giotours vs odessey tours in costa rica please help

Hello

Has anyone had an experience with either of these tour companies? Which one is preferred? It seems their product offering is very similiar

I read on trip advisor odyssey tours has hundreds of good reviews since many years ago and the competitor is new with just a few reviews there, even gio tour name seems to be a copy of odyssey tours, also here on cruise critic you read many many reviews since many years about odyssey tours but not for the second...

make a search here on CC and your best answer will show up.

BTW make sure you spell the names properly for a good search result

We had a tour with Chris (Christian) from Gio Tours two weeks ago. It was wonderful! Chris did a great job, and we really enjoyed our day. We started off visiting the capuchin monkeys and catamundis. We got to hand feed several of the monkeys, including a momma with a small baby on her back. Really cute! The catamundis were cute too. We then went to a local village with some great colonial architecture and observed local children dancing. A very nice show. Then off to the bridge to see the crocs and a stop at the fruit stand. Great smoothies to enjoy while walking on the bridge to see the crocs. Really cool. Then we did a river cruise to see the crocs closer up, as well as plenty of bird life and the super fun Jesus Christ lizards. The cruise was the highlight of a great day. Then lunch which was very tasty and a nice time to relax and use the free wifi. All in all, a wonderful day with Chris from Gio Tours.

We took a private day tour of Puntarenas and other sites with "Odyssey Tours" during our visit to Costa Rica in April 2014.

The tour included the Carara park, the Santa Lucia village, Orotina, and the beach at Punta Leona. Great opportunity to see some of the wildlife of Costa Rica including the crocodiles in the Rio de Cocodrilos, monkeys and iguanas and a few red macaws,

A great tour. Highly recommend.

We made arrangements and hired GioTours for our day trip in Costa Rica off of the cruise ship. Giancarlos was waiting for us on the pier the morning our ship arrived in Puntarenas and got us settled into our (air conditioned) 8 passenger van with a guide – Jesus and driver – Eduardo.

We started out with a trip to an area where we were able to feed the monkeys as they climbed up and over us. Totally amazing experience! Then we drove on to a stop at a fruit stand/roadside store. The smoothies and fruit were incredible. Then we continued down the road for a Crocodile Tour with Jose’s Crocodile River Tour. This was another fantastic 1 ½ hour tour. Jose was an amazing tour guide and did his best to ensure that we saw lots of birds, crocodiles of various sizes from babies, to teenagers and then an encounter with an enormous crocodile, and mangrove crabs.

After this tour, we were driven out to lunch at a restaurant along the roadside. Wonderful food and view and as we were a private tour, no rushing! After lunch we drove out to a beautiful condominium area in a hilly area with beautiful views and grounds – as it was now raining in the area, the views were limited; however the area was quite lovely.

We opted at this time to return to Puntarenas for a tour of the town and a chance to do some geocaching. The driver and guide were very informative and knowledgeable and very helpful in driving us around to locate and log our geocaches.

A wonderful tour and our group of 8 were all pleased and thrilled with this tour. We have no hesitation in recommending GioTours.

We made arrangements and hired GioTours for our day trip in Costa Rica off of the cruise ship. Giancarlos was waiting for us on the pier the morning our ship arrived in Puntarenas and got us settled into our (air conditioned) 8 passenger van with a guide – Jesus and driver – Eduardo.

 

We started out with a trip to an area where we were able to feed the monkeys as they climbed up and over us. Totally amazing experience! Then we drove on to a stop at a fruit stand/roadside store. The smoothies and fruit were incredible. Then we continued down the road for a Crocodile Tour with Jose’s Crocodile River Tour. This was another fantastic 1 ½ hour tour. Jose was an amazing tour guide and did his best to ensure that we saw lots of birds, crocodiles of various sizes from babies, to teenagers and then an encounter with an enormous crocodile, and mangrove crabs.

 

After this tour, we were driven out to lunch at a restaurant along the roadside. Wonderful food and view and as we were a private tour, no rushing! After lunch we drove out to a beautiful condominium area in a hilly area with beautiful views and grounds – as it was now raining in the area, the views were limited; however the area was quite lovely.

 

We opted at this time to return to Puntarenas for a tour of the town and a chance to do some geocaching. The driver and guide were very informative and knowledgeable and very helpful in driving us around to locate and log our geocaches.

 

A wonderful tour and our group of 8 were all pleased and thrilled with this tour. We have no hesitation in recommending GioTours.

How long was the tour?

I believe they picked us up at 8:00 am on the dock and had us back at the ship by 4:30 pm

We have used Odyssey 3 times, for 3 different tours; all were excellent and we would book with them again.

We have used Odyssey 3 times, for 3 different tours; all were excellent and we would book with them again.

If comes to an excursion in Puntarenas we can only recommend GIO Tours (no experience with Odyssey). We have booked with them the “6 in 1” tour through the web page (http://www.shorexcursionsincostarica.com/) and had a lot of fun. Driver Fernando and Guide Adonis (!!) are great guys. We saw a lot of wonderful places incl. Crocodiles and Monkeys. Had a stop for a nice lunch. All in all a nice trip and much cheaper compared to what they offer at the ship. And the best of all was that we did escape from the busses filled with ship people. Made the tour in October 14 (NCL Pearl).