First let me start by saying, I was not excited about going on this trip. I have been to Costa Rica before, went with several families and traveled by a friends suggestion of places and things to see. We rented our own vans, had to find the places, (not easy) and arrange all of our guided tours and adventures. It was a lot of work, and was not what I had expected. Many people say Costa Rica is amazing!! I didn't get that. So....fast forward approximately 5 years later.......
Friends of ours were planning a trip with "full Spanish immersion" in mind. (They own and operate a Spanish Immersion School, Sombrero Time here in California.) Thought it would be great for our 3 boys who attend the school to really have the chance to speak the language and become even more fluent and comfortable. The other reason was to see the true Costa Rica, the people, the culture and of course the forest, animals, geography. Our children are 10, 12 and 14. So, instead of staying home, I adventure with my family to Costa Rica. IT WAS AMAZING!!!! Perfect accommodations, worth the bumpy roads! Great adventures, great staff, all accommodating and always on time. We had to make them wait a few times and even made changes to our itinerary without a problem. I'm sure it was a hassle, but they never seemed to mind. We also wanted to staff to speak to the children in Spanish, that can be tiring.... but they did it. Very patient to say the least. Gustavo is a must to be your tour guide. Great personality, great with the kids, educational, informative and again accommodating. Super nice guy and we were happy, again accommodating us, that we were able to keep him for the duration of the tour. One of the kids cried when we had to say good-bye. It was well worth the money.... a trip like this could be a nightmare. They were amazing and a trip that we all will never forget. Thank you CRE and we miss you already Gustavo!
We utilized Costa Rica Expeditions (CSE) for our first trip to Costa Rica
Two nights in San Jose
Four nights in Osa peninsula (Drake Bay)
Four nights in Monteverde
Four nights in Arenal
We are experienced travelers, and usually do our own planning and booking.
Here is what we paid for in using CSE services (and it was worth every penny):
Friendly faces that met us at every transfer point.
Knowledgeable coordinators in the transfer vans who educated us and shared local information and Costa Rican culture.
Clean, modern vans (always on time!) with only a few people (I think we only had one van where there was another couple with us).
Drivers were courteous and very safe (if you have been on the roads to Monteverde or over to Arenal you understand why this is important!)
Accommodations that were top notch - as advertised and great quality for people, place and rooms.
Activities with Guides who were uniformly professional and friendly.
Most importantly, we had a stress free vacation and could just relax and enjoy our immersion in Costa Rica.
No worries if a taxi would make it, no wrong directions or missed connections, no activities with large groups of people tramping about.
When you get to price, ask yourself what you are paying for. In our case, we completed our fourteen-night trip with NO hiccups, mishaps or mis-communications.
Every activity well worth the time and expense, every contingency planned for and covered.
An outstanding company of motivated, friendly professionals with your positive vacation experience in Costa Rica as their goal. Highly recommended.
My family of four one teenager and one ten-year-old absolutely loved our vacation custom designed by Gustavo at Costa Rican Expeditions, CRE. Everything was carefully executed according to plan. At one point we had to test CRE's ability to make changes within a short time frame and they were able to do so perfectly. We arrived in San Jose. We chartered a small plane to Tortuguero and stayed at Tortuga Lodge where Gustavo (the host) made us feel like honored guests. We then flew to Arenal and stayed there for three days and then drove to Tamarindo which was our favorite. The beach was beautiful. The pacific water was warm and the sunshine plentiful. All of our guides spoke English expertly. They were all knowledgeable about their country. All of our hotels were very comfortable. We loved the balance of activities and tours with rest and relaxation. I would recommend CRE to anyone looking to travel to Costa Rica. They certainly earn their reputation and their fees. They made the entire planning process easy and the vacation better than we could have expected.
Our family of five visited Costa Rica over January 2015. Based on the awards won by the company, I took a punt and asked Nadya of CRE to organise our holiday. It was the most successful gamble ever taken. The company is brilliant. Everything was organised to perfection. The holiday was pitched exactly as we wanted it and directed to please the three adrenalin loving teenagers as well as their conservative parents. It was not only the value for money that was so appealing. It was the extraordinary attention to detail with follow up emails and advice for every part of the tour. Further, we changed our plans a couple of times and this was dealt with efficiently and economically. Our family has done a lot of travel but this was by far the best travel agency we have used.
We used Costa Rica Expeditions to plan a two-day trip to Tortuguero. What a great experience! They picked us up at San Jose Airport, drove us to a smaller airport where we boarded a small plane which took us to Tortuguero. (Our son even got to sit next to the pilot!)
My husband (who does not like to fly on small planes unless he is the one flying) was very impressed with the professionalism and expertise of their pilots.
We stayed at Tortuguero Lodge which exceeded our expectations. The rooms were clean and quiet, the food was delicious and the excursions were perfect! We did a kayaking tour with Willis as soon as we arrived. He was great -- we saw cayman's, turtles, spider monkey's, howler monkey's, white face monkey's and lot's of different birds. We also did a night time turtle tour (not the private) and got Willis as a guide again! Lucky us! We were able to see a turtle that had just laid her eggs. What an experience!
At first when booking this I thought it was a little bit expensive, but soon realized it was worth every penny! I wish we had booked our entire Costa Rica vacation with them.
We booked our trip with CRE for 11 days of touring for 10 people (two families with 6 kids 10-15). We have visited Costa Rica before but didn't have time to research, plan and organize this adventure for our group. Our advisor Douglas Espinosa was very responsive and helpful throughout the entire process. Most importantly we wanted this trip to be a real Spanish immersion language experience. Douglas recommended a local tour guide and promised he would work with us to practice our Spanish.
Once we arrived we met our local guide, Gustavo Camacho who was AMAZING! I can't tell you how pleased we were to experience Costa Rica with Gustavo. He was professional, caring and genuinely concerned with making the most of this adventure for us. He took care of all the details and was flexible when we wanted to change things on the fly. Best of all Gustavo engaged us and our kids in Spanish continually providing great opportunities for us to practice our language skills.
One particular example that comes to mind was when our kids were playing card games on the tour bus, Gustavo jumped into the game to engage them to practice the language. The kids spoke nothing but Spanish for nearly an hour laughing and loving the experience. Gustavo quickly became like family and it was difficult to say goodbye at the end of our tour.
We are thankful to Douglas, Gustavo and the entire CRE team for making this trip such a positive and memorable experience. You may pay a bit extra for a tour company like CRE but it's well worth it. The time you will save on planning your trip alone is huge and you benefit from the expertise the experience of your guide and trip organizer.
Costa Rica Expeditions took the time to find out what we wanted to do and how much we could afford and put it all together into a fabulous vacation. The guides were top notch and the accommodations never disappointing. We would never have been able to put this together on our own.
Our family of five visited Costa Rica over January 2015. Based on the awards won by the company, I took a punt and asked Nadya of CRE to organise our holiday. It was the most successful gamble ever taken. The company is brilliant. Everything was organised to perfection. The holiday was pitched exactly as we wanted it and directed to please the three adrenalin loving teenagers as well as their conservative parents. It was not only the value for money that was so appealing. It was the extraordinary attention to detail with follow up emails and advice for every part of the tour. Further, we changed our plans a couple of times and this was dealt with efficiently and economically. Our family has done a lot of travel but this was by far the best travel agency we have used.
On Jan 2015, my daughter and myself decided to pay the difference and take the more expensive 'white glove' tour. This was mainly because we only had one day (no chance for miss understandings causing us not to be picked up) and we preferred a smaller group.
Communication with Elena was easy (English).
The day started at 5:30 AM and when we went downstairs to our ride we found out we were the only ones for that day's group. We drove to a restaurant where we had breakfast and from there to the starting point of the rafting. There was one raft where the guide, my daughter and myself sat and 2 kayaks- one with a photographer and the other a rescue kayak.
The rafting itself was fantastic. We were the only boats in sight.
The guide (Alex) was very professional, knowledgeable, trained us and by the time we reached the white water we felt comfortable and safe.
Lunch was in a unique and beautiful location with restrooms. The food was good and prepared and served beautifully.
The pictures were professionally taken and awesome.
If you can allow yourself the difference- go for it. We definitely recommend.
