superghetti

Hi, Ive never posted on Fodors before, so hello to whomever reads this! Thought i'd ask for advice. I want to travel solo to Costa Rica for about 7-10 days (in june/july), Im female, and want to sign up for an affordable fun tour. 1) Does anyone know of best way to research Tour companies or reccomend a tour-company, or 2)does anyone reccomend a TRAVEL AGENCY to work with (i'm in LA) who can help plan complicated Itineraries like this? After Costa Rica i want to fly on to Argentina ...
Many thanks for any ideas!

jkgourmet

I don't know about any group tours, but can recommend Pat Hewitt of Costa Rica Travel Exchange as an honest, knowledgable CR travel agent. Many people on Fodors and other websites will also recommend him. He is based out of New Orleans, but also owns a home in CR. He may not do your airfare reservations, however, as you can do them cheaper and more easily yourself online.

www.lovecostarica.com

superghetti

Thank you, Im looking up the site now and this is a great start. Many thanks.

dfarmer

I second the recommendation of Pat. We used him for one of our trips to CR and he was great to work with. We had already done the MA, Arenal, Monteverde type trip and wanted to branch out. He listened and helped us to put together a fantastic trip.

As for scheduled package tours, Caravan is very affordable and gets good reviews.

jkgourmet

Dfarmer- out of curiousity, what did Pat put together for you?

dfarmer

Sure jk!

I have a trip report back there somewhere! But who knows or remembers when I posted it!!! Not ME! But this trip was in 2004.

This was our 3rd trip to CR, had previously been to one of the Northern Pacific beach areas, Monteverde, Manual Antonio and Arenal. Have since spent a week in the Osa. And always spend a couple days seeing the sites of the countryside near SJ.

This particular trip:

Driver waiting for us when we arrived
Started with 2 overnights in SJ - Hotel Brittania
First AM early pickup for Pacuare Rafting
Next AM early pickup for bus/boat trip to Tortuguero, 2 nights Mawamba Lodge
Early AM flight out of Tortuguero thru SJ to Tambor
Driver waiting
4 nights in Montezuma - El Sano Banano Beach Bungalow
Flight back to SJ - rental car waiting
Last 2 nights Peace Lodge.

kaudrey

Check out www.gate1travel.com. Although we used them for a package vs. a tour, they do escorted tours also.

We actually ran into one of their escorted tours at La Paz, and the people on it said it was great so far.

jkgourmet

dfarmer: Love the "driver waiting" bit. Always nice to know!

When you went to the Osa, where did you stay and how did you like it? Pat is suggesting Casa Corcavado or La Paloma (think I like the look of the Casa better.)

dfarmer

JK - our Osa visit was on the other side from where you are heading. We flew into Puerto Jimenez. Split our time in the Osa between Bosque del Cabo and Iguana Lodge.

superghetti - If you do decide to use Pat Hewitt, as you can see he can put together a nice trip for you and make the difficulty in the logistics of getting coast to coast seem very easy. And although I have not used Caravan Tours, I have friends that have and very much enjoyed their trip, also there was a recent trip report from a couple that used this tour company, possibly put Caravan in the search at the top to find their comments. As for travel agents - I recommend someone that specializes in CR travel such as Pat, or others that have been recommended. I just did a quick search with the words - travel agent - and came up with several other selections, Gaialink, Swiss Travel etc. Hopefully one of these can help?

superghetti

Thank you jkgourmet, dfarmer and kaudrey. Im going to look into all these ideas. this is so helpful. thanks again. Fodors forum, not too shabby eh? Thanks!