Guided group walking
11 nights,
hotel-to-hotel
Level: 2
Moderate
This exciting holiday explores Costa Rica's most dramatic contrasts: cloud forests, volcanoes, lakes, waterfalls and the Pacific coast. You'll be amazed at the amount of wildlife you'll encounter. From quetzals and tree frogs to agoutis and iguanas, each day is memorably different.
Our local guides have an expert knowledge of Costa Rica's flora and fauna and are passionate walkers. With them, our tour is even more remarkable as we learn about Costa Rica's unique natural inheritance. Walking on forest paths and some country tracks, you'll spot wildlife along the way with agoutis and coatis scrambling across the path in Monteverde and monkeys swinging through the trees at Rincon de la Vieja. Awe-inspiring panoramas abound with balcony views to the distant Pacific Ocean and sweeping vistas over Lake Arenal and to the magnificent volcano.
The hotels you stay in are typically mountain lodge style with separate small buildings or bungalows. All have beautiful tropical gardens and swimming pools. Highlights include Arenal, where you look out at the volcano and the Bosque del Mar and Margaritaville on Playa Hermosa and Playa Flamingo respectively. Lunches are a mix of picnics and local restaurants, whilst dinners are taken in the hotels. One evening is spent at Eco Termales in Arenal where dinner is enjoyed after relaxation time in the hot springs!
This varied walking holiday is mainly on jungle trails and country tracks. Rainforest trails can be slippery and steep in sections, so walking boots are essential.
Arrive at your hotel in Santo Domingo, just outside San Jose, where you will receive a snack upon arrival.
You stay at Hotel Bougainvillea.
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The Bougainvillea Hotel is in Santo Domingo, just 25 minutes from San Jose international airport and about 15 minutes from the centre of San Jose.
The hotel is built in extensive gardens where you can take a stroll and start your discovery of all the flora and fauna Costa Rica has to offer. Headwater customers are allocated the spacious mountain view rooms and the hotel facilities include pool, sauna, fitness centre and gift shop.
Today we head to Monte de Barva, a private property in the mountains where we explore forests with views over the Central Valley. Our walk ends with a typical Costa Rican lunch cooked on a wooden stove. We return to the hotel via the town of Barva, one of the oldest settlements in Costa Rica, famous for its colonial architecture and its dedication to retaining its culture. There's time to explore the hotel gardens and have a swim before dinner.
You stay at Hotel Poco a Poco.
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Tea/coffee
The well appointed 4* Hotel Poco a Poco has a picturesque setting in the centre of Monteverde, and not far from the frog pond.. It comes with a heated pool and superb spa facilities.
Headwater customers stay in the spacious Quetzal rooms which all come with views to the village and surrounding forest, as well as coffee maker and free wifi.
It's on to Monteverde, where we follow a forest trail through soaring ridge oak decked with bright orange clusia, in search of the resplendent quetzal, then onwards through the emerald forest canopy to the Continental Divide where the Caribbean and Pacific meet. Our next 2 nights are spent here.
You stay at Hotel Fonda Vela.
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The Hotel Fonda Vela is one of the nicest hotels in Monteverde. Set back from the town, it is one of the nearest hotels to the entrance to the nature reserve that has made Monteverde famous. The park entrance is no more than a 5 minutes drive from here.
The hotel is made up of nine different buildings that house different rooms. The majority of the rooms are standard, but Headwater guests normally stay in junior suites. The junior suites are larger and also have telephones, mini bars and satellite televisions. They also have ensuite shower and bathrooms with hairdryers.
Walking through lush pastures with balcony views over curving Nicoya Peninsula, we soon reach the hamlet of Canitas. A gradual climb through forest then brings us to the pretty mountain village of Cebadilla. Before dinner, we take a fascinating stroll through the cloud forest spotting tree frogs and hummingbirds.
You stay at Arenal Observatory Lodge or Eco Arenal Hotel or Hacienda Guachipelin.
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The Arenal Observatory Lodge is one of the most historical hotels in Arenal in that it was originally the observatory lodge for the scientists that first came to study the volcano in 1987. The lodge is surrounded by hectares of parkland and it is the only hotel in Arenal that is within the Arenal National Park.
The best thing about the lodge is the balcony views of Arenal that you get from pretty much every bedroom window, the pool and the restaurant. The volcano is just 1.7 miles from the lodge but the hotel is perfectly safe as the gorge of the Agua Caliente River separates it. Nowadays however, its strategic position makes the hotel a great place to experience the volcano. The view is ever present when you are in the pool, strolling through the gardens or having breakfast in the restaurant.
All rooms are ensuite with ceiling fan.
The hotel also has a large swimming pool as well as an outdoor Jacuzzi.
There are a number of way-marked trails through the gardens that you can follow if you fancy a stroll.
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The Eco Arenal Hotel is surrounded by lush vegetation and overlooks the volcano of the same name.
The spacious rooms are situated in 2 storey wooden cabins; all are ensuite with shower.
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The Hacienda Guachipelin is located right on the edge of the Rincon de la Vieja National Park. The lodge started up as a cattle ranch, and is still owned by one of Costa Rica's most famous horsemen, Don Tomas.
The lodge is made up of five separate rows of rooms each with a veranda. All rooms are en suite with shower and have 2 queen size beds as well as a table and chair. They are reasonably spacious and are all built in traditional Latin American style.
We wind through farmsteads bright with blue-flowered St Lucia trees overlooking the western shore of Lake Arenal. We'll pass cattle ranches, stud farms and dairies before continuing along the shore, spotting scarlet tanagers flitting through the reeds. We then take a boat to the western side of the lake for superb views over Arenal Volcano.
You stay at Bosque del Mar.
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The Bosque del Mar hotel is a beachfront property on the grey sand Playa Hermosa (beautiful beach). The hotel is set in beautiful gardens and surrounded by tropical forests.
Rooms here are spacious and all have terrace or balcony with views of the garden or pool. Some rooms make you really feel you are part of the gardens as the structure of the building has been done in such a way to avoid cutting down trees where possible to cause less environmental impact.
Today's tour takes us first by road then by boat through the Cano Negro Wildlife Refuge close to the Nicaraguan border. It's a birdwatcher's paradise and is also home to a number of endangered mammals and reptile species - look out for caimans, turtles and tapirs.
You stay at Hotel Margaritaville.
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The Margaritaville Hotel has a superb location on the pristine golden sands of Playa Flamingo. It comes with lovely tropical gardens and spa facilities.
Rooms here are spacious and have pool view. They are prettily decorated with bright colours to replicate the sun, sea and sand of the hotel's setting.
Today we visit the Arenal butterfly and frog gardens and stop off at an indigenous Malecus village. It's then on to the famous La Fortuna Waterfall before continuing on to relax in the hot springs at Eco Termales!
We move onwards to Rincon de la Vieja, beginning our walk through rainwood and Spanish cedar, maybe spotting turkey vultures flitting above us. We reach Las Chorreras and Victoria Falls, a 35m high torrent thundering through a verdant gorge. There's time for a paddle before going on to our hotel for dinner. We spend two nights here.
Look out for toucans and white-fronted amazons, as we descend to La Cangreja Waterfall. Its blue lagoon is so inviting we have to take a dip before our picnic. Then we walk through woodland, where violet guaria morada (Costa Rica's national flower) grows, to Las Pailas, an eerie landscape of bubbling mud and geysers.
Today we walk through Central America's largest protected dry forest. We may spot coatis, tapirs and iguanas as we descend to continue along the Indio Desnudo Trail - there are superb photo opportunities here! Then it's on to the coast, where our final two nights are spent overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Relax on the beach - the perfect end to our tour. There's the option to stay on here for extra nights.
We do not currently have departure dates and prices available on-line. The season may have ended for this tour, or we are still in the process of adding these details to our website.
Please contact our sales team on 01606 720199 to for further details or to discuss alternavie trip options.
Guided group walking
11 nights,
hotel-to-hotel
Level: 2
Moderate
