The Lemon Fool

Significant anniversary coming up... OH keen on Costa Rica, wildlife. Not so much me, flight length and foreign bugs.

She has flagged up a Riviera Travel escorted tour which hops from one ghastly tourist hotel to another.
Like most Brits, we don't speak Spanish, so it's understandable that these places are the most practicable.

However, any other recommendations for an escorted tour ? Starting from the UK... January...

V8

Cant help with an escorted tour but if language is the issue Belize is close by and there is a lot more English spoken. It also has nature and big barrier reef. There was a recent thread ref Belize

Can't change the heat, flight length or bugs. But...

A few years ago, I took quite a few holidays with Explore. e.g. https://www.explore.co.uk/holidays/cost ... dlife-tour

And I would highly recommend the company. Met groups on other company tours, and fellow travellers who had used others. Explore invariably had first rate guides. Other companies MUCH more variable.

Gryff

We visited Costa Rica years ago and went on some tours in the cloud forest and up a volcano. To be honest, while it was organised by an upmarket operation the experiences were very "touristy". Yes we saw lots of insects and birds and travelled on aerial cable cars through the tree tops but I had a feeling that the "wildlife" were attracted to the tourist trails by surreptitious feeding. So a bit like a safari park or zoo?

What amazed me flying into San Jose airport at night was the huge number of car lights below us for miles and miles as we approached the runway. I was expecting a much sparser population. Everywhere we went involved a lot of traffic.

Don't worry about Spanish - everyone speaks American! Sorry if this sounds a bit cynical. We enjoyed the few days before getting on a cruise ship but it was pretty commercial.

regards

Howard

88V8 wrote:Significant anniversary coming up... OH keen on Costa Rica, wildlife. Not so much me, flight length and foreign bugs.

She has flagged up a Riviera Travel escorted tour which hops from one ghastly tourist hotel to another.
Like most Brits, we don't speak Spanish, so it's understandable that these places are the most practicable.

However, any other recommendations for an escorted tour ? Starting from the UK... January...

V8

I sympathise with your comment about ghastly tourist hotels - looking at the Riviera pictures, I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole.

Language is a non-issue. Whoever you go with, you will have an English speaking guide/leader and the local tourist industry knows that they have to deal with non-Spanish speakers - its their bread and butter. Also 'por favor' and 'gracias' go a long way.

One other fool mentioned Explore and I endorse his (?) comments - Exodus is very similar.

I went with a slightly rougher outfit (GAP - who seem to have rebranded themselves as G Adventures) and had a wonderul time - 6 weeks in Central America. Perversely perhaps, I preferred Panama to Costa Rica for wildlife, although CR does have Monteverde - but Panama has the canal. No issues with 'foreign bugs' over the 6 weeks.