The Tortuguero National Park tour from San Jose was very long, with a lot of bus riding on some very bumpy roads. However, our tour guide was friendly and helpful. It was the wrong season to see any sea turtles, and it was extremely hot and humid on the coast. The boat ride down the river was very interesting the boat driver and tour guide were able to put us fairly close to some monkeys in the trees, and pointed out several kinds of birds. Overall, a good tour. I just wish we didn't have to spend so much time sitting on a bus to get to the interesting stuff.
Review by: Jonathan D, August 2017
The service was excellent and I enjoyed seeing the countryside and Tortuguero. Perhaps this was my own fault for not reading carefully, however, I was not clear that the most probable chance to see the turtles was by staying overnight. I was disappointed to not see them. I also think it's quite a long journey being on a coach and a boat without a bathroom I was pretty uncomfortable because I needed to hydrate due to the humidity but only had 1 opportunity to go to the bathroom. I would recommend being more forthright with travelers about the chances of seeing turtles and would tell my friends to do the overnight trip or pass.
Review by: cecilia, August 2017
This tour was amazing!
Review by: Naveensnaidu, April 2017
This is an awesome tour. The boat ride through canal is amazing and you get to see a good variety of wildlife. Driver and Guide go out of the way to make your trip memorable. Worth the money.
Review by: Deb C, April 2017
I was very disappointed in the quality of the guide German on this tour. Not only did he not answer simple questions i.e. what type of fish are in the canals, he was very rude and condescending. Twice during our tour, he stopped to get himself a treat- first a coffee, and then an ice cream without asking if any of us would like to have/ buy one for ourselves. Lastly, he spoke very derogatory to the women on the tour asking the Barbie's to sit at the back of the boat. He was inferring that small/ thin women sit at the back and women who were heavier sit at the front. This type of behavior is completely unacceptable. Food: the lunch was absolutely delicious, the breakfast however was disgusting eggs were hours old, as was the coffee. I would welcome someone to contact me to discuss further. I don't imagine you will post this review.
Review by: Liu Y, March 2017
It was enjoyable and quite long hours in the park. We saw some interesting animals, however, quite less than we expected. Some persons in the same boat guessed that maybe because of the boat engine is too loud. Anyway, it is nature.
Review by: Louise L, January 2017
What an amazing experience!! We traveled for about an hour and then had a breakfast of eggs, beans and rice, fruit, coffee, and toast! Our tour guide was wonderful to show us as many animals as he could find. We saw a momma and baby sloth and several monkeys as well as many different species of birds. Our trip down the river was peaceful and the rain forest was amazing. After a buffet lunch at the Evergreen Lodge and a walking tour of the village, we traveled back to our hotel in San Jose by boat and bus! The tour was worth everything we paid for it!
Review by: Jason B, January 2017
This tour is an ALL DAY tour. We were picked up bright and early at 5:25 AM. After picking everyone else up, we headed out of town. About an hour into the trip we stopped for an excellent Costa Rican breakfast of Gallo Pinto, fruit, scrambled eggs, coffee and juice. Before we boarded the bus, our tour guide showed us all a pair of blue jeans tree frogs in the plants out in front of the restaurant. Everyone took pictures and we hit the road. Farther down the road our guide had the bus stop and we all got out to find that he had spotted an mother sloth and baby hanging out in a tree only about 5 feet up next to the road. Once again, we were able to get some really good pictures, and have a very close encounter with the pair We left them alone, just oooohed and aaaaaahed alot. Back on the bus and on to the boat ride to Tortuguero. We saw several different kinds of animals on the ride, the best being a small flock of green Macaws that flew overhead. Tortuguero was not what we expected, but it was a neat little town, definitely driven by tourism since the original industry, banana farming, is long gone. Back on the boat and up the canal a little farther to lunch at one of the resorts in the area. Lunch was buffet style with plenty of options, and all of them were tasty. After lunch we ran into a spider monkey in the trees outside the dining hall eating his lunch. Out came the cameras, and then it was time to load up on the boat and head back to the bus and the ride back to San Jose.
Review by: kedwards01, December 2016
This was an amazing tour. I am very glad that we chose to do it. It gave us the opportunity to see more of Costa Rica and the national park. The guide was great and the lunch was amazing.
Review by: Estelle V, December 2016
We enjoyed the trip overall. The bus trip was quite long and the bus was completely full, so we had to sit in the first row with no leg space at all, which was quite uncomfortable for the long trip. The boat trip was very nice. I would have preferred to have more time at the beach or in the little village, rather than spending 45 minutes at breakfast and another hour or so at lunch. However, overall we had a very nice experience!
Review by: frances.marin, October 2016
Our tour guide was German, he was pretty funny and always tried to please the tourists. He had a lot of knowledge about his country and he spoke English and Spanish during the tour. We enjoyed a really good breakfast and lunch; it was delicious. At Tortuguero, we saw cocodriles, alligators and sloth
Review by: Edwin P, October 2016
This was a great tour and great tour guides, could not have been better.
Review by: turner, September 2016
The tour is well described by the tour information and the comments from those who have taken it. It was a great tour, but if you visit during the nesting season for the turtles September-October you should stay for at least one night if possible. You don't get to see any turtles on the day trip. It was a fairly long trip form San Jose to the park, and of course the same going back. But it was worth it.
Review by: Bipin K, August 2016
Save your time, money and do not take this trip especially with these folks. This is run by a tour operator and that will make it even worse. First of all, this is a day trip and turtle will never come out during the day. You must enter the park in the early morning to get the best out of it but because of these tour handlers greed you will reach there around noon and then all animals are gone. They always start late, and then will keep on loading their bus until it gets full by picking passengers from all over the town. Passengers will enter from front and their suitcases will enter from side windows to make it even more uncomfortable. Their whole purpose of conducting this tour is to sell you their night tour. In our case, they kept on selling us their night tour from the minute we boarded the bus. By the time the whole bus was full few of us wanted to go for it but did not have enough cash. But instead of focusing on their main goal of what we paid for in advance the park, they kept on taking us from ATM to ATM in the search of a machine that can accept these couple of passengers cards to take cash out. Over all journey is not so comfortable because half of the road is horrible but they will still drive very fast. You will see plenty of flora, banana plantation at 60 mile speed and almost none of fauna. I tried to tell the organizers how they can improve via email, but their response was, this is not a private tour and there is nothing guaranteed in the jungle. The only good thing in this whole trip was the smooth sailing close to water river cruise very much like being in the amazon and the meals. But no surprise, both of them were outsourced to local folks. So the question is, why should we take this tour when there are plenty of other options? My recommendation, go with someone else, stay overnight if possible to see the animals at their peak, and take a night tour with night goggles if you happen to be visiting the park during the turtle season.
Review by: Marc H, July 2016
We did the day trip to Tortuguero. We went during the rainy season so be prepared for rain and muddy terrain! Our tour guide Luis was excellent with many years of experience. The breakfast and lunch were both excellent too!
Review by: Quinn B, July 2016
Great guide. The monkeys, sloths, parrots, etc. It was incredible!
Review by: Boyd, June 2016
We were unable to take this tour, due to illness, so cannot rate it
Review by: Jay J, May 2016
It was very fun and a beautiful experience.
Review by: Τάσο Ψ, May 2016
This tour is a really long way to finally reach the park with countless hours of driving through city's traffic, villages, cloud forest, rivers and so on but reaching the park there wasnt really much of wild life to see let alone turtles due the the season.. Guide was informative and food was nice too. One has to visit the national park of Tortuguero in September to get a chance to see the turtles...
Review by: clfoley, May 2016
The boat ride was great, but I thought this would be more than just a boat ride. We did not see any turtles which we were disappointed about. We did see banana plantations and stopped to see how they are cleaned and packed. We saw one howler monkey up in the tree's and lots of birds but not much else. Kind of disappointed in that......The guides were good but hard to understand at times.
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