Costa Rica Private Custom Adventures

Our representative meets your family on arrival at the airport in San Jose, Costa Rica’s thriving capital, and joins you on the transfer to your hotel. Get a preview of the lush flora and fauna in store as you wander the paths around the hotel’s extensive tropical gardens, home to a wide variety of colorful birds. At dinner this evening, your naturalist guide provides an overview of the highlights ahead, plus details about tomorrow’s adventures.

Depart the city and head north to the protected rainforest in the tropical lowlands of Sarapiqui, an outstanding ecotourism destination where you’ll experience the wonder of rafting through the mangroves and jungle on the Sarapiqui River, brimming with birdlife. Continue to Tirimbina Rainforest Center, an 850-acre reserve dedicated to research and environmental education, and learn about the region's bats. Joined by a resident guide, make a night excursion into the rainforest on foot to examine the mist nets that scientists put up to trap and study bats. Spend the next two nights at the ecolodge run by the center.

Another landmark location for global rainforest research is La Selva, an international biological research station in the Sarapiqui region. Spend a morning learning about global efforts to conserve rainforests while taking a guided walk through a section of the reserve. Along the way, look for monkeys, sloths, peccaries, iguanas and some of the 400 different species of birds found here.

After lunch, explore the lowlands of Sarapiqui on a private guided horseback ride on scenic trails through the rural landscape. Travel along rainforest edges and past local farms while learning about the region’s nature and culture. Wildlife sightings may include toucans, monkeys, sloths and other forest species. Afterward, return to Tirimbina to spend the night.

On a final morning at Tirimbina, visit a local cacao plantation to learn how cacao beans are transformed into organic chocolate, and enjoy a sample before departing by road for Arenal. Stop along the way to hike to La Fortuna Waterfall, where the Arenal River pours off a cliff more than 230 feet high to form this stunning plume of water. This afternoon, check in to Arenal Observatory Lodge located directly across from the volcano. Although Costa Rica’s most famous volcano has been dormant since 2010, it was the country's most active for 43 years, and its profile is still striking. Seismologists from the Smithsonian Institute and the National University of Costa Rica monitor the volcano intensively from their research station at the lodge. Before dinner this evening, there’s time to wander some of the extensive trail network around the lodge, with more than 15 miles of paths lacing the rainforest.

The wonders of Arenal National Park are unveiled on nature trails through the rainforest that blankets the volcano’s lower slopes. As you search for wildlife in the forest, look for intermittent views of the Arenal’s summit. Though it’s often buried under a cap of clouds, it dominates the landscape in clear weather. The park is home to some 400 bird species, including a great diversity of hummingbirds, along with spider monkeys, howler monkeys, coati, brocket deer, tamandua anteaters, peccaries and the elusive ocelot.

Nearby, visit Mariolas, a family-run cultural and conservation project hosted by Don Claudio and Elith. Walk a roughly one-mile trail through regenerating gallery forest, with viewpoints and birding openings where jacamars, honeycreepers, euphonias, tanagers and toucans are often seen. Wildlife sightings are common and may include sloths, anteaters, agoutis, morpho butterflies, green iguanas and bats. In addition to time in nature, Mariolas offers hands-on cultural experiences rooted in daily rural life. Activities may include tortilla making or a brief demonstration of traditional sugar cane juice extraction, paired with a simple local snack. A savory home-cooked lunch is prepared by our hosts, followed by a fresh cup of Costa Rican coffee with dessert.

This afternoon, choose between a soak in a geothermal hot springs where a waterfall offers a natural massage, or explore the tree tops on a zip line tour. A tram transports you 125 feet above the rainforest floor, ascending slowly to observe the diversity of life at each elevation until you reach the canopy. Then it’s time for the exhilarating descent via zip line, flying along a series of cables down the mountainside.

After a last opportunity to wander the trails around the lodge and admire views of Arenal Volcano, it’s time to return to San Jose and settle in for a relaxing afternoon at Xandari Plantation Resort. There’s time to explore the substantial trail network surrounding the lodge or take a swim in one of several swimming pools with scenic views. Or, choose a beach extension instead and travel by road from Arenal to Costa Rica’s North Pacific Riviera today.

A transfer to the airport is included this morning to meet departing flights.