I’m rocking in a hammock in my hotel in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, on the penultimate day of my 16-day tour of Costa Rica with G Adventures. There’s a light rain pattering on the corrugated plastic roof and dripping fatly over the top of a leaky gutter, and a breeze is tickling the leaves of the plants in the courtyard garden.
I can hear chatter and the occasional laugh from one of the other rooms, where some of the girls from my group are hanging out, and just to my left the black-and-white hotel cat snoozes under a rattan garden chair. We have an hour till we meet for dinner, so what better time to start writing my G Adventures review than right now?
During my years of solo travel, I’ve done quite a few small group adventure holidays. From Tanzania to Cuba (also with G Adventures), and from Myanmar to Morocco, I’ve experienced a range of different companies, destinations, and group dynamics, so I’m pretty clued up on what works and what doesn’t, what companies should be aiming for and what makes a good (or bad) group tour.
So if you’re thinking of visiting Costa Rica with G Adventures, or doing any of their other group holidays, read on for my expert review of G Adventures in general and their Costa Rica tour in particular.
Note: I travelled in the off-peak (rainy season) month of July and received an additional 10% discount on top of the 20% off they were already offering for last-minute bookings. I’ve never been asked to write any G Adventures reviews in exchange for discounts or freebies. All prices are given in US Dollars and are correct at the time of writing.
Why Costa Rica?
If you’re reading this review, chances are you’ve already decided you want to go to Costa Rica, and you probably already know that Costa Rica is considered one of the safest and most rewarding countries to visit in Central America. With abundant wildlife, from curious toucans and noisy macaws to mischievous monkeys and the lovable sloth, Costa Rica is a nature enthusiast’s dream.
And that’s just the start of the country’s attractions. There are also stunning landscapes to explore, volcanoes to hike, coastlines on both the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean with miles of palm-fringed sandy beaches, huge swathes of jungle where you can do adventure activities like zip-lining and white-water rafting, plus buzzing towns with colourful bars, restaurants and shops.
So if you’re here because you’re wondering if you should go to Costa Rica, then no need to read further. The answer is yes, you should!
Why take a group tour?
Of course, you don’t need to do a group tour. Plenty of people get around Costa Rica just fine using public buses, tourist shuttles, or by hiring a car.
However, for solo travellers, those who like the safety and community vibe of a group, or people who don’t want or have time to plan every detail of a trip, a group tour is a great option.
For me, group travel is an excellent way to pack in as many highlights as possible in a short amount of time. Tour companies like G Adventures do all the work so you don’t have to, planning the best routes and activities so you can make the most of your holiday without having to spend days researching hotels and reading travel blogs (though of course you should still read this one!).
What’s more, not only do you get a gang of like-minded travel buddies to hang out with, you also get an experienced guide, who’ll show you round, shower you with interesting information, and look after you should anything go wrong.
If you’d like to know more about why I think group tours are one of the best ways to travel, head to my separate blog post: 10 Great Reasons To Do Group Holidays.
What you get on a G Adventures Tour
The specifics of each tour will vary, but all G Adventures tours follow a similar format.
- The duration can be anything from a few days to several weeks, and you’ll be travelling with a group of up to 16 people, who could be families, couples or solo travellers. Typically G Adventures customers are in their 20s-50s, but you might get a few older people or families travelling with kids as young as 12.
- The price of your ticket will include all your transport and accommodation for the duration of the tour, apart from airport transfers. If you’re a solo traveller, you’ll be expected to share a room with another solo traveller of the same gender, though if you want your own room, you can usually pay an additional fee to get one.
- The cost also includes the guide, or Chief Experience Officer (CEO) – he or she will be your tour guide, event planner, history and politics teacher, fixer, problem solver and friend for the next few days or weeks.
- Meals are not normally included, though a few breakfasts or dinners may be, depending on the itinerary.
- Some activities may be included, but in general G Adventures make most of their day trips and excursions optional, to give people more choice and to keep the price down. It’s important to check this as you may find that adding on activities can significantly increase the final cost of your holiday, but if you don’t participate, you may start to feel left out of the group.
I’ll talk about how much the whole G Adventures Costa Rica trip cost me at the end of this post.
Every trip also usually includes the following:
- ‘Discover’ Moment – there is always at least one included activity, usually something simple such as a walking tour or cultural experience. You may have to pay a little extra for transport to the location.
- ‘G for Good’ Moment – as part of G Adventures’ commitment to giving back to local communities, 5% of your ticket price goes to help grassroots projects in the country you’re visiting, and this is your chance to see one of them in action.
- Foodie Moment – a food tour, tasting event, or local cookery experience.
Types of G Adventures Tour
G Adventures also have different types of tour. They are:
- Classic tours – the original style of G Adventures tours, these trips include a variety of different activities but are not especially challenging. Accommodation is normally in mid-range hotels.
- National Geographic Journeys – more expensive (but with more activities included), these trips focus more on culture and wildlife and may go a little more off the beaten track.
- 18-to-thirtysomethings tours – does what it says on the tin: adventures for younger travellers. They tend to be a bit more budget, the accommodation a bit more basic, and with more time for partying.
- Wellness trips – as the name suggests, these trips are more focussed on health and wellbeing.
- Active trips – tours for the more adventurous, with a greater focus on activities like hiking, cycling and other outdoor sports.
- Marine tours – boat based, including sailing, river and polar expedition cruises.
- Rail tours – while other G Adventures trips may include a train journey, these tours put train travel front and centre of the itinerary.
- Family trips – aimed at parents who still want to travel and have adventures, but want to bring the kids.
- Roamies trips – these are more for backpackers and the accommodation is mostly in hostels.
- The Jane Goodall collection – wildlife tours
The G Adventures Costa Rica adventure is one of their Classic Tours, meaning you get a good balance of activities while still travelling in relative comfort.
You can read more about the different types of tours here.
G Adventures Review: The Costa Rica Itinerary
So what did the Costa Rica 16-day adventure actually involve?
You can see the planned itinerary here, but sometimes things can change a little due to unforeseen circumstances, so here is what we actually did.
Costa Rica Tour Day 1 – Arrive in San José
The first day of any G Adventures tour is a free day for your arrival – you just need to get yourself to the first hotel at some point on that day. I had already been in Costa Rica for a week, so I booked myself a tourist shuttle from my hostel in the beachside town of Tamarindo to the group hotel in San Jose. Most people flew in that day and got transfers from the airport, which cost about US$35 (though an Uber is much cheaper, at around $10).
At 6.30 pm there was a welcome meeting – a chance to meet the guide/CEO, get a bit of basic information about Costa Rica and the tour, and check out your new travel buddies. After the meeting, everyone went for dinner together and then had an early night, ready to leave San Jose early the next morning.
Some people had arrived a day or two earlier to explore San José. The feedback I’ve had from people who’ve spent time in the city is that there’s not that much to see, so if you want to extend your Costa Rica trip by a few days, I strongly recommend getting out of San José and heading to the beach or the highlands instead.
Where we stayed: Boutique Hotel Casa Las Orquideas. This was a clean but fairly basic hotel on a main road on the edge of central San José. It was conveniently located a short walk from a supermarket, a Starbucks and some bars and restaurants, so it was ideal as a rendezvous point at the start and end of the trip, but I wouldn’t recommend it for longer stays.
G Adventures Costa Rica Tour Day 2 – San José to Quepos
Next day we left at 7 am and drove a few hours to Quepos, the gateway to Manuel Antonio National Park. En route, we stopped off at the Tarcoles river crossing to look for crocodiles.
Quepos is a small town on Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast. The town itself has a beachfront and a few shops, hotels, bars and restaurants, but the main reason to go there is to use it as a base for visiting Manuel Antonio National Park, about 20 minutes away by local bus.
After dropping our stuff at the hotel, we headed over there to get our bearings. At Manuel Antonio there’s another, prettier beach, plus more touristy restaurants, a few shops, and the entrance to the park. We had free time to swim, relax, grab a frozen daiquiri, and look for monkeys playing in the trees by the side of the road. There are also options to do a sunset catamaran cruise, take a surfing lesson, or go parasailing.
Where we stayed: Villa Romantica Quepos. Another reasonable but basic hotel, with air-conditioned rooms set around a jungle garden where we saw frogs and monkeys. The German owner was extremely welcoming after being closed due to Covid. Unfortunately, the swimming pool was still out of action.
Costa Rica Tour Day 3 – Quepos / Manuel Antonio National Park
In the official itinerary this is listed as a ‘free day to explore and relax’. In the morning some of our group opted to do a catamaran cruise along the coast to enjoy the scenery and look for dolphins. The rest of us had wanted to make an early start in the National Park but as it was a bank holiday weekend, morning tickets were sold out. Instead, we had more free time (some people went for brunch in Quepos and I found my way to a gym), and then at lunchtime we hopped back on the public bus to the Manuel Antonio.
Manuel Antonio National Park is Costa Rica’s smallest National Park, with clearly marked trails for hiking or bird and animal watching. With the help of our guide, Tito, we got our first taste of Costa Rican wildlife – spotting two sloths, deer, iguanas, bats and lizards, before heading down to one of the pristine protected National Park beaches to dip our toes in the warm waters of the Pacific.
I would have liked to spend more time here, but the park closed at 4 pm. If you do this tour, I recommend going to in the morning if you can.
G Adventures Costa Rica Tour Day 4 – Quepos to Monteverde
After two nights by the sea, we headed into Costa Rica’s central highlands, to the mountain town of Monteverde. Monteverde is another small, quite touristy place, the gateway to Costa Rica’s cloud forests and several parks offering hiking, animal-watching, and adventure activities.
In the afternoon we visited the Monteverde cloud forest reserve and spent about two hours hiking through the damp jungle. Sadly the ‘cloud’ forest lived up to its name and we weren’t able to see any views, but we did spot this gorgeous quetzal bird waiting out the rain.
Later we did our included ‘Discover’ moment – a torchlit guided Guided Cloud Forest Night Walk. We saw frogs, a green viper, a sleeping howler monkey, a tarantula, and even a sloth, though it was very high up in a tree and hard to see.
Where we stayed: Hotel Holistico Monteverde. A quiet retreat hotel with comfortable rooms and decent breakfast. The hotel was nice but located about 25 minutes’ walk outside the town centre up a steep hill, making it a bit of a hassle if you wanted to explore by yourself.
G Adventures Review Day 5 – Monteverde
Day 5 is a full day in Monteverde, during which you have a choice of many things do including more hiking and wildlife-spotting, walking suspension bridges through the jungle, visiting a butterfly garden, horseback riding, or zip-lining.
Our entire group opted to do the canopy bridge walk followed by the ziplining. We went to 100% Aventura who have a series of ziplines through the cloud forest, including the longest zipline in Costa Rica at over 1.5 km! You can choose to do it on your front, flying superman-style, which literally took my breath away!
You can pre-book the ziplining as part of G Adventures’ Costa Rica Adrenaline Bundle which saves you a bit of money. There’s more information about how much this all cost coming up later in the post.
G Adventures Costa Rica Tour Day 6 – Monteverde to La Fortuna
It was time to move on again, this time to La Fortuna, close to lake Arenal and the majestic Arenal volcano. The journey was about three hours by bus and then a very pleasant hour spent crossing Lake Arenal, with the volcano looming ever closer.
La Fortuna is another touristy town with plenty of restaurants, shops, and tour agencies, so after our fairly long travel day we had free time to relax and explore before heading for dinner.
Where we stayed: Hotel Las Colinas. Rooms here were clean and comfortable with working air-con, hot showers and views of the volcano. The hotel has a terrace bar which could get quite noisy, but calmed down after 10 pm.
G Adventures Review Day 7 – La Fortuna
The next two days were devoted to adventures around La Fortuna. There are dozens of different tours you can book, from whitewater rafting, waterfall rappelling, mountain biking and ATV excursions to calmer activities like hiking, boat trips or SUP on the lake, or a visit to the Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge.
On the morning of Day 7 most of the group opted to go canyoning and waterfall rappelling, and in the afternoon we went to see Arenal volcano. It’s active so you can’t climb it, but there are several scenic hiking trails around the base where you can learn more about it and see lava from previous eruptions.
On the way back we stopped at the Paradise Hot Springs which was one of my favourite places on the trip: a gorgeous resort with eight thermal pools in a leafy jungle setting. At night they were lit up in different colours and one of the pools has a swim up bar, making for a fabulous place to relax after another busy day.
G Adventures Costa Rica Tour Day 8 – La Fortuna
Another day in La Fortuna: we were offered the chance to book more adventure excursions through a recommended adventure tour company, but everyone decided to have a more chilled day, visiting the La Fortuna waterfall for a swim and then taking the afternoon off to enjoy the town’s many cafes, shops and bars, or getting a massage.
I had a quiet lunch in an organic restaurant, ate gelato, and browsed for souvenirs.
Costa Rica Tour Day 9 – La Fortuna to Sarapiquí Rainforest
Another travel morning – several hours by bus heading east from La Fortuna to Sarapiquí.
En route, we stopped at the Mi Cafecito Coffee Cooperative for our ‘G For Good’ moment, visiting one of the local organisations supported by the G Adventures and the Planeterra Foundation. We had a tour of the site, learned about how Costa Rican coffee is produced and why it’s considered some of the best in the world, and ate a delicious Costa Rican lunch of fresh fish with rice, beans and plantain.
Once we arrived at Sarapiquí we headed straight out for a short hike to another waterfall where we were able to swim in the cool water and relax after another sweaty bus journey.
Later the hotel staff took us on a short night walk to see tree frogs, and then fed us a traditional dinner.
Where we stayed: Pozo Azul. This was one of my favourite places that we stayed on the trip: very rustic safari tents with no air con or hot water, but what they lacked in luxury they more than made up for in the location, right in the heart of the rainforest so we fell asleep listening to the rain and the sounds of frogs and crickets chirruping.
G Adventures Costa Rica Tour Day 10 – Sarapiquí Rainforest
Some of us got up before dawn to do a sunrise birdwatching hike around the property, where we saw hummingbirds, toucans and a colourful trogon, before heading back for a delicious included breakfast (I especially loved the sweet fried plantains).
Then it was time for more adventure: whitewater rafting on the Sarapiquí river. The rapids here are Grades 2-4, so not too scary but still exciting enough to give you a thrill and get you pretty wet!
In the afternoon we had more free time to relax in our jungle oasis, and we also had our included ‘Foodie Moment’ – learning how to make traditional empanadas (and then eating them!).
G Adventures Tour Day 11 – Sarapiquí to Tortuguero
Time to move on again on our whistlestop tour of Costa Rica – this time to Tortuguero, on the Caribbean coast.
Tortuguero is a unique village: a small cluster of shops, simple houses and bars built on a very narrow strip of land between the Tortuguero River and the Caribbean Sea. It’s only accessible by boat and feels like the sort of place you need to visit soon before rising sea levels wash it away completely.
Getting there was another adventure – a few hours on the bus and then an hour’s boat ride downriver, looking out for wildlife as we chugged along between overhanging jungle fronds guarded by beady-eyed herons and noisy howler monkeys.
Tortuguero gets its name from the green and leatherback sea turtles (tortugas) that come here to nest on the beaches, and as we were lucky enough to visit at the start of nesting season, late in the evening we had the chance to go and see them.
The experience is closely regulated: visitor numbers and time spent on the beach are strictly limited and you can’t take phones or cameras, but it’s still a unique chance to see these rare endangered creatures up close.
Where we stayed: La Baula Lodge. Another of my favourites, a riverfront lodge featuring comfortable rooms (though without air con) arranged around a gorgeous garden filled with colourful flowers, with monkeys and toucans playing in the trees and a small pool for cooling off after the sweaty day. Breakfast and dinner were included.
G Adventures Costa Rica Tour Day 12 – Tortuguero
A full day to explore the delights of Tortuguero National Park. In the morning we did a peaceful kayak excursion downriver, paddling gently along spotting monkeys, herons, bright green basilisks and other birds.
In the afternoon we were supposed to hike up to a viewpoint to look for more wildlife and admire the landscape, but the heavens opened and it was cancelled, so we hung out in the hotel, relaxed to the sound of the rain, and enjoyed the 2-for-$10 cocktail deal!
Read more: Nature Vacations: 25 Amazing Places For An Outdoors Adventure
G Adventures Review Day 13 – Tortuguero to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca
I would have liked to spend a bit longer wildlife-spotting in Tortuguero but it was time to move on again, back along the river by boat and then a few hours by bus down the coast to Puerto Viejo.
Puerto Viejo is one of Costa Rica’s popular Caribbean beach villages, a small, friendly, walkable place with a few streets jammed with cafes, bars and souvenir shops, a sandy, palm-fringed beach, and a relaxed Caribbean vibe.
The plan for the afternoon was to relax on the beach, but again the weather was not on our side (the perils of travelling in rainy season!) so people either relaxed in the hotel or went to find a bar to hang out in.
Where we stayed: Cabinas Jacaranda Hotel. Located just a short walk from the beach and shops, this cute hotel had comfortable rooms with air-con and hot showers arranged around a leafy courtyard with hammocks for relaxing in.
Costa Rica Tour Day 14 – Puerto Viejo
Puerto Viejo is known for its miles of sandy beaches, some black, some white, so in the morning we were given bicycles so we could explore. Most people cycled along the main road to a quiet and pretty beach where we relaxed and enjoyed a dip in the Caribbean before heading back to the town to explore the shops and buy all those important last-minute souvenirs and gifts.
G Adventures Costa Rica Tour Day 15 – Puerto Viejo de Talamanca to San José
And before we knew it, it was the last full day of the tour. We had a lazy morning, a relaxed breakfast, the chance for another quick dip in the sea, and then an 11 am start for the long drive back to San Jose.
We got back at about 5 pm, giving us enough time to grab a coffee, pack for the plane, or pick up essentials for the journey home, before heading out for a final group dinner to say goodbye.
G Adventures Costa Rica Tour Day 16 – Departure
The final day of any G Adventures tour is just departure day. Some people had early flights, others were staying on in Costa Rica for a few days, and my flight was at lunchtime so I had breakfast, said goodbye to the group and our excellent guide, and then hopped in an Uber to the airport for my journey back to London.
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G Adventures Review: The Guide (CEO)
G Adventures call their tour guides CEOs – or Chief Experience Officers. Ours was Tito, a 45-year-old Costa Rican with 20 years of guiding experience, boundless enthusiasm and energy and endless patience when it came to our many questions.
He was extremely knowledgeable too, full of information sometimes to the point of excess, like when he would continually point at things from the bus even when we were trying to sleep, or being so thorough at the evening briefings that we would start to get confused from the information overload. But he was always likeable and smiling, ready with a joke or a few words of encouragement, a man who clearly loves his job and his country and enjoys sharing it with visitors.
Of course there’s no guarantee you’ll get Tito if you do the Costa Rica G Adventures tour, but in my experience of group travel in general and G Adventures in particular, I’ve found all the guides to be of a similar level of enthusiasm and knowledge that really helps to bring the tour to life.
G Adventures Review: The Food
Costa Rican typical food usually involves rice, beans, fried plantain, and some sort of grilled or fried protein, alongside Mexican-style dishes like tacos and burritos and deliciously sweet local pineapples, mangos and bananas.
Mostly you’ll be eating in touristy restaurants which typically serve up crowd-pleasers like pizza, pasta, or burgers.
Food and drink were not usually included in our Costa Rica tour. The exceptions were a couple of the hotels that provided breakfast, or the remote jungle lodges where there were no restaurants nearby, so dinner was also part of the service. In total only 4 breakfasts, lunches and dinners were included.
When choosing restaurants for us to visit, Tito always tried to pick a mid-range place where there were enough options to suit all tastes – though the vegetarians in our group did struggle a little.
Invariably we ended up in very average places that always offered the same food, most of which was fine and some of which was terrible, though there were a few excellent meals tucked in there too.
That, unfortunately, is one of the downsides of traveling with a group where everyone has different price points and expectations around food. Let’s just say this is not a foodie tour, and if culinary adventures are a priority for you, you might want to research your own restaurant options online and not eat with the group every night.
G Adventures Review: Accommodation
The Costa Rica Adventure is one of G Adventures Classic trips, which means travelling in a little more comfort than some of their more basic tours, while still sticking to a budget.
Hotels in general were clean and comfortable but basic. We usually had wifi, air-conditioning and hot water, but not always. Sometimes the rooms were quite small and dark, and only one of the hotels had a swimming pool.
This is not a luxury trip – the focus is much more on adventure and seeing this wonderful country on a fairly limited budget. So if room service and a pillow menu are important, this probably isn’t the trip for you.
But if like me you’re not planning to spend much time in the room anyway, and you don’t much care about the accommodation as long as you have a clean bed and a shower, then you’ve come to the right place!
G Adventures Review: Transport
Transport for our tour was in an air-conditioned private bus, with the occasional public bus, taxi or boat ride. Unlike other tours I’ve done, we didn’t always have the same bus and driver; instead we used local companies and drivers where necessary, so the buses varied in size and comfort but they were always big enough and had air-conditioning. Very occasionally we had to share with other travellers but usually we had the transport to ourselves.
We were told that pre-pandemic more of the journeys involved using public transport, but that switched to private buses due to Covid. By the time you travel, this may have changed back, so it’s worth checking if this is important to you.
None of the buses had toilets, but we made regular bathroom stops. The longest bus ride was about 5 hours and I usually passed the time by listening to music, reading a book, or watching Netflix downloads on my phone. Some of the roads are windy, so make sure you bring travel sickness pills if you’re a sufferer.
G Adventures Review: The group
G Adventures market themselves to a wide range of travellers from teenagers all the way up to pensioners. As long as you have a love of travel and a sense of adventure, then G Adventures is for you.
However, in general I have found most of my fellow travellers on these sorts of trips to be in their 20s to 50s. The maximum group size is 16, and at the moment most of their tours seem to be operating at near capacity.
We had 14 in our group, consisting of two middle-aged couples with children in their late teens; one middle-aged single man, and five solo women in their 20s and 30s. Plus me.
I found this was a good mix of ages and interests, and while people did tend to make friends and form little sub-groups, overall we got along well. Our guide told us that sometimes he’s had tours where people split off or seriously clash, but we had no problems.
Of course you can’t predict who you will get, but I think G Adventures does tend to attract the same sort of adventurous, outgoing people, so even if you don’t bond with everyone, you stand a good chance of at least finding a few people in your group that you get along with.
G Adventures Review: Sustainability and ethics
More than ever we need to be thinking about the ethics and sustainability of our travel choices. So if that’s important to you (and I hope it is), you’ll be pleased to hear that G Adventures take it seriously too.
All G Adventures trips have a focus on community tourism. That means making sure that all trips directly benefit the people and places they visit. This includes working with the Planeterra Foundation to help develop local communities, and 5% of your trip fee goes to the foundation.
All trips now also have a ‘Ripple Score’, which is a measure out of 100 of how often the trip uses local businesses and services. The Ripple Score for the Costa Rica Adventure is 100, meaning you can be confident your money is helping to support small businesses in the communities you’re visiting.
There’s loads more information about the different ways G Adventures take their ethical responsibilities seriously on their website here.
G Adventures Costa Rica Adventure: How much did it cost?
So after all that, what was the final cost of the trip?
The list price for this tour at the time of writing is £1279 in off-peak season and £1429 in peak season. However G Adventures quite often do discounts of up to 20%, so if you travel in rainy season (as I did) and book during a discount window you could pay as little as £1087.
This price does not include flights, most meals, or most of the activities.
You can make savings on some activities by pre-booking, for example:
- Catamaran tour in Manuel Antonio – in advance for $75
- Adrenaline Bundle (includes canyoning in La Fortuna and zip-lining in Monteverde): $135. If you pay separately during the tour the price would be $96 + $54 = $150.
Other optional extra costs were as follows (all prices in US$ and sometimes estimated or rounded to the nearest $10):
| ACTIVITIES | PRICE (US$) |
|---|---|
| Manuel Antonio National Park entry | 16 |
| Monteverde national park entry | 25 |
| Monteverde hanging bridges walk | 35 |
| Monteverde ziplining (if not pre booked) | 54 |
| Photos from the ziplining | 5 |
| Arenal volcano walk | 15 |
| Transport to Arenal volcano | 10 |
| La Fortuna waterfall entry | 18 |
| Canyoning (if not pre booked) | 96 |
| Photos from the canyoning | 5 |
| La Fortuna hot springs entry | 28 |
| Massages in La Fortuna | 40 |
| Sarapiqui waterfall hike | 15 |
| Sarapiqui rafting | 68 |
| Rafting photos | 5 |
| Tortuguero Kayaking | 60 |
| Tortuguero National Park hike | 25 |
| Turtles experience (in season only) | 35 |
| Tortuguero water taxi | 5 |
| Total activities | 560 |
| OTHER EXPENSES | |
| Meals (typically $10-15 each) | Allow US$530-690 for meals not included |
| Laundry (for 2-3 kg of dry clothes) | 7 |
| Airport transfer | 35 |
| Water | Free if you’re happy to drink the tap |
| Tips | Up to you |
| Tip for the guide – recommended $3-5 a day | 50 |
| Total extras | About $700 |
Add all this up and what it means is that if you do all the activities, eat every meal in the restaurants recommended by the guide, drink the tap water and only do laundry once, you’re looking at roughly an extra $1260 on top of the baseline cost of the trip.
So your total for the whole trip, not including flights, will be somewhere around $2900 or £2300 per person, assuming you travel in off-peak season and are happy to share a room with a fellow traveller (if not, you’ll pay around $680 / £570 extra to have your own room).
When is the best time to do the G Adventures Costa Rica tour?
The best time to visit Costa Rica is during the dry season, November to March. However, this is also peak season and everything will be more expensive. I visited in rainy season and although it did rain a fair bit and a couple of things did get cancelled, we also had some good weather and managed to do almost everything as planned on the itinerary.
If you visit during rainy season, you will save money but you will also have to be prepared to put up with some bad weather. So if money is not an issue, I recommend paying a bit more and travelling during the UK/US winter (when you’ll also get to escape the cold back home!)
G Adventures Review: My verdict
Before I joined the tour, I spent a week in Costa Rica by myself. During that week, I spent about $630 on private rooms in mid-range hotels, and $100 on transport. So $730 just for transport and accommodation in a single week, travelling by myself.
On that basis, the G Adventures Costa Rica tour is very good value. For less money than I would have spent travelling by myself, I got my whole trip organised for me, all my accommodation, an expert guide, some meals and activities, and a group of like-minded people to hang out with.
It did cost a lot more to do all the activities, but Costa Rica is not a cheap destination, and the activities we did do were varied, exciting, well-managed, and worth paying for.
Cost aside, I thought this was an excellent tour. It was well planned, with a good balance between activities and free time. There was an excellent choice of activities and a good balance between wildlife spotting and hiking and other adventure sports.
Bus journeys were no longer than about four hours each and we always spent at least two nights in each destination, so while the itinerary did feel packed, we weren’t overwhelmed and rushed.
While group travel may not be for everyone, I do think that if you want to explore Costa Rica with the comfort and safety of a group and the convenience of having your trip planned for you, then the G Adventures Costa Rica Adventure Tour could be just the thing you’re looking for.
But don’t just take my word for it! Click here and then scroll down to read hundreds more reviews from previous customers.
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Bella is a multi-award-winning travel writer, wildlife photographer and science and history documentary director from London. Among many awards and nominations she won Blogger of the Year at the British Guild of Travel Writers’ Awards 2023 and Best Photography at the Travel Media Awards 2020. Her work has been published by National Geographic, Wanderlust, and BBC Travel among others. Her films have been shown around the world including on the BBC, Discovery and PBS.
