Tropical Costa Rica Rain Forest Tour

Tropical Costa Rica Rain Forest Tour

This tour offers visitors a delightful variety from active volcanoes, to verdant rainforests and sunny beaches.   You will travel to the most active volcano in Costa Rica, Arenal. Afterwards you travel on through farmlands into the mountains to visit communities of Costa Rican and Quaker origins and the renowned Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve.   You will end your trip in the dry Guanacaste region to relax and enjoy the beautiful beaches, tropical waters and Pacific sunsets of Tamarindo.
Costa Rica Rainforest Tour Details

Day 1

Upon your arrival in Costa Rica you will be met and taken to your hotel in or near San Jose. Overnight in San Jose at Hotel Grano de Oro or similar..

Day 2 - COCORA GARDENS; TRANSFER TO ARENAL VOLCANO

Your journey will begin by traveling northwest along the Interamerican Highway to head north through the town of San Ramon. Here you will take a short break and visit the community’s agriculture town market. This market offers a variety of tropical fruits and vegetables, including some that are rarely seen outside the tropics.

You will continue on with a visit to the Cocora Private hummingbird and butterfly gardens. Cocora is located in the cloud forest belt at 3000 feet elevation and offers the visitor attractive tropical plants and colorful butterflies and hummingbirds.

After a traditional lunch at Doña Rosa´s house, you will continue on to your Arenal area hotel, travelling in the north central lowlands of Costa Rica among farmlands of tropical crops and cattle ranches.  (L)

Hotel: Arenal Observatory Lodge or similar (1 nt)
Meals Incl: 1B

 

Day 3 and 4 - ARENAL HANGING BRIDGES; TRANSFER TO MONTEVERDE RESERVE 

Today in the morning you will visit the Arenal Hanging Bridges.  This is a complex of suspended bridges and trails through a beautiful rain forest. As you walk through the forest, you may encounter a variety of the forest wildlife, including toucans, motmots, trogons, poison dart frogs, howling monkeys, spider monkeys and white-faced capuchin monkeys.

After your rainforest bridges walk, you will travel up into the mountains on your way to the world-famous Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. A place that has been intensely studied by scientists since its founding in 1972, and is the site of important pioneering research on the effects of climate change in tropical ecosystems. Outside the reserve the most important farm products around are organic coffee and milk for the local Cheese Factory.  The factory has been producing a variety of high-quality cheeses in Costa Rica since shortly after Quakers from the United States settled the area in 1950´s. Near and around the community centers, a large selection of restaurants, and other visitor attractions are found, such as butterfly gardens, horse rentals, treetop forest canopy tours, an orchid garden, art galleries, and an bat exhibit among others.

Next day in the morning you will visit the Trapiche ('sugar mill') and coffee farm, that first began operation in 1948. The Monteverde Trapiche is run by a local family, and on your tour you will not only learn about the local process of making sugar, but also about the other most important agricultural product of the region, “café”. There you will enjoy a refreshment of sugar cane juice or lemonade, eat picadillo de arracache (a typical Costa Rican food) and make candy out of sugar cane (everyone makes their own candy!).

After lunch enjoy a guided visit to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, one of the premier natural history destinations in Costa Rica.  The forest consists of lush, verdant vegetation containing understory palms, majestic canopy trees, arching “ropy” lianas, bizarre “strangler” fig trees and epiphytes-small plants that grow on the trees. As you walk through the forest, you may encounter a variety of wildlife including white-faced capuchins, white-nosed coatis and  two-toed sloths.  Among birds, you may see the Resplendent Quetzal, hummingbirds, toucanets, guans and solitaires.

Hotel: Hotel Fonda Vela or similar (2 nts)                            
Meals Incl: 2B 

Day 5 6 and 7

In the morning depart from the Monteverde mountains and travel through the drier northwest Guanacaste province lowlands.   This is beef country and you may see Costa Rican cowboys riding behind herds of massive long-eared brahma cattle as you pass through large savannas on your way to the coastal beach community at Tamarindo on the north Pacific Coast. Free days to explore or relax on the beach. There are many ecological friendly optional activities in the area, including watching turtles during the nesting season at night, diving, snorkeling, body surfing, zip-lining, estuary trips, horseback riding and fishing.               

Hotel: Capitan Suizo or similar (3 nts)                         
Meals Incl: 3B

Day 8

Airport transfer for return flight home.

Included

As specified in the above itinerary, lodging, transportation within Costa Rica, airport/hotel transfers on scheduled arrival/departure dates, meals [B=breakfast, L=lunch, D=dinner], national park entrance fees, guide services, ground operator support within Costa Rica and taxes.

Not Included

Airfare to Costa Rica , airport departure taxes, meals not specified in the itinerary, alcoholic beverages, personal equipment, extras in hotels (laundry, phone calls, room service), gratuities, or costs associated with changes in your itinerary for reasons beyond our control.