TOP RATED COSTA RICA EXPERIENCE ON TRIPADVISOR

  Loved the tour! We saw so much of Costa Rica and what her people do to make a living. They are extremely hard workers. We saw Howler... read more and White-Faced monkeys, many shore birds and crocodiles.

We want to thank Tony from Unique Travel for arranging this wonderful tour.

  It was very informative and the tour guide was very knowledgeable there was lots to see that i had never seen before the meal was excellent the tour at the... read more coffee plant was very good it was an excellent tour thanks to the bus driver...More

  We enjoyed this tour very much with our guide Larry. The stop to observe the workers dredging sand from the river using the traditional oxcarts was fascinating. We observed quite... read more a bit of wildlife on the river and learned much about Costa Rica.

  Pros: Booking pickup was easy. We were picked up on time (7:30am) right at our Airbnb. The “guide” gave us a little bit of info on Costa Rica on the... read more ride there. Zip lining was really fun, 7 in all. Zip lining was about an hour once we all got going. Decent speed and length, one line was nice and fast and long. Beautiful views! Then horseback riding lasted about 35 mins once we started walking. He let me lead the trail, and the horses were behaved. Next was white water tubing, about 3km long. This was the most fun! Some of the rapids were awesome since the current was strong. Plenty of lazy river floating in between adrenaline rushing drops. Water wasn’t overly cold. Guides there to help push you along the slow parts and make sure you’re not stuck on rocks. Then came lunch, at 2pm (make sure you eat a good breakfast). DELICIOUS food, all of it. Choice of pork fajita, chicken curry or pasta alfredo. The pumpkin soup appetizer was incredible and so was the little dessert bites at the end. Ending the day, which was not on the booking but a happy surprise, was the thermal sauna, mud bath, and hot springs. First, sauna to open pores. Then the mud bath that smelled TERRIBLE, but that’s to be expected with the minerals. We jumped in the river to wash off (showers there too but what’s the fun in that?!) and finished off in the hot springs tub. Throughout the day, someone takes action photos of you and sells them after if you want, $10 cash per person for all photos of you. Then we loaded back into the SUV and were dropped off at our Airbnb in Playa Hermosa before 5pm.

Cons: PRICE. This all takes place at Cañon de la Vieja, and if you book directly with them, it’s only $80 pp. The rest charged by this “tour” is transportation, so we basically paid $150 for transportation we already had (rented a car). The “guide” was more of a driver than a guide. He chatted a bit but basically just dropped us off and slept in the car. We saw other guides with their groups and helping take photos. They do provide water, but one small bottle per person for the entire 8 hours. The horses are not well taken care of. At all. They were all pretty skinny, bones protruding on a few. My poor horse had skin lesions everywhere and his back legs were buckling a bit before we even started, and then he just collapsed with me on his back. Other horses also had skin lesions and one had the skin on his back legs peeling so they tied his tail so he couldn’t even move it; the poor thing had flies biting everywhere. I would not support this kind of horse treatment if I’d known ahead of time. There was some waiting around between events and waiting for other groups to get there but it was all still within the advertised timing.

  We did all three tours. On the Palo Verde tour, Harold was our tour guide, and Ernesto was our driver. The commercial sized van was very comfortable. We were given... read more one bottle of water...but it was not cold. The boat tour (included on this Palo...More

  Eddie and Ernesto were fantastic guides. They took us to several unexpected stops on the tour and gave us a lot of inside about the local way of life. On... read more the river cruise they pointed out many birds, lizards and monkeys. We were able to...More