11-Day Tour from San Jose: Monteverde Cloud Forest and Tortuguero, Arenal Volcano and Manuel Antonio National Parks

The complete tour was even better than expected. Transports all on time, great guides, good food and accommodations. We saw all the wild life we could have, including baby green turtles running to the sea as fast as they could. All in all a wonderful trip. Thank you Viator. Vic and Mary Oct/Nov 2017

Tortuguero- was fantastic not to be missed. Know that the quality of information you get on wildlife depends on the guide you get- some great some ok. I would go there again. Arenal Volcano was an area that deserved another day. Fortunately we loved our accommodations which had hot springs on ground because nothing else was connected that day in the way of activity or transportation with no notice. Finally toward evening we were picked up for a hike to view the volcano It became dark before we completed that hike. As for Monteverde- our hotel was horrible and not the one we expected. We had to pay cabs to get to activities we found. We did go to a good aerial walk though it was not in the area I had inquired about before the trip I kind of felt people were shuffled around where there was room. Never knew what our ride would be. Not Viator but I think the local connections are to blame and maybe Viator needs to form more secure relations there.Still beats a rental car but I felt we could have just gotten transport from hotels on our own without so much wasted time. Next time I will choose hotels and take tours from them and transport between.

This was great! We saw more wildlife than we expected including some rarities like manatee, stick birds,and a quetzal at Monteverde, some big caiman etc etc. Oh yes, all four monkey species and a real close-up of a three-toed sloth. The thermal set-up at Fortuna was the best we have experienced anywhere. We found it a good mix of guided and free time, so we were able to do some longish walks on our own, and avoid some popular activities that did not interest us. The only downside was that we arrived at Antonio Manuel on a Sunday and it is closed on Mondays. There was no full day tour as expected so we only had a morning tour before leaving. Fortunately there was a reasonable bus service and we spent time at the beach. This came as a surprise, because it was not properly mentioned in the tour notes. A longer and better structured set of tour notes would have given us more notice of this and allowed us to plan for this better. The hotels were all fine, although the one at Arenal was a bit remote from anywhere, and we had to argue to get a decent room there. This was compensated for by the amazing view of the Volcano from the room we did eventually get!

This tour was amazing. The scenery is absolutely gorgeous. Everyone we came in contact with was so proud of their country and happy to show us. Crossing through the Continental Divide was exhilarating. Everything ran on schedule with no glitches couldn't be more happier. I highly recommend this trip

Great trip, terrific scenery and animal life. Cabins in Tortuguero a bit primitive and w/o AC but food was great as was our guide. Each NP visited was with different group as we were transported from park to park by various means so you really didn't get to know fellow travelers other than at Tortuguero.. PU between Tortuguero and Arenal by private car, i.e. just us two was nearly 2 hours late and driver nearly knocked two boys off motorized scooter he also talked too much. Elsewhere we were picked up at hotel for each separate excursion with different groups. There was nice balance of scheduled and free time, maybe a bit too much of latter, and at least half of every other day spent traveling 4-6 hours. However this arrangement allowed you to start trip on any date that fit your schedule, a necessity in our case. Lodges were very nice and staff always friendly and accommodating.

This tour was a disappointment. From the description, we expected a fun-filled packed itinerary. The destinations were great and we did get to see a lot of the variety that Costa Rica offers, but it turned out to be more of a hotel and transfer service than a tour. If that is what you are expecting, it was fine. The transfers were efficient and on time and the hotels were very good. The local tour company CAT-tours was sadly lacking in giving us information, however. They handed us a sheet of paper with pick-up and drop-off times for each day and a statement of what the activity was. But, there was no information about the activity and what to expect--how long it would take or what we needed to take with us or how we should dress. The drivers had no information and neither did the hotels when we got there. We had to call CAT several times to get more information and, though they were very friendly, they still didn't give us very good information and in fact gave us completely false information sometimes. For instance, we were told we would be at the Manuel-Antonio park until 1:30 p.m. and lunch was included. But when our guide picked us up very early in the morning we found out we would be back to the hotel near 10:30 a.m. with nothing else planned for the day and a snack was included. As far as activities go, there was usually just one included planned activity at each destination where we stayed 2 nights and one full day and one day of transfer with no activities in between. This added up to be 6 days of transfers out of the 11 days with no activities. The days that did have planned activities usually only lasted 2-4 hours with the rest of the day free. If you wanted other activities, you had to find them and pay for them on your own. Usually we had to get up really early for an activity or transfer that finished early so that you would have to either pay for another activity suggested by the hotel or spend the day on the hotel property since the hotels were somewhat isolated so you couldn't just go somewhere outside and explore. We began to wonder if this is how they supported the hotel sponsored tours. We expected that the included activities would fill most of the day with perhaps, on occasion, some time for an extra shorter activity if you wanted to do that. There was no tour guide other than the guides that came included with each activity. The drivers, though friendly and accommodating, often didn't speak English and couldn't answer our questions. The one exception was at Tortuguero where we had a guide provided by the resort for the whole time we were there and he was great. Honestly, you could probably do as well or maybe even better if you planned the trip yourself so you could include activities along the way during the transfers and fill the day with activities you like on those days you were at a destination.

What an amazing getaway! everything was perfectly organized and everyone was extremely nice and polite. All the pick up times were on time by the minute! I was very impressed with everything! Thank you guys for this unforgettable trip!

This is a really wonderful trip. The places I visited are really interesting. It combined the Caribbean site, the middle, the Pacific side and the capital downtown of Costa Rica. The hotels are amazing with very nice view and excellent locations and services. The tour guides are professional.

Fantastic, Our Guide Daniel was very knowledgeable and a super fun guy to spend time with. Every attention to detail was taken and the food amazing. Great way to see Costa Rica when you only have 11 days. We highly commend Viator and will travel with them again. China here we come. G and L

This was a brilliant tour from start to finish. It was well organised and the transfers all arrived on time apart from one which was an hour late. The hotels were all good, with the exception of the Arenal Paraiso which was amazing fantastic view of the Volcano. The hotel in Manuel Antonio Casitas Eclipse was a bit disappointing, but the restaurant over the road El Avion, more than made up for it. We saw a Sloth in a tree whilst we were eating our dinner. It came out of cover and started eating. Absolutely amazing. I would recommend this trip to anyone. Only thing to bear in mind is that some of the transfers between places are quite long, but we met lots of lovely people on these transfers, where you can chat and compare experiences. Well worth the money