Lunch on Charlie Soto's Tour

[g8trzz]

Could anyone who has been on the A-1 tour tell me the name of the restaurant that they eat at when they stop at Bonita Beach. We have a friend who is familiar with the area and he was wondering what the name of the restaurant was.

Thanks

[banditoo]

From an email he sent me when I booked with him for March 22, it looks like Bonita Beach Restaurant.

[g8trzz]

Thanks Banditoo,

I hope you guys have an awesome cruise! Looking forward to hearing about it when you return!

[toledo]

My e-mail from Charlie, dated last week, said, "diet & reg sodasd, water, costarican beers, & fresh fruits". It made no mention of a restaurant.

[banditoo]

One of the messages I had from him in our email communication, specifiallly when I asked about lunch being included, he replied 'Yes, we stop for 1 1/2 2 hrs , include a thipycal costarican lunch , Charlie '. That is on his A-1 tour. Gotta luv his spelling!

[xobklynqt143@aol.com]

Thanks Banditoo,

I hope you guys have an awesome cruise! Looking forward to hearing about it when you return!

 

hey please let me know how that tour turns out im going on that same tour in a few weeks.

[g8trzz]

When are you scheduled for the tour xobkln? We will be on it the 2nd of April (I think that is the correct day!)

[DonMar]

We did the A1 with Charlie last year. If it the same restaurant, it is located on the beach. It is a nice little place with cheap lobster and cold beer. Open air dining and nothing fancy. Here is a link to some of our photos - look at the top row of images. http://travel.webshots.com/album/557666264IcIyjc?start=36

 

On previous pages are the photos of the whole tour.

[banditoo]

Great pictures! I am really looking forward to holding the sloths. That baby was adorable! Only a few days until embarkation. This website has been so inspiring and serves to further my excitement about traveling.

[xobklynqt143@aol.com]

im book on the A1 tour next month it says nothing about lunch heres the email copied and pasted

 

Cynthia, the A.1 cost you only $55 each include admission for the wonderful tortuguero canal boat ride, Bananas, Bonita beach , view point diet & reg soodas, water, C.ricans beers, & fresh fruits full air conditioned van , you can pay me at the end of the tour, i would like to be at the pier holding a sign okeydokeytours & your name on it 1 hrs after arrival time to give you an perfect introduction of my

 

 

banditoo- a week after you lol April 11

[DonMar]

Lunch was not included in the deal. They just brought you to the place and if you wanted to eat, great. If you wanted to enjoy the beach, then that was OK too.

[g8trzz]

I loved your pictures Donmar....thanks for sharing. I can hardly wait until we set sail!!!

[banditoo]

I suspect something may be getting lost in translation as so many of us seem to get different messages from Charlie about the A1 tour. It will be a surprise. I'm taking my printed email with me where he stated the lunch was included. It doesn't really matter but I don't like to operate on incorrect information. As long as I get to hold the sloth!!!!

[toledo]

http://www.okeydokeytours.com/

 

Charlie's web site mentions lunch at Bonita Beach so this is very unclear.

[banditoo]

We're sailing tomorrw so I will report back on our March 22 A-1 tour with Charlie to let everyone know whether it was lunch or no lunch, beach or no beach, sloth or no sloth, Charlie or no Charlie etc. etc.....

[toledo]

ha-ha-ha, banditoo! Charlie or no Charlie is actually pretty funny. I can tell you've been reading all the reviews here.

 

The fact that Charlie makes such a big deal about beverages being included leads me to believe that lunch itself is not included. We may just make a stop at that restaurant for anyone who wants to purchase lunch.

[DonMar]

ha-ha-ha, banditoo! Charlie or no Charlie is actually pretty funny. I can tell you've been reading all the reviews here.

 

The fact that Charlie makes such a big deal about beverages being included leads me to believe that lunch itself is not included. We may just make a stop at that restaurant for anyone who wants to purchase lunch.

 

We bought our own lunch on the A1 tour- and from what I remember, I did not get the impression that it was ever included. They bring you to the beach and restaurant and you can choose what to do. This was just our experience and I am sure it can vary slightly for all.

 

As for the sloth at the local farm - I think we were just lucky with having the baby there. It was a great experience - as seeing a sloth was a goal - never mind holding it!

[PACURN]

I have inquired about Charlies tours and I was never under the impression that lunch was included. I have not ever been on a tour where lunch was included. I'll bet you will be on your own for lunch.

[banditoo]

Well hear is the final verdict....Just got back from our cruise last evening. We did Okey Dokey A-1 tour in Limon. Carlos was our guide. We had a great time though had a good laugh with our fellow tour mates at the start because we all had different information about what would be included in the A-1 tour. It ended up being exactly what I had been told it would be (tour of a local farm owned by Jose, holding a sloth and her 22 day old baby!, stop at a banana plantation, river cruise, stop at Bonita Beach for lunch which was included in the $54 cost, a stop at a view point over Limon and then a stop at a local supermarket to buy coffee before going back to the ship. Beverages were also included during the trip. Carlos was a great guide, fun and informative. The van was in good condition and air conditioned. I think there were about a dozen of us total in the group. There were quite a number of the Okey Dokey tour guides at the dock when we got in and they all had identifying shirts on plus signs up with the tour numbers and our names on.

[toledo]

We just got back and our group didn't get any lunch or even any time to stop for lunch. It was still a fantastic tour which I'd highly recommend. Charlie was at the docks organizing all the tour guides. Our guide was still very good. We were the first group to zip line as an employee went down ahead of us, checking out the lines. I think we got held up at the farm because we couldn't find the guy with the sloth. He finally appeared after 30 minutes. My son speaks Spanish and asked him the age of the baby and he told him two months. Mother and baby were very cute, but very matted and sweaty. Son held him, but then was upset that the bathroom had no soap to wash up afterwards. We bought chips and ice cream from a vendor at the docks of the Tortuguara Canal. On that short trip we saw another sloth, several monkeys, birds, and some type of small crocodile (I don't recall what these were called.) The banana plantation was just a quick stop where we walked into a grove of banana trees for a 10 minute explanation of the business. We got back about 45 minutes before the ship was to sail which gave us some time to shop at the flea market right on the pier.

[PACURN]

Thanks for the review. I apreciate it.

[g8trzz]

We just returned from our cruise today. We did the A-1 tour and had George as our guide. He was absolutely fantastic. We did everything on the tour as described. We started off by taking a tour of the farm and seeing all of the wonderful fruits, spices, etc that were grown. The sloth and the baby were also there. We were able to sample some of the fruits and George even opened coconuts up for us to sample the coconut water. From there we went to the banana plantation. Along the way, we saw howler monkeys in the trees. We spent about 20-30 minutes at the plantation. George was very informative and was able to explain the process to us. From there we went to the Canal for the boat tour, it lasted about an hour. We saw a variety of birds as well as monkeys, lizards and a baby alligator a young boy was holding. From the canal we went to Bonita beach where we were treated to a traditional meal of chicken or beef, rice, black beans and salad. Sodas were also included. The last stop before we were taken back to the boat was a stop to the grocery store where we were able to purchase vanilla and coffee. Even though we went over our scheduled time, George never rushed us at all. We actually felt that he went above and beyond what he needed to do to ensure that we had a wonderful time. One thing I forgot to mention was that there was a cooler full of sodas, water and beer for our enjoyment on the tour. I would highly recommend Charlie's tours and felt that this was one of the highlights of our cruise!

[cruisinlawn]

Anyone have the cost of A-1 tour with zip added?

[demodawn]

Just reading your posts. So lunch was included???? i read somewhere that the resturant had cheap lobster. If you did buy your lunch how much was it? Thanks

[forgetmenot64]

Anyone have the cost of A-1 tour with zip added?

 

The A-2 tour is the one that includes the zipline. It also does the Tortugero Canal tour, banana plantation, Bonita Beach & Restaurant, viewpoint of Limon & visit to a supermarket. We were quoted $95.00 each.