Costa Rica highlights holiday
Wildlife specialist
This tour operator is Britain’s leading wildlife holiday specialist, offering classic tailor-made and small group holidays worldwide from tiger-viewing and bear-watching to wildlife cruising and African safaris. Established 18 years ago, we use only the best guides, stay in hand-picked lodges and properties and offer ultimate flexibility.
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
Your accommodation in Rincon de la Vieja is focused on becoming a self-sufficient community, with sustainable energy sources. For example, the water heaters use solar energy and electricity is produced by a water wheel.
The property comprises 1,600 hectares of land, of which 700 hectares are set aside for the conservation of the tropical dry forest and 325 hectares are being reforested with species in danger of extinction. The lodge is also working on a ‘bio-digester’, which processes used, organic residues to turn into liquid fertilizer, and also to produce gas for fuel.
Your accommodation at Tortuguero National Park also has a similar project to turn waste water into gas, which will be used to heat up water for some of the rooms. Non-organic waste is recycled at a plant run by local villagers, and organic waste fed to pigs at a farm who supplies the meet for Christmas and New Year’s dinner for staff at the lodge.
Clients can talk to the staff at the lodge about these projects during their stay to learn more.
Community
The aim of this tour is to help communities by providing income, offer positive cultural exchanges and work with local people to provide education and a financial incentive to preserve Costa Rica’s fragile environment. This is achieved by staying at lodges with Responsible Tourism policies, thus actively providing education for tourists and employment for locals (see below for some examples of responsible lodges used on this tour).
This is especially important because although Costa Rica retains a lot of its tropical forest, much of it is under threat from illegal logging. By showing how the forests can be used for tourism and providing alternative employment and income, it helps conservation and Costa Rica’s fragile environment.
The accommodation at Tortuguero National Park supports a local school in San Jose, providing volunteers to paint classrooms and collecting educational and stationery supplies.
