Hello everyone. I would like to hear experiences on booking hotels, transportation and tours in CR. I'm not sure if I should go through a travel agent or if I can get the same results by contacting each hotel Etc individually. I noticed when I booked with Peace Lodge that it was a lot different from any place else that I have traveled. Most places you can input CC info into a system bu with them I needed either fax or email information. Has anyone had any problems with this method? Just figuring out what my next step is. Thanks

I've always booked my own hotels without problem. I imagine with Peace Lodge you might have been deferred to CentralAmerica.com for reservations (at least we were) and they do have a different process.

You will find some hotels ask for your passport number, some will require a deposit (depending on where you're staying this might even require mailing a check), others will simply hold the reservation with a credit card.

You should be fine booking on your own.

Most people just book everything themselves. The hotels will usually ask you to fax them the information they request. We always use our hotels to book our drivers for us, and we just book our tours when we get there - hotels can help with that as well.

Thanks very much. I guess I can get busy booking places then. Did you book tours through the hotels as well?

Yes, we booked our tours through the hotel; you can book directly with them if you want, but going through the hotel makes it easy. If there's something in particular that you don't want to miss, you might book it ahead in case it fills up.

Since you'll be on your honeymoon you might not want to fuss with booking tours on your own and let the hotel do it for you.

You can do it yourself though. I've booked almost all our tours around CR on my own after researching and figuring out which company I wanted to go with. Same with transportation.

Many of the hotels work with specific companies they may push on you, so it's good to have advice from Fodorites also just so you know you have choices.

I highly recommend Pat Hewitt. He made all our arrangements and we were extremely happy! You can find his email on this thread.