Taking Excursions from San Jose is a great option while visiting Costa Rica. When traveling to another country, people usually question themselves if they are traveling to the best possible region; well, in the case of Costa Rica that could be very relative depending on the time that you have for the trip, the purpose of it, the available budget, etc.
Staying in San Jose is recommended for those travelers who come on vacation with a budget, because the accommodations in this city are much cheaper than the ones located at the main touristic destinations, even if they have the same quality standards. Besides, using the City of San Jose as a base is a good idea because it’s located right in the middle of the country, allowing you to take several one-day trips to destinations located in different directions, without the hassle of packing and unpacking every day.
Using San Jose as a base during your Trip to Costa Rica is also recommended if you have a limited travel time, because that way you can go to any of the 3 main destinations of the country for at least one day; or to the 3 of them if having 3 full days available. The 3 main touristic destinations of Costa Rica are the Arenal Volcano area (also known as La Fortuna, which is the name of the main town close to this volcano); Monteverde Cloud Forest (which main town is Santa Elena); and Manuel Antonio National Park, close to the coastal town of Quepos.
In our case, we offer 3 great Excursions from San Jose to these main touristic destinations, the “Arenal Volcano Mega Combo tour”; the “Monteverde Hanging Bridges tour”; and the “Manuel Antonio National Park tour”. In the case of the Arenal Volcano Mega Combo tour, we consider it the best tour offered to the Arenal Volcano area from any company that sells Excursions from San Jose to that region, because that’s the tour where you would get to see the most of Costa Rica in one single day, like our waterfalls; wildlife observation such as iguanas, hummingbirds, exotic tropical birds and many times sloths or monkeys; also includes doing zip lining in the rainforest, rappelling over the Arenal River, an indigenous tribe presentation done by real native “Maleku People”, visiting a coffee plantation (the plantation itself, not the processing plant) with degustation of some of the best coffee in the world; and includes a visit to the relaxing and beautiful Paradise Hot Springs & Gardens; this visit at the end of your tour we call it “the cherry on the top of the cake”.
The tour we offer to the second most important destination of Costa Rica called “Monteverde” is our “Monteverde Hanging Bridges tour”, which of course will take you to visit the main attraction of that area, the Suspension Bridges in the Cloud Forest. This tour also includes a very amusing stop in the house of a rural Costa Rican Family, where we normally see lots of white faced capuchin monkeys in their backyard. These monkeys are wild and they live in the forests behind this people’s house, but the lady who lives there has the ability to call them and make them approach to her property, where many times the monkeys even interact with the tourists by making a “human chain” for them to cross from tree to tree; quite an experience everybody says.. We also make another stop in the largest fruit stand of the country that is located on the way to Monteverde, for you to learn about our exotic tropical fruits and at the same time have the opportunity to buy some of them that might not be found close to your lodging place in San Jose. Once in Monteverde we would take you to the famous Hanging Bridges of the “Selvatura Park”, where you will learn about the rare Cloud Forest Eco-system in the company of a naturalist guide. There are many options in Monteverde where you could do a hanging bridges walk, but we prefer the Selvatura Bridges because of many reasons: the trails are always very well maintained; the bridges are the widest and strongest of the country; and the place where is done is a very beautiful-dense Cloud Forest Jungle. At the other Hanging Bridges Parks you would also see the Cloud Forest, but you can also see buildings, roads, grasslands, farms, etc., which is not the best experience and view. The walk in Selvatura is also a little longer, which takes about 2-3 hours, while the others are just about an hour long.
Last, the tour we offer to the Manuel Antonio National Park, the third most popular destination of Costa Rica, will take you to this gorgeous natural gallery where you can admire the greenery of our tropical forest, the abundant wildlife that we normally see there and the most beautiful beaches of our country, Manuel Antonio definitely has it all! This tour includes driving to the Central Pacific Region of Costa Rica, where you will pass through mountain ridges, beautiful ocean views and several rivers, until arriving to the coastal town of Quepos, near the Manuel Antonio National Park. Once at the park, you will do a hike on the main trail, where your guide will point out interesting facts about our Tropical Rainforest and will look for some of the unique wildlife found here, where white faced capuchin monkeys, sloths, iguanas, howler monkeys and squirrel monkeys are very common sights. At the end of this trail you will arrive to the gorgeous main beach, where your guide will give you time to enjoy of the pristine white sand and the turquoise water of the Pacific Ocean, for you to swim or simply relax. After your adventure inside the park, we will take you for lunch and then back to your San Jose Hotel.
Besides the Excursions from San Jose mentioned above, there are many others offered from the area, such as adventure activities like Zip Lining in the Rainforest; White Water Rafting (the best rafting of the country is done at the Pacuare River and Sarapiqui River); or our San Jose Adventure Combo, which is a tour that combines numerous adventure activities in one day, like zip lining, white water tubing, rappelling and horseback riding. Other Nature Tours are the ones offered to the Poas Volcano and the Irazu Volcano; the one to Tortuguero National Park; our Costa Rica Rainforest Tour; or the one offered to the famous Sloth Sanctuary, which also includes admiring the Natural Coastal areas of our Caribbean Region. For those who prefer to relax and enjoy of a beautiful beach view, the Isla Tortuga Tour is definitely a great option.
So if you are in San Jose and have some spare time, don’t miss out on the gorgeous landscapes of Costa Rica and adventure yourself on one of these tours!
