Great and convenient service for an excellent vacation
Costa Rica | Feb 22 - Mar 3, 2025

Ceinwen
Ceinwen P.
Seattle, WA | Reviewed on Mar 11, 2025

Kimkim planned a wonderful vacation for us and worked through a local company Serendipity that was great. They were friendly and responsive throughout the planning process. During our vacation I felt they went above and beyond multiple times to make sure we had a great vacation. For example, we got the time for one of our tours wrong and missed our pickup. Serendipity contacted us to let us know and communicated with the tour company to make sure we could still make it to our sunset sailing tour (which we did). They made traveling to a country we had never been to before feel easy with minimal effort on our part. The selection of tours and accommodations was really great. Overall we had a really good vacation that enabled us to relax and not worry about things going wrong or choosing less good experiences.

Hotel Reviews
Hampton by Hilton San José Airport
Alajuela

Excellent option to be nearby the airport. The 24/7 shuttle was super convenient as was the option to pick up and drop off the car rental.

Authenticity & Character
Pretty standard hotel
Location
Good for early/late airport transfers
Staff
Cleanliness & Comfort
Useful to have snack/fast grocery in hotel and outlets near bed
Hotel Lomas del Volcán
Fortuna

Great breakfast. Fun having individual bungalows. Amazing heated pool!! Helpful staff. Great to have outlets near the bed on both sides.

Authenticity & Character
Location
A bit far away for walking into town but meant it was great view. And with a car not a big deal.
Staff
Cleanliness & Comfort
Monteverde Country Lodge
Monteverde

Good breakfast and nice touch to have welcome beverages. Cleaning staff were a little pushy. Clean and comfortable. Missing outlets near the bed. Portable air conditioner required regular emptying (roughly every 8hr) to be used.

Authenticity & Character
Very beautiful landscaping
Location
Very close by to town and there is a sidewalk if wanted to walk though distance to main centre a bit far for that.
Staff
Cleaning staff attempted to come in to clean while we were about ti shower and were rather pushy about it. They didn't return later in day though that might have been a misunderstanding due to language barrier.
Cleanliness & Comfort
Cleanliness was great, but we were missing outlets near the bed, had to frequently empty the portable air conditioner, and also had a table right outside our shower where people could be listening/watching (there was a bit of a cover for the window but can see someone's outline of their head if it is dark out with lights on inside and they are tall.
Karahé Beach Hotel
Manuel Antonio

Hotel room smelled very musty the entire time, was missing basics like a coffee machine/tea and phone, and no outlets by the bed. The breakfast was good quality though minimal compared to some other stays. The overall best feature was location beach side, and the private beach seating with shade cover - this part was 5/5 in addition to very nice and accommodating staff.

Activity Reviews
Big Arenal Mundo Aventura Zipline + Tractor
Big Arenal Mundo Aventura Zipline + Tractor
Arenal/La Fortuna

Very fun! Felt very safe as well, which was a concern for one of our party :)

Quality of Experience
Guides, Drivers and Staff
Transport
Night Excursion in Rainforest and Wild Frog Sanctuary
Night Excursion in Rainforest and Wild Frog Sanctuary
Arenal/La Fortuna

This was so great, one of the highlights of our trip. Our guide was super knowledgeable of the local floral and fauna. He also asked if there was anything we wanted to see explicitly and he found them for us! Namely a sloth (saw two!). He also took pictures for us and shared them afterwards. The guides were very collaborative so found more things for us to see throughout the walk.

Quality of Experience
Guides, Drivers and Staff
Transport
Manuel Antonio National Park Guided Nature Hike
Manuel Antonio National Park Guided Nature Hike
Manuel Antonio

Ended up with private tour! Our guide was truly excellent in terms of knowledge, having a great monocular, and taking super pictures on our phones through it. Also by far the experience with most wildlife seen which was very cool.

Quality of Experience
Guides, Drivers and Staff
Transport
Arenal Volcano & 1968 Reserve Guided Hike
Arenal Volcano & 1968 Reserve Guided Hike
Arenal/La Fortuna

This was a nice walk where we got to see great views of the Volcano and learn a bit about its history inclduing past eruption. Took a lot less time than allotted and appreciated the bit of fresh fruit at the end.

Quality of Experience
Guides, Drivers and Staff
The guides English could have been better but overall learned the important points.
Transport
EcoTermales Hot Springs & Meal
EcoTermales Hot Springs & Meal
Arenal/La Fortuna

Overall very nice and relaxing pools with excellent food. Had a good experience on the whole. There was a different expectation issue where we were told we could enter at any time after 5pm by the tour company but when we arrived at 530 we were told we had to wait until 6, at which point we had to first eat dinner then could go to the pools.

Quality of Experience
Food
Coffee, Chocolate and Sugar Cane Farm Tour
Coffee, Chocolate and Sugar Cane Farm Tour
Arenal/La Fortuna

Our experience and guide was excellent! Cesar was funny and very knowledgeable. We had a great time learning about the coffee, sugar and chocolate production process and tasting along the way. Clever set up with stations throughout the property.

Quality of Experience
Guides, Drivers and Staff
Transport
Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve Guided Hike
Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve Guided Hike
Monteverde

We ended up having a private guided tour which was awesome. Our guide Chris was super knowledgeable especially about birds and plants which was great! We got to see some neat wildlife and plants. It was an odd time because there were no clouds but that couldn't be helped!

Quality of Experience
Guides, Drivers and Staff
Transport
When we arrived we needed to pay extra for parking and it took a while for the staff to find our reservation.
Sunset Sailing Cruise on the Brisa Elegante
Sunset Sailing Cruise on the Brisa Elegante
Manuel Antonio

Fun experience, cool ship, really awesome to get to swim in the amazing water, sunset views were amazing, food was excellent, crew was very nice. On the whole it was great! Only downside was not enough seating in shade.

Quality of Experience
Food
Guides, Drivers and Staff
Transport
Local specialist: Holden Ketchum
Holden
Holden Ketchum
Local specialist in Cartago, Costa Rica | Replied on Mar 11, 2025

Ceinwen, thank you for taking the time to write a thorough review and mention your guides by name. They will be happy to hear that they provided you with a great experience in Costa Rica.
Thank you also for sharing these great photos! They will inspire future travelers for sure! ⭐You both look very excited about your adventures!

Thank you
Holden Ketchum
Serendipity Adventures