Day 1:  Departure to San Jose

Welcome to Costa Rica. When you arrive, you will be met at the airport by your Earth Trip representative and driven to your local hotel. Get a good rest and prepare for the beginning of your trip into the Costa Rican wild.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 2 – 4: San José to Tortuguero National Park

You will be picked up early this morning for your land transfer from San José to the 19,000 hectare Tortuguero National Park on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast. The drive is beautiful – over the country’s central cordillera mountains, through lush forest and down to the coastal lowlands. At the road’s end you will rendezvous with a launch which will take you to your lodge in the heart of the park. Tortuguero covers a vast swathe of lowland and gallery rainforests, channeled by crocodile-filled rivers and creeks and fringed with long sweeping Caribbean beaches. The wildlife is superb – squirrel monkeys and capuchins in the trees, toucans on every branch. Most spectacular of all are the nesting Green and Giant Leatherback turtles – and you will be there at the best possible time to see them; both species visit the beaches in July. Tortuguero is one of Costa Rica’s top wildlife destinations.

Transportation, turtle & wildlife watching tours & park entry fees included.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner

Day 5 – 8: Tortuguero to Cocles Caribbean Beach

After checking out of your hotel after breakfast you will be transferred to the Rio Danta restaurant in pretty little Guapiles village, named after two twin rivers that meet nearby, cascading over waterfalls in the forest. Here you will meet your  driver for a 2 ½ hour transfer from here to beautiful Cocles Beach on the southern Caribbean. This stretch of coast is a laid-back place, with a Caribbean feel; founded by settlers from Jamaica, there’s reggae music playing in the bars, and the tiny village that lies next to the beach is made-up of classic brightly painted Caribbean shutterboard houses. The beach is gorgeous – a long sweep of talc-fine sand shaded by coconut palms. And there’s plenty to explore nearby – superb snorkelling on the offshore reefs off Punta Cahuita cape to the north and the huge Refugio Nacional Gandoca-Manzanillo wildlife preserve which sits immediately to the south.

You will see white-faced capuchin monkeys in the trees, spectacled caiman in the creeks, spotted dolphins offshore, frigate birds overhead, huge flocks of parakeets and brightly coloured motmots, toucans and tanagers on the rainforest trails. Gandoca-Manzanillo is one of only two places in the country where manatees still occur – grazing the eel grass beds, and with a little luck you may even spot a Great Green Macaw or a sloth-eating Harpy Eagle, the most powerful eagle in the world. Your hotel sits nestled in a tropical garden right on the beach and has a generous pool.

Transportation from Tortuguero to Cocles beach included

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 9 – 11: Playa Cocles to Selva Bananito

This morning you leave the beach for a 90-minute transfer along Costa Rica’s stunning Caribbean coastline and up into the dense forest around Bananito on the edge of Chirripó National Park – one of the largest stretches of wild in Central America. You will stay here – in the heart of the rainforest in the Selva Bananito Jungle Lodge. Pumas, jaguars, Howler Monkeys and myriad lowland rainforest birds – including manakkins and dozens of species of hummingbirds live in the preserve. 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.

Transportation, guided natural history walks at Selva Bananito included.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner

Day 12 & 13: Chirripó National Park to Pacuaré Lodge

This morning you will dropped off at the Salon Delia in Bananito Town where you will be transported to Pacuaré Lodge, arriving at the lodge on a river raft (with your bags transported separately. Getting to Pacuaré is a wonderful light adventure – drifting and occasionally rushing down a deep canyon surrounded by pristine wilderness in a jaw-dropping mountain setting.

You will spend the next two nights at the Pacuaré Lodge – one of the best rainforest lodges in the world, enjoying wildlife watching in the heart of the wild. Pacuaré is genuinely conservational. No trees were cut to build the hotel. Wood was purchased from a sustainable reforestation project operated by small farmers. The Pacuaré reserve protects a swathe of rainforest within a wild area. Waste and water are recycled, the lodge employs local people. Accommodation is the very definition of luxury eco-chic. Its thatched-roof, hardwood-built structures are elegant as well as being sustainably sourced, offering screens rather than walls, and candles rather than electricuity in the evenings. Chandeliers, lamp shades and beautiful objets d’art handmade by local campesinos and Cabécar indigeneous people dot the grounds – and beyond that, the vast rainforest trees, vines, tropical flowers (visited by myriad hummingbirds)  and river views complete the scene.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner

Day 14 – 18: Pacuaré Lodge to Arenal

After breakfast you will be picked up from Pacuaré Lodge and transferred to the stunning, perfectly conical volcano at Arenal. Along the way you will visit the lowland rainforest at Sarapiqui where you will visit a beautiful nature reserve, learn how locals harvest chocolate from wild Cacao and see the chocolate roasted and prepared.

Arenal is is one of the best nature and wildlife sites in Central America. Your hotel, which sits in its own hummingbird-filled tropical gardens is a few minutes’ drive from the wilderness, and is close to La Fortuna Town for easy access to family-friendly restaurants.

Dyring your stay you will take-in the Sky Tram Advenure, whose suspended walkways, take you into the forest canopy right up close to capuchin monkeys and toucans. You will walk the wildlife-busy rainforest trails around the beautiful La Fortuna waterfall. And should you wish you can soak in volcanic hot springs in the hotel and watch wildlife at the Mistico Hanging Bridges – a series of trails and canopy walkways showcasing Arenal’s species-rich rainforests.

Transportation, chocolate tour in Sarapiqui, Sky tram, canopy walkways & all entrance fees included

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 19 to 21: Arenal to Hermosa Pacific Ocean Beach

Today you take the long drive from Arenal to the beautiful Pacific Ocean beach at Hermosa Puntarenas Province to enjoy Costa Rica’s other coast. Hermosa is a tranquil, tropical beach with superb snorkelling. There are quiet restaurants in town and more options immedlitely to the south in Coco village. The beach is long, and coconut palm shaded and the Pelotas – two little islands off shore make wonderful day trips – for further snorkelling or diving. shady forested avenues, sits behing a long beach with rolling Pacific surf. There are numerous national parks, wild beaches, waterfalls and trails to explore nearby and a string of adventure activities – from Humpback whale-watching (the whale-watching season starts in July) to kayaking around mangrove wetlands and snorkelling.

Transportation to Hermosa beach

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 22 – Fly home

Today you will be transfered to San Jose for your flight back to the UK. Travel time by road to the airport is about 4 hours. You arrive back in the UK in the next day morning.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast