My Account
FAQ
Teachers
Students & Parents
Forums
Blog
Careers
Contact Us
Educational Travel Tours - High School and Middle School Trips for Teachers and Students |
Questions? Call 1.888.310.7120
Teachers
Students & Parents
Browse Tours
European Tours
Latin American Tours
Asian, African & South Pacific Tours
North American Tours
Flex Tours
Tour Diaries
Request A Brochure
About Explorica
Search for a tour
Search by city, country, or attraction
Refine Search
International Tours
USA & Canada Tours
Espiritour
Costa Rican Adventure With White Water Rafting Adventure Extension
Printable Version
Our ratings are automatically calculated from all our traveler's evaluations, where:
is "poor"
is "average"
is "good"
is "excellent"
Recent Tour Diaries:
June 24, 2008 - July 01, 2008
June 24, 2008 - July 01, 2008
June 23, 2008 - June 30, 2008
Day 1 Start Tour
Meet your Tour Director and check into hotel
Day 2 San José--Tortuguero
Travel to Tortuguero
Tour Director-led Sightseeing
Jump into Caribbean jewel Tortuguero, whose national park is packed with wildlife and ecological habitats. Most known for its sea turtle nesting grounds, the park also counts manatees, ocelots, and giant iguanas and numerous other impressive creatures as inhabitants. In the adjacent logging town of Tortuguero, sandy trails link funky wooden houses.
Caribbean Conservation Cooperation Museum
Run by the American Caribbean Conservation Corps, this museum centers on the corps’ work with the park’s sea turtle population. Learn about the area’s ecology through life-sized exhibits and videos.
Day 3 Tortuguero
Canal Tour
Get up close with some of Tortuguero’s coolest inhabitants. Make your way through the park’s narrow waterways, where the overhanging vegetation can bring 300 species of birds, 168 species of reptiles and amphibians, and 60 species of mammals right up under your nose.
Hike Tortuguero hill
From the highest point for miles around, you can survey the intensely varied landscapes of Tortuguero National Park.
Day 4 Tortuguero--Arenal
Travel to Arenal
Hot Springs visit
Let the volcanoes take you away. At Arenal’s hot springs, bubbling lava fields heat the waters to make nature’s own jacuzzi. Take the chance to rest in the steamy water, or get more adventurous on waterslides, under waterfalls, or in the natural saunas.
Day 5 Arenal--Monteverde
Lake Arenal kayaking tour
Glide along the still waters reflecting the perfect cone of Arenal Volcano and the surrounding rolling hills. Lake Arenal, the country's largest, is also among its most scenic, and the area has become popular area to kayak, windsurf, sail, fish, and hike.
Travel to Monteverde
Because of its humidity and latitude, the entire city of Monteverde can disappear in a second under a massive cloud cover. Founded by Quakers in 1951, the city boasts the best in Costa Rican creatures. Observe a proud display of howler monkeys, revered quetzals and native frogs in the dense cover of the cloud forest.
Optional
Horseback ride
$45
Step back in time as you explore Monteverde on horseback, following time-worn trails through the mountains as you breathe in the mists of the rainforest.
Day 6 Monteverde Landmarks
Santa Elena Biological Reserve
Get your spider monkey fix as you climb into the clouds. The Santa Elena Reserve reaches high into the atmosphere, bringing the cloudy mists into its lush forests and letting you see all the way to the Arenal Volcano.
Plant your own tree
In 1987, a nine-year-old Swedish student asked what he could do to save the rainforests, and Children’s Eternal Cloud Forest was born. The Monteverde Conservation League oversees the planting of deforested land and virgin rainforest in the Children’s Forest and throughout the area, and now owns more than 22,000 hectares. Contribute your green thumb efforts to their conservation work.
Optional
Canopy Tour
$50
Soar through the treetops for the unmatched close-up of the New World’s best wildlife refuge. Harness yourself to cables that run between platforms high in the trees, then step into thin air and zip from tree to tree. Experience a true bird-eye view from your new aerial perspective.
Day 7 Monteverde--San José
Butterfly Garden & Ecological Farm visit
Fluttering wings of red and yellow hop from flower to flower in Monteverde’s impressive Butterfly Garden, founded by biologist Jim Wolfe and his wife Marta Iris Salazar. Get a broader look at Costa Rican flora and fauna at the Ecolodge, a University of Georgia satellite campus. The visitor-friendly farm offers hiking, horseback riding, bird-watching and night walks, and the residents are always happy to discuss their work in sustainable agriculture throughout the area.
Travel to San José
Day 8 Start Extension in San José
Sarapiqui River full-day guided rafting trip
The perfect way to experience Costa Rica at its best. After getting full safety and paddling instructions from your guide, head off into lush rainforest teeming with toucans, herons, and iguanas. Be on the lookout for basilisk lizards — these reptiles can scurry across the water on their hind legs, a feat that earned them the nickname “Jesus Christ lizards.” End your tour of Costa Rica’s most popular river with a traditional lunch prepared by your guide.
Day 9 End Tour