Pacific Side Excursion help

[cruisefrk]

There is very little current info on the Pacific Coast stop to Costa Rica (Puntarenas). Anyone with current recommendations for great experiences that you have had for ship excursions is greatly appreciated. I will be visiting in September off Celebrity Infinity.

 

I have read all the reviews on the site thus far but am finding reviews from 06. I am especially curiuos about the the Off Road Aventure in this Terra-X6 (a good experience and feel of the land?). Also, is the areial tram tour worth the unique experience of visiting a rainforest - even if you dont see lots of animals? Celebrity offers this tour with a 2 hour boat ride of the Tarcoles River - which after researching is one of the most contaminated in the country. Who knew they would offer a shore excursion there.... Any opinions on the "Jewels of Monte Verde Cloud Forest" excursion?

 

When spending this much money and time you want to select the right shore excursion for your once in a lifetime stop in Costa Rica.

[PACURN]

I just came from a recent Canal Cruise. Puntareanas doesn't have as much to offer that is close by. Sarchi is great for crafts. Beautiful countryside. The Volcano's are to far away to visit. We took a tour with JJ and did an awful lot of driving. We did see some great Orchids a what I assume was a farm. It was more like a local mans house. That was nice. We also saw a church built out of coral. We had wanted to go to the beach (Jaco) but we didn't make it. There is alot of road work going on. Jaco is about an hours drive away. Things are very expensive. Beer was reall high.

[cruizingcouple]

Shore excursion decisions Puntarenas Costa Rica

We will be in Puntarenas on the 24th of oct docking at 7:00 in the morning until 7:00 p.m. on the serenade of the seas. There is not alot of detailed info about possible shore excursions for the day. We have done some research. We would like to possibly do some kind of aerial tram and also would really like to do some hiking at our own pace with I am sure time left over for some kind of shopping and taking in some local food. We are not zip-liners nor are we rafters or river cruisers. We would really like the opportunity to see some local wildlife outside of cages.RCCL's web site does not have any info for the shore escursions offered yet. If any one with similar interests has been on RCCL to this port and has experienced a shore excursion through them ( we are leaning toward that) any input would be greatly appreciated. Or has visited any of these sites that would be great as well.

 

1.Monte Verde cloud forest walk

2. La Paz waterfall gardens

3. Tortuga island and Punta Coral

4. Turu Ba Ri tropical park

5. Carara national park

There were also some others that there was not much info on: Paos volcano park, Villa Lapas, Vista Los Suenos, and the town of Sarchi.

 

Thanks to anyone with info reguarding any of these. Travel happy!

[Balconies R Us]

Check out Odyssey Tours run by Diego and Alvaro Ramirez. Great tours taylored to your expectations. They will try to work in everything you want to do...our 7 hour tour lasted 9 hours. Shopping, lunch, animals and plant life...ziplining, trams, crocodiles...whatever you want. contact them at odysseytours@gmail.com. They will answer imediately. They love showing off their country...Shirley

[arlodog]

We took tucan limos for our day in Costa Rica. We wanted a private tour since I was traveling with just my mom and myself. She has trouble at times if it is hot and humid and needs to rest so we wanted to make sure that she was able to enjoy her day at her pace. I had read on this forum and others that often times the tours will say they are just for your group, but then the do add others at the last minute.

We decided on toubouri park and then went to a small town that was close by and visited a local fruit stand, went shopping at a local grocery store for coffee and had one of the local beers at a roadside restaurant/bar. Rosie was wonderful to work with to set up our day and was more than willing to do whatever we wanted.

I don't know that I would definately go to toubari again, but it was a good way to see a bit of the countryside and plants. We saw a tucan that they have there which was a highlight for me! there were orchids growing in the wild and the guide gave lots of information on the trees, plants and animals. They have a tram that you take over to the nature walk area that gives you a good view of the valley. It included a lunch which was very good!

We really enjoyed the local fruit stand and restaurant. We tried cashew fruit and I have never seen such big avacados. Amazing!

The contact information for tucan limos is:

Rocio Leon rocio@tucanlimoservices.com

Ivan was our driver. If you go please ask for him! He is so kind and went out of his way to make sure my mom was taken care of so she could enjoy her day.

Hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

[Hoyaheel]

We did the Panama Canal transit last fall and when we stopped in Costa Rica, we did the Mangrove tour. It was wonderful - not very long bus ride to the mangrove swamp, boat tour, then lunch. We saw lots of great wildlife - crocodiles, scarlet macaws, osprey, etc. We though Costa Rica was so beautiful that we're doing a land trip there in September, to do some hiking and see more wildlife:D

[Sunny AZ Girl]

We did the Panama Canal transit last fall and when we stopped in Costa Rica, we did the Mangrove tour. It was wonderful - not very long bus ride to the mangrove swamp, boat tour, then lunch. We saw lots of great wildlife - crocodiles, scarlet macaws, osprey, etc. We though Costa Rica was so beautiful that we're doing a land trip there in September, to do some hiking and see more wildlife:D

That looks like an interesting tour. Princess offers the Scarlet Macaw sanctuary & Mangrove Boat Tour - 5.5 hours long. Same one?

 

I have also been looking at the Jewels of the Monteverde Cloud Forest, Costa Rica Favorites ($$$), and the Countryside & Coffee Tour. Any comments from anyone on these?

[mikebz]

We did the cloud forest tour last year. it was great, but you do have a long bus ride there and back. We had the tour that had the rope bridges, and the hummingbird sanctuary. The bus stops along the way at a store that had really good woodcrafts. We had two unscheduled stops. One while they cleared a landslide, and the second to look at wild monkees.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

We did the cloud forest tour last year. it was great, but you do have a long bus ride there and back. We had the tour that had the rope bridges, and the hummingbird sanctuary. The bus stops along the way at a store that had really good woodcrafts. We had two unscheduled stops. One while they cleared a landslide, and the second to look at wild monkees.

 

Thank you. We will be interested to hear about the others, too.:)