Susan, March 2026

>We had a wonderful trip overall and, thankfully, an uneventful trip home (despite reading horror stories about hours-long security lines, etc.). We had a conversation about trip highlights/favorite things over dinner on the beach on our last night in Samara, and it was hard to choose, although I think we all agreed that we loved a particular day in Monteverde that included a morning bird walk in Curi-Cancha, then ziplining and hanging bridges at Treetopia, followed by an amazing dinner at Kapi Kapi that happened to coincide with sunset.

I’ve done a lot of independent travel, but had never taken a guided trip before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but Gil was truly outstanding. He shared some of his vast knowledge of Costa Rica, wildlife, etc.; he spotted birds and other animals that we would never in a thousand years have found on our own; he brought all the scopes, camera equipment, etc., and shared his photos- so- again, these were so much better than we would have had otherwise; he helped us to decide when we weren’t sure where to go or what was the best place for a particular experience; overall he is just a great person and we were so grateful for his insights. Also, it was kind of nice that he was recognized everywhere we went- it sort of felt like we got a bit of star treatment just because of our association with Gil 🙂

A few specifics to share:

-Hotel Monte Real in La Fortuna – we really liked it! Shortly after we arrived, we saw a sloth in a tree right outside of our room, and it hung out (so to speak 🙂 ) for quite a while- was magical! The restaurant was excellent, and situated right by a bend in the river/creek, so we could see a variety of birds while eating, and there were paths down to the water where we found some adorable tiny frogs. The rooms were comfortable, it was nicely situated in town and had a view of the volcano, the pool was nice, etc.

Golden Eyelash Viper in Volcan Arenal National Park

Arenal Volcano

Grounds and pool at Hotel Monte Real in La Fortuna near the Arenal Volcano

The red-eyed tree frog was on our night hike at Papa’s Place in La Fortuna

– We did a night hike at Papa’s Place in La Fortuna; it wasn’t on your list so it might be newer? Anyway, we had a great experience there- saw so many frogs, a snake, interesting bugs/arachnids- highly recommend it!

– In Monteverde, I’d recommend the restaurant Kapi Kapi (it’s not walkable- it’s kind of up in the hills; Gil knew about it and drove us there). I don’t think it was on your list? They had amazing fruit juice drinks and excellent food- not to mention that beautiful view of the sunset!

The toucan was at Curi-Cancha in the Monteverde area

ziplining was at Treetopia (Monteverde).

– The boat ride from La Fortuna to Monteverde didn’t work out very well for us; we were picked up quite early (8am I think) and then the bus we were on drove all over town to pick up other passengers. This was somewhat amusing as we packed more and more people in, had to fold out extra seats on the bus, etc., and it was kind of fun to see where other people were staying. However, when we got to the lake, something went wrong (the driver and another staff member on the bus were not very clear about exactly what happened- maybe we were late and the boat left without us?), and we kept driving halfway around the lake, then had to wait for a boat to come get us… did just a short hop across the lake, then got on the other bus. When we got to the hotel, Gil was already there waiting for us! So we regretted a bit that we hadn’t just saved our money, gone with him, and actually had a shorter trip! I think we didn’t account for that extra hour spent driving around to pick up other passengers. The value of the boat ride may depend on where one is staying and whether one would be earlier or later on the pickup route… I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it, though. [GFA Note: Thanks for letting us know! The guide will take you directly to the boat in the future.]

– A lot of the places that were listed as accepting credit cards did accept them… but they added a 13% fee. So, in more cases than we expected, I don’t think using a credit card saved us anything compared to ATM fees and in the end may have been more expensive. I’m not sure what I’d recommend to other travelers; my husband had stashed quite a bit of cash in various places- more than I actually knew about (!), and this ended up saving us some money as we often didn’t have to use either the ATM with its fees or the credit card with its fees. Even so, I don’t know that I’d necessarily recommend traveling with tons of cash (on the other hand, we felt very safe at all times, so maybe???). I think it would be good to at least mention, though, that many places will charge that fee (unfortunately, I didn’t write down which ones did and which didn’t)- it seemed to be some sort of tax?

– I didn’t mention them earlier because I understand you’ve used them more often, but Los Pinos in Monteverde and Villas Kalimba were both awesome accommodations, too. We really liked the cabins and the walking trails at Los Pinos (with coatis, agoutis, motmot, etc.). And the staff at Kalimba were incredibly helpful! A little bonus at Kalimba was that we were able to meet with the gentleman responsible for placing the stingless bee hives (this came about because Jennifer studies bees) and he gave us a little tour/explanation/demonstration of the hives- fascinating 🙂

– Surf lessons at Pato’s worked out just as described and were very good!

– A little fun bonus was that we walked on the beach at night from El Bahia restaurant back to the area across from Villas Kalimba. And there were so many hermit crabs running around- I’ve never seen anything like it. We even got to watch one of them switch from one shell to another! I don’t know if they’re always there, if it’s seasonal, or if we just got lucky. I think this was around 8 or 8:30pm. Might also be worth mentioning to others.

OK- I think that’s all. Sorry this ended up being so long!! Anyway, thanks- I had pretty high expectations for this trip, and it exceeded all of them 😀