Tour operators in Puntarenas, Costa Rica?

[TKS]

We are taking a Panama Canal cruise on Regatta later this year and want to do an independent tour in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. We are interested in the Skywalk canopy tour, the butterfly exhibit, possibly the volcano and other similar "photo op" locations.

 

I've contacted three of the local tour companies, Odessy, Arenas and OkeyDokey, and have received responses from two. Can anyone recommend these companies, or others, in this location? I tried posting on the CC cruise location site too, but it seems seldom visited with no responses in almost two weeks.

 

All responses are appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Cheers, Kay

[LHT28]

We have used Okey dokey but from Port Limon ..we did not do the zip lining so cannot comment

Our tour was fine no problems & everyone seemed to enjoy the tour

i would ask on the CR forum

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=198

 

Lyn

[TKS]

Thanks, Lyn.:) I didn't seem to find this area of CC myself. Kay

[TERRIER1]

We went zip lining in Puntarenas on our Panama Canal trip. We used Adventure Park and did the "modified" zip lining and not the more rigorous tour.

 

http://www.adventureparkcostarica.com/en/shore-excursions-costa-rica.html

[Louby-Lou]

Sorry, wrong board.

[Lady Meer]

Hi Kay

 

We used Okey-Dokey in 2008 - this is what I put on the Costa Rica board following the tour.

 

We were on the New Year Island Princess trip. In July one of our CC group booked the B2 tour with Charlie Soto in Puntarenas. He agreed to take just 12 of us on the tour and he would be our guide.

 

On the day we were met by someone else and taken to a place where there were 2 buses (both already had people on). There was no room on either bus for all 12 of us - one was going zip-lining (not to Villa Lapas) and the other was the crocodile tour. This was our first disappointment as we were not able to stay together as a group. Some went off with the zip-lining bus and the rest joined the crocodile bus. We were on the second bus but were told that he would take us zip-lining to Villa Lapas.

 

We stopped at a roadside pull-in (we realised later this was the animal place) where we saw 2 lots of monkeys - there was someone there with food for them so obviously was a bit of a 'set-up'. We were dropped off at the zip-lining and then joined another group from our ship (also with Charlie) so now our group was 15 (too many for the zip-line people to cope with). After a wait of about an hour we went to the zip-lining and the rest of the group went on the crocodile trip - their 2 hour trip now only being 1 hour.

 

We met the crocodile people again for lunch which was OK but at a really scruffy beach - not beautiful at all! The viewpoint was just a stop overlooking a valley and the supermarket was just that - a supermarket. Charlie showed us which vanilla to buy (but at the check-out we realised it was gravy powder and changed it).

 

The whole day was very disappointing for us all not least for our CC member who had taken the time and trouble to organise this trip for us.

 

We did ask to see some sloths but were told they were not in that area - but other trips did see them.

 

On the positive side our guide, Ray, was really very good and insisted Charlie came with us, we think because Ray knew we were REALLY annoyed. Charlie made hardly any contribution to the day at all.

 

I know this was sometime ago and think maybe we were unlucky that day with Charlie as other CC users have given him good reports. It's all a bit of a lottery, I fear. In hindsight we wished we had not gone on the tour when we saw the set-up and taken a chance with tour guides on the pier - at least we could have called the shots and gone where we wanted.

 

It's a lovely country - just make sure you get a guide who does what you want :D.

 

Brenda