Discover Costa Rica – Coastal Edition

I absolutely loved Costa Rica, it is such a special place and it makes you appreciate how wonderful our world can be when we look after it! This trip is quite a busy trip and with long drives at times but it is worth it as you get to see so much of this country and its extraordinary diversity of landscapes. Lots of great scenery, wonderful cloud forests, beaches, countryside and amazing wildlife including sloths, hummingbirds, toucans (and numerous other colourful birds), iguanas, monkeys, tree frogs and the most beautiful butterflies I have ever seen. I loved every place we visited but my favourite has to be Tortuguero nature reserve. The boat trips around its waterways spotting wildlife was definitely one of my highlights.

This is a great trip if you like your wildlife. Make sure you bring the best camera/lens that you have got as you can get some amazing photographs. Having said that there are a few things that could be better: - Tortuguero is famous for its turtles. We didn’t see any even though we went to the beach around dawn both mornings we were there. Subsequently we found out that you can go on a local guide tour overnight, they then liaise with other guides to share where the turtles are (it is a long beach) to give you the best chance of seeing them. You may have to ask about it at the Lodge about booking a guide - Manuel Antonio. Likewise a local guide would help find more of the wildlife here, as they know the area & have the required spotting scopes - Savegre. To see the Quetzal (which is the main reason for going there, & is spectacular) again, you need a local guide to take you to the right area. These can be booked via the hotel Hopefully Exodus will include these local guides/trips going forward as I have shared this feedback with them. We enjoyed the coffee/chocolate tour at La Fortuna, where you get to make your own chocolate (you need to add a lot of sugar otherwise it’s very bitter !) We also did a night trip to see more frogs & other night animals while at Manuel Antonio which was good

Good experience despite the weather that forced us to miss a few highlights.

So much to see and senses were bombarded

We hadn't realised the incredible variety of habitats within Costa Rica, and this trip allowed us to sample them with Johnny, our superb tour leader. Hotels were all good and some were exceptional, particularly Cuna del Angel, where the views from the restaurant were wonderful, and the Savegre Hotel, where the grounds were beautiful. The pace of the trip was good, it was nice to have 2 nights in each hotel. We enjoyed seeing sloths, monkeys, crocodiles and hundreds of birds. The weather was very hot in some places, but the walking was never too fast paced. The cultural experience at the farm was lovely.