Canals, Rainforest & Banana Plantation Excursion

[sundancer1]

Has anyone gone on the Adventure Canals, Rainforest & Banana Plantation excursion offered through Carnival Cruise Lines? I am going on the Carnival Liberty and looking for a worthwhile excursion while in Costa Rica.

Any details you can offer, positive or negative would be appreciated.

[cruiser620]

We were at this port on the Liberty in July. We thought the Carnival excursion was way overpriced, though, and took a private excursion with a company we learned about on Cruise Critic run by Charlie Soto. We loved this tour, and our guide, Harrison, was absolutely fantastic. It was so much nicer to be in a small group (there were 8 of us) than in a large tour bus. This tour was very professionally run, and we got to see and do more than with Carnival -- and it cost a lot less! We went to the banana plantation, did the rainforest boat excursion through the canals, went to a local beach for lunch, went to a store where the "locals" shop to buy coffee etc., and also went ziplining which was an awesome experience. You can also do this tour without the zipline. Harrison was the best, and he stopped frequently along the road to pick all kinds of native fruit to show us. It was really interesting to see how paprika and other things grow. He provided us with water, soft drinks, or beer, and also purchased fruit at a local stand for us to eat and coconuts for us to drink. I would do this tour again in a heartbeat, and would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone visiting Port Limon.

[kapeppy]

Sorry I can't answer your question either, but like cruiser said, we booked a private tour with Oregon Tours and Lester was a fabulous tour guide. The tour cost much less than the cruise ship's excursion and we saw much more than the cruise ship tour and our tour could be customized to meet our needs. We did the canals, banana plantation, beach. and shopping. The canals are awesome and the banana plantation is definitely worth seeing! Whatever you do, have a great time!

[eh2zed]

It can be expensive but is the best ship tour at this port. We loved it and everyone we have recommended it to have loved it as well. Its really the canal cruise that is the highlight.

[GloriaF]

Thanks for the names of your tour operators. We much prefer small, private tours to the ship excursions ~ unless it is in a place we do not feel safe. I assume you felt totally at ease on your local tours? Do you mind telling me the cost?

 

Thanks for the info!

[kapeppy]

Gloria,

 

I don't remember the exact cost for our tour ($30/person or so?) but I do know that Lester is extremely flexible and will do exactly what you would like to do as opposed to a strict format like the cruise ship or the other large private operators in Costa Rica. We have booked with him twice, felt perfectly safe at all times, and were the only group (four of us) on his tour each time so we could do anything we wanted! We decided how long to stay at the beach, what time we wanted to be back to the ship by, etc.... On our first trip we did the banana plantation, the canals, a scenic tour with various photo stops, and shopping for coffee at a local grocery store and managed to finish in just a few hours. Lester dropped us off at the ship and even offered to come back if we wanted to have lunch on the ship and then go back out. Our second trip was a bit different and we saw other parts of the island, did the canals again (fabulous!), and then went to the beach and shopping at the grocery store. He is so accomodating and we e-mailed back and forth several times before we arrived in Costa Rica to plan our trip and work out the price. As I said, he is a small tour operator and doesn't get much coverage here on the boards but we felt comfortable enough to use him our second time there! Whatever you decide, you will have a fantastic time in beautiful Costa Rica!

[cruiser620]

Thanks for the names of your tour operators. We much prefer small, private tours to the ship excursions ~ unless it is in a place we do not feel safe. I assume you felt totally at ease on your local tours? Do you mind telling me the cost?

 

Thanks for the info!

 

We felt totally safe on our Charlie Soto tour, and our guide Harrison was terrific. You can go to www.okeydokeytourstours.com to read about possible tours, but I think you can also customize the tour and tell your guide if there are other places you want to go. The A-1 tour (5 hr.) was $49 and included a tour of the Del Monte banana plantation (very interesting!), the canal boat ride, a visit to Bonita Beach where you can purchase lunch, shopping, etc. We chose to do the A-2 tour (7 hr.) which also included the zip line and cost $40 more. The $40 went to the zip line company (www.brisasdelagungla.com) I would do this same tour again!

[kapeppy]

Gloria,

 

I also forgot to mention that you can check out Oregon Tours website at oregontourscr.org and click on the cruise ship excursions and choose from there or work directly with Lester to coordinate your own private day in Costa Rica.

 

Happy Sailing!

[GloriaF]

Thanks, everyone for the info! We love waterfalls, are there any waterfalls in either of these tours? We will be ported in Puerto Limon.

[cruiser620]

We did not see any waterfalls in Costa Rica.

[Bucky3]

Thanks for sharing your pictures. On what beach was that picture taken? We will be in Punterenas, not Limon. Just starting research on our Spring '08 cruise and I get confused by these two places! Thanks for any additional information.

[cruiser620]

We were on the east coast -- Limon. It is a picture of Bonita Beach which was beautiful with surprisingly huge waves.

[Bucky3]

Thanks for your reply. I was curious as I haven't seen any pictures of a beach on the Pacific side that looks like your picture! We're probably out of luck as far as finding a beach like that on our Puntarenas stop. Oh, well!