Vacation package
Costa Rica Independent, Eight Days
Eight days split between an upland base and a coast, with private drivers on the transfers rather than a hire car, rooms held in advance and the day trips left to you. Quoted per person for two sharing.
Two bases, not four
The most common way this trip goes wrong is trying to see everything. The distances are short and the driving times are not: sixty miles can take three hours, and four bases in eight days means half your holiday is spent in a vehicle looking at the back of a seat.
So this itinerary moves once. You get three or four whole days in each place, which is the difference between visiting a cloud forest and being in one.
from $1,980 per person, based on two sharing
This is a starting figure for the season shown. The final price is confirmed in writing before anything is booked and depends on your dates, the number travelling and what is available when we ask. How a price is put together.
Why a driver instead of a hire car
We are aware this is the more expensive option, so here is the reasoning rather than the recommendation.
- The roads that matter are unlit, unsigned in places and occasionally unpaved, and the interesting ones are the worst.
- The rental deductible and the mandatory local insurance turn an advertised daily rate into something roughly twice what you expected, at the counter, after a flight.
- A driver on the long transfer will stop where it is worth stopping, which is most of what a self drive day gives you anyway.
If you want to drive, say so and we will quote it properly, with the insurance in the figure rather than under it.
| What you do each day | Book ahead | Leave until you are there |
|---|---|---|
| Guided walks and night walks | Not usually needed | Yes, the property arranges them |
| Canopy and adventure operators | Worth it in high season | Otherwise fine on the day |
| Boat and estuary trips | Yes, the good early ones fill | The middle of the day is always available |
| Anything on a fixed date, such as a turtle season tour | Yes, months ahead | Never |
What we will not tell you
That you will see a particular animal. Anybody promising a sloth on day two is promising weather. The guides here are extraordinary and the odds are good, which is a different sentence and the only one we will put in writing.
The six questions, answered
| Where and how long | Eight days across two bases, typically three or four nights in the highlands or cloud forest and three or four on a coast, with a long transfer between them. Two bases in eight days rather than three, because the roads here make a third base cost you a day. |
|---|---|
| What kind of trip | Independent, with transfers driven for you. There is no guide and no group. The activities, which are the reason people come, are booked locally or in advance as you prefer, and we will say which ones sell out. |
| What is included | Round trip flights from Boise, seven nights across two properties with breakfast, private transfers between the airport and each base and between the bases, and a written itinerary with addresses, driver arrangements, times and reference numbers. |
| What is not included | Meals other than breakfast. Every activity: the guided walks, the canopy, the rafting, the boat trips. National park entries. Travel insurance. Any tips for drivers and guides, which are customary and which we will name the usual amount for. |
| When it makes sense, and when it does not | It makes sense from December to April, the dry season on most of the country. It makes a cheaper and greener kind of sense in May, June and November, when it rains in the afternoon and stops. It does not make sense in September and October on the Caribbean side, which is the wettest part of the year there. |
| What is settled when we confirm | Both properties by name and location, the transfer arrangements with driving times written honestly rather than optimistically, what is included at each property, the total for your party, the deposit and balance dates, and the cancellation terms for each element. |