Costa Rica activity holiday
A 12 day adventure holiday traversing Costa Rica by trekking, mountain biking, rafting and a lot of laughing. A small group tour, following a circuit through rainforest, highlands and coast. Staying in camps and lodges.
San Jose Trekking in Central Highlands Cycling along Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast Santa Maria White water rafting on Pacuare River Kayaking on Pacuare River
Price
£2310To£2450 excluding flights
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Description of Costa Rica activity holiday
Our Costa Rica activity holiday is a twelve day adventure where we take on the challenge of traversing the country, totally under our own steam. In summary, we hike, raft and kayak across this spectacular natural wilderness and so this fully supported expedition will appeal to active adventure seekers. We start in the capital city of San Jose, cycle along the Pacific coast, trek through the Central Highlands, raft through the Pacuare River Valley on Class II-IV rapids, and then take a slightly slower route down another day by kayak. Finishing at Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast at Caño Blanco.
We stay in the heart of local communities on this Costa Rica adventure tour, in eco camps or lodges, while also meeting indigenous communities living in the famously beautiful cloud forests. Costa Rica is also famous for its prolific wildlife too, of course, and our adventures will take us into rainforest where we are often enveloped by bird song and monkey calls.
You do need a good level of fitness for this trip, with some moderate to challenging hikes or bike routes along the way.
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Price information
£2310To£2450 excluding flights
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Single Supplement £GBP 410.
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Travel guides
In Costa Rica you can zip line through cloud forests, white water raft down rushing rivers and trek up the side of volcanoes. However, Costa Rica isn’...
If a river flows fast, we raft it; if a trail leads up, we hike it; if there's a downhill track, we bike it – if you love life surrounded b...
Holiday information
Small group tour:
Small group travel is not large group travel scaled down. It is modelled on independent travel – but with the advantage of a group leader to take care of the itinerary, accommodation and tickets, and dealing with the language. It’s easy to tick off the big sights independently – but finding those one-off experiences, local festivals, travelling markets and secret viewpoints is almost impossible for someone without the insider knowledge gained from years in the field. Those with a two-week holiday, a small group tour will save valuable planning time.
Reviews
2 Reviews of Costa Rica activity holiday
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed on 13 Apr 2018 by Angela Wood
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Waking early in the morning to hear the strange bird calls and seeing the dawn.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Make sure you don't pack too much, keep very light. But bring the essentials.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Yes.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
A holiday of a life-time.
Reviewed on 22 Feb 2018 by Alejandro Hahn Menacho
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Achieving crossing the country from coast to coast only by bike, hiking, kayaking and rafting. A great adventure and experience.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Just go for it. We did it in a small group size of 6 persons. I think that is ideal, probably a large group would have been a worse experience.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Yes. No means of transportation other than those fueled by our own body (bike, kayak,etc.) were used by us. No animals where used for transportation. It was
all the time away from crowded touristic destinations. We spent a night in a local family house. All guides and support crew were locals. We were in contact with wildlife in a respectful way, only looking at them from the distance without disturbing the animals.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
I loved it!
Responsible Travel
As the pioneers of responsible tourism, we've screened this (and every) holiday so that you can travel knowing it will help support the places and people that you visit, and the planet. Read how below.
Planet
On this traverse of Costa Rica, you will be travelling entirely under your own steam by raft, kayak, mountain bike or on foot. This means that travel by motor vehicle is kept to a bare minimum of just your transfer from the airport.The environment of Costa Rica is extremely fragile and it is our responsibility to minimise the impact of our presence. We operate in harmony with our natural habitat and ensure that our guests appreciate their surroundings but do not intrude upon it. Our private camp, El Nido de Tigre, whilst being situated in the heart of the rainforest, operates in harmony with the environment, without intruding upon it. Our tree house was built using trees that had already fallen up river. The wood was transported by raft, dried and used for construction.
The natural landscapes we explore are some of the richest, often most challenging, yet at the same time some of the most fragile environments on earth. With education, experienced leadership and appropriate equipment and techniques, it is possible to travel responsibly through these regions. For us, it is critically important that such wilderness travel experiences do not diminish the natural values of the environment.
Our environmental sustainable principles: True sustainability is a guiding aspect in all aspects of our business planning and operations. Specifically our tour operations should be managed in a way where the natural and cultural values of the host region are undiminished in the long-term.
Where possible, we engage in partnerships with local environmental groups and/or land managers to actively campaign for conservation or promote environmental protection and/or rehabilitation.
Our Responsible Travel Guidebook: Our philosophy since 1975 has been to leave only footprints and take only photographs. To reiterate this, every customer who travels with us receives a copy of our award-winning Responsible Travel guidebook. This detailed book outlines our environmentally sustainable principles, and outlines how each customer can minimize their impact while travelling.
Global Warming and Carbon Balancing: The root cause of Global Warming is society's dependence on emission creating fossil fuel. Planting trees is not going to reverse this trend or cancel our carbon emissions very quickly or effectively. We believe the way to reduce these dependencies is to create clean energy production. Therefore, we support renewable energy projects like wind and solar power, and we are aligned with Climate Friendly, the gold standard setter in effective, meaningful action addressing climate change. So, while we believe that tree planting can play a small role in greenhouse gas abatement, we have gone the extra mile in promoting a longer term solution. Is this cheap? No. Is it responsible? Absolutely!
People
Our responsible travel principles: Our company aims to maximise the positive benefits of tourism for host communities. This includes training and employment of local staff, using local suppliers and assisting in the development of sustainable local businesses.We actively minimise the negative effects that tourism can have by ensuring that tourism does not divert resources away from local communities or drive up prices on local resources.
We provide opportunities for real cultural exchange, where locals and visitors alike can share and learn from each other in an environment of mutual respect.
We contribute to the welfare of the host community. This is epitomised in our Community Project Travel program where we organise for our travellers to spend time in disadvantaged villages upgrading basic facilities such as health, education and water access.
We strive to educate our travellers about the destination and its local cultures as well as providing guidelines on appropriate behaviour to minimise impact.
No local payments policy: Local cash payments are becoming increasingly popular with many operators in the adventure travel industry. This policy seems to benefit the tour operators more than the local economies or the travellers, as it avoids local taxes and transfers the costs and risks of cash handling onto the travellers. In accordance with our Responsible Travel practices, we have chosen a policy of not asking for such payments.
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