Coffee Plantation Guatemala or Cost Rica

We wife and I will be cruising the Panama Canal in February 2014 and are considering an excursion on either the Filadelfia Coffee Estate outside of Antigua or the Doka estate and coffee plantaion in Costa Rica. Any advice on which one might be the better one?

Thanks.

We were on a Pamana canal cruise in Dec/Jan.

We did a coffee platantion tour in Costa Rica. It was about one hour from port.

It was a cooperative and had a great tour , learing, hands on, all about the coffee plant, what is a peaberry, watch the different ways the beans are washed and roasted. We ended up sampling various coffees of Costa Rica.

I have also done coffee platantion tour in Guatemala, but in a dfferent area from Antiqua.

I think you cannot go wrong with either place.

but if you have not seen Antiqua I suggest you take a tour of this colonial town.

Be sure to buy some whole beans in each country you visit. I came home with six lbs of coffee!

You are in for a trip of a lifetime doing a full transit of the Panama canal. :)

While both tours are probably going to be good, mountain grown Guatemalan coffee is considered superior to Costa Rican coffee. I spent 8 years in the business and have picked coffee in Guatemala. Having said that I would choose a tour to Colonial Antigua (Casa Santo Domingo) over a coffee tour.