Costa Rica: A World of Nature featuring Tortuguero National Park, Arenal Volcano & Manuel Antonio National Park

12/31/2019

Service

Local guides were excellent. White water raft guide was fabulous. Very good bus driver, bus was good. Tour manager was knowledgeable.
Tour

Very rainy on the Caribbean, Eco lodge had ants in beds, but took care of issue. Cacao plantation interesting. White water rafting was fabulous. Active tour and a lot of fun.

Thank you for traveling with Collette on our Costa Rica World of Nature tour. We're happy to hear you enjoyed your tour! We're happy to hear the Eco Lodge took care of your issue. Your comment will be reviewed by our Product Design Team so that the overall touring experience for our guests can be improved.

Collette Support

12/03/2019

Excellent adventure

Service

Traveling with Collette is guaranteed to be excellent. The experiences provided are superb.
Tour

Every day was a new experience. The highlight of this tour were the adventures: hiking, river boating, and learning more about the culture.

12/01/2019

Amazing small group tour!

Service

The service on tour with Collette was truly exemplary! The guide, Chris and driver Juan Carlos, made sure we were always happy and treated as top guests. Everything went so smoothly. We love Collette!
Tour

We were on a small group tour and we were able to go to so many places that most people would not know about. Back rivers and primal rain forest. We saw soooo many birds and even a big cat sleeping in the treetops. Favorite adventure is hard to pick because all was great, but the zip lining was really thrilling and the hanging bridges were nearly meditative. All of it was wonderful but our guide and driver and all their sub guides were the true stars of the show. So organized.

11/02/2019

Service

The tour manager was excellent; it was a small group of Collette Explorations.
Tour

The Doubletree Cariari Hotel room, room 1025, in which we spent three nights was the worst room of the hotel. It was noisy from the lobby and the roller bags going early to the airport. The room dark, cold and damp. The drapes of the windows, front and back were never opened. The view from the back window was horrendous. The room should not be allocated during the worst days of the rainy season.

Thank you for traveling with Collette on our Costa Rica World of Nature tour. We're sorry to hear about the issues you experienced at one of the hotels on tour. Your feedback will be reviewed by our Product Design Team so that the overall touring experience for our guests can be improved.

Collette Support

05/24/2019

Service

Excellent guide and good variety of hotels.
Tour

Two days involved a lot of travelling but overall a well thought out tour with everything going like clockwork.

05/24/2019

Excellent, very well organised holiday

Service

Would recommend and buy from them again
Tour

Excellent tour with a fantastic guide and coach driver. Great wildlife - would have been perfect if it hadn't poured with rain all the time!

04/24/2019

Service

Good organisation of trip, everything thought of, including bottles of water each day, knowledgeable tour guide
Tour

Well organised tour, knowledgeable tour guide, good accommodation

04/22/2019

First time with Collette

Service

We had a good time on this vacation . The early starts 5:00 to 5:30 when you are on vacation is tough. The first eco lodge we stayed at was a little too much for my liking. I didn't mind the eco part but clean would be nice. There was mold everywhere. We were on an end and had no privacy. We had a big problem at the fourth hotel with the spa and with the front desk people. Collette said they will refund the money for the spa trip we never received. Those problems made it hard to stay there for three days. The best part of this trip were the people we traveled with. We had a great group of people. It was nice to have the feeling of being safe and to have a group of folks that you knew in and about towns. We had time to do our own thing but could find someone if we needed to.
Tour

Everything went smooth. Would like to get the paper work before the trip a little sooner.

Thank you for traveling with Collette to Costa Rica. Your feedback will be reviewed by the Product Design Team in order to improve the overall touring experience for our guests. The optional tours that did not operate were refunded to your credit card on file on April 10th.

Collette Support

04/14/2019

Personalized, custom approach

Service

Friendly, competent,knowledgeable, dependable, caring staff.
Tour

enjoying nature thru adventures and firsthand experiences,ziplining, white water rafting, hiking, swimming, cooking class, cultural activities, ecolodges, boating, bus trips, and impromtu discussions about daily life of locals.

04/05/2019

The trip was what I expected and more.

Service

They answered my questions clearly and accurately except for once question about the additional tours. I misunderstood but all came right in the end.
Tour

I didn't have to worry about a thing. plane tickets, in country transportation, meals, accommodations, up time and down time were all provided seamlessly. The local guide was absolutely amazing at spotting and identifying the local wildlife for us.

04/01/2019

Such a exciting experience with nature!!!

Service

Everything was welled planned and out tour director was excellent. Jonas Gonzalez
Tour

Excellent we got to see so much wildlife..

03/25/2019

Service

Excellent guide and tour lived up to all expectations.
Tour

Seeing exotic wildlife and birds close up.

03/22/2019

Excellent tour and guide, tons of wildlife, great eco-lodges

Service

Excellent service, great tour guide
Tour

I would have given this 5 stars, but there were a few days where there was too much time spent on the bus. In their defense, the roads are difficult in Costa Rica. Maybe this should be a 15 day tour to allow shorter days of travel between locations. Also, skip Manuel Antonio Park. It is a zoo with too many people. Not the best way to end the tour that kept you away from crowds.

03/18/2019

Great adventure!

Service

Everything was well organized. We had a great time. I would use Colette again, and I would recommend them to friends.
Tour

I think the trip to Tortuguero was my favorite...I loved the boat ride in and the canal ride. I loved our cabin at Evergreen Lodge. The bird walks in the early morning with our tour manager Juan Pablo were fun and informative. All the hotels we stayed at had beautiful grounds and abundant wildlife.

03/18/2019

Perfect!

Service

The organization was perfect! Of course, the beauty of Costa Rica was the best part of this tour, and Collette made sure that all 22 of us saw that beauty up close. All accommodation was comfortable, clean and in beautiful surroundings.
Tour

The river tour into and out of our stay at the Evergreen hotel. The Evergreen hotel itself! It was the most interesting and beautiful hotel I've ever stayed at! All river tours provided great pleasure.

03/18/2019

Service

From our pickup at the airport, to the shuttle ride at the end, we received the best of care. With the personal introductions at the beginning to the excursion to our final dinner and new friendships.
Tour

Stopping the bus to ****** a sloth as it crossed a busy highway. The birds!

03/14/2019

the experiece and richness of jungle animals

Service

small and wonderful diverse group, energetic and personable tour guide. Amazing buss driver on narrow roads.
Tour

recommend a graphic style picture guide, showing the physical difficulty of each activity. Similar to the pain guide in a doctor's office. drop the first coffee event (with the long twisted tail) in favor of the coffee presentation alone the road café.

03/01/2019

Service

Everything was as described and more.
Tour

Unique opportunity to see the nature of this country. I loved Tortuguero. The Everygreen Lodge was great. I like staying more than one night at a location, although sometimes it was only one day because of travel and late arrivals. I would have liked another night and full day at Manuel Antonio. And a day in San Jose. The extra excursions offered were already included in the package. A Little confusing.

02/18/2019

Service

Our tour manager, Ricardo Howell, was outstanding. He went into great detail about Costa Rica explaining how the country works in just about every way. The hotels were excellent as well as the meals. Food in Costa Rica is great especially the fish and beef. The wildlife was outstanding. Ricardo did a great job pointing out birds, etc and we enjoyed all of our nature walks. The visits to the pineapple, coffee, chocolate plantations were all wonderful. The bat presentation was outstanding. The bus was excellent.
Tour

Whitewater raft and float trips. Visit to the plantations. Tortogero

02/15/2019

Service

They were very easy to deal with and accommodating to my needs.
Tour

Excellent tour manager and excursions.

02/12/2019

Service

Local tour guide, Jose, was excellent. He had to deal with some major changes but always did it patiently. Also the bus driver, Juan, was unbelievable. We felt very comfortable with him at the wheel. He was always polite and very helpful.
Tour

We really enjoyed the Evergreen Lodge at Torteguero National Pk. It was so quiet and secluded. Food was excellent. The included whitewater rafting trip was lots of fun and a new experience for us, as well as the included ziplining excursion.

02/12/2019

All of Costa Rica is a "National Park"

Service

Well organized schedule, events, locations, and the tour guide, Jose, and bus driver, Juan Carlos, were outstanding. Parador and Mountain Paradise Hotels were the best. All meals and lodges/hotels were first rate. To have a brand new bus was a big plus! It also was great to have Quinn Long with us from the Missouri Botanical Gardens and Shaw Nature Reserve here in the St. Louis area. We enjoyed the whole trip, including zip lining, and white water rafting, cocoa presentation, pineapple plantation, coffee plantation, even the observation of "bats." Because of our experience with turtle research and rescue from the center on South Padre Island in Texas, we were not impressed with that part of the tour. The visit to the National Park at Manuel Antonio seemed a little anti-climatic with everything we had seen all during the tour before there. All in all, we would recommend Collette and their Costa Rica tour to anyone in the future.
Tour

See review above in custormer experience

01/10/2019

Adventure in Costa Rica

Service

The pricing was off on the final bill and included items were NOT included. Price adjustments needed to be made or you were overcharged if not paying attention to your original reservation. Included items in brochures were not honored by merchants on the actual trip. They were EXTRA, thus more cost.
Tour

River rafting, eco bat, chocolate,pineapple & coffee tours were the highlight of the trip.

Thank you for traveling with Collette to Costa Rica. We do offer optional activities that are not part of the base land tour. They are an additional cost but you are not required to purchase them. If your feedback pertains to items not including optional tours please contact our Guest Relations Team so we can research your comments.

Collette Support

12/31/2018

Service

They refunded my money for a cancelled optional tour promptly
Tour

Loved the Zip Line through the tree canopy

11/02/2018

Great time in Costa Rica

Service

I did not have a lot of contact with Collette, most was done with the local contact, Chris Philbin from Expedia CruiseShip Centers north shore
Tour

This was first time I have been on an organized tour. Usually I make my own plans. My concern was having a large group and waiting for the last person to get on the bus so I chose a small tour group tour. The group size was 19 and there was never a time where we had to wait for someone to board and thereby, lose time at the next experience. The planned excursions were excellent. I rarely felt rushed. Our full time guide and bus driver were excellence. The most memorable experience was the turtle egg laying excursion (extra cost) in Tortuguero. The meals that were provided were good, as local foods and spices were used. The hotel rooms were what I had expected considering we spent a lot of time in the rain forest. Not all of our hotel stays had air conditioning in rooms, which did not bother me, as the ceiling fans and the large window screens in the rooms provided ample ventilation. PS: Travel light, no one will notice you wore the same shirt a few days ago. Check with the hotel if they provide laundry service, most do, but prices vary. One hotel charge per pound and the other hotel charged per item.

06/09/2018

A fantastic adventure

Service

This was our fifth trip with Collette. For me the service they provide is top notch. The hotels where we stay are usually 5 stars the restaurants are the same quality. Also, the tour guides, We have never been disappointed. They are knowledgeable, interesting, organized and very easy going and polite. Also, the busses that they have provided, in all our trips have been luxury coaches, and the drivers are as helpful as the tour guides. In addition, the office workers are helpful, responsive and polite. We also encountered a small issue on one trip, Collette responded immediately and compensated us for our “inconvenience” by providing the entire tour with a free excursion.
Tour

The white water rafting excursion that was included in the tour, was by far the most fun we have had on any vacation.

06/08/2018

Paradise

Service

I thought everything about this tour was perfect...truely paradise! Our tour guide was so very professional and passionate about his country. I would have liked to stay extra time in the rain forest.
Tour

So many favorite memories, but the zip lining and watching the monkeys swing through the trees stand out in my mind,

05/11/2018

An amazing adventure!

Service

Everything really. Can't fault Collette
Tour

An absolutely superb tour, not to be missed. The zip wire adventure through the jungle was amazing. The tour manager, Ricardo, was the best I've ever come across. So knowledgeable, friendly, caring and with a great sense of humour.

05/01/2018

Service

Excellent guide and driver, good hotels, interesting tours and visits included.
Tour

It was a very good tour well organised and interesting. The accommodation was of a very good standard and yet very varied as we moved from place to place. The tour guide was very informative and also well organised so that we were able to enjoy all aspects of our holiday. The standard of our driver meant that we could completely relax and enjoy the journey.

04/02/2018

Stunning location,Volcanos,National Parks,Rivers,Fabulous experiences !

Service

From the time of booking,documents,door to door pick up.Smooth quality service throughout.A brilliant way of experiencing the best of Costa Rica Fabulous Scenery,National Parks,Volcanoes,waterfalls,Cloud Forests,exotic wildlife and great food yum yum ! Fantastic Trip...Thank you
Tour

Activities and excursions to cater for everyone with knowledgeable staff always on handUp close and personal with the exotic wildlife.One of my many highlights ziplining over the jungle canopy with breathtaking views of The Arenal Volcano Exhilarating and exciting !

03/27/2018

Service

Excellent guide. Nice number of guests. Good food. Very clean, comfortable bus and great driver.
Tour

Nice variety of experience - feel like I saw much of the country.

03/20/2018

Service

It was a great tour, except the Jungle crocodile Safari, that was a waist of time, The Tour guide from that company was more interested in his phone and his companion instead of pointing out wildlife. the lunch there was great but not enough time to eat it. Otherwise it was a great tour and Adriana made it very exciting.
Tour

there is always room for improuvment

Hello, thank you for bringing this to our attention. We have passed along your feedback about the guide from the Jungle Crocodile Safari to our product development team for review. They'll use it to improve the tour for future guests.

Collette Support

03/17/2018

Service

Excellent trip but more strenuous than promoted.
Tour

The rain forest and cloud forest were extraordinary. A very friendly, traveler-oriented country. A definite bucket list one!

03/16/2018

The beauty of Costa Rica

Service

It was a packed trip! Packed with activity. A little active for some of us seniors. Hotels were very adequate, however, some on hills and up many steps. I think there were the perfect amount of inclusions, leaving a little alone time. Meals at hotels were very nice. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable about the ecology and biology of the region.
Tour

Favorite experience was zip lining.

02/20/2018

Service

Of great importance was the incredible guide, ********* ****. The adventure was well planned, the country was spectacular and ********* provided ongoing helpful insights into the nature we came to see. We have been on 4 Collette led trips and will book more, all will be in the small group format. This Collette adventure was clearly the best.
Tour

The birds of Costa Rica were incredible!

12/30/2017

Service

Our 5th exploration tour with Collette and it was well organised from start to finish. Booked directly with Collette's and they were very efficient.
Tour

A fast paced tour with quite a few early starts. Excellent hotels in great locations. Our tour manager was very informative and had a good sense of humour. There were many highlights, the best were seeing a Jaguar in Tortguero and zip lining. I was surprised that a tour of San Jose was not included but we did that by ourselves as we had an extra day at the end of the trip.

12/29/2017

Very busy everyday with something exciting always on the agenda

Service

Would definitely go on another trip with collette
Tour

Zip lining beside the volcano and being able to see the beautiful area going down

12/27/2017

Great service

Service

Documents were mailed well in advance of tour. Setting up payments and details of trip was very smooth over the phone. Credit back to us for change in travel plans by tour operator was received in a timely manner.
Tour

Nature tour of Costa Rica was wonderful. A tour director who knows where to find wild life! We would never have seen these things on our own.

12/01/2017

Service

Our guide was excellent so many combinations could have been upgraded
Tour

Seeing turtles hatch which are guide set up especially for our group was amazing. Could have lived without the earthquake but he had nothing to do with that

12/01/2017

Excellent holiday with friendly party of guests

Service

Good itinerary and excellent guide. Personal collect and drop off was very good and accommodation in a Gatwick hotel in advance of early flight was generous.
Tour

Perfect except for some embarrassing confusion over tipping, said to be included for British guests but guide not aware. Have taken this up with Collette and awaiting reply

09/08/2017

Service

The hotels, excursion, guide and driver were all first rate.
Tour

The waterfall and swimming hole in west Costa Rica was a highlight.

06/16/2017

Absolutely Fantastic

Service

This was my third Collette tour. I thought that the itinerary really gave us a feel for the different regions of the country, and the places we stayed in, while lovely and comfortable, also gave a sense of place and locality. They were not big, sterile hotels. Also, our guide was absolutely superb
Tour

My favorite experiences would be the cruise we took on the Torteguero River, where we saw birds, crocs, and other animals, as well as the Arenal Hanging Bridges tour, where I felt I was on top of the forest (I actually was).

05/01/2017

A most enjoyable time and a fine learning experience.

Service

Appreciated the pick up and transportation home. Our tour director was most efficient and personable and soooooo knowledgeable about all aspects of Costa Rican nature. Thought our out of the way lodges were quite unique.
Tour

I mentioned them in the previous response.

04/14/2017

Poor service

Service

Failed to note that as I was flying out direct to San Jose that I would need transport from the airport and an extra night in the hotel until I questioned what was to happen. No car to meet me at LGW on way back so tried to phone the company using the number provided which turned out to be a private number - the owner of which had clearly had many calls in the past as she knew exactly which company I was calling. I had to get the correct number from one of the other drivers.The driver who eventually arrived had poor driving skills - took both hands off the steering wheel frequently, drove on his brakes - I wold have failed his driving test!
Tour

Optional zip wire experience

03/24/2017

Not enough excursions and what we had was scheduled at same time. Would li...

Service

Not enough excursions and what we had was scheduled at same time. Would like to be able to tour local towns and shops. On the bus to much, traveling. Tour guide t give more information while driving in the country side and buildings in the towns.
Tour

Resorts were unbelievable. Tours in the jungles were wonderful.

Hello Janice,
Thanks for sharing your feedback. We will pass this feedback along to our product and tour manager team. They will find it useful when improving the tours for future guests.
We appreciate you bringing this to our attention.

Collette Support

03/04/2017

Outstanding exploration of Costa Rica is quite an adventure

Service

The pace of the trip was very good. Our guide was extremely well informed and our driver was very good. We enjoyed our accommodations and the food at the resorts was outstanding. We enjoy the pickup service very much.
Tour

Riding the boats on the rivers was a fun and different experience

02/22/2017

Must Go Back to Costa Rica

Service

Although my Costa Rica trip was cut short by a family issue, I enjoyed what I did see. The hotel accommodations were great. *Team member name removed by Feefo* was wonderful.
Tour

First class all the way!!!

02/08/2017

Absolutely amazing

Service

Great trip guide was excellent so well informed. Hotels were wonderful very comfortable. Really enjoyed the group we traveled with. Bus driver very efficient way handle bus very courteous too
Tour

Loved everything especially the zip lining.

02/07/2017

This tour had the best tour guide ever!

Service

This tour had the best tour guide ever! *personal info removed by Feefo* truly 'took care' of all of us through the whole wonderful trip. We are seriously interested in another trip to Costa Rica if * personal info removed by Feefo* runs the trip. The lodgings, food, and historical information were 5 star through the whole trip. The mountain roads on a coach were not first class but * personal info removed by Feefo* entertained us with stories, facts, and history of the country he loves. We have taken two other Collette trips and keep returning to Collette because of this kind of quality. Please don't ever let * personal info removed by Feefo* leave!
Tour

As stated above, this was a fantastic tour. It was even more than we expected. We went on this tour for our 50th Anniversary which *personal info removed by Feefo* made very special over and over. We got to see all the habitats we wanted to see and with expert guidance from *personal info removed by Feefo*. Waking up looking out over the Pacific with a toucan 3 feet in front of the window and having hundreds of blue morphos fly all around us just after photographing almost twenty hummingbirds are some of our favorite memories. Thank you for tour but especially for *personal info removed by Feefo*.

02/07/2017

Excellent service by Collette

Service

Excellent tour .very good guide and driver.
Tour

Cloud hotel and surroundings outstanding

12/30/2016

Excellent service by Collette

Service

Thoroughly enjoyed the vacation!

12/30/2016

On the whole it was great. I just didn't like the distance of the Rio Celes...

Service

On the whole it was great. I just didn't like the distance of the Rio Celeste to the planned activities. Too much difficult bus travel. The resort was lovely ,but had a heavy mildew smell. Why go there where it pours rain most of the time. Then travel 2 hours each way to go to an activity. Couldn't you stay somewhere closer to the raft trip?
Tour

The tour was a 4and 1/2 overall. I liked the crocodile boat trip and the Tortoguera segment best.

12/30/2016

do not stay at the last to places. other wise excellent.

Service

i enjoyed all food, day trips, company and the guide was excellent. but i feel the last two places we stayed at were to far from town or things to go to see . i would opt. on those places.
Tour

all the wide life people so friendly, food excellent

12/03/2016

I loved Tortuguero. Wish we had more time there. Loved Manuel Antonio also....

Service

I loved Tortuguero. Wish we had more time there. Loved Manuel Antonio also. Our guide for the trip was excellent. I thought that in Rio Celeste hotel and Cloud Forest one we were too far removed from anything else. When we did venture out as we did both days from Rio Celeste, it was just too long a ride 4 days in a row basically--to get there, to go rafting, the indigenous adventure, and then leave for the drive to Manuel Antonio. Too many days of long drives. I didn't really care for the Maleku tribe presentation. They don't live that way now, so I would have prefered to see just how they do live, not their rituals from the past.
Tour

I already did make a statement about the tour. My favorite experience was the whole Tortuguero experience. Loved being with all the birds and animals around. I could have spent more time there.

11/14/2016

i felt we were being well loked after.

Service

Dealt with our queries quickly and promptly - even arranged for courier to purchase postage stamps for our postcards before we arrived. He took the trouble to find out about us, to ensure we had a good time.
Tour

Excellent hotels and food - good group - felt that we were secure in an unfamiliar environment. Favourite experience - Manuel Antonio National Park and beach.

09/02/2016

Brilliant

Service

Super to deal with, very organised, well run & the best experience we have ever had. Cannot recommend then high enough simply superb. The guide Ricardo was fantastic, nothing was to much trouble & always happy. could not have had a better guide.
Tour

Please do not change a thing!! All was a fantastic experience & all the little things done by Ricardo made the trip even more special. The wildlife seen was superb & some would not have been possible without the experts on site so a big thanks to them all.

06/17/2016

Experience the Wonders of the Costa Rica

Service

I took my granddaughter on this trip as a graduation present from college. She loved it. This was my 4th visit to Costa Rica but this experience was somewhat different than the others. We stayed in new properties and visited some new locations where we were informed about their diversification program and learned about the many they things they are doing to preserve their environment. We were immersed into the culture and thoroughly enjoyed mingling with the people and sharing their ideas and thoughts. We really enjoyed the animals, the food and the lovely properties. Our guide Fabian Alfaro was excellent. He taught us so much about his country and blended with our group beautifully. We only had 10 people on this tour, which was a little unusual for Collette, but it made a great experience for us and we enjoyed our little family and got to do many things we couldn't have with a large group. I would highly recommend this trip.
Tour

I liked the immersion into the culture, learning how the people live and seeing how much they love their country and want to protect it and save it for the next generation. They live in one with nature and love and appreciate life. Their existence does not depend on money and material things but appreciating life and the moment.

06/17/2016

Excellent experience

Service

Loved being picked up from our home to go to the airport. Excellent tour guide who was very knowledgeable of Costa Rica and very sensitive to the needs of the members of the group. The experiences were on time and interesting and we were very comfortable throughout the trip.
Tour

Many excellent moments and we grew to love Costa Rica due to these experiences. Loved our group and the size of the group was especially wonderful. THe only negative was the hotel we stayed in San Jose. Although we thought it was a beautiful property, we had a walking tour in downtown San Jose and had to spend almost $70 in cab fares to get to where the tour began. Also the restaurant in the hotel was very disinterested in us and it took us forever to get our lunch and to get the attention of the wait staff.