Your Travel Expert in Costa Rica

March 24, 2010 | Updated: February 10, 2015 | By Elizabeth | Reply More

Ask your travel expert in Costa Rica about Manuel Antonio National Park.

Trip planning is much easier if you have a friend living in the destination you’re going to visit. In the case of Costa Rica, we all have an amigo in the person of Michael Kaye.

Michael was the first to run Costa Rica’s whitewater rivers and – in 1978 – he started Costa Rica Expeditions as a white water rafting company. Today, they are the largest and best tourism operation in the country and continue to uphold their founder’s principles:“Our dream is to promote the type of tourism that is mutually beneficial and nourishing to both the visitor and the visited. We want you to come. We advise you to come soon. We beg you to please tread softly.”-Michael Kaye, San Jose, Costa Rica

Michael is the perfect connection for Authentic Luxury Travelers who want the inside scoop from a local and first-class care and handling. He’s a real travel expert in Costa Rica.

Our trip to Costa Rica…

started in San Jose, continued to the area of the Arenal Volcano, wound down to Monteverde, and continued on to Manuel Antonio National Park before returning to San Jose.

I chose our hotels after checking several sources and consulting with the planners at Costa Rica Expeditions, but they made the bookings and most important: handled our transfers. Many Americans make the mistake of renting a car in Costa Rica, which would be a great plan if the roads were passable and signage plentiful – but that simply isn’t the case.

The day we traveled from Tabacón Grand Spa Thermal Resort to Monteverde, the transfer started with a 30-minute ride to a dock on the edge of Arenal Lake, then we took a boat trip across the lake, and a 4WD ride on a muddy track through some of the most beautiful hilly pastureland I have ever seen (averaging about 12 km/7 miles an hour). It was a fantastic experience and one we couldn’t have had without the help of Costa Rica Expeditions.

We all need a travel expert in Costa Rica

I loved the scenery and the people in Costa Rica and all of our hotels, but the drivers and guides provided by Costa Rica Expeditions were also a very important factor in the success of the trip.

FYI: In addition to Tabacón, we stayed at – and thoroughly enjoyed – Arenas del Mar on the edge of Manuel Antonio National Park, Monteverde Lodge, Xandari Resort , and Finca Rosa Blanca.

For more details about our trip, I hope you will read the Costa Rica story I wrote for Ranch & Coast Magazine

Cheers,

Elizabeth Hansen