My husband I and came to Costa Rica on our honeymoon from July 20-25th, 2009 and had a great time. We did a bunch of research on the area and looked online and heard good reviews about Avispas tours so decided to book a trip with them. We are from Wisconsin and don't know Spanish that well, so were happy that Mario, our guide, was such a great translator for us along the way. We got taken care of pretty well--we even had someone pick us up from the airport the day we got there and dropped us off at our hotel and again dropped us off at the airport the day we left at 6am. And of course the van was always stocked with delicious Costa Rican munchies and drinks.
We did the Miravalles Volcano Adventure the second day we were in Costa Rica. In the end, it was just me, my husband, our own tour guide, Mario, and our personal driver, Carlos. It really was more personalized to what we wanted to do..The Mega Adventure was a whole day of fun--we went on a zipline canopy tour, which was my favorite part. For this part, we had Mario as our translator and guide as well as two other zipline specialists who assisted us. It was our first time doing this, so we were a little scared at first, but by the end we were even ziplining "Superman style"! Next we stopped for lunch at this excellent restaurant...we liked the salsa for the rice so much that Mario showed us a store that sold it and we took a little side-trip. After that we went horseback riding to the rainforest and then hiked with a new guide. On the whole hike, we were again the only people there. Beautiful waterfalls, trees and vines were everywhere. Next we rode our horses back, then went to this volcano area and ended up in a mudbath and then a natural hot springs. Mario brought us Costa Rican wine to enjoy as a treat in here. It was a busy day, but defintaly worth our money! We stopped at an ATM on the way back to the hotel. After we were dropped off, I noticed I lost my wallet! I called Amy in a panic and they cleaned out their car and Mario even went back to the market where we were last and asked around and looked for it. Luckily in the end another American had found it in the street where we got out at our resort (was I relieved!), but I was still very impressed with everyone's help at Avispas Tours.
At our hotel we saw a few buses come by with other travel agencies, but there were always about 50 people on the tours and maybe one guide...and from what I heard cost more for seeing less. Like I said, we only booked this one day trip and wanted to keep our options open, but after we had so much fun, we booked a second trip going on the river boat tour. Carlos and Mario picked us up from our hotel and on the way we saw some howler monkies and some crazy, huge catillars--so they pulled over so we could take some pictures. Again, on this trip were only my husband and I, so it was very personalized. There were other people besides us going on the tour, so since they were 25 minutes behind schedule, the boat guide took us on our own mini-boat tour for a half hour while we waited. The other boat guides did not speak English, or at least not much, so we were very happy that we had Mario with us. He was very good at identifying the animals and telling us more informaiton about all of them. We saw alligators, white-faced monkeys, howler monkeys, all kinds of lizards, all kinds of birds, and much more. It was another great tour I would recommend. We also stopped for lunch on the way back at a traditional Costa Rican restaurant. We had a great time and I know if we go back around the area we would defintely pick Avispas Adventure Tours again. Both tours were very personalized and unique...we had a great time! PURA VIDA!
Maureen & Tom
We did the Miravalles Volcano Adventure the second day we were in Costa Rica. In the end, it was just me, my husband, our own tour guide, Mario, and our personal driver, Carlos. It really was more personalized to what we wanted to do..The Mega Adventure was a whole day of fun--we went on a zipline canopy tour, which was my favorite part. For this part, we had Mario as our translator and guide as well as two other zipline specialists who assisted us. It was our first time doing this, so we were a little scared at first, but by the end we were even ziplining "Superman style"! Next we stopped for lunch at this excellent restaurant...we liked the salsa for the rice so much that Mario showed us a store that sold it and we took a little side-trip. After that we went horseback riding to the rainforest and then hiked with a new guide. On the whole hike, we were again the only people there. Beautiful waterfalls, trees and vines were everywhere. Next we rode our horses back, then went to this volcano area and ended up in a mudbath and then a natural hot springs. Mario brought us Costa Rican wine to enjoy as a treat in here. It was a busy day, but defintaly worth our money! We stopped at an ATM on the way back to the hotel. After we were dropped off, I noticed I lost my wallet! I called Amy in a panic and they cleaned out their car and Mario even went back to the market where we were last and asked around and looked for it. Luckily in the end another American had found it in the street where we got out at our resort (was I relieved!), but I was still very impressed with everyone's help at Avispas Tours.
At our hotel we saw a few buses come by with other travel agencies, but there were always about 50 people on the tours and maybe one guide...and from what I heard cost more for seeing less. Like I said, we only booked this one day trip and wanted to keep our options open, but after we had so much fun, we booked a second trip going on the river boat tour. Carlos and Mario picked us up from our hotel and on the way we saw some howler monkies and some crazy, huge catillars--so they pulled over so we could take some pictures. Again, on this trip were only my husband and I, so it was very personalized. There were other people besides us going on the tour, so since they were 25 minutes behind schedule, the boat guide took us on our own mini-boat tour for a half hour while we waited. The other boat guides did not speak English, or at least not much, so we were very happy that we had Mario with us. He was very good at identifying the animals and telling us more informaiton about all of them. We saw alligators, white-faced monkeys, howler monkeys, all kinds of lizards, all kinds of birds, and much more. It was another great tour I would recommend. We also stopped for lunch on the way back at a traditional Costa Rican restaurant. We had a great time and I know if we go back around the area we would defintely pick Avispas Adventure Tours again. Both tours were very personalized and unique...we had a great time! PURA VIDA!
Maureen & Tom
Comments