Costa Rica Highlights

Costa Rica | Jul 20 - Jul 27, 2022

Hands down the best resort/hotel I've stayed at. In a word, impeccable.

The overall hike was nice, but our specific experience was not amazing. Our guide was a no-show due to some sort of misunderstanding (presumably). We had to pay for parking at the main lot since our guide wasn't there to tell us to park in their private lot. It was rainy, so the river was not blue like in the pictures (but that's just luck of the draw). The guide who did jump in to help us was pretty good, but the ending of the hike was a bit awkward while we waited around to figure out payment (basically fact checking that we had pre-paid).

We stayed at a resort that did have hotsprings, so although Tabacon had a gimmick of the river hotspring, it was not worth it for us. It was crowded, the pools were very shallow, the natural rock was painful, and the man-made pools even more painful. They charge a deposit for towels, so you have to worry about people walking off with your towel and owing money at the end.

It was good, but very touristy. The handmaking of the various products was an interesting experience, but overall it wasn't the kind of thing we typically do.

Andy was great. Super interesting to talk to and very knowledgeable about the forest and animals, cameras and photo techniques, and just life in general. Very attentive to our questions and desires.

Our guide Andy was great. We saw some interesting things, got to play with cool gadgets like infrared cameras, night vision goggles and UV lights.

Roy and Ebi were great guides. It was a fun experience, never felt like we were in any danger. Great views and very exciting.

Alfredo was a really great guide. He was very knowledgeable and very fun to talk to. I would have taken more tours with him if I could have. We ended up going over on time because Alfredo would give such detailed and interesting answers to the questions we asked. The park itself was very cool and pretty. A lot of interesting history here that isn't just generic "this is a jungle hike."

It was really fun but a little bit dangerous. The rocks were slippery and if you don't have good balance you can easily trip. The rappelling was not inherently dangerous, but I did tweak my arm coming down one of the waterfalls. Our guide Roy was fun to work with. I didn't realize how wet we would be getting and should have worn different clothes.