• 4 Dinner (D)
• 8 Breakfast (B)
• 2 Lunch (L)

• Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants
• 4 & 5-star stays
• Deluxe coach travel

• San José: Visit Randall and Doña Aradina at their home and walk through their orchid garden with the family. You’ll see a variety of orchids and tropical planting, then sit down for lunch and hear how the garden is cared for and grown in this climate.

• La Fortuna: Ride in a safari truck to the start of the zipline course, then move through 11 cables strung between platforms in the hills above La Fortuna. From the lines and platforms, you’ll look out across forest and farmland in the Arenal region.
• La Fortuna: Follow the life of cacao from start to finish, learning how it is grown, fermented and dried before it becomes chocolate. You’ll also learn how traditional chocolate drinks developed, then taste organic chocolate.

Cruise the Bebedero River by boat through a wetland corridor in north-west Costa Rica. Scan overhanging branches, riverbanks and open wetland margins for water birds, reptiles and mammals as the scenery shifts along the waterway.

The river offers a quieter vantage point for observing Guanacaste’s lowland habitats. Your time on the water reveals how river forest and seasonal wetlands provide shelter and feeding grounds for wildlife, with sightings varying from one cruise to another.

Insight Vacations

• San José: Enter the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum before opening with your Local Specialist. You’ll view gold pendants and figurines shaped into animal forms alongside ceremonial pieces that show how metalwork signaled identity and belief.
• La?Paz Cloud Forest: Walk through a reforested section of cloud forest with Edwin Ramírez as he explains how restoration is planned and maintained on this terrain. You’ll hear how persistent mist and elevation shape cloud forest conditions, and why protecting these habitats is linked to biodiversity and water systems beyond the region.

Meet your Travel Director and small group over a hosted dinner in San José, Costa Rica’s capital. It is an opportunity to get to know the people travelling with you and ask questions about the journey ahead.

Set in the Central Valley between the Poás and Irazú volcanoes, San José grew with the coffee trade that helped fund its civic landmarks. The shared meal offers a welcoming introduction to the city and to small-group travel.

Enter the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum before opening with a Local Specialist in central San José. Examine finely worked pendants, animal-shaped figurines and ceremonial objects while the galleries are quieter than during regular visiting hours.

The collection reveals how Indigenous communities used metalwork to express identity, status and spiritual beliefs long before European arrival. Close-up viewing brings the detail of these small objects, and the skill required to make them, into focus.

Visit Randall and Doña Aradina at their home and walk through the family’s orchid garden near San José. See orchids among tropical plantings and hear how the garden is tended in Costa Rica’s warm, humid climate.

Share lunch in their garden pavilion and spend time with your hosts. This personal visit offers a closer look at everyday hospitality and the care behind a living collection of flowers, rather than a conventional restaurant meal.

Join a guided nature walk through rainforest habitat in the Arenal region near La Fortuna. Look closely at the vegetation and learn how rainfall, warmth and volcanic soils influence the plants growing here.

Your guide explains how these conditions support a varied web of life, from birds and insects to mammals and amphibians. The walk turns a lush forest setting into a clearer picture of how a tropical ecosystem works, with wildlife sightings dependent on nature.

Cross six hanging bridges with a naturalist in Monteverde, rising as high as 50 metres above the forest floor. Walk among different levels of the canopy, where mist settles on mossy branches and orchids and other epiphytes grow overhead.

These were the first hanging bridges built in Costa Rica. Your guide helps you look and listen for cloud-forest wildlife, which may include hummingbirds, bellbirds or the resplendent quetzal. The bridges offer an unusually close view of the forest’s layered habitat.

Join your Travel Director and small group for a farewell dinner in Tamarindo on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast. Share a hosted meal and conversation with the travellers who have explored the country alongside you.

From rainforest and cloud forest to Guanacaste’s wetlands, the journey brings together distinct landscapes and local encounters. This final gathering provides a relaxed setting to reflect on those experiences, with Tamarindo’s coastal atmosphere as the backdrop.

Walk through central San José to see Plaza de la Cultura and the Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica, completed in 1897. Continue past Plaza de la Democracia y de la Abolición and the National Museum of Costa Rica, finishing at Parque Nacional.

The route connects the capital’s public spaces with landmarks that reflect its political and cultural history. Look for the National Museum’s distinctive setting in the former Bellavista Fortress, a reminder of Costa Rica’s decision to abolish its army.

Explore Sarchí’s artisan workshops, where craftspeople build and hand-paint traditional Costa Rican oxcarts, known as carretas. Browse studios making carved and painted pieces, and see the landmark oxcart in the town’s central park.

Sarchí is closely associated with the bright geometric designs that distinguish these working carts. Once important for moving coffee from the Central Valley, the painted oxcart remains a recognizable expression of Costa Rican craft heritage.

Harvest seasonal produce and cook a local dish during a MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® visit to an organic farm in the La Fortuna area. Learn about sustainable growing methods, see sugar cane pressed at the trapiche and use ingredients gathered from the garden.

Sharing the food you have helped prepare makes the connection between farming and the table tangible. The visit supports responsible consumption and production while giving you a practical introduction to Costa Rican ingredients and rural food traditions.

Trace cacao from pod to chocolate in the La Fortuna area. Learn how the crop is grown, fermented and dried, and explore the origins of traditional chocolate drinks before tasting organic chocolate.

The experience makes familiar flavours more meaningful by revealing the work behind them and cacao’s long cultural history in Central America. This is one of two included choice activities; you can select it instead of the La Fortuna zipline adventure.

Ride a safari truck to the zipline course in the hills above La Fortuna, then travel along 11 cables between platforms. The elevated route opens views across forest and farmland in the Arenal region.

Moving between platforms offers a more active perspective on a landscape shaped by volcanic terrain and abundant rainfall. This is one of two included choice activities; you can select the zipline instead of the cacao and chocolate experience.

Walk a reforested cloud forest at Canto del Río in La Paz de San Ramón with naturalist Edwin Ramírez. Hear how restoration is planned and maintained on privately managed land while exploring the montane habitat he helps protect.

Persistent mist and elevation create conditions for moisture-loving plants and a rich range of wildlife. Edwin’s firsthand account connects forest restoration with biodiversity and water systems, showing why conservation on individual properties matters beyond their boundaries.

Take to the Pacific by catamaran on a morning tour from the Tamarindo area, with an opportunity to snorkel and view marine life beneath the surface. Enjoy a water-level perspective on this stretch of Guanacaste coastline.

Tamarindo is known for its broad beach and lively coastal setting; a boat trip offers a different way to experience the area. Conditions and wildlife sightings vary. This Optional Experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.