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 135 reviews
The Zicasso travel company was excellent. We found the areas we visited were too touristy. In retrospect, I would have preferred a trip that took us to one or two places instead of three, and one that visited places that were off the beaten path.
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We had a wonderful time on our trip. Zicasso’s travel specialist was responsive to what we wanted to do and adjusted our trip to fit our budget. He included our interests and took the research out of it for us. We asked him to plan on a tight time crunch of less than a month and he made it with ease.
Costa Rica had so much to do and he kept us active, which we wanted. I appreciated how the travel company had a travel app for all of our itineraries and tickets, as well as an emergency contact to make adjustments during the trip. We used this several times to book things we discovered during the trip and it was a breeze.
Our favorite adventures from our trip were ziplining, the river tour, and the waterfall in La Fortuna. We also enjoyed animal tours, which says a lot, as I'm not an animal fan, but the adventure was wonderful and felt very safe. I would consider the Monte Verde night tour next time.
We enjoyed our resort in Manuel Antonio and the beach at Manuel Antonio. The view was incredible.
Our whole tour flowed seamlessly and Costa Rica was beautiful and full of adventures. We'd happily return and use the travel company.
The coffee and chocolate tour in Don Juan was wonderful. Additionally, all of our hotels were great. I'd highly recommend this experience.
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Everything was arranged thoughtfully, with time for "adventures" and downtime at terrific resorts to relax. All pick-ups, travel by limo, and drop-offs went as arranged. The drivers, guides, and hotel staff were all very pleasant and kind. Zicasso's tour operator did a great job planning our eight-day, family-of-10 trip to Costa Rica! We appreciated that most tours, hikes, and ocean experiences were small groups of just our group of 10. This made it a personal and annoyance-free experience all around. Thanks!
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Having never been to Costa Rica, we wanted to experience an overview of the country and its diversity. Consequently, we ended up visiting five areas of the country over a two-week period, flying in and out of San José. The trip was well planned by Zicasso’s travel company and services met or exceeded our expectations, from accommodations to tours and transportation.
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We celebrated my daughter's high school graduation with a 12-day trip to Costa Rica. I interviewed several local travel agencies and fell in love with Zicasso's tour company from the very first phone conversation. The owner was fantastic to work with, helping me craft the perfect adventure-filled, action-packed vacation for my family. He was honest and took the time to listen to our preferences. He provided great feedback and suggestions.
Prior to our trip, I felt very confident that I was in good hands and knew that every detail was taken care of. During our trip, the company owner checked in with me several times to make sure everything was ok. Unfortunately, someone in my family had to go home early and he was so helpful in coordinating an extra trip to the airport to accommodate our family needs (it required an extra nine hours of driving and a hotel stay for the driver).
The company owner and our agent were generous enough to not charge me for this extra trip. They even canceled all the hotel and activity reservations for that family member, and I received a refund at the end of my trip! It truly was a trip of a lifetime. I found myself thinking, I wish there was a travel company like this for every country because I would use them again to plan my next vacation, wherever it may be!
I also want to give a special shoutout to my driver, who drove my family on several long road trips during our vacation. During our drives, he would spot many interesting animals and birds, and stop on the side of the road so we could get out and get great pictures. Some of my best close-up opportunities to look at animals occurred while in the car. He talked about the agriculture, the school system, and the different rainforests. He even bought plantain chips from the side of the road and shared them with my family. Even though his job was to drive us from point A to point B, I felt his knowledge and his ability to spot animals was better than many of the tour guides we had on the trip. He really cared about Costa Rica and was excited to show us all it had to offer.
I highly recommend this travel company. And ask for our driver to drive you around; you won't be disappointed.
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Zicasso’s travel company was exceptional for our first trip to Costa Rica. We visited five destinations and all were well planned, with comfortable accommodations. We met very friendly people and took lots of memorable photos. Any questions we had were resolved immediately and with ease. It was a very wonderful experience. Thank you so much for the care and consideration.
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