Costa Rica Forum: Costa Rica expeditions

We plan to stay at Tortuguero Lodge and Monteverde Lodge in May. We heard many nice things about CRExpeditions. They will not give any discount but we booked our trip thru Nikki(see info at the end) and she managed to get us some discount. In fact she found a lot discount for the whole entire trip. All you have to do is telling her where you want to go which hotel you want to stay. She even found a discount for private transfer, or public transfer. I will report back when I come back from my trip in May. Here the information of her company. We did not pay her anything. We paid the hotels directly.

Nikki

info@puravidaeh.ca

www.puravidaeh.ca

www.costaricadiscounts.com

I don't usually get involved in forums but I used this site in researching our recent trip to Costa Rica. We were so impressed with Costa Rica Expeditions that I would like to add my strong recommendation for this company. We selected them because of the recommendations of friends, comments on this site, the fact that they were Costa Rica-based and a large enough operation to handle unexpected circumstances.

CRE will help to arrange any type of tour, completely guided, partially guided or self-guided. We used them to arrange transportation, lodging and some guide services in Tortuguero, Monteverde and Arenal. You can select your price point depending on what type of accommodations you want. Everything met our expectations and the service was very professional - no snafus. They also arranged transportation from Monteverde to a Pacific coast resort. All trips were in vans with good drivers. The San Jose to Tortuguero leg was in a van with 16 people, the rest were in smaller vans with only two passengers.

We elected not to drive because of reports about the roads in the areas we wanted to visit. Good decision. Although it can certainly be done, many roads are narrow, rutted dirt paths with limited or no signage. Very sporty.

CRE owns two hotels in Tortuguero and Monteverde. Both were excellent and the food quite good. The service was excellent in both hotels. (Tortoga Lodge's menu has only one entree per night but advance arrangements can be made.) Arenal Observatory Lodge is not up to the standards of the other two hotels but has rooms with a direct view of the volcano (when visible).

CRE guides were excellent and had good knowledge of their respective areas for the average person. Advanced birders may wish to travel with specialists.

Each place we visited was memorable and exposed us to different ecosystems and experiences. Be forewarned that Arenal is in a rain forest and the volcano is often obscured. We were lucky to see a daytime and night display but many people come and go without seeing any eruption. Bring rain gear. Also, CRE provided a booklet with safety warnings about the volcano. Some hotels do not appear to be in a very safe location.

I don't think you can go wrong with this company. They have years of experience and good people.

Enjoy, we did.

Hi ColoradoBoxerGirl,

I just wrote about Costa Rica Expeditions on my blog. Please go to …elizabethhansen.net/2010/03/your-bff-in-cos…

Enjoy your trip.

Elizabeth Hansen

La Jolla, California

I know, it's been a while since your trip to CR but can you give me any advise in what to avoid or I should include?

I'm not the youngest and like waterrafting is out for me but any nature activity I would love to see.

Did you use an airplan to avoid lenghty travel on the road? I'm thinking about that because even 14 days is not much time to see the best of CR, right ?

Would it be appropiate to ask how much you spend? Of course only the trip. I'm willing to spend more because it was exhausting for me to do the last trips on my own. Greece and the Galapagos Islands. The last one is a must see !

Thanks if you would take the time to advise me a little.

Camryn

Camryn,

I wrote an earlier response in this thread about how pleased we were with Costa Rica Expeditions. In our experience they did a fantastic job arranging our trip and I suggest you check their web site.

Our trip included one night in San Jose, three nights in Tortuguero, three nights in Arenal and three nights in Monteverde. It included all hotels, transportation, most meals, a guided tour in each location, and a driver from Monteverde to the Pacific coast. The transportation was mostly by air conditioned van (16 people on one leg, just the two of us on the others). We flew one leg of the trip - from Tortuguero to San Jose. The cost was about $2,500 per person.

The service was excellent. Every pick-up was on time, we felt safe with the drivers, the guides were good and everyone we encountered was friendly and helpful. Luggage was also handled well. We had to leave some behind because of limitations in one location.

CRE planned the trip around our wishes. I'd suggest you do some research on Costa Rica and get a general idea of where you want to go before making any tour arrangements. Unfortunately, CRE does not have a toll-free number and it seems a bit impersonal to start the process by filling out a form. However, it works reasonably well. Once an agent contacts you, within a day of submitting the form, you can proceed with discussing where you want to go. The options range from a regular tour (least expensive) to a private guide who accompanies you for the entire trip (most expensive.) We chose the middle option with hotels and transportation prearranged. It worked well for us. Some people we met used CRE for their entire trip, other used the company for a portion of the trip (especially Tortuguero) and picked up a rental car for the rest. If you tell them what your physical abilities are I am sure they can suggest appropriate tours.

CRE owns a lodge in Tortuguero and a hotel in Monteverde. These were both excellent but I think you can stay in other hotels if you choose. I'd recommend going a step up from the standard rooms because you usually get much better accommodations and views for not much extra money.

Good luck. We'd highly recommend CRE for whatever type of trip you want.

Hi,

Your trip are quite similar to us except we added MA into our trip. We also use CRE for the trip to Tortuguero and Monteverde. CRE will not give discount but if you book thru the agent you will normally get 5-10% discount. Same tours same hotels. We booked thru Pura Vida eh. see the address below. Nikki is great.

Pen

info@puravidaeh.ca

www.puravidaeh.ca

www.costaricadiscounts.com

In reference to post number 43 from Auntiepen, I am Michael Kaye, CEO and founder of Costa Rica Expeditions, owner of Tortuga and Monteverde Lodges. It is our firm policy to not discount. The 5% discount we gave Auntiepen was a mistake.

I have gone back through the history and this is how it happened:

Auntiepen contacted us for reservations at our lodges, but never confirmed. Then Nikki called asked for rate sheet with commissions for agents which we sent. Then Nikki emailed us making the reservations for Auntiepen and asking for us to charge Auntiepen’s credit card and subtract half or her 10% commission. Mistakenly the reservationist who handled the booking complied.

We will honor the reservation and the discount for these guests and Nikki’s 5% commission for this time. But we will not continue to work with Nikki or Costa Rica Discounts.

As a purely personal note, I admire Auntiepen’s and Nikki’s initiative. It is just that we are convinced that we should have a firm consistent transparent pricing policy of no discounts. If at any point we decide that we should charge less, we will do it publically and for everybody.

Dear Michael Kaye,

Thank you for your policy information. I thought most of the travel agents earns commission as their income and they can do whatever they wish to their profit. I do not want to cause problems for anybody. I am looking forward to enjoy CR trip next month.

Sincerely yours,

Pen

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