Day 1 – Departure to Costa Rica

Fly to San Jose.

Welcome to Costa Rica. You arrive in the evening and will be met at San José airport by
your Earth Trip representative and driven to your hotel – Poas Volcano Lodge set right next
to Poas Volcano national park, with its caldera, lakes and pristine rainforest.

Location: – Poas National Park Hotel: Poas Volcano Lodge Board: Breakfast

Day 2-4 Poas Volcano → Arenal

In the morning you will visit Poas Volcano National Park (driver and entrance included); the only easily accessible active volcano in the country. The caldera is over 300 metres deep, with 250 metre high geysers and a string of beautiful forest-lined lakes. The park is cut by trails and is superb for seeing higher altitude birds and mammals include myriad Emerald-green highland hummingbirds. Listen out for plaintive Clay-colored Robins – which have one of the most beautiful songs in the neotropics. And look for Black Guans and finch-like Prong- billed Barbets which are unique to Costa Rica’s highlands. You can stay at Poas as long as you like before your transfer to Arenal.
Arenal is a stunning, perfectly conical volcano sitting over a vast lake, oozing hot springs and surrounded by waterfall-dripping wilds, pine-forest filled with peccary and white-tailed deer. You are in one of the most beautiful hotels in Arenal; with bunglaows set in a heliconia-filled garden surrounded by rainforest.
While at Arenal you will be taken on a guided hike around the volcano on trails that run through the wild; you will ride on the Sky Tram and Zip Line through the rainforest canopy spotting wildlife along the way, and should you wish to you can also walk forest trails to the waterfalls, swim under the stars in a hot river in the cool mountain air or simply walk the myriad trails that run from the lodge. Expect to see trogons, tanagers, Rainbow Beak Toucans, Northern Emerald-Toucanet, guans and motmots while you are here, together with capuchin and squirrel monkeys.

Location: – Arenal Volcano;   Hotel: Lomas del Volcan;     Board: Breakfast

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 5 & 6 – Arenal → Monteverde Cloud Forests

After breakfast you will take a scenic boat across Arenal Lake – a journey in the shadow of the volcano’s looming, perfect cone, from where you will be driven to Monteverde Cloud forest. This is one of the best birdwatching destinations in Central America and the key reserve for one of the most spectacular birds in the Americas, the Resplendent Quetzal. There’s nowhere better to see it. Monteverde is a magical spot. Trails run through misty forests shrouded with moss and lichens and with myriad orchids in the trees. Glades reveal stunning clear mountain views (out across rainforest covered ridges to the distant coast). As well as quetzals, pumas, ocelots, margays and capuchin monkeys live in Monteverde, and dozens of hummingbirds including Green-crowned brilliants, Violet Saberwings, Steely-vented and Stripe-tailed hummingbirds, Coppery-headed emerald, Purple-throated mountain gem, Green violet-ears and Bananaquits. At night you can often see bush-baby-like olingos in the trees. Your stay at Monteverde includes a guided hike and a guided tour of a local coffee hacienda.

Location: – Monteverde Cloud Forest;  Hotel: Poco a Poco;  Board: Breakfast

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 7-9 – Monteverde Cloud Forests → Chirripó National Park

This morning you will transfer to San José airport for a flight over Costa Rica’s spectacular Central Cordillera mountains to the wild lowland forests of the Caribbean and into the dense, vine-filled forests around Bananito on the edge of Chirripó National Park – one of the largest stretches of wild in Central America.
Selva Bananito Jungle Lodge is immersed in pristine wild; home to pumas, jaguars, Howler Monkeys and myriad lowland rainforest birds – including manakkins and dozens of species of hummingbirds.
And the lodge is one of the keenest observers of genuine ecotourism in the Americas. They have been preserving nearly 8 square miles of primary forest for over 25 years, adding a further square mile of reforested jungle. There is no plastic used on site, 90% of all organic wasted is composted. Waste water is filtered using a unique water treatment system comprising enzymes, cultivated bacteria and water lilies pools and the lodge itself is built from recycled materials from with waste wood from old logging activity, recycled banana leaves, with roofs made from recycled bags – used once only on banana plantations. All meals and a guided wildlife watching hike are included in your stay.

Location: – Chirripó National Park;  Hotel: Selva Bananito;  Board: Breakfast, lunch, dinner

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner

Day 10-13 – Chirripó National Park → Osa Peninsula Rainforest

This morning you will fly to the Osa Peninsula from Limón – another wonderful flight that takes in the country coast to coast. Osa is one of the premier wildlife destinations in Central America – a thumb-shaped, beach-fringed peninsula swathed with thick lowland rainforest and cut with rushing clear-water rivers. There is nowhere better in Costa Rica for seeing cats and large mammals. Jaguar, ocelot and margay (a tortoiseshell spotted arboreal cat) live here in healthy numbers. Osa is the best place for tapir, sloth and howler monkeys. Turtles visit the beaches and the density of bird life is as good as it gets in Central America; with some 450 species including endemics, the vulnerable Black Swift, Agami Heron, Harpy Eagle, Turquoise Cotinga, Three-wattled Bellbird,and the endangered Mangrove Hummingbird. Seeing wildlife in the rainforest requires patience, time and luck. Your lodge mixes stunning rainforest and wildlife with a gorgeous beach location – right on beautiful Drake Bay. Your
stay includes walks around the lodge, the Sirena and San Pedrillo wildlife visits, snorkelling the beautiful reefs around the Caño Island reserve and all food.

Location: – Osa Pen. Hotel: Drake Bay Wilderness Resort Board: Breakfast, lunch, dinner

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner

Day 14-15 – Osa Peninsula → San José

Today you leave the Pacific Coast and fly back across Costa Rica’s central mountains to San José. The flight is one of the most spectacular in Central America, so be sure to secure a window seat on the plane. You fly over the vast mangrove forests of the Terraba Sierpe National Wetlands and the rugged rainforest-swathed folds of Parque Nacional Los Quetzales before dropping into Costa Rica’s bowl-like central valley and the city of San José. You will have the evening and following morning to relax in your hotel – set in beautiful fores surrounds, to visit La Paz Waterfall or Costa Rica’s highest mountain, the 3,400 metre high Irazú Volcano. Or you could explore the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum or the National
Museum in San José – two of the best in Central America, showcasing nearly 2000 gold effigies, ornaments and jewellery, priceless jades, indigenous ceramics and the mysterious giant Diquis stone speheres, which are protected as Unesco World heritage.

Location: – San José;  Hotel: Buena Vista Chic;  Board: Breakfast

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 16 –  End of Your adventure – departure

Today you will fly back to your destination.

End of your tour.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast