Spent a Sunday snorkeling off Tortuga Island with Zuma Tours and it was insanely crowded. The tour itself was fine; the main guide was very friendly despite a rather annoying shtick that he stuck to when pointing out the sites from the boat, and everything ran on time and seemed safe enough (although the boat driver was clearly new). It was all pretty touristy, but it's a touristy area.

The issue came when we got to Tortuga. There were two snorkeling spots, both of which were completely over-run with other boats. Even if the crowd had been thinner, the water isn't particularly clear and there wasn't a whole lot to see.

After less than an hour of unremarkable snorkeling, we pulled up to a beach that would be a remote paradise were it not crawling with school tours, church tours, youth group tours, seniors tours, and every other conceivable tour. There was almost no room on the sand to stretch out, and the water at the beach was filthy from all the boats anchored there.

I don't know what the other snorkeling options are in Montezuma, or if the experience is notably better on weekdays, but I wouldn't recommend it on a weekend.

Snorkeling Tour from Santa Teresa to Isla Tortuga with a stop-over at Montezuma

Overall the trip was amazing. Fast and very splashy boat ride which was super fun. Very friendly crew, ice cold beer and other drinks all day, AMAZING snorkeling spots! The crew also makes sure to stop at certain spots that we wanted to take photos of which I thought was really great!

A few things to improve:

-making sure the tour group leaves on time. we had to wait a good 20 minutes for the rest of the group to get on board and it was a bit frustrating and unfair to those who are paying the same amount and having their tour time cut shorter at the expense of others who are late. Not a good way to start a tour.

-find out what the shoe sizes are upon registration so each guest has the right fitting fins and time isn't wasted looking for fins that fit instead of doing the actual snorkeling :)

-have your crew give a little explanation on safety options and how to snorkel especially for first-timers. I had never been snorkeling before and had no idea that the fins make you float and also wasn't given the option to use a floating device eventhough it was available. It can be quite scary if you don't know what you're doing!

Pura Vida!!!

I am a native Costarrican that lives in Texas, me and my family took the Isla Tortuga tour, it was just and excellent experience. We had the opportunity to see Humpback whales and a pod of dolphins. The snorkeling was great, the tour was handle professionally and with excellent customer service. My only not so positive comment was about the food, which knowing all of the variety we have in our country it was not so great, I think that it could be better.
Besides that, the whole experience was great!!!! Pura Vida!!!

I recently went on a day tour with Zuma Tours. It was so much fun! The crew were friendly and very helpful! They went out of the way to make us comfortable and happy. The boat was spotless and they had plenty of supplies for everyone. The three of us ( from our group) were on the boat with another larger group from another resort which was okay, they were friendly enough. Zuma Tours left from the beach in Montezuma and we went for about a 30 minute boat ride on the way the captain spotted dolphins. We went toward the dolphins and they came right up to the boat and we were able to see them clearly, jumping and playing all around us,that was fantastic and a very special highlight! I have never been that close to dolphins before. Then we went to two beautiful snorkeling areas the first one, we stayed for about an hour and then another one, where one of the divers picked up some starfish to show us and most fascinating of all a huge Puffer fish, which we took many photos of! Next we went on the island to have our lunch, prepared and served by our zuma tours chef, steamed freshly caught Marlin with potatoes and vegetables. Fresh fruit was carved up for us, watermelon, papaya, coconut. Juice, soft drinks and beer were provided all day on the boat and on the beaches. The meal was excellent! Then we had about 40 minutes to wander around and lay on the beach or play volleyball if you wanted. For a special treat we stopped for about 30-40 minutes on the beach of another, what seemed like a deserted island and we swam in the sea. The other group took photos practicing yoga poses on the beach and on the top of an old shipwreck that was on there, one of the crew came over and gave me a beautiful iridescent shell he had just found, which i thought was so sweet! you can really tell they love their job and people! What a fun day! Everything was perfect! I will never forget the great day I had with Zuma Tours and Torotuga Island. Our captain was an Italian , named Ivan! Thanks you to all who made my day so much fun!