Day 1: Fly from UK to San Jose
Depart from London Heathrow this morning on a direct flight with British Airways to San Jose.
On arrival into San Jose, get through passport control, security and collect your bags before meeting your driver in the arrival’s hall. They will take you via private vehicle to your first accommodation.
Please Note – Airline and flight timings may change depending on desired travel dates
Overnight: Finca Rosa Blanca Hotel | Meals: –
Day 2: Travel to Manuel Antonio National Park
Enjoy breakfast at the hotel before meeting your driver in the hotels lobby after checking out. Travel onwards via private vehicle to your next stop, Manuel Antonio.
Overnight: Parador Nature Resort & Spa | Meals: B
Day 3: Manuel Antonio National Park Tour
After being picked up from your hotel once you’ve had breakfast, you will be walking through the rainforest along 1.5km of easy-access trails in an estimated time of 3 hours. The experienced naturalist guide is equipped with a high-powered spotting scope, which will help you to observe the abundant flora and fauna in their natural habitat. The flora present in this park is amazing, and it includes primary and secondary rainforest trees, tropical flowers, and orchids that serve as home to hundreds of wildlife including Howler, white-faced, and Titi monkeys, iguanas, colorful birds like toucans, sloths, raccoons, white-tailed deer, little crabs, and Agutis.
The trail ends in a paradisiacal beach where you will have leisure time to rest and enjoy its pristine waters, but also, it is highly recommended to take the hidden trail that will lead you to Punta Catedral, a secret lookout point that promises to captivate your senses with the spectacular ocean view.
Overnight: Parador Nature Resort & Spa | Meals: B
Day 4: Free Day
Today you are free to spend the day as you please. Relax at the resort and enjoy the facilities or head out on another trip to explore the National Park further. We can help assist with booking something or the hotel concierge can also arrange last minute excursions too.
Overnight: Parador Nature Resort & Spa | Meals: B
Day 5: Travel to Monteverde
Today you’ll be checking out of your accommodation at the National Park and travelling onto Monteverde with your driver.
Monteverde is known as the adventure capital, so get ready for an incredible few days of fun!
Overnight: Fonda Vela Boutique Hotel | Meals: B
Day 6: Half Day Sky Tour
The day starts with being picked up from your hotel and transferred to Sky Adventures Monteverde Park. This cloud forest sits located in an altitude between 1200m and 1750m above sea level.
The Sky Walk combines 2.5km of beautiful trails on the ground with 6 suspension bridges that rise above with distances up to 236m and heights of up to 70m to explore the treetops fully. During the 2 hours eco-tourist walk, a professional guide will provide you with facts about the ecosystem of the canopy and make stops along the way to point out relevant species of plants and animals.
The trip continues with the Sky Tram, the 15-minute ride on the Gondolas head through the cloud forest and at the top offer endless views of the mountainous assent. Once at the top you can experience the ziplines. The Sky Trek consists of 7 cables from platform to platform above the forest canopy, with a combined distance of 3km, and you can reach speeds of up to 70km/h.
To finish the tour, you can partake in the Vertigo Drop, there you will jump 25 metres off a podium, the first 12 metres will feel like a bungee as you will be in free fall and then the remaining 13 metres you will be slowly coming back down to the ground.
Once you are all adventure’d out, head back to the hotel for the rest of the day at leisure.
Overnight: Fonda Vela Boutique Hotel | Meals: B
Day 7: Bosque Eterno de los Ninos Tour and Travel to Arenal
You’ll be picked up after checking out of your hotel and within 10 minutes, you will arrive at Bajo del Tigre Station, where a professional naturalist guide, will lead you in a 2.5 hours hike throughout lush canopy, while hazy mist curls around trailing foliage, adding a sense of surrealism. This reserve offers a variety of trails and has several characteristics that make it unique including one viewpoint where you will enjoy the fresh air of the area.
The cloud forest is famous for its epiphytes, ferns, wild fruits, flowers, lichens and mosses that grow on the surface tree trunks, branches and even around dangling roots. These plants not only support other organisms, but they are also an important food source for a vast array of life including insects, reptiles, amphibians, and many birds like toucans, bellbirds and the gorgeous ever-fascinating quetzal that roaming free in the forest. Although they are harder to spot, there are important mammals that reside here like monkeys, jaguars and sloths.
After you’ve finished exploring, hop into your vehicle and travel to Arenal for your next stay.
Overnight: Arenal Kioro Suites & Spa Hotel | Meals: B
Day 8: Arenal Volcano National Park Hike
At the arranged time, a professional naturalistic guide will be waiting for you at the lobby of your selected hotel and transfer you in a comfortable, air-conditioned vehicle for an average of 20-40 minutes to the Arenal Lake Dam, where a boat will lead you to the other side of the lake in a short boat ride of 15 minutes.
You will arrive to the entrance of “La Península area”, one of the most recent national park trails, where you will hike for around one hour enjoying amazing views of the Arenal Lake and fantastic lookouts. The tour continues to another section of the national park known as “Coladas Trail” one of the areas destroyed by the lava flows but now it has been entered into a regeneration process of the forest allowing you the possibility to observe the wildlife that hides among the vegetation. The tour guide will share with you important information about the geology, the volcano history and nature around you. Within the trails, you will observe the wide variety of flora and fauna existing in the area. This tour will simply amaze you!
Overnight: Arenal Kioro Suites & Spa Hotel | Meals: B
Days 9: Peñas Blancas Safari Boat Tour
Following a short 30-minute ride from your selected hotel, you will arrive at the river, where the guide will provide you with a safety briefing, life vest fitting and a paddle. The tour takes place on an inflatable whitewater rafting boat, but don´t worry, you don´t have to be an expert as the river flows at a good enough speed to push you along and the paddles are mostly used for steering or to get across the river for a better vantage point to see wildlife.
Once in the river, just sit-down, paddle quietly, enjoy the sights and the sounds of the rainforest, and experience its serenity through the calm waters. During the two-hour expedition on the river, the assistance of a professional bilingual tourist guide will be essential, sharing important information with you regarding the different kinds of animals, plants and environmental surroundings that you will observe during this safari. The Peñas Blancas River corridor is home to many species of wildlife. Animals like sloths, monkeys, toucans, crocodiles, iguanas and river turtles might cross your way, including seeing the colourful world of tropical birds. While we cannot guaranty you will see all of them, the odds are good as they are around.
At the end of the river expedition, you will board again the tourist transportation and on route to your selected hotel, there will be a brief stop to learn about coffee, cacao and sugar from sugarcane. As well as the importance of these crops for Costa Rica development, followed by a typical snack and tasting of the final meals from these plants.
Overnight: Arenal Kioro Suites & Spa Hotel | Meals: B
Day 10: Travel to Tamarindo
Meet your driver and be transferred over to the final stop on your trip, Tamarindo.
Overnight: Tamarindo Diria | Meals: B
Days 11-12: Free Days
Make the most of your incredible hotel and the free time you have in Tamarindo. Explore this incredible area and all it has to offer, or kick back, relax and unwind using the hotels facilities and dining on incredible food.
Overnight: Tamarindo Diria | Meals: B
Day 13: Fly back to the UK.
Time to go home. Early this morning you’ll be collected for a transfer to Liberia Airport and from here you’ll catch your flight back to the UK via San Jose.
Please Note – Airline and flight timings may change depending on desired travel dates
Overnight: Aboard your flight
Day 14: Land back into the UK
