COSTA RICA is one of my favorite travel destinations. After an absence of 4 years, I will be returning to COSTA RICA on March 25 for 2-½ weeks - it will be my eighth visit to COSTA RICA, which I have affectionately nicknamed PuraVida Land

I have rarely received any negative reports from any of my customers who I have sent to COSTA RICA. Not too long ago, a customer of mine from Switzerland submitted a critique of his travel arrangements on his November ‘08 trip to Costa Rica. I also asked him to list the highlights of his trip as well.

The customer was a volcano enthusiast and was interested in an itinerary which featured excursions to a variety of volcanoes - with a few minor adjustments, Calypso Island Tour’s Volcano Explorer package was exactly what the doctor ordered as it included excursions to two of the most important volcanoes in Costa Rica - Arenal Volcano and Rincon de La Vieja as well as a four day interval at Ocotal Beach, one of Costa Rica’s better Pacific Coast beaches. Not surprisingly, the customer had a wonderful experience and his satisfaction rating was very high! Here are some excerpts from his critique:

The Costa Rica trip was good to excellent, but actually a bit too easy for us!! (We are used to do a lot of organizing when we are traveling on our own).

Regarding the hotels - You wish that we make some comments about all the individual hotels. That’s not easy because they were all so wonderful. We therefore have only some really minor things hardly worth mentioning.

In San Jose …The Grano de Oro is special indeed, as all guidebooks say. Just the breakfast there is rather for people who are on a diet. The Bougainvillea (in Heredia) is a must because of its splendid garden, despite the fact that the location is not really convenient. They seem to have abandoned their shuttle service into downtown San Jose.

The Arenal Observatory Lodge is definitely a good location, provided the
weather is good, and it’s primarily for people who like to do some hikes on
their own. We walked up to Cerro Chato, a good hike, but only for people
used to do some “work”.

The Hacienda Guachipilin (near Rincon de La Vieja National Park) is a good place as well, just a bit too far away from the park for those without their own vehicle.

The Ocotal Beach Resort is superb. Less so their restaurant, they have too many items on the menu that we would call fancy things, and which were not very filling. Other guests must have felt the same, because the restaurant was virtually empty in the evenings. But the breakfast is excellent there, the terrace is wonderful and so is the wildlife around the hotel!

Highlights? Certainly the Rio Celeste Park, but also the sunsets at Ocotal Resort, the garden of the Bougainvillea hotel and the flight in the little airplane from Liberia to San Jose. And there are two further things which should not be forgotten, despite that they are not part of the original trip: The Jade museum in San Jose and the La Paz Waterfall and Gardens near Poas Volcano

PURA VIDA