Our Guestbook 2008

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Hello Arturo,

As Erik said, we had a wonderful time. We really felt like we were well taken care of and still had a "real" experience in your beautiful country.  I've attached a couple of photos.  Let me know if you would like more. 
 
P.S. - Our first driver did not ask for the voucher for our ride from the airport to the Grano de Oro.  We had just gotten them from you and we didn't realize we were supposed to give it to him.  Let me know if we need to do something about that.

Hi Arturo,

Julie will provide some pictures.

The time we had was truly amazing.  By far the best part of the entire trip was the first couple of days in Corcovado.  The resort was truly magical and the guide was incredibly informative.  Arenal was ok, but since it rained nearly our entire time up there it was not quite perfect.  We were not able to see the volcano unfortunately.

Monte Verde was a really neat town and the view from that hotel was outstanding.  We actually got to see the sunset as the rain broke for a few hours.

Julie thought the rafting was wonderful, but we were the only ones in our raft paddling (certainly nothing you could do about that!) which made it a bigger challenge.

Making that the last activity of our stay was ideal.  The second room we had the last few days in San Jose was spectacular.  This was money well spent!  My other favorite activity was the hotsprings.  What a romantic and perfect place to spend the evening.  This is a must for any couple and after our numerous hikes throughout the week, a much needed relaxing experience.

The rain was a bit of a bummer, but 80 degrees (F) beat out the two feet of snow we got at home.  Additionally, each of the tours, including two we went separate from the packages, all provided the same information.  Some of the guides were better at spotting birds than others, but the info they provided was nearly identical.

It sounds like they all attended the same class at the University of Costa Rica on bio-tourism.  The first few tours were very informative, the following four or five were pretty repetitive.  Overall the trip was outstanding!  Your company was incredibly well organized, helpful and friendly.  In a day and age where we have to be aware of scammers and thieves over the internet, your company and employees are an oasis.  The vouchers were a neat system and helpful in planning of daily activities.  I really enjoyed some of the minor cultural aspects like going to the grocery store and meals that were not part of the resorts.  I can only compare Costa Rica with Mexico and there truly is no comparison.  The people of Mexico clearly are tolerant of Americans, but the people of Costa Rica were some of the warmest, friendliest, and helpful people we have ever met.  We absolutely would recommend your company again, and in fact have done so to all of our closest friends already.  Please feel free to use Julie and I as references and anything I have typed may be used on your website or any of your literature.
 
Please let me know if there is any more information or details I can provide for you or your company.  Julie and I have many memories which will last us a lifetime (or at least until we visit again!)
 
Very Sincerely,

Hello Arturo,
 
We had a FANTASTIC time and you did a great job with our itinerary, reservations, and all.  Most importantly, your provided us with your A+ guide, Will.  I'm sure he was not expecting to meet a 90 year old and her 65 year old daughter!  Will made it possible for us to both have a journey of a lifetime, anticipating and understanding our needs and limitations.

He was patient and we couldn't have ask for a better overview of your beautiful country. We are sorry that time did not permit the waterfall. After all there is only so much to see in 6 days.

Arturo, we sincerely thank you and your firm for responding to and fulfilling our requests in such a timely manner.

Best regards,
 

We had a great time on our trip. The drivers and guides were fantastic. We started out in San Jose, then two days on the Pacuare River. The people at Rios Tropicales know there stuf and the lodge out of this world. After a night back in San Jose, we move on to La Paz waterfall gardens, then on to Arenal. We horse back to La Fortuna waterfall and the zipline canopy tour then back to San Jose.

Hi Ana,

Thanks again for your help in arranging travel to Manuel Antonio. We had rain but the place is beautiful. The driver from Quality was great-stopped to see Macaws and Crocs. Only bad part was we could have used more time in Manuel Antonio. We'll recommend your services to anyone heading to Costa Rica. 

Regards,

Hi Arturo,

I finally made the time to organize the photos from our fantastic vacation back in June. Feel free to email me if you recognize any mistakes I made in identifying places! Also, can you send this along to Gerardo or send me his email address?

Thanks!

Arturo;
Hope you have recovered fully from your cold. We had a great trip! THANKS!!! We only got lost once; because of a detour and a kind person, who could see we looked lost pulled us over and gave us directions.
After driving in and out of Monteverde, I will never complain about a Minnesota pothole again. The car held up well and got us through the challenging roads. We saw many birds, animals and other organisms. A really great trip.

Thanks,

Arturo;

Hope you have recovered fully from your cold. We had a great trip! THANKS!!! We only got lost once; because of a detour and a kind person, who could see we looked lost pulled us over and gave us directions.
After driving in and out of Monteverde, I will never complain about a Minnesota pothole again. The car held up well and got us through the challenging roads. We saw many birds, animals and other organisms. A really great trip.

Thanks,

Dear Ana - Thank you for your message.  I was intending to write you and tell you about our trip, but, as you know, my husband's mother was hospitalized shortly before our return and we have been very busy hoping to get her stabilized.  Firstly, I want to thank you so much for your help with this medical emergency.  We so much appreciated your being the connection between doctors and family in the US.  Our driver, Geraldo, was also terrific and caring and his concern in following up with you and allowing us to call on his cell phone made this difficult situation easier. He was also very informative and made the long drive much more pleasant.

As for our trip, we were so pleased with the arrangements and everything seemed to run very smoothly - especially given all the different number and types of transports we took throughout our vacation.  There were many adventures and surprises which made our time very varied and fun.  The accomodations were very lovely.  The Hot Springs were fabulous and given the weather was cold and rainy, it was the most pleasant way to warm up imaginable. We loved the river tour of Cano Negro and really got into the birdwatching.  The catamaran was also run very well and offered nature watching, snorkeling, sailing, swimming and eating a great lunch - what else could you ask for?  We took a tour of the Don Juan Coffee plantation which was very interesting and informative.  The guide was great.  We must say that all of the guides on our trip were very good. We very much enjoyed the food and the delicious fresh fruits and your wonderful coffee.  We tried to eat in some of the local restaurants on each stop and that added to the experience of each destination.  Stew and I did the Zip-Line in Manuel Antonio and although I am the world's biggest chicken, I was so glad I pushed myself to do it! 
   So, we thank you again for planning and executing this wonderful vacation and I will be happy to recommend you to any of our friends or family who plan to visit Costa Rica.    

The trip was absolutely fantastic. We liked Tortuguerra and Corcovado the best. I would have liked another day in Arenal I think. Most impressive was our driver Allan. I can’t say enough good things about him. He was patient, polite and knowledgeable and always on time. Being from New York this was unbelievable to us.

Hello, Arturo,

Just wanted to let you know that Heidi and I had an absolutely wonderful time in Costa Rica. Everything worked out well.  We had no mishaps during our stay.  The hotels you picked were beautiful.  Hotel Cioro was unbelievable.  In Manuel Antonio, the monkeys greeted us in the morning as we made our way to breakfast strolling down our own private balcony.

Whitewater rafting and canopy sailing left us sore and hurting.  Heidi fell out of the raft, but she was rescued quickly.  All part of the fun.

In hindsight, we should have taken a personal driver.  The distances between each destination were a bit extreme.  Having our own driver at our disposal, would have made a big difference and would have allowed us to spend more time enjoying the country instead of of traveling back and forth to San Jose.  That was my fault.  A lesson learned.

I must apologize for losing the one voucher.  I had inadvertently given that voucher to the white-water rafting people, thinking one was for the bus and the other for the rafting.  Very careless of me.  Thanks for supplying a copy.

Regards,

Hi Ana,

We cannot thank you enough for helping us to plan an unforgettable trip.  We already have, and will continue to  HIGHLY recommend recommend Rainforest Tours to all of our friends and acquaintances.  We will post some photos on your web site soon.  It was a pleasure to work with you, and we look forward to many more trips to Costa Rica in the future, so we will be in contact.  Thanks again.

Dear Arturo

I am sorry it took so long before I found the time to write you, but it is only a week ago the group members got together again after their return to Denmark.

We are all very satisfied with your arrangement of our trip to Costa Rica. As a matter of fact we are more than just satisfied, because everything was so good arranged and well organized that we managed to experience and see more than we had ever dreamt of. Everything was perfect ... the tours (fantastic!), the hotels (splendid!), the food (excellent!). Without doubt we will recomend to everyone to get in contact with you and Rain Forest Tour to have their vacation arranged.

Before leaving Denmark, and taking into account we were in July, when travelling to Costa Rica we thought we were going to an "unpleasant humid, hot, and rainy tropical climate". But we were taken by a very plesant surprise because the weather was just wonderfull ... humid yes, but not at all hot just nicely warm, and so was the rain when pouring down ... like a plesant shower.

I have attached one foto of the group (minus 2) taken in Monte Verde. More fotos are mailed seperately and for you to be able to destinguished them, I´ll attached number, my name, and the place.

Already by now some 6 persons have contacted me expressing their interest with regard to a trip to Costa Rica July 2009. Let´s remain in contact and I will let you know along the way should they (and/or I) make a final decision to go.

I hope Costa Rica will remain out of track of the tropical storms - news here inform of one after the other and of hurricans there have been three allready this season - ; I also hope everything is fine with you. The group and I send you our best regards and thank you so very much once again.

Hello Arturo,

We were very satisfied with your service and we had a wonderful stay and enjoyed very much the activities in Costa Rica. I will send you a more informative mail as soon as I am back in Denmark and also send some of our good shots. Right now we are at the Galapagos island and are just about to board the yacht with which we shall pay a visit to some of the islands, thereafter we will continue to Colombia, and I will be back in Denmark around August 10 and hereafter I will mail you again.

Many kind regards

The check was waiting for us when we got home.  Thanks for your promptness.  Thanks for helping us to plan a wonderful vacation.  We appreciated the knowledge of all our guides in the flora and fauna, especially Allen and the ones who helped me add over 60 birds to my life list.  Allen did a magnificient job.  We'll be sure to recommend you to all our friends if anyone is interested in CR and will use you again if we head back to Costa Rica, which we hope to do again some day. 

Thanks.

God Bless,

Arturo,

Thank you for convincing us to go to Corcovado.  It was the highlight of our trip.  Our kids enjoyed every minute of it.

Gerardo was an integral part of making our trip so successful. From pointing out sloths, howlers and the ability to identify every bird along the way as well as making great restaurant selections, he insured a hassle free trip.  He even accomodated our unusual request of stopping at schools along the way and managed to organize an improptu game of soccer for our sons with some delightful schoolchildren.

Good morning Arturo,

I haven't forgotten to write about our experiences in Costa Rica.  The paperwork has just piled up so much I'm still a bit buried under it.

We had a great time in Costa Rica!  Gerardo was an outstanding guide and driver.  We really appreciated his friendship and nowledge of flora and fauna as well as where to go for lunch and dinner.  We would certainly ask for him to be our guide on  future trips for sure.

The individual tours and their guides were all very good.  They were everything we expected and the only thing that would have improved them would be more wildlife.  The animals were not as abundant as we had hoped, but the tropical storm probably kept most of them under cover.

I also want to thank you for providing us with a great 3 day tour and well managed schedule.  We will be back some day.

Arturo-

Enjoyed everything about the trip (except having to come home). Very unique tours/trips. Thanks again for all your help. All the activities were great and very well run.

Best regards,

Arturo,
 
Many thanks for planning such a wonderful and memorable trip for our family.  Allen is a treasure.  Unfailingly polite, he safely drove us through the country providing us with interesting information and stops between locations.  We missed him terribly after he dropped us off in San Jose.  We enjoyed both hotels and all of the activities and appreciated the differences between the Arenel rainforest, the Manuel Antonio beach scene and San Jose.  In short, we loved Costa Rica and would like to return one day.  Of course, we will keep you in mind and let our friends know about the superior services we received from Rainforest Tours.
 
Best regards and thanks,
 

Just wanted to drop you a quick line to let you know how great everything was during our recent trip to Costa Rica.  We had a great time with all of our activities and also wanted to let you know that Edward was very efficient and friendly.  There were a couple of slight mix-ups with our reservations and Edward was able to make all of the arrangements and help us to be sure we got where we needed to go in time to fit in all of our adventures. 

Also, to let you know, I've recommended you to my friend Roberta who will be traveling to Costa Rica during Semana Santa.  I know you'll be able to help her out just as you were able to plan a great trip for us!

Thanks and best,

Dear Arturo: I want to thank you for your services during our recent trip in CR.  Our driver, Orlando, was extremely professional and dependable.  We very much appreciated having him with us.  A very nice rental car arrived on time and the two people who delivered it  -- Natalie and Bernie -- were wonderful; we very much enjoyed talking with them.  The car was picked up on time.  We appreciate your attention to detail and your help in making our vacation a success.

We will gladly recommend Rain Forest Tours to friends.  All the best,

Hi Arturo,

We had a wonderful trip. Thanks for putting it together for us on such short notice. We very much enjoyed meeting Nerida (spelling ?) and having dinner with you. Thank you for your hospitality. As I mentioned, I thought this would be our last trip to Costa Rica but now I'm intrigued by the possibility of the Caribbean/Panama idea you mentioned. We'll give it serious consideration again next year.
 
We've mentioned you and Rain Forest Tours to a number of people, both in Costa Rica and here, so perhaps you will get some referrals.

And I would be remiss if I didn't say that Gerardo was great again, as usual. Take care.

Arturo,

We are back in Canada after a wonderful time in Costa Rica.

What made it especially so was our visit to the Osa Peninsula (Feb 20 - Feb 23).

It exceeded our expectations because ...

• arrangements to/from were very good.
• the staff was very welcoming and treated us "royally"
• the food was first class including the outdoor lunches.
• the pacific view was stunning from their lookout
• the accommodation and grounds were beautiful

Thanks for your help in "making it happen".

Hi, Arturo,

I'm home and almost back to a routine.  Your country is beautiful and we certainly enjoyed it.  The only downside was the La Colina Hotel.  It did give us a view of the sunset over the Pacific (as requested) but the climb to the room was not worth it. The second day we saw another beautiful sunset from the beach in Quepos. Tell your clients to listen to your advise (not like me) but thank you for being quick to change our itinerary so that we didn't spend the last night in San Jose.

Much more importantly, the upside is the beauty of your country and your very exceptional guides. Adolpho was only with us for a few hours but couldn't be nicer.  Edwardo, who came to Allen's aid when the car broke down, was friendly, helpful and an all around happy person.  But your Allen is truly a treasure!!  He was wonderful!!  He couldn't do enough for us!  He almost seemed disappointed if he couldn't take us somewhere or do something for us. He took us all over and to places we didn't know existed.  He made the trip truly special and you are blessed to have people like him.  I'm not much on computers so I won't even try to send pictures.  We had a wonderful trip and I'll certainly praise you to anyone interested in going to Costa Rica. 

Hi Arturo,
 
We had a great trip.  We really enjoyed the entire experience, and I would find it difficult to say what we liked the most.  Truly, CostaRicans are wonderful people and the country is a very special place. We appreciate your help and your quick responses to everything, and will certainly pass on your details to anyone we meet who is interested in a visit.
 
Thank you again,   sincerely,  

Dear Ana,

As I said in my email to you last weeke , we had a wonderful vacation in Costa Rica. Gerardo was absolutely top notch, and the entire trip exceeded our greatest expectations.  Hugh is having a hard time adjusting to being back home!

We surely hope we can return to Costa Rica next January and visit some of the areas we could not get to this January, and also revisit some of our favorite spots.

Needless to say, we will enlist your help in arranging another trip to your country and will request that Gerardo be our guide again.  We're already looking at the map to see places we would like to visit on a return trip.

Thanks for all of your help in arranging a most memorable trip.

Fondly,

Hello Ana!

It was a pleasure meeting you last week in your beautiful country!

We had a wonderful trip and wanted to thank you particularly for all your help in arraging such a fantastic itinerary for us! Almonds and Corals was a particular favourite of ours, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time in the Arenal area. We also greatly appreciated having Gerrardo with us on the trip - he was a wonderful guide, and made our time in Arenal very enjoyable! We were hoping that you might be able to send us his email address so that we can thank him ourselves and perhaps send him a couple of pictures from our trip?

As a note for your future reference, we would like to suggest that although the Calypso tour was interesting, another tour or event of a similar timeframe might have provided a greater opportunity to view the beautiful Pacific coast of Costa Rica. We were pleased with the quality of the food served and with the staff and conditions of the boat, however the restriction of passengers to the beach, and an additional cost to participate in snorkelling activities, meant that we were unable to appreciate the full beauty of the area.

We will not hesitate in the future to recommend your company to our friends - thank you very much again for your assistance.

With warmest regards,

Thank you Ana Lam for being so helpful and considerate with my trip planning, etc. We had a great time!

Ana,

We appreciated all your help. We had a great time! We will certainly be back. Do you help in renting vacation houses on the beach? I think our next trip will be with some friends doing that. Every beach we went to was just perfect and the weather was great. I will be giving your name to a few friends that will be heading to Costa Rica in the spring.

Megan Czaplicke

Dear Ana,

In a word, our Costa Rica trip was wonderful!  You and Rain Forest Tours did an excellent job in putting together a most memorable trip.  Our driver and guide, Gerardo, was magnificent.  His knowledge of wildlife, history, environment, etc. was top notch.  We experienced much more of the real Costa Rica with him than we had anticipated.  He often stopped when he spotted something along the way that he wanted to share with us, and we couldn’t have experienced one-tenth as much without his guidance.  I think perhaps now we are spoiled in what to expect on future trips.

The accommodations were outstanding (especially at Monteverde), and when there was a view, we had it.  There were so many great experiences that we cannot say any one thing was the best.  Corcovado was a truly outstanding way to end the trip.  Many people staying only 2 or 3 days at Casa Corcovado wished they had done what we did and wondered how we arranged it.  We told them how Rain Forest Tours helped us have our own trip.

If we had to change anything, it would be the order of events on the travel day to Linda Vista.  We would suggest stopping at Tabacon Springs on the way to Linda Vista (we drove right past it and even stopped to see monkeys frolicking in the trees) rather than checking into the hotel first and then backtracking down a very bumpy road at night to the Springs.  That would of course mean that dinner would probably need to be at the hotel rather than at Tabacon given the timing of things.  The next day we (at Gerardo’s suggestion) changed the order of events, stopping at the national park first, then traveling to Fortuna and seeing the falls and then on to Tabacon Springs.  Thank you for rearranging the timing for our second visit to the springs.

When we returned to San Jose on Monday, our driver (whose name I cannot remember) was right there at the exit waiting for us, and Edwardo showed up Tuesday morning right on the dot at 5 am. 

During the trip we had the opportunity to speak with a number of local people and have already started the list of places we want to go to next January—for a longer stay!  As I write, we are now in the middle of a snow storm.

Thank you, Ana, for all your help in putting together a most enjoyable and memorable experience in visiting your country.  And thanks too to Gerardo for his charm and guidance during the first half of our trip.  We will (and already have) highly recommend Rain Forest Tours to anyone.

Sincerely, and thanks again for everything,

Thank you Ana! 

For arranging a great trip!  Because of Rain Forest Tours, everything ran smooothly and efficiently!  My family was so pleased with the hotels you recommended, the transportation, and the guidance you provided us to plan a terrific trip to Costa Rica!

Thanks a million!

Dear Ana - Thank you for your message.  I was intending to write you and tell you about our trip, but, as you know, my husband's mother was hospitalized shortly before our return and we have been very busy hoping to get her stabilized.  Firstly, I want to thank you so much for your help with this medical emergency.  We so much appreciated your being the connection between doctors and family in the US.  Our driver, Geraldo, was also terrific and caring and his concern in following up with you and allowing us to call on his cell phone made this difficult situation easier. He was also very informative and made the long drive much more pleasant.

    As for our trip, we were so pleased with the arrangements and everything seemed to run very smoothly - especially given all the different number and types of transports we took throughout our vacation.  There were many adventures and surprises which made our time very varied and fun.  The accomodations were very lovely.  The Hot Springs were fabulous and given the weather was cold and rainy, it was the most pleasant way to warm up imaginable. The staff at the hotel in Monteverde was somewhat less helpful and professional.  We loved the river tour of Cano Negro and really got into the birdwatching.  The catamaran was also run very well and offered nature watching, snorkeling, sailing, swimming and eating a great lunch - what else could you ask for?  We took a tour of the Don Juan Coffee plantation which was very interesting and informative.  The guide was great.  We must say that all of the guides on our trip were very good but, unfortunately, we had one negative experience which you could not have prevented but which I think you should know about.  Our first guide at Corcovado was Evan, who really took away from our experience at this very unique resort.  He seemed fairly poorly informed about the wildlife, was not able to elaborate on answering questions, was not able to locate many of the types of wildlife we were shown on our other tours and our feeling was that his recommendations and undue anxiety for our safety kept us from being fully able to participate and enjoy the park and the activities it offered.  We did note some of this in our evaluation for the manager, Luis, but wanted you to know as well.  Otherwise, the staff and service were exceptional. We also thought that, although we loved the San Jose hotel, we might have stayed at Manuel Antonio for one more full day and the last night and then taken a transport back to San Jose very early in the morning so that there was one less time to pack and unpack and we could enjoy one more full day at Manuel Antonio.  We very much enjoyed the food and the delicious fresh fruits and your wonderful coffee.  We tried to eat in some of the local restaurants on each stop and that added to the experience of each destination.  Stew and I did the Zip-Line in Manuel Antonio and although I am the world's biggest chicken, I was so glad I pushed myself to do it!

   So, we thank you again for planning and executing this wonderful vacation and I will be happy to recommend you to any of our friends or family who plan to visit Costa Rica.    

Ana,

We had a wonderful day at Pozo Azul on Saturday.  Friday night, I received a call from someone at Expediciones Tropicales reporting that Sueño Azul Waterfalls Resort and Adventure Land Tour would not be possible due some "land issues".  I surmised some kind of landslide.  They offered an alternative  tour at Pozo Azul with a 2+ hour zipline in the morning and a 2+ hour white water rafting on the 2-3 scale in the afternoon with transportation and lunch.  I spoke with the others in our group and we decided to go for it.  We had a great time.

A van picked us up at our hotel on time with a driver, Marco, and a guide, Estephan.  Marco spoke very little English, but Estephan spoke outstanding English.  He was very knowledgeable of Costa Rica and kept us engaged during our 90 minute drive to Pozo Azul.  They accompanied us on the zipline along with 2 guides. The guides took every measure to be sure we felt comfortable and safe.  They were excellent.  The zipline was better than we expected.  So good we did another one on Wednesday on the Arenal volcano!

We had a nice lunch by the river and sized up our rafting trip.  Our guide for rafting was also very safety conscious and ensured we understood and could execute his instructions.  We were accompanied by young men in kayaks as spotters.  The water was pretty rough and Kim and Jeff each exited the raft once.  No one was hurt.  Except for Lynn's black eye, probably the end of an oar...opps.  She is fine.  We had another great time on the raft!  We would do that again also.

Thank you so much for you help in setting us up with  Expediciones Tropicales.  They were excellent.  We have and will recommend Rainforest Tours and Expediciones Tropicales to our friends.

Regards,

Arturo: 

Thank you for arranging our trip to Costa Rica during 12-24 November, especially doing so at the last minute.  It was an outstanding experience and gave both of us a good introduction to the country.  Your excellent suggestion of rafting on the Paquare was certainly a high point of the trip.  Our driver Allan was truly great!  Besides being an excellent driver, he was a very good guide and companion as well.  We enjoyed his company.  We wish you a happy holiday season and successful New Year.  Best regards.

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