Day 1. Arrival to San Jose.




Welcome to Costa Rica!

Thousands of tourists travel to Costa Rica every year to experience their dream vacation. Expectations are many: visiting volcanoes, the rainforest, traveling rivers, hiking, adventure, seeing monkeys, turtles, birds and crocodiles; exploring, relaxing at the beach, learning about the history and more...  Well, we have it all in Costa Rica!

If you take a trip with our Tour you made the right choice. This company not only has the best rates in the market, but it is also very strict when we talk about quality, punctuality and excellence. Having  hotel, transportation, local guides, a Tour Director during the whole trip and ALL the meals included is, with no doubt, the best way to travel! Another important detail is that there are no hidden costs and no extra tours will be sold to you by the company.

When you arrive to San José the first day, you will be greeted by a Representative. Relax and take advantage of al the comforts of your hotel before dinner. At 8 PM a briefing will be held at one of the conference rooms. Your Tour Director will give you very important and useful information for your 9 day Costa Rica adventure. Meet the rest of the passengers that will join the tour  tonight.

What to bring for the trip?

When coming to Costa Rica, you should be prepared for the differences in the weather conditions, and visits to the mountain, beaches and rivers.
Definitely bring casual clothing, mainly shorts, t-shirts, a couple of long pants, a light sweater bathing suit, flash light, sandals or flip flops, hat, sunscreen, mosquito repellent, over the counter medication as prevention, rain gear, cameras, binoculars.  Casual and mostly informal dress is suggested, and smart casual for the farewell dinner (long pants will be required for this evening).

The first 2 nights and the last one you will be staying in the Central Valley. Temperatures vary from the low to mid 80´s during the day, down to the mid 60´s at night.
A light sweater, long pants, sneakers and a poncho are recommended for  your visit to Poás Volcano. Close to 9000 feet elevation, it could get windy, foggy and rainy, with temperatures that could drop down to the 50´s. Rain gear is a must in Costa Rica at any time of the year.

Bring comfortable shoes for walking, sneakers for daily use (streets are not always in good repair). Hiking shoes or sneakers will be good for the hanging bridges. Usually is it is damp when you walk through the rainforest.

The area of La Fortuna is generally humid. Temps range from the 60´s at night, to the 80´s during the day. On the other hand, when you stay in Guanacaste, temperature could reach 100º between january and april.
For all all daily trips keep handy your sunscreen, bug repellent, rain gear, binoculars and  camera!
What is the weather forecast? Well the answer is simple: in Costa Rica it could rain at any moment! Carry you rain gear all the time! Sunblock is also a must! Being closer to the equator means that there is more risk for sun burns, so try to protect your skin even on a cloudy day and try not to lay in the sun between 10am and 2pm.
You can also read each page on this blog for information about what you can expect for each day of the tour,  which hopefully will help you on your planning.


About money exchange, you will get a better exchange rate at your hotel than at the airport. You can exchange$20USD per person to Colones, the local currency, it would be plenty enough, since US$ dollars are taken mostly everywhere.


There are two more very important things: 

First, you will be traveling with a group and timing is very important. Sometimes early, sometimes late, Caravan Tours sets this schedules based on more than 50 years of experience in the business.  Please be on time, the rest of the passengers count on you! 


Second, you are traveling to the rain forest. Of course there will be some bugs! Of course  it could rain! Believe it or not sometimes people seem surprised when they see an insect in the jungle!.  There are ants, spiders, and termites in the jungle, and iguanas crossing the paths, and maybe loud monkeys howling in early mornings. This is the charm of the rainforest!  Don´t forget, you are visiting their home.

For the rest, your Tour Director will be giving you daily suggestions and instructions and will be helping you at any moment with any question you may have.



Enjoy your journey!




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