Along the Caribbean

San José

You are met on arrival at San José airport and taken to your chosen hotel.

Turtle beaches and flooded forests

This morning you are taken by road and boat to your wildlife lodge at Tortuguero on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast where you stay for 3 nights. Here there are great opportunities to see sloth, monkeys, basilisk lizards, tree frogs, and waterbirds in the flooded forests behind long wild beaches where turtles nest between July and October.

Join a boat tour through narrow river channels into the flooded forest to see green iguanas, kingfishers, white-faced capuchin monkeys, black river turtles and the chance of rarer species such as great green macaw and the extraordinary boat-billed heron.

Additional free day based at Tortuguero on a full board basis. Optional excursions are available locally at additional cost e.g. kayaking, nature boat rides, turtle nesting etc

Talamanca Mountains

Returning by boat to the road you are driven down the Caribbean coast to the little town of Bananito and to a lodge in the Talamanca mountains by La Amistad NP for a 3 night stay.

Two full days at your lodge with activities that could include horse-riding, bird-watching, or a range of walks through primary forest in La Amistad, some at extra cost.

Free day at Selva Bananito for optional excursions available.

Caribbean Coast

After a final morning and lunch at the lodge you are driven to Bananito from where you travel to your lodge in Cahuita in tropical gardens a short walk from Playa Negra. Stay for 3 nights.

Cahuita has its own national park where you walk beside a long horseshoe beach backed by forest with monkeys, sloth, racoons, poison dart frogs, snakes, iguanas and lots of birds.

Free to relax at the pristine local beach or join activities available locally such as snorkelling or swimming in Cahuita NP.

Into Panama: Bocas del Toro

Early this morning you travel across the border into Panama and board a boat to Colon Island in the Bocas del Toro archipelago. Here you spend 4 nights at a waterfront property in Bocas town with its lively travellers bars and small restaurants.

The first of 2 days exploring the archipelago by boat. A short ride brings the boat to Laguna Bocatorito where there is a high chance of dolphin circling and surfacing in its quiet waters. You continue to Coral Key to snorkel sheltered reefs (considered the best in the whole archipelago) with many coloured corals with lots of fish. The boat sails to Red Frog Beach for an afternoon looking for its tiny red citizens or relaxing on its beautiful, wild, white sands. The boat returns to Bocas town late in the afternoon.

This morning your motor boat sails to Playa de las Estrellas where you snorkel to look for the starfish that give this beach its name. Sail on to Boca del Drago to relax on a white sand beach with calm turquoise sea and later to Isla de Pájaros, or ‘Bird Island’, with spectacular scenery and large numbers of sea birds.

Free in Bocas del Toro. Relax or choose a third boat trip.

Panama City and the Panama Canal

Catch the mid-morning flight for 3 nights in Panama City, with the rest of the day free to explore the capital. (It is possible to fly back to San José instead.)

Today you visit the Panama Canal’s Miraflores lock to see huge vessels squeezing through. After a short visit to the lock’s museum and visitor centre you explore Casco Viejo, Panama City’s historic colonial quarter, with your local guide.

A memorable ‘partial transit’ of the Panama Canal sailing in a relatively small tourist boat to experience the engineering feats that raise ships of 90,000 tons 85 feet above sea level within a near Garden of Eden of lush rain forests that surround this truly unique achievement.

You are taken to Panama City’s international airport in time for your flight home.