9-Day Best of Northwest Costa Rica from San Jose: Arenal Volcano National Park, Monteverde Cloud Forest and Guanacaste

No much information between one tour and other. Transportation terrible. hotel terrible not air condition, not TV, and Not Wireless. To much waiting time from activities to activities.

It was an excellent well organized tour. The tour company did not miss a beat, our hotel rooms were booked at every location and tours were timely with pick up. I was traveling with my mother who is 78 years old. They were incredibly respectful of her. Some of the activities were strenuous, and they ensured she was safe every step of the way. Good: We chose the 4 star option hotel package and the hotels were very nice. The tours were well done and the guides were friendly, knowledgeable and courteous. Advice: Be ready for long, bumpy van rides. The roads are rough and everything is spaced apart. In Monteverde you will do the sky walk tour, there are actually 3 things that you can do in the Reserve the sky walk, sky tram and zip lining. The sky walk is 2 hours and it is an active walk. I wished we would have done the zip lining at our own expense. People raved about it and how safe it was, and the sky tram was included with zip lining. The bad though not bad enough to reduce the rating: In Guanacaste we stayed at Cala Luna Hotel, elegant hotel and the food was incredible. Access to beach swimming was disappointing. The beach was close, however there was nowhere to swim unless you hiked. The Vida Aventura Nature Park tour, they could not do the tour on the day offered and we were lucky to have a free day and switched the tour. I had mixed feelings about this tour. There was no warning that it was going to be a 3 hour van ride each way we went through Liberia. Although fun, the zip lining did not seem all that safe and the trails to some of the lines were tough. The horse riding was great and very adventurous. The electricity was out so they could not fill the pools, so we drove to another hot springs location and it was a total let down. It was just pools in the direct sun that might have been natural water, but looked just like a pool with chlorine. So due to circumstances beyond their control we did not experience their hot springs or mud bath.

Excellent trip! Hotel choices, the tours, and trips were all very well planned. The punctuality of tour guides was very impressive. We had a wonderful time and highly recommend it!!

This felt like a bit of a gamble because we had no idea whether would be in a van with 4 well-behaved adults or a bus with 20 obnoxious ones, but it turned out to be the former. Our tour guide was helpful and extremely knowledge. Arenal and Monteverde were great, the beach a bit overly tourist.