Unique Tour of Costa Rica

Unique Tour of Costa Rica Itinerary: July 30- August 12, 2023

After visiting Costa Rica three previous times, this trip is a more unique tour of Costa Rica. We visited some lesser known places and went off the beaten path.

  • Sunday, July 30th
    • Leave Dulles at 2:05 am via Avianca Airlines, arrive in San Jose at 4:35 am
    • Take Sansa flight at 8:10 am to Puerto Jimenez, arrive at 9 am and head to Lapa Rios Lodge for a 5 night stay
  • Monday July 31st
    • 2 hour bird tour
    • 1 hour self guided tour
  • Tuesday August 1st
    • Sloth Tour
    • Private beach time
    • Night tour
  • Wednesday August 2nd
  • Thursday August 3rd
    • Pig tour
    • Medicine trail tour
  • Friday August 4th
  • August 5
    • Half Day Inshore Fishing Trip at 6:30 am in Quepos
  • August 6
    • Whale and Dolphin Tour at 8:30 am
  • August 7
    • Relax at the hotel for the day
  • August 8
  • August 9
    • Night Tour at 6 pm, 1 hour
  • August 10 
    • Quetzal Tour at 5:15 am, 2 hours
    • Coffee tour at 10 am, 4 hours, transportation arranged by Dantica
  • August 11
    • Paramo mountain hike at 8 am for Joe & I, 2 hours
  • August 12
    • Private transportation via MorphoVans at 11 am to San Jose airport for 5:30 pm flight to Dulles via Avianca Flight 662, arrive at 12:15 am next day

Unique Tour of Costa Rica: 5 nights at Lapa Rios Lodge

Our first stop on our unique tour of Costa Rica was at Lapa Rios. It is a luxury lodge located on the southern most tip of the Osa Peninsula. Lapa means macaw in Spanish. It consists of 17 bungalows, 2 of which have air conditioning. Many of the room are quite a hike to the lobby so I recommend getting one of the 2 air conditioned rooms if you have mobility issues as they have the closest access to the activities and meals. It can be up to a 15 minute walk from the farthest most bungalow to the restaurant.

Lapa Rios is an all-inclusive resort except for alcoholic drinks. Meals and snacks are included along with their standard tour package. We saw so much wildlife on the grounds.

We paid extra and had two excursions off the grounds: The Sloth Tour and the Sirena Station Tour. Lapa Rios arranged these tours for us including transportation.

Monday, July 31

We started our day we a 2 hour bird tour at 6:30 am. We mostly just drove around, stopped, and got out to observed different birds. The highlight was spotting parrots.

After breakfast we relaxed by the pool. There were too many kids for my liking but we made the best of it and they left after a while.

At 10:30 my dad and I took the self guided tour trail. It took about an hour. We didn’t see much other than an agouti and its young.

After lunch we had planned on hiking the Matapolo trail but it poured for several hours so it was cancelled. We all met up for drinks at the bar before dinner.

Tuesday, August 1st

After breakfast we left at 8 am for the La Perica Sloth Tour off the property. The tour was 3 hours long in a small forest surrounded by cow pasture. The tour was excellent and we not only learned about sloths but also other flora and fauna in the area. We saw 8 sloths in a short amount of time.

After the tour we were served fresh fruit, homemade empanadas and juice.

We returned at 1 pm. at 2 pm we were driven to the private beach area where we had sandwiches and juice. We relaxed for 1 1/2 hours and enjoyed the view. Beware of walking barefoot in the sand! Do not step on the small palm plants. My foot was hurting for over a week.

At 6 pm Joe and I took the night tour and saw snakes, whip scorpions, and frogs. It was not the best night tour I’ve taken but we were with a family that talked a lot and likely chased everything off.

Wednesday, August 2nd

Joe and I woke up at 4:30 am to leave Lapa Rios at 5 am for Corcovado Park. It was a 1 hour drive to Puerto Jimenez then a 2 hour boat ride to the park. On the way we saw a sloth walking along the road! I got a picture but didn’t turn out well.

There were many more people than last time we went (2017). They allow 120 people per day and it seemed full. We hiked for 4 hours and saw a sloth, peccaries, coatis, agoutis, 2 tapirs, an anteater, and all 4 monkeys found in the area.

We got back, had some wine and met my dad for Happy Hour. While we were on our excursion he did the Osa Trail (below) and the Matapalo Trail. The bar had homemade cream ales which we indulged in before dinner. It was an early night.

Thursday, August 3rd

At 5:30 am we woke up to get some coffee.

You never know what you’re going to see in the morning.

We ate breakfast by the bar and went to the pool for a couple hours. Lapa Rios has a sustainability tour. I just wanted to see the pigs so we took a condensed tour to see them. The pigs eat the guests scraps and are fed to the staff once they mature.

At 1:20 we took the medicine tour. The tour is a short hike 1 hour walk where you learn about plants that are used for constipation, iron deficiency, to lower blood pressure, tooth aches, and stomach problems among a few others.

Later that day we met my dad for Happy Hour with delicious chips and salsa. We had dinner and went to bed.

Unique Tour of Costa Rica: 5 nights at Rancho Pacifico Hotel

We continued our Unique Tour of Costa Rica at the Rancho Pacifico hotel. It’s a small adult only boutique hotel located up a 1.5 mile steep gravel road in Uvita. If you are renting a car, 4WD is needed for this section. Right from the start the staff treat you like family. The amenities are first class all the way. They have several room choices from air conditioned suites to open air treehouses. My dad got a suite that was close to the lobby while we chose one of their tree houses.

Rancho Pacifico arranged all the tours with the exception of the fishing excursion. They arranged all the transportation.

Friday, August 4th

On our way to Rancho Pacifico our driver from MorphoVans suggested doing the Hearts of Palm Tour. The tour was great! We learned about the family’s difficulties of trying to make the business profitable. Over 20 families have tried growing Hearts of Palm but this is the only family left. We tasted a native fruit, jocote fruit along with Hearts of Palm cut right from a stalk.

We also helped make empanadas stuffed with hearts of palm. The also made a sort of cole slaw for us to eat made with Hearts of Palm of course. Highly recommend this tour.

Saturday, August 5th

We left the hotel at 5:30 am to drive to Quepos for a fishing trip on the Sea Lady. The cost was $900. We spent 2 hours watching the mate and captain fish for bait (mostly sardines) then started our fishing. We got some bites but didn’t catch anything. We got back to the dock at 2:30 pm. I wouldn’t recommend the fishing trip.

We slept for 2 hours when we got back to our room. We met for happy hour and had a pineapple drink made from Cacique then headed to dinner.

Sunday, August 6th

We woke up at 5:30 am when the sun came into our room. We had a soak in the tub on the balcony followed by breakfast. We left at 8 am for a whale watching tour in Uvita. From the tour company headquarters, we walked into Marina Ballena National Park and waded through a river that dumps into the ocean. Our boats were beached on the sand and we waded through the water to get on board. The boat was packed with no room for any extra people. We saw humpback whale mom’s with their babies that were here to give birth in the warm water. We also saw pacific spotted dolphins which were quite small. We then went to a rock outcropping called whale rock. Many people were seasick so we went back earlier than anticipated.

We had lunch when we returned and took a nap afterwards. We met at 5:30 pm for happy hour for more delicious cocktails before dinner.

Monday, August 7th

Today was a chill out day at the lodge. Joe & I did the lodge’s waterfall trail at 6:30 am. It was much harder than we thought. It was all downhill in rough terrain followed by approx. 200 feet of rope to repel down to the last section. The waterfall was really nice and you could go wading it it but we had to get back to meet dad for breakfast.

We spend the morning at the pool even though it was off and on raining. We had lunch then chilled at the room for a 2 hour nap. We met at 5:30 pm for happy hour and dinner.

Tuesday, August 8th

We had breakfast at 7:20 am and then set off for a 1 hour drive to the Sierpe Mangrove boat tour. Our guide was the same driver that took us to Uvita! It was a private boat tour where we learned about the 3 kinds of mangroves along the river. We saw 3 kinds of monkeys: howler, squirrel, and capuchin along with many birds. At the end of the tour we planted mangroves along an eroded river bank.

Unique Tour of Costa Rica: 3 nights at Dantica Rainforest Lodge

Our last stop on our unique tour of Costa Rica was at Dantica Rainforest Lodge. It is a small lodge located in the valley of San Gerardo. Dantas means tapir in Spanish. Unfortunately we did not see any. The lodge is dated but quaint. Many of the bungalows are very far from the lobby so make sure you pick a closer one if you have mobility issues. My dad stayed at the Superior Bungalow Valley near the lobby and we stayed at the Quetzal Bungalow. Dantica arranged all our tours for us along with transportation.

Wednesday, August 9th

We left in Rancho Pacifico for a 3 hour drive to our next destination, Dantica Rainforest Lodge. The driver stopped at a soda shop for lunch. The food was reasonable and delicious.

We went on a night tour in search of night birds but did not find any. I would not recommend this tour. We had dinner at the lodge.

Thursday, August 10th

We got up at the crack of dawn and went in search of the rare resplendent quetzal. There were a lot of people with the same idea. We managed to spot 3 of them and took pics through our guide’s spotting scope.

In the afternoon we went into the town of Dota to do a coffee tour.

The tour started with a tractor ride through their coffee fields. We went to the factory then had coffee tasting afterwards. I would highly recommend this tour.

Friday, August 11th

Joe & I did the Páramo Mountain hike tour. It was a 2 hour tour that took us up for a beautiful view. Páramo is a unique mountain habitat found in Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia, and a few small areas in Central America. This hike was easy. We saw some unique plant life and a couple small lizards.

For lunch we took a short taxi ride to Miriam’s Cafe. They had birdfeeders which attracted a variety of birds and we even saw a quetzal that had landed on a nearby tree.

Saturday, August 12th

We left the beautiful mountain of Costa Rica and set out for San Jose Airport. On the way our driver took us to a local spot for lunch for a last taste of Costa Rican cuisine.

We had such a memorable time on our unique tour of Costa Rica. For more trip ideas to Costa Rica visit my other three trips: Honeymoon, Osa Peninsula, and Manuel Antonio/Uvita. For a Costa Rica packing list and ideas visit my other page here.