Excursion recommendations, Puntarenas and Puerto Chiapas

We are seeking recommendations for private operator excursions in Puntarenas, Costa Rica and Puerto Chiapas, Mexico, for a family group of four, hopefully in van or mini-van type of vehicle. (can accept up to 8 or 12 passengers, sharing, but NOT interested in large 40 passenger bus-type vehicle). Would like to hear about the experiences, destinations, approximate cost, and reliability of the operator (if possible).

NOTE: Prior to making this post, I reviewed the "Tour Guide Recommendations" section of the CC Community Rules and this type of post appears to be allowed.

...VTX-Al

Have you posted this query on your Cruise Critic Roll Call for your specific sailing? Others on your cruise may have the contacts you require.

Have you posted this query on your Cruise Critic Roll Call for your specific sailing? Others on your cruise may have the contacts you require.

Well, that's not a bad idea, if I was only seeking recommendations from folks on the same cruise as us, however, many other cruises also hit one or both of those ports. Hence, the general question.

...VTX-Al

We are seeking recommendations for private operator excursions in Puntarenas, Costa Rica and Puerto Chiapas, Mexico, for a family group of four, hopefully in van or mini-van type of vehicle. (can accept up to 8 or 12 passengers, sharing, but NOT interested in large 40 passenger bus-type vehicle). Would like to hear about the experiences, destinations, approximate cost, and reliability of the operator (if possible).

NOTE: Prior to making this post, I reviewed the "Tour Guide Recommendations" section of the CC Community Rules and this type of post appears to be allowed.

 

...VTX-Al

We booked a tour with Tiquicia Tours for Puntarenas and it was lovely! Greivin is the boss who organized everything via email and even met us at the pier before sending us off with his driver guide Pablo. We are a family of 2 adults and took a 5 hour tour with Pablo in a minivan for $80 each. We went to a family's homestead where they have trees full of capuchin monkeys that will come down and climb across your arms. The family supplied fruit and cookies and the monkeys ate out of our hands. Then we were driven to a crocodile riverboat tour where the boat driver got out at various stops and used chicken meat to entice the crocodiles to come up to him. We stopped at some super exclusive hotel that only has eight rooms because it offers a great panoramic view of the city. We drove through a neighborhood at one point in hopes of seeing Macaws but they weren't out. By this time we were spent so we turned down Pablo's offer to drive through some small town and he drove us back to the ship. One of the other things they offered was walking across some suspension bridges but we weren't interested in that much physicality.

We were in Puntarenas, Costa Rica in October on a Panama Canal cruise and did a tour with Ricky Riccardo Tours. This a link to my review on Trip Advisor https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g309287-d4091830-r435957500-Ricky_Ricardo_Tours_and_Travels-Punta_Arenas_Province_of_Puntarenas.html#REVIEWS. I planned with our ship's Roll Call and got a group of people to go with my husband and me. It was a very good overview of Costa Rica for a day.

I arranged a small group tour, Gio Tours Costa Rica 8 in 1. which ended up being 23 people, 17 in one microbus and 6 in a big van. Similar stops as RRFPresident mentioned and ours included a nice typical Costa Rican lunch. Cost was $69 pp and we were offered 10th and 20th person free which we spread over the whole group, so ended up paying 63 each. I posted a review of our tour on Trip Advisor. Can highly recommend this tour, and they will do it with a very small group.

We didnt do a tour in Puerto Chiapas, some of our CC group did a tour to some nearby ruins which they though was OK but they didnt rave about it.

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