Off-the-Beaten-Path Costa Rica Family Tour
What to expect on this itinerary
Connect with the indigenous culture and explore wildlife-filled nature during this adventurous 7-day family journey through Costa Rica. Featuring local experiences and beautiful off-the-beaten-path locations, this handcrafted tour will show you the natural splendor Costa Rica, which is a land of authentic and often surprising scenes. Meet Bribri Indians, savor a cultural farm-stay experience, paddle through the jungle in search of monkeys, and search for sea turtles on Caribbean beaches.
Customizable Itinerary
Turrialba – Costa Rica’s Volcano Heartland
Costa Rica’s volcanic heartlands epitomize the local saying of Pura Vida. This is a country that instantly seems exotic and new but is also quick to make you feel at home. Today’s experiences will be customizable and can be adjusted after you arrive, depending on how you feel. The journey to Turrialba will lead you by Poas and Turrialba, which are two volcanoes that offer a superb variety of hiking trails. By trekking through forests, you can search for quetzals and waterfalls. It is also possible for your guide to drive you to Poas’s summit, where you can admire fumaroles, mini geysers, and mud that spits and surges.
What's Included:
Turrialba – Cultural Exchange on a Farm
Puerto Viejo – Sloths and Howler Monkeys
Puerto Viejo – Indigenous Jungle Experience
Tortuguero National Park – Encounters with Hatchling Sea Turtles
Tortuguero National Park – Jungle Canoe Ride
Tortuguero National Park – Departure
Trip Highlights
- Enjoy an incredible day with an indigenous Bribri community, where you can experience a very unique culture and lifestyle
- Venture by flashlight onto Tortuguero’s beaches for a thrilling search for sea turtle hatchlings
- Experience a Costa Rican working farm during a cultural exchange in Turrialba, which is one of the country’s least-visited regions
- Discover magnificent wildlife in Tortuguero National Park and the Jaguar Rescue Center, which is also home to howler monkeys and strange sloths
- Lounge and play on breathtaking Caribbean beaches, where an off-the-beaten-path atmosphere is part of the fun
- Ride through the wild in a wooden canoe and experience the wonders of a surreal wildlife world
- Savor Costa Rica’s active volcanos and learn all about fumaroles and thermal power
Detailed Description
Costa Rica creates a rare paradox. This is a country where so much remains off the beaten track, and authentic experiences are part of the everyday schedule; it is also a country where offbeat locales and activities have been made accessible. There are few other countries where you can take your family off the beaten track without needing long journeys or any steps beyond your comfort zone. Over these seven days, you will be canoeing through the jungle to a Bribri Indian community, exchanging ideas on a rural coffee farm, and finding breathtaking Caribbean beaches void of footprints.
This seven-day family tour is handcrafted to celebrate indigenous cultural experiences and serene nature excursions. It will take you off the beaten track to Turrialba, the Belli Bamboo Parkland, Puerto Viejo, and Tortuguero National Park. Whether you are searching for sea turtles or spending time with a local family, your Costa Rica tour will be a celebration of local authenticity. By skipping popular destinations like Arenal and the Pacific coast, you can indulge in an adventure to places where few other foreigners tread. With stunning family lodges and sucure transport connections, this will be a 7-day experience that is suitable for all ages.
To begin your journey, you will fly into San Jose and transfer directly to the volcanos, which are majestic cones that peer down as you ride through green landscapes to Turrialba. After a customizable day on the volcanos, you will spend day two experiencing a family cultural exchange that will teach you about the everyday life of a working coffee farm. It is a beautiful place to be, and everyone can be involved in different elements of farm life, from roasting coffee beans to working with horses. By traveling further east on day three, you can seek out sloths and monkeys in the Jaguar Rescue Center before settling in to two nights on the Caribbean sand.
Puerto Viejo is the starting point for a cultural jungle adventure, and it will take about 90 minutes to reach the Bribri Indian community on a journey down the Yorkin River in a canoe. Once in the village, you can discover local life, from the art of palm thatching to learning the language and exploring everyday traditions. Part wetland wilderness and part Caribbean coast, Tortuguero will provide a dazzling final destination, where the experiences focus on intimate connections with rare and unique wildlife. A canoe cruise will then showcase one world, and, out on the beaches, you will be searching for sea turtles, including hatchlings that emerge after dark. This is the part of Costa Rica that most are yet to know of, and these seven days will include many new and intriguing experiences.
Starting Price
$2,100 per person (excluding international flights)
Your Zicasso trip is fully customizable, and this sample itinerary is a starting place for your travel plans. Actual costs are dynamic, and your selection of accommodations and activities, your season of travel, and other such variables will bring this budget guideline up or down. Throughout your planning experience with your Zicasso specialist, your itinerary is designed around your budget. You can book your trip when you are satisfied with every detail. Planning your trip with a Zicasso travel specialist is a free service.
What's Included
The starting price is based on travel during the low season for a minimum of two travelers staying in shared 3-star accommodations. Please inquire for a custom trip quote based on your travel preferences and travel dates.
Verified Traveler Reviews
Based on 545 reviews
Zicasso’s travel specialist was a dream. We booked our trip quite late, but they were still able to put together an amazing itinerary, with beautiful hotels, wonderful meals, and incredible activities and adventures, and everything went off without a hitch. We couldn't believe how every single time we had something planned, a driver showed up on time, was super-friendly, and everything went really smoothly. And the owner was always available to tweak things on the fly when necessary. It was just wonderful.
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Zicasso’s travel specialist customized a trip for us, with three nights near the Arenal Volcano, two nights near the Monteverde cloud forest, and three nights near Manuel Antonio National Park. During the planning, the travel specialist was flexible and responsive to all of our needs and questions.
All of our lodgings were outstanding and all of our adventures were great. The itinerary was executed flawlessly, from our transportation to and from airports, from one destination to the next, and to and from our adventures.
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The trip was wonderful. Zicasso’s travel specialist and his team selected top-notch hotels and excursions for my stay. I feel that I got to experience so many different regions of Costa Rica and learn all about the region and the devotion they have to eco-responsibility.
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I want everyone to know how pleased we were with the trip Zicasso’s travel specialist planned for our one-week vacation in Costa Rica. We arranged our travel through a travel company via Zicasso and our goal was to have as stress-free a vacation as possible. I only had a general idea of what we wanted to do and the travel specialist took it from there.
He designed a seven-day itinerary, with three days near Arenal Volcano and three days in Manuel Antonio on the Pacific coast. He suggested several excursions and we were able to quickly choose activities and set the pace of the trip to match our preferences. Once finalized, we were excited and ready to go.
When we arrived in San José, we were met at the airport and from that point on he handled everything seamlessly. The drivers for our transfers were bilingual, engaging, and shared insights about the people, politics, agriculture, and natural environment. Those conversations made the travel time enjoyable and informative.
Each excursion met or exceeded expectations. The guides were knowledgeable and passionate, giving us a new appreciation for coffee, chocolate, spices, and Costa Rica’s natural beauty.
One of the biggest advantages of working with the travel specialist was how he handled the unexpected. When we encountered an issue with one of our rooms, I contacted him and he resolved it quickly—he were in a new room within an hour. He also checked in three times during the week to ensure everything was going smoothly.
In conclusion, if you are looking for an authentic, stress-free vacation in Costa Rica, I highly recommend working with this travel specialist. He was excellent and we will absolutely engage him for our next trip.
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I highly recommend Zicasso’s travel specialists for their personalized and detailed service planning our trip to Costa Rica. They know the country so well that they can make sure you maximize your vacation time without feeling overbooked or stressed. They truly care about your experience in their beautiful country and maintain contact with you throughout your stay to make sure everything is going well. I would not hesitate to use them again.
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It was very well organized. The driver coming from San José to pick us up was late because of traffic. Zicasso’s travel specialist arranged another vehicle to drive us to a meeting point, where we saw a toucan and took many photos. So a delay was turned into an opportunity. Great job!
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