Volunteer & holiday in Costa Rica
| country: | Costa Rica |
| trip type: | A small group adventure |
| departures: | 2010: 4 Jul, 11 Jul, 18 Jul, 25 Jul, 1 Aug, 8 Aug, 15 Aug, 22 Aug, 29 Aug, 5 Sep, 12 Sep, 19 Sep, 26 Sep, 3 Oct, 10 Oct, 17 Oct, 24 Oct, 31 Oct, 7 Nov 2011: 3 Jul, 10 Jul, 17 Jul, 24 Jul, 31 Jul, 7 Aug, 14 Aug, 21 Aug, 28 Aug, 4 Sep, 11 Sep |
| price: | From £579 (15 days) excluding flights |
| vouchers: | Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday |
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introduction to Volunteer & holiday in Costa Rica
Want to give back to Mother Nature and hit some of Costa Rica's highlights, too? Spend five days volunteering on a Sea Turtle Conservation Project, then take a week to explore the country's interior. Travel to the lush Monteverde cloud forest region, and then enjoy the spectacular views of the Arenal Volcano from La Fortuna.
day-by-day itinerary
| Day 1: | Arrive San José. Arrive in San José at any time. There are no planned activities so check into our hotel and enjoy the city. Located in the central highlands, San José enjoys a moderate climate. The heat and humidity of the coast and lowland areas may affect you, with a general sense of lethargy and/or loss of appetite. This is no cause for alarm, it is simply your body’s reaction to the heat. Be sure to drink plenty of water (bottled water is available everywhere) and do not attempt too much in any given day. We prefer fan-cooled rather than air conditioned rooms to avoid having to acclimatize to the heat and humidity every time you go outside. This is also a more eco-friendly approach. Like most cities, San José has its good and bad sides. It is the centre of government, theatre, and art, as well as of air pollution and congestion. It has beautiful parks and museums, and a few beggars on the streets. It is big and often noisy, but even from its crowded downtown streets, you’ll often enjoy a view of the surrounding lush mountains. Start your exploration of the city in the main plaza, a great place to people-watch. A mime, juggler, marimba band, magician, or storyteller may be performing for whatever is collected when the hat is passed. Artisan booths are common, creating a regular arts and crafts fair atmosphere. A source of pride for the ticos (as Costa Ricans are known) is the National Theatre. Inaugurated in 1897, the building was paid for by coffee growers through a voluntary tax on every bag of coffee exported. The National Museum, housed in the Bellavista Fortress, offers exhibits on pre-Columbian art, colonial art and furniture and religious art within a 19th century building that was converted from a military fortress after the army was abolished. The Museum of Costa Rican Art, located in La Sabana Park, was once the international airport; the museum is now housed in the old terminal building. The Jade Museum is on the 11th floor of the Instituto Nacional de Seguros building. In addition to the marvellous collection of jade objects, there are pre-Columbian ceramic and stone works as well as displays with archaeological and ethnographic information. The Gold Museum is located underneath the Plaza de la Cultura. Its spectacular collection of indigenous gold art belongs to the Central Bank of Costa Rica. The best and least expensive places to buy souvenirs in San José are the markets. The two main ones are the ones in Plaza de la Cultura, which is an outdoor open market, and the Central Market, where handicrafts are sold along with boots, fish, flour, herbal remedies, shirts and everything else you can imagine. Always watch your belongings and be ready for crowds. If you plan on spending a few days in San José after your tour, there are a number of activities within the city and area that you can participate in, many of them outdoors. Probably the hardest thing you will do in San José, other than get safely across busy streets, is keep the street numbering systems straight. Street and avenue numbers are posted on buildings at the corners of some intersections. Keep looking as you walk, and you will eventually find one. |
| Day 2-7: | Sea Turtle Conservation Project (6B,5L,6D). Following an early morning departure from San José we travel approximately 5 hours by bus to Playa Matapalo, a small village located on the central pacific coast. We spend the next 5 days working alongside local and international volunteers to help protect endangered sea turtles. The best time to visit this project is from June - November with the best chance of working with the turtles during these months. Volunteer activities include night beach patrols to protect the nests, data collection, area clean-ups, general cleaning and maintenance, the construction of breeding grounds and other infrastructure, as well as the possibility of monitoring of the baby turtle hatchery, counting baby turtles and releasing them. Estimated Travel Time: 6 hours Approximate Distance: 220 km |
| Day 8-10: | Monteverde. Today we travel to the misty mountain air of the Monteverde Cloud Forest. Spend two days exploring Monteverde and the Forest Reserve, truly a nature lover's paradise. Local guides are extremely knowledgeable about the area and passionate about conservation of this precious ecosystem. The unique community has several local co-operatives worth visiting including artist collectives and a cheese factory. If you're there at the right time of year, you may be lucky enough to see the Resplendent Quetzal, one of the most beautiful and elusive birds in the world. Optional activities include the Sky Walk, a series of suspension bridges through the jungle canopy, a butterfly garden and a thrilling canopy zip line. Monteverde or Green Mountain, is exactly what you find at the end of the long, rutted dirt road through the mountains. The surrounding pastures were once covered with dense forest, but today only a small piece of it remains. That piece of forest has been preserved as the Reserva Biologica Bosque Nuboso Monteverde, the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve. Cloud forest is much like a rainforest, but much of the moisture comes not from falling rain but from the condensation left by the nearly constant cloud cover that blankets the tops of mountains in many parts of the tropics. Monteverde Reserve covers 1600 hectares of forest and is home to a great variety of wildlife. More than 2,000 species of plants, 320 bird species and 100 different species of mammals inhabit this small area. The Santa Elena Reserve, another park contiguous with Monteverde, is less well known and visited but also worth seeing. All proceeds from this park profit the local community. Quakers from the United States founded the village of Monteverde in the 1950s. Looking to leave behind the constant fear of war and objecting to being forced to support continued militarism through their taxes, the Quakers chose Costa Rica because of its commitment to a non-militaristic economic path—Costa Rica’s army was dissolved in the 1940s. Since its founding, Monteverde has grown slowly as others who shared the original Quaker founders’ ideals moved to the area. Although the Quakers came here to farm the land, they recognized the need to preserve the rare cloud forest that covers the mountain slopes above their fields. The community is very different from those on the coast, and offers several souvenir shops and the Quaker cheese factory, which is definitely worth a visit. Make sure to try their ice cream! Estimated Travel Time: 7 hours Approximate Distance: 260 km |
| Day 11-13: | La Fortuna. This morning we do a two hour guided horseback tour through coffee fields and forests maybe exchanging a few words with the friendly locals of the community. Don't forget your camera because the backdrop for this adventure is the stunning Nicoya Peninsula. In the afternoon we travel by bus, boat and bus to La Fortuna, a town located at base of the Arenal Volcano, an excellent base for area explorations. Take an unforgettable night hike around the base of the volcano to see the top glowing an eerie red, accompanied by a soundtrack of monkeys and the rumblings of the volcano in the distance. Hike the area’s nature trails, swim in chilly La Fortuna waterfall or join a canopy tour and catch a bird’s eye view of the forest greenery. Other optional activities include full-day white water rafting on the Toro or Arenal Rivers, mountain biking, caving, horseback riding, or a tour of the Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge. Like much of Costa Rica, the area is a birders’ paradise, with over 600 species as permanent residents. Finally, after a long day of exploring, take a relaxing soak in lush cascading hot springs. Soak in one of the natural thermal baths and rivers under the shade of the surrounding canopy. Set on the northern plains of Costa Rica, Arenal Volcano sits on the southeast shore of artificial Lake Arenal (77 square kilometres, or 48 square miles). Separating the mountain ranges of Guanacaste and Tilarán, the lake was created by a hydroelectric dam. Winds sweeping off the Caribbean Sea reach speeds of 48 to 72 km/hr (30 to 45 mph), across Lake Arenal you can find one of the best locations in the world to go windsurfing. Arenal is especially impressive at night, when the glowing molten lava is blasted into the ink-black sky. Even during the day, its reflection on Lake Arenal is truly enchanting. Estimated Travel Time: 6 hours Approximate Distance: 50 km |
| Day 14: | San José. Return to San José for some last minute shopping and a final night on the town. Estimated Travel Time: 5 hours Approximate Distance: 150 km |
| Day 15: | Depart San José. Depart San José at any time. |
traveller reviews for Volunteer & holiday in Costa Rica
I enjoyed the tour, had a great tour leader and was with a good bunch of people. (more)
a taste of volunteering trip - what's it all about?
This type of trip is ideal for people who are unable to take very long periods off work but who are interested in volunteering to work with communities in need, or in wildlife conservation. These shorter trips combine volunteering with an opportunity to see the main sights in destinations. Find out more about 'taste of volunteering'how this holiday makes a difference
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Through our commitment to responsible tourism, we ensure minimal social and environmental impact in the places we visit by travelling in small groups, using local transportation and staying in locally-owned hotels. We also work with experienced local guides who are knowledgeable of local culture, history, flora and fauna.
The Playa Matapalo Sea Turtle project is a science based conservation program which was created with the purpose of protecting female sea turtles, their nests and hatchlings laid on Matapalo beach against poachers and natural and introduced predators. Using a man-made shelter called a "vivero" to protect the eggs of this endangered species, the program has ensured the survival of the sea turtles and increased number of sea turtle hatchlings in the area. Local staff and volunteers also collect information about nesting activity which is shared with the community and local and regional authorities. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |
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