Luxury Costa Rica Tour Review: Manuel Antonio, La Fortuna, Monteverde, Wildlife Sightings, Zip-lining, Horseback Riding

Review by traveler

WIlliam D.

5.2.2021

General Info

Traveler Review

Which Country (Countries) did you visit on this trip?

Costa Rica

Your overall comments on the trip and the travel company:

Costa Rica Luxury Nature Tour

Overall Comments: This is the third large travel project we’ve done through Zicasso. As usual, we competed this Costa Rica company with another Costa Rican travel company. Both put together solid programs. Both were cost competitive. We seemed to click with this travel specialist in a mutual communication and chose them. They listen. They managed all our requests for transport, hotels and excursions in a particularly challenging pandemic travel environment. Sensational job!
We planned an 11day luxury excursion in Costa Rica with three major stops; La Fortuna, Monteverde and Manuel Antonio. We wanted to see flora/fauna/wildlife/nature; relax in top notch lodgings with good restaurants; and visit the beaches- - all while avoiding group travel and transport in light of the pandemic. They put it all together: perfectly!
Every guide/driver met us on time. Every excursion went as planned (except for the obvious rain challenges in an early arriving rainy season). There were no unexpected costs or charges. They even arranged for our outbound Covid test to be done at the hotel instead of traveling to a crowded clinic or hospital.
We’ve had solid Zicasso travel advice in Australia and South East Asia before. This Costa Rica travel company's travel advice in Costa Rica ranks highly with our other 5-star experiences. One of their guides was perhaps the best prepared and most personable guide we’ve had anywhere. He talked history, culture, nature, sports; all in flawless English and was most patient helping us with our Spanish as well.
At the bottom line, using this Costa Rica travel company was money well spent and we’ll use them again when we next travel to Central America.

What were the most enjoyable or memorable parts of your trip?

The hotels were exquisite with first class service. The restaurants and cuisine in all three areas was exceptional and all reasonably priced considering the level of accommodations and service included. The hotel in Manuel Antonio offered amazing Pacific ocean views from their suites.
If you travel to Costa Rica, you have to be interested in nature/flora/fauna/wildlife. From sloths to birds; bats to iguanas ; insects to plants and trees. The variety and balance of species is beyond description. Cano Negro was a wonderful fullday trip; well worth it even though we visited after the major bird migrations departed. We found sloths in Arenal, Quetzals in Monteverde, crocodiles and Tucans in Manuel Antonio.
We had a horseback ride in the rain and rode perhaps the longest set of ziplines in two continents.
Above all, we met an amazing number of Costa Ricans who were generous, warm and welcoming at a very personal level.

If you could take your trip again, what would you do differently?

We had scheduled a cooking class which went as advertised but both the chef and the meal he selected was not quite up to our expectations. It was a pleasant evening but we would have been better off finding a more interesting local restaurant.
We chose a kayak and snorkeling tour but we could have used our time better somewhere else. The ocean kayaking was fun but the snorkeling offered little undersea life to see, even on a sunny day with pretty clear waters.
When we return to Costa Rica, we’ll definitely try to stay at the same hotels as on this visit but we’ll use the next trip to also visit parts of the country we missed on this one (Osa peninsula and the Atlantic/Caribbean coast).

TRAVEL COMPANY COMMENTS:
Mr. Dalson,
I really appreciate your comments and so happy to had an amazing vacations with us.
Regarding your comments about the cooking class, I will definitely contact our supplier to provide us the menu in advanced so we can share the menu with our clients and assure the experience will be really authentic and local.

And I am sorry your kayak and snorkeling weren’t as you expected. As you know we can’t guarantee what travelers will see underwater, but I am glad you had a nice and fun sunny day. For next time I will chat with the guides before the excursion to check in the weather and the ocean and hopefully have better luck or replace the excursion with another suggestion.

Photos

Luxury Costa Rica Tour Review: Manuel Antonio, La Fortuna, Monteverde, Wildlife Sightings, Zip-lining, Horseback Riding

General Info

Which Country (Countries) did you visit on this trip?

Your overall comments on the trip and the travel company:

What were the most enjoyable or memorable parts of your trip?

If you could take your trip again, what would you do differently?

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