Costa Rica Tours, Ltd.

COSTA RICA VARIETY TOUR
 January 16-22, 2012

Can combine with Panama with Canal Transit Tour on Jan. 11-16.
Contact us about a private tour on your selected dates.  

Visit the most popular regions at the best time of the year
On our tour you will see many highlights that make Costa Rica the #1 destination worldwide for nature travel 

Tour Highlights:

• Tour Espiritu Santo Coffee Farm
• Nature walk at El Silencio de los Angeles Cloud Forest
• Nature walk in tropical rainforest at Arenal Hanging Bridges
• Tabacon Hot Springs & Spa in Arenal
• Las Pumas Refuge in Guanacaste           
• Two nights at a Pacific Beach resort in Tamarindo
• Evening Turtle Nesting Tour (if Las Baulas National Park is open)
• Craft shopping and demonstration at Guaitil pottery village and Sarchi, Costa Rica's "crafts capital"
• Small group (maximum 16 passengers) with full-time Costa Rican Naturalist Guide and U.S. Tour Escort

Tour Video

Daily Itinerary

Day 1:  San Jose Arrival & Orientation

You arrive in the San Jose airport and are transferred to your hotel,  20 minutes away.  Enjoy the magnificent hotel garden, considered one of the best in Costa Rica. Later join the group for a welcome cocktail, orientation session, and dinner.

Day 2:  Central Highlands to Arenal

Your day begins with a transfer to the Arenal Volcano area. Along the way you will stop at the Espiritu Santo Coffee Farm where you will see every step of the coffee production from planting through roasting to packaging. We will stop at a typical town market in San Ramon to see the variety of tropical fruits and vegetables.  You will have lunch at Villa Blanca, an hacienda once owned by a  President of Costa Rica.  You will have an introduction to the flora an fauna of Costa Rica on your guided walk at El Silencio de los Angeles cloud forest.

Day 3:  Arenal Hanging Bridges & Tabacon Hot Springs

This morning your naturalist guide will take you on a rainforest walk at Arenal Hanging Bridges. You will cross through all levels of the rainforest on trails and steel-enclosed suspension bridges. You will have lunch walk around the town of La Fortuna.  Afterwards, you  will relax in the thermal pools of Tabacon Hot Springs, a virtual Garden of Eden.   During your buffet dinner, you may catch the sight of lava coming down from Arenal Volcano.

Day 5: Tamarindo - Free Day, Optional AM Wildlife Refuge
            Tour, and evening Turtle Nesting Tour

Today is your free day to relax and enjoy your beautiful Pacific beach resort and perhaps take an optional  early morning boat tour through the Tamarindo Wildlife Refuge.  You will see a great variety of birds, as well as crocodiles and howler monkeys. Optional activities include   fishing, surfing lessons, or golf at the nearby championship 18-hole course designed by Robert Trent Jones, II. In the evening if Las Baulas National Park is open (determined by the number of arriving turtles the previous week), you will witness the awesome nesting of the leatherback turtles, the largest measured 6' wide and 2,000 pounds.  

Day 7:  Departure

You are transferred to the San Jose airport for your departure and return home.

Comments From Variety Tour Passengers

"You took the best of everything from Costa Rica. It really was a great experience and I'm glad I went.  Thanks again for all you did to make it a great experience."
Linda R. (IL)  

"Well organized, excellent guide, service and information were outstanding." 
Dr. Alison F. (Canada)

"The trip went so smoothly. It was great that our guide and driver let us enjoy the journey with surprises and at our own pace."  Linda B. (CO)