La Paz Waterfall Gardens & Wildlife Refuge day tour from San Jose

Mr. Filander was an outstanding guide. He was very knowledgeable and was able to answer every question I had. He was personable and helpful with a winning personality. The tour was everything that was described and more. I would highly recommend it. It was also a great value.

The organization of the trip was a bit hap hazard. The driver did not speak any English and we went all over San Jose from one end to another to pick up people. He also had to stop at a gas station to put more air in a tire. Halfway up the mountain we pulled into a parking lot in front of a store. He motioned for us to go to the store and look around. We didn’t know why but we’re finally able to figure out that we were to be transferred to another vehicle for the remainder of the trip. He could not say when that would happen. We waited over an hour before the second vehicle arrived. The rest of the trip went smoothly. The guide Donald was really good and full of information. Going back to San Jose took half the time it had taken to get up there. However, the water falls made up for the colossal waste of time and lack of communication. I still would recommend the tour.

La Paz was a tropical plant feast for the eyes. Every turn on the path was another breathtaking view. Love the area.

The tour was doomed from the beginning, our tour guide arrived 30 minutes late. When he finally showed up he spent 5 minutes explaining why he was late, and another 5 on the phone, instead of just getting a move on to get our tour started. We weren't angry at this point, in fact he was very chatty seemed pretty nice. However upon arrival to the wildlife refuge he spent an incredibly long time talking and talking and talking repeating the same things over and over again, when we just really wanted to get the tour started. He doesn't seem to know how to read people as we were clearly annoyed and our 4 year old was clearly impatient begging to get started. The tour guide is extremely repetitive and just likes to hear himself talk. We completed the tour on our own, and he was supposed to be waiting for us in the parking area to take us home once the activities were completed. However, we waited and waited and he was nowhere to be found. Finally we asked one of the parking lot attendants and found out he was "eating lunch at the buffet". So we waited for 30 minutes and nothing, and we decided to have the front desk staff page the restaurant staff to tell him we were waiting for him. So the front desk very kindly did that for us. Well, it appears he must've really taken his sweet time to finish lunch, we waited another 20 minutes and finally he turned up. We waited 50 minutes for him to eat lunch and finally decide to take PAYING customers back to their hotel. Furthermore, he kept pushing other activities for that day onto us the entire time we were in the car with him. This made me incredibly uncomfortable. On top of that he is so terrible at reading people my 4 year old was exhausted I was exhausted and we just wanted to sleep on the way back to the hotel, well every time I'd close my eyes he'd loudly tell me something that he had already mentioned on the way up. The actual wildlife refuge and waterfalls were spectacular and tons of fun!

I really like the place but would not recommend to use this tour at all. First we were just killing the time driving around as we were waiting to join another group and then they too k us to the local shop.left hotel 9.20 but did not arrive to la paz before 12.then we were Super rushing to manage all,and since the group we joined started at 7a.m they were complaining when we wanted to take extra pictures.i would recommend to organize your own transport and do it at your own pace!