roann

We want to take 10-14 days April maybe Costa Rica. I ran across this tour service and hubby says only if I get good reviews from all of you!
Your reviews of Aruba sent us there for 2 weeks and it was truly wonderful!
I like the idea of going all over. They offer this!

Thanks!
Kev & Ro

Day 1 – San José, Costa Rica
Welcome to the “rich coast,” friendly land of democracy and rare natural beauty. With naturalist guides, see exotic birds and wildlife, hike in jungle rainforests, view volcanoes, soak in hot springs and cruise through biological reserves. Relax on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Caravan provides transfers from the San José airport to your San José hotel. Rooms are available for check in after 3:00 p.m. Dine at your hotel, then join Caravan for an 8:00 p.m. welcome briefing D

Day 2 – Poás Volcano, San José City Tour
After breakfast, see the statue of the drummer boy, Costa Rica’s hero. Next, weather permitting, visit Poas Volcano, dormant since 1991. You can safely view this dramatic milewide crater from an overlook. Enjoy lunch. Next, see San José’s Plaza de la Cultura, Central Park and the National Theatre. Visit the National Museum (closed on Mondays). Enjoy dinner. BLD

Day 3 – Rainforest Aerial Tram
Scenic morning drive through Braulio Carrillo Park. Look for cascading waterfalls. Next, a thrilling adventure into the heart of the rainforest. Glide through the jungle canopy on the world famous rainforest aerial tram, rated one of Costa Rica’s top tourist attractions. Then, with a naturalist guide, enjoy a short rainforest hike on level terrain. Enjoy lunch. Then cruise through rivers and canals to the 47,000 acre Tortuguero Park. Tortuguero is home to more than 300 species of birds. Look for toucans, kingfishers, parrots and the rare green macaw. Enjoy a two night stay at your lodge. After dinner in Tortuguero, a naturalist talks about the rainforest. BLD

Day 4 – Tortuguero Park, Canal Cruise
Cruise this morning with naturalist guides along canals lined by raffia palm, habitat of howler and white-faced monkeys, green iguanas and tropical birds. Look for white and snowy egrets and the amazing nests of the montezuma oropendola. Then, enter the mysterious reflecting waters of Caño Palma wildlife reserve. Next, visit the Green Turtle Research Station. Learn about efforts to protect the turtle’s nesting habitat, eggs and young hatchlings. Walk along the Atlantic turtle nesting beaches with a naturalist guide. Next, to Tortuguero village. Meet Costa Rican school children on your visit to a local school (when in session). Return to your lodge for lunch. Free time to enjoy your lodge’s swimming pool and tropical flower gardens. Visit a butterfly garden. See colorful butterflies. Enjoy an afternoon boat excursion into Tortuguero Park. Look for otters, turtles and manatees. Dinner. BLD

Day 5 – San Carlos Valley, Fortuna
Morning cruise on Tortuguero River. See a banana plantation. Lunch, then a brief stop at Selva Verde Rainforest Reserve. Here you can walk the nearly 300 foot long suspension bridge over a jungle river. Next, through scenic countryside to the San Carlos Valley for a two night stay in Fortuna. Dinner. BLD

Day 6 – Caño Negro, Hot Springs, Arenal
Head north this morning, passing through sugar cane, teak and orange plantations. Then, cruise on the Rio Frio through the world famous Caño Negro wildlife refuge, home to many migratory birds found nowhere else in Costa Rica. Look for whistling ducks, cormorants, anhingas, blue heron, roseate spoonbills, and northern jacanas. Watch for caimans, crocodiles, spider monkeys and web-footed water-walking lizards. Enjoy lunch. Return to Fortuna. Free time to explore the charming village of Fortuna. Then enjoy a relaxing soak in the volcanic hot springs.Weather permitting, see nearby Arenal Volcano’s softly glowing lava flow. Dinner at your hotel. BLD

Day 7 – Cloud Forest Hike, Jaco
This morning drive by the Children’s Eternal Rainforest, part of the Monteverde cloud forest region. The Children’s Rainforest was purchased with donations from school children around the world to be preserved forever. Next, enter a cloud forest reserve, home to epiphytes, orchids, ferns and tropical birds, for a guided walk. Cloud forests are like rainforests, but with less rain and more humidity. Look for many species of hummingbirds in the feeding gallery. Lunch at a cloud forest restaurant. Then, to Jaco on the Pacific Ocean for a two night stay. Dinner is at your resort. This evening you may wish to explore the shops along Jaco’s lively main street. BLD

Day 8 – Jaco, Manuel Antonio
Visit Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica’s most beautiful park, this morning. Time to beachcomb or swim at the three pristine beaches, rated among the top ten in the world. Easy hiking trails wind through the jungle, home to one of the last natural habitats of the playful rare squirrel monkey. Enjoy lunch. Afternoon at leisure to enjoy your resort. Dinner in Jaco. BLD

Day 9 – Carara Reserve, Coffee Plantation
Morning photostop overlooking the Carara Biological Reserve. Carara is an Indian word meaning “river of crocodiles.” This tropical bird and wildlife sanctuary is one of the world’s few nesting places for the scarlet macaw. Look for toucans and trogons. Lunch. Afternoon visit to Sarchi, see the painted ox carts and colorful handicrafts. Next, see the metallic church of Grecia. Then, visit a coffee plantation. Pick a few beans when in season. Sample fresh Costa Rican coffee and learn about the history of the coffee bean. Return to San José. Farewell dinner. BLD

Day 10 – San José
Your tour ends after breakfast this morning at your San José hotel. Caravan provides transfers throughout the day to the San José airport. Thanks for vacationing with Caravan. ¡Hasta la vista! B

raderbarbarian

This tour in inexpensive for good reason - because it's CHEAP! Too much traveling in too short a period of time. You'll spend most of your time inside a bus with a herd of up to 40 other tourists (read the fine print), with an occasional stop where you'll be herded like cattle in and out ("keep moving please!&quot and then back onto the bus for some more driving.

They make it sound like you get to see so much - yeah, right, from a bus window maybe. Previously I've examine this tour closely because some friends were considering it, and I came to the conclusion that it would be preferable to just buy a vacation video titled "Whirlwind in Costa Rica."

dhuszai

Roann - We, too, considered taking this trip, but didn't want to be with a lot of people and also wanted to be able to choose where to stay. I also didn't want to see the country from a bus window. I want to be able to stop where and when I like and spend as much time as I want. The price was great, but we have decided to do it on our own and really are enjoying putting the trip together (at least I am - hubby is going along with what I say). Spending some time in this forum is informative/educational. Even though we haven't gone yet (May 2006), I think we made the correct decision to do it on our own...with the help of this forum, of course.

tully

I would pass, personally. And Jaco isn't the type of place I'd want to eat up a couple days of my time anyway. CR just isn't the place to do the worldwind type tour. Get a guidebook, determine what places interest you and you could put together a comparably priced vacay that would give you so much more in return. JMO

sandyc

I agree that there's too much driving here. You'll have very little time to enjoy any of the places. I organize group tours to CR, and they are a lot of fun and you have no worries, but we only stay at two places in 7 days, then the last night near San Jose. Even when I've gone to three places it's been too busy.

Pura Vida,
Sandy

dcsam

My mom and I will be traveling to CR in July. My mom loves the idea of traveling in a group. But after much deliberation, we decided to do it on our own. I didn't like the hotel choices Caravan offered and I REALLY didn't want to be on a bus with 40 other people and the very good chance of a lot of kids too. Actually, it isn't that much more to do it on your own, and I think the experience will be so much better. We're staying at some very nice places and taking the shuttle van service from place to place.
-3 nights Vista Del Valle
-3 nights Arenal Pariaso
-3 nights Paradisus
-4 nights Villas Nicolas in MA
-1 night Don Carlos
Carrie

crfan

I was interested in your question as my husband and I have booked with Caravan to CR on January 28th.

To be fair, you received responses from people who have never travelled with Caravan (we haven't either) and as such do not seem like the best references.

We visited CR 2 years ago, stayed at an all inclusive resort and did a couple of day trips. We loved the country so much that we really wanted to do what the other people recommended, travel where and when we wanted. We decided to due the bus tour as a way of seeing a variety of places so that the next time we will have a better idea of where we would like to spend more time.

I will be glad to give you my honest opinion when we get back in February.

Guest

We traveled with Caravan to Mexico last Feb. (Mexico's Ancient Civalization Tour)and we were very satisfied with the company. So much so that we are leaving the 14th of this month (jan,) to go to Costa Rica with them. Sure, there are 35-40 on the bus, but everyone behaved and we rotated seats and they did not bother us. We even made new friends. After all, if one sees many sites, one has to get to each one someway. And this tour is by bus.Easier than flying. They stop often and one can enjoy the scenery while the bus is traveling.

This company provides ALL meals and hotels and it's a great bargain!
We have been to over 40 countries so we have several tour companies to compare. Guest, Satisfied with Caravan

sharon_w

We just returned from a Caravan Tour to Costa Rica(Dec 23-Jan 1) and we had a wonderful time as did our twenty something son and daughter. We are very well traveled and have never taken a bus tour before can say without a doubt that we did more and saw more and learned more than we could have on our own. Our guide Wendy was incredibly knowledgeable about birds, insects, vegetation, history, and agriculture. Her mini-lectures on banana plantations, palm oil and coffee production among many,many others were both entertaining and informative making the ride much more pleasant than riding in a car or van. We also found the other travelers to be an interesting mix of well educated, active individuals. I never felt hurried or pressured at any of the many stops. Also Wendy had great insider information about crowds and lines getting us to several attrations ahead of the other cruise and tour passengers. We chose Caravan because the only time we could travel was over Christmas and the hotels we wanted were either too expensive or already booked, but knowing what a wonderful experience it was I would recommend them to anyone!

centsable

Hi:
My Husband & I took the Caravan's Tour Dec 2nd for ten days. We had a great time, met lots of people- 42 on our bus. The hotels and meals were very good and our Tour guide Karina was fun and very knowledgable. The most exciting time on our trip was the days we spent at Tortuguero. We did spend some time on the bus, but we always stopped after a few hours for a tour, or a break and a snack. The hotel Barcelo Palaico in San Jose and The Ampolla in Jaco Beach was all inclusive- included drinks and all hotels had swimming pools and were very clean and the staff very efficient. I would recommend this tour. From what we saw of the roads, one would not want to rent a car a drive on your own. The only bit of a repeat on the trip was the tour of the Cloud forest as the guide at the rain forest was so knowledgable, he covered many topics.

Bring a flashlight to CR as the power goes out regularly. We also got info from the guides about shopping trips on our own as we arrived 1 day early and stayed an extra day in San Jose.

Good Luck!

Allisonlockwood

Kev & Ro,

If you prefer group travel, I can recommend Overseas Adventure Travel (www.oattravel.com) as they limit their group size to 16 people. They offer two different Costa Rica itineraries. I've traveled with them to China, Thailand, and Peru and was more than satisfied. If you are considering independent travel, we've used Ralph at Gaialink tours for our travel arrangements. They specialize in Costa Rica and their service is excellent. Allison

crfan

Hi,

We are back.

As promised, this is an honest review of our trip with Caravan Tours.

I will probably never take a bus tour again but that has nothing to do with Caravan or our vacation. The other comments are right regarding the scheduled tours and stops, etc. But, our tour guide Jesus was fabulous and the trip was very interesting.

My husband and I are late night people and most times we had to get up by about 6:00 a.m. (sometimes earlier), so that was a bit of a drag. Most of the day tours were optional. The only one we did not go on was the one to Cano Negro, opting instead to explore Fortuna and do a little shopping. In hindsight we missed some of the best wildlife on the trip, oh well. Also at Arenal, though the weather was very clear, we did not have the best view of the eruptions from our hotel. We solved that by calling a taxi and taking a ride with a couple of our new friends to the other side of the volcano. It was the highlight of the trip.

The tour is well scheduled as there is a lot more relaxation time the last few days, just about when you are fed up with seeing another tree, bird, or iguana.

All in all, it was a great time. Just a little hint, get to know the people you are travelling with right away, they made the vacation. We have made friends for years to come.

Pura Vida,

Marie

p.s. It reeaaaallly rains in the rainforest. Bring quick drying clothes. Even the towels in the room were wet when we got ther.

Also do not forget your flashlight, we needed it in a couple of resorts to get to our room or in Tortuguero to go to the beach to get unbelievable pictures of the sunrise.

Trophy98

We returned from the Caravan 10 day tour on February 20, 2006. The above comment regarding comments from people who never tried the tour is on the mark. We searched the internet for comments on Caravan before booking, and found nothing but positive comments, including on boards for travel agents only. Our experience was also very positive - you spend no more time on the bus than you would in a car driving from spot to spot - how else are you going to get there? The hotels were first rate, none were viewed as second class locations, and the meals were all very good to excellent. We enjoy meeting other people, and the size of the tour group gives you a lot of opportunities to find those who are compatible. There was NEVER any rush or hassle moving the group off the bus or into the attractions. The tour received rave reviews from us and everyone else we talked to in the group. If you want to see the "highlights" of Costa Rica in one 10 day trip, this is it. If you want to relax, or tan on the beach, with occassional excursions, this is not it. P.S. The comments on two days at Jaco are true - not a great place (except it was a very nice hotel), but one of the days is a trip to Manuel Antionio, with time to enjoy the beaches.

cindiloowho

After two pretty satisfying trips with Grand Circle, we experienced a bad one, a river trip in April/May. It was not the problems that we encountered that frustrated us, but the indifferent way GCT handled them, and the lack of customer service, response, deception, etc. that made most folks on the tour decide not to travel with them again. Now we are booked to go to Mexico with Caravan, and, so far, have not read anything negative about this company. We are hoping to use them, instead of GCT, for future excursions, even tho they are not,perhaps, so well known. We hope, after reading the above positive posts, that we will enjoy the experience.