterwards, you visit La Paz
Waterfall & Gardens where you can walk to five waterfalls, visit
the largest Butterfly Observatory in the world, and an aviary,
hummingbird garden and reptile exhibition. Next, you will
continue on to the lowlands at La Virgen de Sarapiqui. The next morning you will visit La Selva, the premier research
facility worldwide of The Organization for Tropical Studies. In the afternoon, you have a choice of a sport activity at Pozo
Azul Hacienda: white water rafting, canopy/zipline tour,
mountain biking, rapelling, or horseback riding. You can also
visit the dairy farm or nearby archaeological ruins. In the
evening you can choose either a Bat Demonstration or a night
hike at Tirimbina Reserve. On the next day, you
will travel by land and boat to Tortuguero on the northern Caribbean coast
where you will meander through the
secondary canals of Tortuguero National Park alongside the abundant water
birds, crocodiles, sloths, and turtles in this beautiful,
protected location. Wildlife greets you around every turn
and our small group size will insure you don't miss a thing. On your transfer to San Jose, you will visit Costa Flores,
formerly the world's largest flower farm/exporter, and now a
tourist garden center. You will stop in Moravia for craft
shopping. You will enjoy your farewell dinner and folk dance
show at a restaurant in the mountains with a magnificent view of
the Central Valley below.
Costa Rica
Garden Tour
(8D/7N)
March 12-19, 2009
This unique tour is
specially designed for Master Gardeners and aficionados of
gardening, plants, flowers and nature. Our tour takes you at the best time of
year to the best garden locations during the peak blooming
season. You will see many of Costa Rica's 10,000 plants,
including 1,000 orchid varieties
at the Annual National Orchid Show in San Jose and at Lankester Gardens
in Cartago. In Turrialba, you will visit CATIE (Tropical
Agriculture Research & Education Center) to see their
renowned fruit tree collection. At your beautiful mountain
lodge in the evening, the owner will demonstrate how chocolate
is made from the seeds of the cacao fruit. At Tayutic Hacienda you
will see how coffee, sugar
cane, and macadamia nuts were processed in the traditional ways
from colonial times to recent years.
You will also see some of the most spectacular scenery in the
country. Next, you will travel to the Heredia Highlands
with a a stop at La Paz Waterfall & Gardens where you can
hike to five waterfalls, visit the largest Butterfly Observatory
in the world, and an aviary, hummingbird garden and reptile
exhibition. In Arenal you will enjoy Tabacon Hot Springs
and Arenal Hanging Bridges, and take optional spa treatments or
a Canopy/zipline sport tour. On your return to San Jose, you
will visit the topiary in Zarcero, the Else Kientzler Gardens, and shop in Sarchi, the crafts
capital of Costa Rica. Your last night will be at a
colonial-style villa outside of San Jose.
Costa
Rica Nature Tour: Southern Caribbean & Turrialba (7D/6N)
April 18- 24, 2009
While in Turrialba, your guide will lead a rainforest hike to
Guayabo National Monument,
Costa Rica’s foremost excavated indigenous village dating back 3,000 years. At
Tayutic Hacienda you will see how sugarcane, coffee and macadamia nuts are
processed using traditional and present-day methods. You visit the world-famous
fruit tree collection at CATIE (Center for Tropical Agricultural Research and
Higher Education) and enjoy bird watching at the lake with mist nets that are
used in their research projects. On the Southern Caribbean coast you will visit
Aviarios del Caribe, the only sloth refuge and rehabilitation center in the
world, go on a leatherback turtle nesting tour and learn about the project to
protect the turtle eggs and re-establish a viable population of sea turtles.
There will be an opportunity to tour Cahuita National Park, best known
for the coral reefs close to shore. At Selva Bananito Eco-lodge in the Talamanca
Mountains you have a guided nature walk through the rainforest and optional
activities such as canopy / zipline, introductory tree climbing, and horseback
riding. On your transfer back to San Jose you visit Costa Flores, once the
largest flower exporter in the world. On your last evening you will enjoy a
farewell dinner and folklore dance show.
Black Heritage
Tour in Costa Rica (7D/6N)
August 27-September 2, 2009
Costa
Rica Tours, Ltd. is the only tour operator that offers a
black heritage tour in Costa Rica. Enjoy the annual Black
Culture Day celebration in Puerto Limon on the Caribbean coast.
We have arranged exclusively for our group a presentation on
Costa Rica's African-Caribbean history and the influence of
Marcus Garvey; a dinner/party with local civic
organizations; and the group's participation in the annual UNIA
community breakfast and parade. In addition, you will stay for two nights at a
mountain lodge near Turrialba. You have a choice of taking an
African-Caribbean cooking lesson or a
guided hike in the rainforest to the ruins of an indigenous
civilization that dates to 1,000 BC. You will also visit a
coffee and sugar cane hacienda with some of the most beautiful
scenery in the country.
You will enjoy your stay at a beach resort on the Southern
Caribbean coast where you will visit the only Sloth Refuge in
the world, and have a lobster dinner at the famous Maxi's
Restaurant. You can choose to take an optional Canopy /
zipline tour through the rainforest. Your tour concludes in San Jose with shopping for crafts
to take home and a typical dinner prepared on a wood-burning
stove at a restaurant in El Pueblo Center.
YEAR-ROUND
PRIVATE TOURS
ON YOUR PREFERRED DATES
Tropical Cooking
School & Tour (6D/5N)
This is a private tour for students and alumni of
culinary schools.
Cooking & Spa
Escape
in Costa Rica
(5D/4N)
(For groups of 5 or more passengers)
Kick
back and relax in the beautiful region of Turrialba, east of San
Jose. You will stay at a mountain lodge where you
have three cooking lessons (total 6 hours) featuring Costa Rican
Highland, African-Caribbean, and Chocolate Making. Also,
you can tour a coffee farm and renowned Lankester Gardens. Enjoy
your stay at a resort and spa where the pool has thermal mineral
water coming from Irazu Volcano. You can enjoy a massage, or
exchange the massage for other treatments.
Sports Adventure in Costa Rica
(7D/6N)
Select Your Dates
Looking for an active vacation
that is both invigorating and relaxing at the same time? This
tour includes a visit to Poas Volcano or a Coffee Plantation, and a guided rainforest
hike to five waterfalls and a Butterfly Garden at La Paz in the Heredia Highlands.
You can choose two
sport activities (choice of mountain biking, white water
rafting, canopy/zipline, rappelling, and horseback riding) at
Hacienda Pozo Azul in Sarapiqui. You also visit Tabacon Hot Springs & Spa and one sport
choice in Arenal. On your return to San Jose, you can shop
for crafts in Sarchi. You will have a farewell dinner (and
possibly a folk dance show) in
San Jose.
Northern
Pacific Triangle Tour
(7D/6N)
This is the most popular region for tourism in Costa
Rica: in Monteverde, hike in the
rainforest
and take a Canopy/Zipline Tour (optional) across the top of the cloud
forest; in Arenal, relax at a hot springs at the foot of Arenal Volcano and choose a
sport activity (Horseback Riding to La Fortuna Waterfall, Rapelling, Canopy/Zipline, or Arenal Hanging Bridges). In Tamarindo, enjoy the beach where you
may be able to catch the nesting of the giant leatherback
turtles (in December and January only) or take optional fishing, snorkeling,
scuba diving or surfing lessons. We sugest you arrange your
flights to arrive and depart Liberia (Guanacaste)
International Airport. Note: You can choose to reduce the locations to only
two and spend more time in each.
Southern Pacific
(7D/6N)
This more remote region
has long been a favorite for the European traveler. Begin the tour
with a stay at a mountain resort nestled in the Savegre Valley, one of the
best locations for trout fishing and viewing the elusive quetzal, known as the most beautiful bird
in the world. Continue on to the
southern Pacific coast where you can choose to stay at a luxury hotel or at an award-winning
eco-resort. You can take optional day trips to Corcovado National Park in the Osa Peninsula,
and to Caño Island, known for excellent scuba diving and snorkeling.
Caribbean & Turrialba (7D/6N)
This tour combines a three-night stay on the Southern
Caribbean coast, two nights in a mountain lodge near Turrialba,
and one night in San Jose prior to departure. Upon arrival in the
afternoon, you are transferred to Turrialba, about half-way between San Jose
and the Caribbean coast. In the Turrialba region, you will have a
guided walk in the rainforest of Guayabo National Monument (Costa Rica's most important
archaeological site) and tour a coffee plantation; You have a choice of a White Water Rafting tour on the Pejibaye or Pacuare
Rivers or a tour of Aviarios del Caribe Sloth Refuge
and canoeing trip on the Estrella River. At your resort in Punta Uva on the Caribbean coast, the ocean is only feet from your
room. You can enjoy the pool, Jacuzzi, tennis courts or optional
activities such as a canopy/zipline through the rainforest of the
nearby Gandoca-Manzanillo Reserve. Punta Uva is only 10-15 minutes from Puerto Viejo, the
area's hot spot for shopping, restaurants and clubs. On your
way back to San Jose, you can stop at Moravia, a town known for Costa Rican
crafts.
Panama With Canal Transit (5D/4N)
You have a full (8 hours) or partial (4 hours) transit of the Panama Canal
depending on the dates you select for your tour. Your package
includes a Panama City History Tour, a typical dinner & folk dance show, and a choice
of a visit to an Embera Indian village along the banks of the Chagres River; a
visit to El Valle de Anton to see El Nispero Zoo and the Sunday crafts market;
or a
visit to Portobelo to see the forts, museum and church. You can extend
your visit with a stay at the 5-star Gamboa Rainforest Resort or at a luxurious all-inclusive resort on the Pacific Ocean.
