Costa Rica Private Custom Adventures

Arrive in Costa Rica’s capital of San Jose and transfer to your hotel just outside the city. Enjoy time to wander the gardens before meeting your Expedition Leader at a welcome dinner this evening to learn about all the adventures that lie ahead.

Depart Costa Rica’s Central Valley and travel over the mountains to the Caribbean lowlands, with lunch en route. Stop at Pierella Gardens in Sarapiqui, a woman-owned, family-run ecological preserve of approximately 12 acres. Over decades, the gardens have become a haven for wildlife, with birding trails, butterfly gardens, feeders, native and tropical fruit trees, and a small cocoa operation—excellent for close-up nature photography. Watch for sloths and enjoy traditional local cuisine. You’ll also observe one of Costa Rica’s most fascinating natural phenomena: the leaf-cutter ant. Highly organized and guided by a single queen, these industrious insects carry leaf fragments many times their own weight to cultivate the fungus that sustains their colony.

Continue to the Arenal Volcano region for a two-night stay at Arenal Observatory Lodge, set directly opposite the volcano. Though inactive since 2010, Arenal’s iconic cone still dominates the landscape, with rainforest-clad slopes, on-site trails, and nearby hot springs revealing its lingering geothermal energy.

Visit Mariolas, a family-run cultural and conservation project hosted by Don Claudio and Elith, located just outside the center of La Fortuna. 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.

Depart for Nosara Beach this morning to Lagarta Lodge, an eco-resort encompassed by a pristine 90-acre nature sanctuary on the Nicoya Peninsula in northwest Costa Rica. The Reserva Biologica is bordered by the Nosara River and Pacific Ocean and includes a combination of subtropical dry forest and coastal mangrove thickets. The varied habitats showcase a host of native plants and animals that you'll encounter on guided walks. Amid the reserve's impressive biodiversity, expect to see numerous birds and a good selection of howler monkeys, anteater, coati, raccoon, iguanas, butterflies and interesting insects. After an afternoon of exploring, take a dip in one of two infinity pools before dinner at the lodge.

Explore more of the private Lagarta biological reserve on a guided nature walk this morning. After lunch, take a boat cruise in search of wildlife and a host of bird species on the tranquil Nosara and Montaña rivers. You may also wish to explore one of the four secluded private beaches near the lodge. One of them, Playa Ostional, is one of the world’s most important nesting grounds for the olive ridley sea turtle. If you visit from July to December, you may witness the amazing phenomenon of dozens of turtles coming ashore once a month to lay their eggs. The young hatch 45 days after this arribada, and guests are sometimes fortunate enough to see them crawl toward the water. Dinner this evening is in town, for a chance to try one of the excellent restaurants.

Begin the day with a two-hour tractor tour at Ensenada Lodge, exploring La Ensenada Sanctuary with a local guide. Travel by open-air tractor through the reserve’s dry forest landscapes, starting at the historic salt flats, where you learn about their cultural history and ecological role. Continue to the lagoon, an important wetland habitat that attracts herons, spoonbills and other water birds. The route culminates at a scenic overlook above the Nicoya Gulf, offering broad views of the coastline and surrounding lowlands.

In the afternoon, leave the Pacific lowlands and climb into the mountains toward Monteverde. As elevation increases, temperatures cool and mist settles over the forest. Set along Costa Rica’s continental divide, the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve protects nearly 2.5 percent of the world’s biodiversity, including 100 species of mammals and 161 species of amphibians and reptiles. Arrive in Monteverde and check in for a two-night stay at a secluded ecolodge surrounded by forest and gardens.

Discover the wonders of the high-altitude cloud forest on a nature walk in Monteverde this morning. This magnificent example of tropical montane cloud forest is the most studied and endangered ecosystems in the world. Monteverde harbors an estimated 2,500 species of plants, including giant strangler figs, a profusion of epiphytes that drape the forest from canopy to floor, and 300 different types of orchids. We spot wild relatives of many familiar houseplants such as philodendrons, bromeliads, ficus trees, and ferns, and we often see colorful butterflies flitting among the leaves. More than 400 tropical bird species flourish here, including the rare resplendent quetzal, the iridescent bird sacred to the indigenous people of these remote mountains. Other highland endemics include the three-wattled bellbird, umbrella bird and emerald toucanets. A hundred mammal species live in the cloud forest, too, and we may catch glimpses of various monkeys, sloth, olingo, porcupine, coati and agouti.

Then, head to Cafe de Monteverde for lunch and a tour of the coffee plantation. The estate was founded in 1989 as an association of 12 families with deep roots in coffee, agriculture, conservation and education. For more than four generations, these families have grown, processed and roasted the best-quality coffee in the region, practicing methods in harmony with the surrounding cloud forest. The group's educational mission focuses on teaching how sustainable production methods can contribute to the wider agenda for conservation, inspiring future generations with a vision for how agriculture and ecotourism can work hand in hand.

This afternoon, witness the intricate web of life in the cloud forest on display from the Skywalk, a network of suspension bridges that lifts you into the canopy for a toucan's-eye view. In recent decades, biologists have discovered that about 90 percent of all organisms in a rainforest live in the canopy, where the sun strikes the treetops to produce abundant food. Look for animals in the branches as you wander along the 1.5-mile system of elevated walkways. Later this evening, head into town for your farewell dinner at a local restaurant.

After breakfast, a transfer is included to San Jose International Airport for departing flights.