• 4 Dinner (D)
• 7 Breakfast (B)
• 3 Lunch (L)

• San Isidro: Meet master chocolatiers, Julio Fernandez and George Soriano, to learn about the history of chocolate and how it is produced at this small workshop.
• Tortuguero National Park: Join Cloied, a charismatic community member from one of Tortuguero’s pioneer families, and hear the story of his village as you help prepare a traditional coconut dessert. It’s a lively, hands-on experience that connects you to the flavours and spirit of the neighbourhood.
• Tortuguero: Cruise through Tortuguero’s canals and lagoons both in the morning and in the evening, seeking out incredible tropical wildlife species such as monkeys in the treetops, toucans and egres flying through the air and crocodiles in the cool waters.
• Mistico Arenal Hanging Bridges Park: Explore the rainforest canopy with a Local Specialist. Cross hanging bridges as you spot howler monkeys, hummingbirds and blue morpho butterflies.
• Monteverde: Meet Monteverde’s Quaker descendants and Local Specialist to learn about Old Town Monteverde and the fascinating history of the American Quakers who settled in the area in the 1950s. 
• Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve: Join a local Specialist for a guided hike through the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. The Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve will astound you with its beauty, bounty, and biodiversity. Wind-sculpted elfin woodlands give way to rainforests where tall trees, orchids, bromeliads, ferns, vines and mosses rise high into the sky.
• Monteverde: Join Maricela and her mother Edith Santamaría in Monteverde’s cloud forest, where they welcome you into the kitchen to shape and cook traditional Costa Rican tortillas. Then share picadillo, beef in sauce, grilled pork kebabs, vegetables, mashed potatoes, homemade bread and wine beside the stove.

• Standard regional accommodation
• Selected hotel dinners plus a locally hosted meal
• Deluxe coach travel

Visit a small artisanal atelier in San Isidro de Heredia to meet master chocolatiers Julio Fernandez and George Soriano. Watch the process from roasted nibs to glossy bars, learn to temper chocolate, and sample single-origin cacao that highlights Costa Rica’s tropical terroir. It’s an engaging, aroma-rich session that connects taste with technique.

Uncover the arc of cacao in Costa Rica, from indigenous trade routes to today’s fine-flavor revival. The makers share how careful sourcing and small-batch methods honor both growers and rainforest ecology, letting you savor chocolate that tells a from cacao pod to bar story.

Gather in Monteverde to meet Monteverde’s Quaker descendants and hear personal accounts of the 1950s migration from the United States. Explore pacifist values, dairy-farming ingenuity, and the community’s role in protecting surrounding forests.

This intimate talk connects names and faces to the cloud forest’s preservation story. Discover how cooperative traditions, trailblazing conservation, and a commitment to education shaped a model mountain town rooted in community resilience and stewardship.

Unwind in terraced pools fed by natural geothermal springs heated by Arenal’s volcanic heart. Move between warm and cooler waters beneath overhanging palms, then linger over a relaxed dinner surrounded by rainforest as twilight brings out the chorus of night creatures.

This is an optional experience at additional cost, bookable with your Travel Director. A restorative way to balance adventure with deep relaxation.

Trafalgar

Step into a local home in Ciudad Colón to meet your hosts and discover the playful world of Costa Rica’s festival masks. Try your hand in a mascaradas workshop, learning how these colorful characters spring to life as a cimarrona brass band sets a joyful beat. Cap the evening with a hearty, home-cooked dinner and a toast to Pura Vida.

Hear how these papier-mâché giants animate village fiestas and reflect Costa Rica’s blend of humor and tradition. The warmth of family hospitality, the rhythm of horns and drums, and the aroma from the wood-fired stove create a vivid, hands-on welcome to the country’s cultural heart.

Glide by boat to cruise the canals of Tortuguero National Park, where mirror-still waters thread through rainforest and mist-swirled lagoons. Scan the banks with your Local Specialist for basilisks, caiman, and herons, and look skyward for toucans as howler monkeys stir the canopy.

These waterways shelter a dazzling mosaic of habitats shaped by fresh and brackish flows. Quiet navigation encourages close wildlife observation, with pause for photos and reflection as light shifts across palm-fringed channels and towering buttressed trees alive with birdsong.

Stroll sandy lanes to visit Tortuguero Village, meeting shopkeepers and boatmen who live where jungle meets the Caribbean. Join Cloied, from one of the area’s pioneer families, to grate fresh coconut and prepare a traditional coconut dessert—a sweet, hands-on taste of coastal Costa Rica.

Hear stories of early settlement, canals carved for access, and a community that now champions conservation. As the scent of caramelized coconut fills the air, this convivial workshop connects everyday flavors with the village’s resilient spirit.

Settle into Tortuguero’s rainforest edge and learn how Laguna Lodge was built to protect the rainforest. Hear how alternative materials and low-impact design preserve habitats while gardens brim with butterflies and birds between canal and sea.

This 15-acre sanctuary demonstrates practical sustainability in one of Costa Rica’s most biodiverse corners. The briefing offers context for what you’ll see on the water and trails, underscoring how thoughtful lodging choices support thriving ecosystems and community livelihoods.

Meet a local family in Sarapiquí to walk among food palms and learn how careful harvesting yields the delicate heart of palm. Sample fresh preparations and discuss planting cycles, soil health, and how farm practices reduce waste and protect waterways.

This MAKE TRAVEL MATTER experience supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production. By valuing every part of the plant and shortening supply chains, the visit showcases flavor with purpose—and agriculture that sustains both people and forest.

Arrive at the Quintana family’s riverside property to experience Hacienda Pozo Azul, an eco-minded estate woven into Sarapiquí’s forests and farms. Join a hosted gathering that highlights reforestation projects, wildlife corridors, and reducing their carbon footprint through smart energy and waste systems.

Hear how this former retirement project became a hub supporting the local community with fair employment and education. Taste seasonal produce and learn how sustainability here is measured in clean rivers, healthy soils, and opportunities for future generations.

Enter lush foothill rainforest to walk the Arenal Hanging Bridges with a Local Specialist. Cross a series of fixed and suspended spans at canopy level, watching for monkeys, sloths, and blue morpho butterflies while framed views reveal the majestic Arenal Volcano.

Learn how epiphytes, orchids, and bromeliads trap moisture from passing clouds, creating vertical gardens alive with hummingbirds. The gentle, well-maintained paths allow time to observe leafcutter trails, rainforest textures, and the symphony of dripping leaves and birdsong.

Join a Local Specialist to guided hike through the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, tracing mist-laced trails beneath mossy strangler figs and tree ferns. Breathe cool, fragrant air as elfin woodlands give way to towering, lichen-cloaked trees beaded with orchids and bromeliads.

Learn how constant cloud cover nurtures extraordinary biodiversity and endemic species. Listen for the bell-like call of the three-wattled bellbird and watch for quivering leaves that betray hidden wildlife, making space to pause for photos and reflection in a living laboratory of the tropics.

Enter a welcoming kitchen in the highlands to shape and cook traditional tortillas alongside Maricela and Edith Santamaría. Pat warm rounds on the comal and share stories while platters of home-style Costa Rican dishes—like picadillo, grilled meats, and garden vegetables—arrive at the table.

The setting, with its warmth of the wood-fired stove, celebrates family recipes and rural hospitality. This is Costa Rican culture at the table: simple ingredients elevated by conversation, laughter, and care.

Join a local naturalist to explore lowland forest trails around La Fortuna and look for sloths, tree frogs, and tropical birds. Learn to read the rainforest—tracks on mud, calls from the canopy, and leaves nibbled by industrious ants—while your guide shares field tips for spotting wildlife.

This is an optional experience at additional cost, bookable with your Travel Director. Ideal for nature lovers seeking unhurried observation and close-up encounters with Arenal’s gentle inhabitants.

Slide onto Costa Rica’s largest lake to paddle across Lake Arenal in stable kayaks, tracing shorelines where herons stalk and fish ripple the surface. Between strokes, lift your gaze to the volcano’s broad cone rising over rainforest-clad hills.

This is an optional experience at additional cost, bookable on tour. Calm waters, expert guidance, and wide-open views make for a serene perspective on Arenal’s landscapes.

Ascend into the treetops to tread along suspension bridges strung between forested ridges. Look across a sea of green at canopy-level views where bromeliads cradle pools and tangles of vines shelter darting tanagers and hummingbirds.

This is an optional experience at additional cost, bookable on tour. Weather in the cloud forest shifts quickly; bring layers to savor the birdsong and drifting mists that define Monteverde’s high-altitude world.