This will be our first time on the Celebrity Cruise Line. I received the cruise package and was surprised about the prices for the excursions around Costa Rica ($75 to $100/person - almost full day tour). I'm not a first-time cruiser and would ccasionally create my own tours when in port. <BR> <BR>The ship will dock in Puerto Caldera (on the Pacific side of Costa Rica). Because there's not much around the port, most of the tours will require transport to the sites which can be some distance away (e.g. Poas Volcano and the Cloud Forest, San Jose, Sarchi, etc). <BR> <BR>I did some research and found that most books used San Jose as the point of departure for tours. Also, taxi drivers are mostly Spanish speaking (more English spoken on Caribbean side of Costa Rica). <BR> <BR>Are the tours worth the price (e.g. tour #1: 10 hour tour to San Jose to visit museums, include lunch, go to Sarchi (artist town known for woodcarving) and transportation; tour #2: Poas Volcana and Cloud Forest Tour which also includes tour to Sarchi). What are your experiences (good and bad). Is it better to create own tour -- state experiences, problems such as traffic, $$, language barriers, knowledge of drivers). <BR> <BR>Your response would be greatly appreciated. <BR> <BR>Rollie.

Hi... <BR>We did the Puerto Caldera stop on a Princess Panama Canal cruise and took the excursion to the Cloud Forest. We enjoyed this very much. Those that went to San Jose thought it was a waste of time - mostly on bad roads - and a long distance. The port is a commercial one and very small, nothing around it and it is a long drive to anywhere. In this particular port my choice would be to do a ship excursion and one that included the beautiful flora and fauna of Costa Rica. Another thought is, if you run late due to unforeseen situations (a vehicle breakdown, emergency, guide gets lost, whatever), the ship won't leave until all excursions THEY offered are back. Have fun. <BR>

skip san jose, not worth the long trip. <BR> <BR>check out the cloud forest and volcano, its pretty cool.

Rollie, <BR>Just back from the Zenith transcanal. Although I had called Celebrity directly and they said Caldera, our ship docked in Punta Arenas rather than Caldera. We took a river adventure tour ($85 but worth it to see all the wildlife). I was glad that I had not set up anything prior to the trip because of the change where we docked. Costa Rica's people are very nice..you will have a good time.

My daughter spent 6 weeks in CR last summer. The roads are pretty dreadful, so that is the advantage in taking an excursion -- you can share the terror with fellow travellers. The country is gorgeous and the Cloud Forest and volcano trip certainly are a better choice than San Jose. My parents stopped in CR on a Panama Canal cruise. They took an excursion trip to a coffee plantation, where they were served a remarkable sounding "barbeque" with the most tender steaks in the world. The people are WONDERFUL.

I just got back from a 2-week trip in Costa Rica. You might get more responses if you post this question in the Latin America section of the forum. I would definitely recommend doing the volcano and cloud forest tour rather than San Jose. Costa Rica's beauty is in its natural wonders, not its cities. You will be amazed at the beauty of the countryside, the plants, and the wildlife. It is probably worth going with a tour because getting around is not easy -- as previously mentioned, the roads aren't great and they're not well-marked either. We did have several taxi drivers who did not speak English. Everyone is extremely nice though and our whole trip was absolutely fantastic. We did not go to Poas volcano but did go to another one (Arenal) and I think it is a remarkable experience. The cloud forest will be interesting too. You may want to bring a sweater or jacket as the interior of the country tends to be cooler than the Pacific coast, especially at the higher elevations, and particularly if it is damp out. We stopped in Sarchi on our next-to-last day for shopping. While you can get some good deals there on wooden bowls and things (particularly rosewood and guapinol), it is a real tourist trap and I would not want to spend a whole lot of time there. The best buy in Costa Rica is COFFEE but you can get a much better deal at any grocery store than you can at the specialty tourist stores. We bought Cafe Britt whole bean coffee and brought it home and it is absolutely delicious.

just got back from rccl vision cruise from acapulco to san juan. as an aside, food was a real disappointment, and it rained almost constantly from entering the canal to san juan (raining in curacao, aruba/10 inches day before we arrived, st. thomas)...we went on poas volcano excursion from ship in puntareas (sp). of course, they had never had weather such as we encountered (40 degrees, raining like crazy, 30 mph winds)...we walked up to the volcano (3/4 mile walk up path), saw nothing, walked back to visitor's lodge and bought the video!!!! go on the excursion to river tour or volcano or coffee plantation or sarchi. our tablemates went to san jose, long trip with little redeeming value, was their quote. however, remember you are in latin american country, and whatever your experiences are, development not up to u.s. standards. the people are wonderful, friendly, and scenery is lush and lovely. sarchi is not all it's written up to be, but then, we only had 30 minutes to stop off of bus and run into shopping mall to look and buy. taxis are expensive. you are going to be there perhaps 12 hours, so go on a nature tour, forget san jose (perhaps going back for longer stay in costa rica later), and explore the port city. <BR>we had 3 hours after our return to venture out into puntareas for shopping, a beer and they had a place to hook up to the internet for $1 each 10 minutes, to check your e-mail or send a picture home!!! language is a little bit of a problem if you are not fluent in spanish with taxis, and some roads are in disarray. plan on going back for a more in-depth visit of country, it is lovely and worth the time to get there. <BR>hope this helps.

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(Don't know what happened there - it just posted without me telling it to!) <BR> <BR>I would go with the tour in Costa Rica. We took a nature hike in a park and it was fantastic. Nature is the thing to see in beautiful Costa Rica, in my opinion. People on our cruise who went to San Jose were generally disappointed. <BR> <BR>If you have time, stop in at the market at Puerto Caldera where you can buy funky recycled paper notepads like "cigar paper" and "banana paper", toucan whistles, painted feathers and coffee. <BR>

Take the tour to Volcano Poas, etc. and pray for a sunny day. Be forewarned that the volcano is under cloud cover most of the time. It it clears, it won't do for for more than 10 minutes or so. It tends to clear more in the afternoon than the morning. <BR> <BR>Sarchi has wonderful hand-painted ox carts in all sizes. At home, they can be used as liquor cabinets, sewing cabinets or many other things. They'll ship for you. Britt coffee is also good. Get the whole beans and grind your own at home. Get the red bag. The beans in the green bags are picked earlier and therefore produce a bitter coffee. <BR> <BR>Although we often design our own tours, Costa Rica is not the place to do this. The roads are terrible and most of the populations speaks Spanish only. Take the ship's tour. <BR> <BR>Souvenirs at the port are neat. I got a wonderful wooden wind chime. <BR> <BR>Although San Jose has a lot to offer, it's quite a distance from Puerto Caldera over nasty roads. It makes for an awfully long day. Also, if you call there on a Sunday, the gold museum is closed, as are many other things. It's a very devoutly Catholic country and lots of places close on Sundays. <BR> <BR>That said, the Sarchi trip includes a stop at a town whose name I can't remember but one that boasts an all-metal church. If it's a Sunday, go in during the service and sit or stand in the back for a minute or two. It's very impressive.