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USD $102.00
Irazu Volcano, Orosi Valley and Lankester
San Jose, Costa Rica
Immerse yourself in the natural landscapes of Central America and see Costa Rica’s best highlights on this full-day trip from San Jose! Visit the tallest volcano in Costa Rica, tour the old city of Orosi and explore the colorful Lankester Botanical Gardens.
See the best of Costa Rica on this full-day tour from San Jose. Travel by luxury, air-conditioned coach and visit the city of Cartago at the foot of the Irazu Volcano. Home to the Basilica of Los Angeles (Basilica de Nuestra Semora de Los Angeles), this area is the focal point for pilgrims throughout Central America. Inside, find an exquisite collection of small gold and silver images of human body parts, a holy offering in hope of healing.
Next, discover the Irazu Volcano. Rising 11,000 feet (3.4 km) above sea level, Irazu is the highest volcano in Costa Rica! You will be amazed at the impressive grey earth surrounding the crater, stretching half a mile wide and resembling the moon’s surface.
Descend the mountain and arrive at the historic and colorful Orosi Valley. Here, visit one of the oldest churches in Costa Rica, the colonial church of Orosi, and discover its rich history. Then, head to Lankester and explore the sunning botanical gardens before enjoying a relaxing drive back to your San Jose hotel.
It's a beautiful scenery on our way to these locations and the road is good. I am glad to join that tour and has an experience to see the Irazu volcano with its crater containing blue water. Botany garden is fine. Our lunch at Orazy Valley is memorable. Our tour guides Maria and Mizza are knowledgeable.
Review by: Jose R S, January 2018
This tour was excellent. The drive and guide were very friendly and very knowledgeable. I recommend this tour to everybody.
Review by: Stephen M, July 2017
Incredible! An absolute must. Views were stunning and unforgettable.
Review by: maria t, July 2017
Really poor tour. Don't recommend it. The tour guide wasn't friendly
Review by: Jerome B, January 2017
absolutely highly recommend this tour
Review by: Eliane Q, January 2017
We really enjoyed this tour ,beautiful volcano, it is very cold and windy, I recommend extra clothing, the valley is beautiful with lots of different plantations, not only coffee, house plants, chayote,bananas ,corn and many others, rivers and waterfalls.The Lankester garden is really beautiful, many exotic plants.We stopped in a small town and saw a very old church and went to Cartago and saw The Cathedral The lady of Los Angeles, beautiful german made glass stained on windows and many paints through the church columns dated way back early 1800.Our guide was very knowledgeable on history and culture of the country. We had lunch at coffee plantation, and it was very good and the location was very beautiful overseeing the plantation fields.
Review by: Kundan S, January 2017
I do not recommend this trip to anyone. I was staying at Costa Rica Marriott and my pick up time was 6:10 am. No one turned up till 6:40 am after which my hotel front desk called the agent and they picked us up at 6:50 am from the hotel. Then, for next one hour, they picked up tourists from four other hotels and transferred us to another bus. In this new bus, they picked up from another four hotels and started the trip at 8:15 am. It was a sheer wastage of two whole hours in the morning sitting in the bus , picking up tourists from different hotels. In evening, we faced the same ordeal. The trip was ended at 4 pm and we were dropped at our hotel at 6 pm. An 8 hour trip took us 12 hours with 4 hours sitting in the bus, which in my opinion, was absolutely ridiculous. At Irazu, it was very cold but there was no instruction in the website to carry winter gears. Also, the guide didn't accompany us to the volcano. Instead he was sitting in the bus with the driver and let us explore the place in that extreme cold weather and we weren't even sure what's the right vantage point to have a good view of the volcano. There was nothing much in Cartago city. The tour drove through Orosi valley and Lankester was less than ordinary. The lunch was ordinary too and the guide miscounted the number of seats . So we had to seat separately from the group during the lunch. This trip isn't worth 105 per person.
Review by: Martin O, November 2016
Lunch in the Orosi Valley was great. So was Lankester Gardens. The photo of the volcano seems out of date however.
Review by: Jaime D, October 2016
This whole day outing out of San Jose was a wonderful experience. It was just unfortunate that it was drizzling or raining for most of the entire day. We went to the top of Irazu and checked out the three craters then did the los Angeles cathedral at Cartago, the major pilgrimage site for Costa Ricans a great place if you're Catholic - and we were then the Lancaster botanical reserve, which was a pleasant diversion - although the much vaunted 1000 orchid varieties were nowhere to be seen since most of them weren't in bloom then to the old town of Orosi with its primitive very old church and finally, a very late buffet lunch beside the man-made lake. Food was quite good so no complaints there. And the whole trip was made pleasurable by the warmth, humor, enthusiasm, and bilingual dexterity of our wonderful tour guide Gaybin aka Jesus aka Chucho. Hard to imagine anyone else doing a better job than he did. Even while we had to stop on the way back because one of the passengers threw up all over the floor and he and the driver had to clean up, he never lost his affability. Great day with a great guide.
Review by: Karen M, August 2016
What was advertised as an 8 hour tour became an 11 hour odyssey for us and even 12 for others in the group in a very uncomfortable van. Our guide Kenny was jovial, well-informed, and obviously fluent in several languages. He tried to keep everything moving as smoothly as possible but driving time throughout exceeded the expected by large increments, mostly because of traffic congestion. At the request of two historians on our tour, an additional stop at a ruined 17th century church was added. That church was quite interesting, however, we could certainly done without a final stop at the nondescript church that was actually part of the normal tour, not to mention the unadvertised 3/4 or so mile hike to get there. Irazu volcano and Lancaster Gardens were both stunning but the time at both seemed overly long and could probably have been cut by 1/3 to help keep us from getting so far behind.
Review by: Pavel V, May 2016
Nice tour, the botanical gardens were a little disappointing, especially because it started raining.
Review by: Kim W, April 2016
Our guide Mauricio was fantastic. The pace was perfect. He didn't hurry us along but we arrived back in a timely fashion and went the extra mile to show us things not mentioned in the brochure. For example an overview of the whole valley. We are currently taking a tour of the whole country which is very good, but I would rather have Mauricio as our guide. We choose this tour because it showed us things not on the whole country tour. I highly recommend this tour and this guide if you have a little extra time in San Jose.
Review by: Arlene N, April 2016
We had a wonderful guide by the name of Miza and it was the best day we had. It was fantastic
Review by: Jerome B, March 2016
honestly Irazu is excellent only on a nice day not worth it if raining. Irazu is 5 star. If possible, a 1/2 day trip to only Irazu is worth it. the Orchid garden and orosi valley aren't worth it - those two are 2 star.
Review by: Megan S, February 2016
Bad weather day so not much view on Irazu Volacno.
Review by: Valerie R, February 2016
Great tour! The guide was very knowledgeable.
Review by: Jay83, January 2016
Excellent tour
Review by: Ekaterina B, September 2015
The tour was very well organised. Our guide, Mario, was very friendly and knowledgeable and told us lots of interesting information. We were lucky with the weather, and Mario with David, our driver, made a couple of surprise stops on the route so that we could enjoy spectacular views, including of another volcano, Turrialba. The scenery was very beautiful throughout the tour, and even the lunch was in a restaurant located in a picturesque place and the lunch was very good too.
Review by: Claire O, August 2015
We went to the volcano early in the morning to avoid the rain. It was beautiful and our guide was very knowledgable. The ride to the Orosi Valley and through it was spectacular. The lunch spot was perfect: delicious food, lovely establishment, beautiful scenery. Our guide and driver were both very accommodating and kind. It was a beautiful day.
Review by: phx_sunz, March 2015
Senor George was outstanding. He took very good care of all of us. He was very patient and knowledgeable and took great care to answer all in details. Thanks a lot for showing your beautiful country to us.
Review by: Arlene Lynn A, March 2015
It was fantastic. Thoroughly enjoyed the stops, lunch, guide. Good driver as well.
Review by: Z R, March 2015
The tour was fabulous, the driver Christian and guide Enrique were both wonderful. Enrique especially was so friendly, fun, knowledgeable, accommodating, and kind he made the whole thing work! His knowledge of plants especially made the botanical gardens part of the tour perfect.
Review by: Rita P, March 2015
Tour guide was knowledgeable and perfectly billingual. Organized and on time. Highly recommend.
Review by: David S, February 2015
The tour was excellent in most respects but let me down with regards to the weather. We could see nothing on top of the volcano due to clouds, which was a real shame. Not anyones fault but from speaking / reading reviews, it appears to be more systemic than perhaps is advertised. Well worth it still. My advice: Check the weather forecast before booking. I only had the one day so didnt have the luxury.
Review by: Wesley D, February 2015
Fantastic views
Review by: CHIUNG-SHIUAN F, January 2015
Orosi valley is very beautiful and the botanical garden in Lankester has good collections. If people want to spend more time in the Volcano national park, it's better visit the park of your own. The tour only took you to a view point and spent 15 min there.
Review by: Rukevwe A, January 2015
Really great tour guide. Lots of information. Nice tour with a variety of sites. Great lunch in a beautiful location was a real surprise.
Review by: cosmin g, December 2014
Not as impressive as it sounds in the description. Well informed tour guide!
Review by: cosmin g, December 2014
Not as impressive as it sounds in the description. Well informed tour guide!
Review by: cosmin g, December 2014
Not as impressive as it sounds in the description. Well informed tour guide!
Review by: cosmin g, December 2014
Not as impressive as it sounds in the description. Well informed tour guide!
Review by: cosmin g, December 2014
Not as impressive as it sounds in the description. Well informed tour guide!
Review by: cosmin g, December 2014
Not as impressive as it sounds in the description. Well informed tour guide!
Review by: cosmin g, December 2014
Not as impressive as it sounds in the description. Well informed tour guide!
Review by: K T, December 2014
Did not see much at volcano due to weather. The rest was great....absolutely beautiful at the gardens. Great lunch at beautiful restaurant.
Review by: Martha A, December 2014
Great trip! Lankester Gardens was beautiful and our tour guide was very knowledgeable. Our lunch was very good in a perfect setting on a hill over looking a lake and garden. Everything about the day couldn't have been better.
Review by: Enrique G, June 2014
Very nice tour and the guide was excellent.
Review by: Sulochana S, June 2014
Trip was good. Our tour guide Mr. Daniel was nice and new his job well. He could be a good Botany teacher the way he explained plant life. Lunch was good and on time. Only Hassel we had, they came to pick us up at 6:30v/s 8:30 web.st time. Missed breakfast shower and rush rush. Still loved it.
Review by: Karen M, May 2014
The views at the volcano in the morning were fantastic. Who knew you could walk in volcanic craters? We couldn't see the lake in the bottom though so don't really expect the view shown. The Orosi Valley is full of gorgeous scenes - something wonderful around every curve in the road. Both churches we stopped at were awe inspiring both in beauty and age. THe lunch we had was absolutely fantastic and the view from the restaurant was marvelous. Really enjoyed being outside in the Lankester garden enjoying the outdoors and all the plants. THere was a lot of driving around and it often felt like we were driving in circles around the valley but it was a beautiful drive.
Review by: debborablank, April 2014
This was a lovely half day tour and we needed it since we had 5 other days of very long trips. However there has not been water in the volcano for 8 years.
Review by: Shemia S, February 2014
Driver was very safe and knowledgeable, and our guide was great. He gave concise descriptions of what we were going to see, then gave us time to explore the sites on our own, all the while making sure he was available to answer questions if we had any. Lunch on a coffee plantation was tasty and the scenery was breathtaking. Lankester gardens was well worth the visit.
Review by: Eshwar J, January 2014
This was my first tour in Costa Rica. We were lucky that we went on a very sunny and clear day. We took some great pictures and walked in the crater of the volcano. It was very cold at Irazu. You definitely need a jacket. _br/_
We stopped at a beautiful restaurant by a man made lake. The food was great, the desert was great and the coffee was the best I have had in Costa Rica. I actually bought some to bring back home. _br/_
Our guide was great. he spoke both English and Spanish. This tour is worth its money with hotel pick up and lunch.
Review by: Yvonne S, January 2014
I went there during the rainy season and unfortunately couldn't see much on top of the volcano... However, I think it's a great 1-day-tour to see a lot of the different and beautiful countryside. The Lankester garden on its own is worth the trip - very impressive!
Review by: Stella K, July 2013
The trip is quite nice and it offers the possibility to see a variety of things: the Irazy volcano, the Orosi valley and a beautiful catholic church standing out in the middle of the valley and the Lankester gardens.
Review by: Debra R, June 2013
Scenery on way up to volcano is stunning. Church was beautiful as were the Lankester Gardens. Miza is an excellent, very enthusiastic guide and a safe driver.
Review by: miguel, June 2013
Miza our guide made this trip awesome, he kept us entertain while driving through scenic views. Orosi Valley picturesque, Irazu is like you are stepping in on a different planet.
Review by: Britt B, April 2013
A great experience with a highly educated guide. The weather was perfect and the views spectacular. We were only three people on the tour, the van was comfortable and the lunch was very good. I never felt rushed and our guide was always there to answer any questions. We made several stops on the way, and there were many opportunities for photo shoots. A great tour and I highly recommend it._br/_
Britt B
Review by: Johan K, February 2013
A great tour with a lot of different vegetation and landscape
Review by: Gautam M, February 2013
Great trip. The ruins and church was good to see. The valley had a breathtaking view and the volcano was spectacular. Recommend taking a sweater or a light jacket.
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