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Puntarenas Essential Tour: Rain Forest, Wildlife, City Highlights and Unique Costa Rican Flavours
4.1
39 Ratings
Puntarenas
Experience the best of Puntarenas in one day! Explore the rainforest, encounter wildlife, discover city highlights, and savor unique Costa Rican flavors. Book now for expert knowledge, excellent reviews, and a hassle-free experience.
Duration:
6 hours
Cancellation:
1 day
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Highlights
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Puntarenas - Puntarenas is one of the most important tourism regions in Costa Rica. Its coastline is full of islands, inlets, beaches, and very beautiful natural treasures, all which make it an excellent tourist destination. There is a multitude of attractions based around the beaches, as well as protected areas, both land based and around its islands. The area’s center is located at Puntarenas which acts as a place for lodging, distribution, port of call, and excursions. The city of Puntarenas is rich in history, traditions and customs. Historically, it was the most important port in the Costa Rican Pacific, through which the main exports that allowed the development of the country during the 19th century and part of the 20th century took place. Due to its coastal position, it was an important center for the arrival of immigrants towards the middle of the 20th century. Its boom as a tourist destination dates back to 1940.
Our tour includes a City Tour around the highlights of this important port
What's Included
- Professional guide
- In-vehicle air conditioning
- 1 hour boat tour in Tarcoles River
- Nature Walk at Villa Lapas Hanging Bridges and Trails
- Visit to El Jardin Souvenir Store & Restaurant
- Fresh Fruit Snack
What's Not Included
- Gratuities
- Alcoholic Beverages
- Lunch
Additional Information
If you desire to explore all major sites of Puntarenas in a single day, this tour is unrivalled. The journey includes a trek through the Villa Lapas & Hanging Bridges rainforest, a glance at Tarcoles Town, a boating experience across Tarcoles River to witness gigantic crocodiles, monkeys, water birds and several other species of wild animals. Furthermore, visit El Jardin Souvenirs shop and restaurant for distinct gifts from Costa Rica while savouring local cuisines. The tour also encompasses a city tour of Puntarenas and an excursion to Puntarenas’ Countryside.
Reasons to choose us!
Expertise from hands-on experience:
• Cost-effectiveness Our tours are approximately 20% cheaper compared to booking with the cruise line
• Exceptional ratings on TripAdvisor with International presence
• Over two decades in the industry providing memorable adventures
• Transparent Pricing.
• Accreditations
• Insurance Cover
• Small Group Opportunity
• Premium Transportation Services.
• Experienced and fully accredited tour guides.
• Timely return to the ship prior to departure.
- Children must be accompanied by an adult
- At time of booking, Cruise ship passengers must provide the following information at time of booking: ship name, docking time, disembarkation time and re-boarding time
- This tour is exclusive for cruise ship passengers. If you are not arriving by cruise ship please do not book this tour
Location
Muellero Park
Paseo de los Turistas
We pick up all passengers at the cruise ship terminal in Puntarenas or Puerto Caldera
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
4.1
(39 Ratings)
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Michaeled2024
Mar 14, 2024
Great tour! - One of the best tours I have ever taken!! Ariel is an amazing guide! He answered all of our questions and provided a very informative narration while traveling to a location. While at each attraction, he pointed out many bird and tree species. Our driver, Angel, was the most engaged driver I have ever had. He pointed out points of interest and helped locate macaws and toucans. He found alternative route when a road was closed to show us a known macaw location. Highly recommend this tour!!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Rebecca_f
Feb 22, 2024
Friendly, attentive crew. - We saw big 'ol crocodiles and lots of colorful birds. Crew was very friendly and knowledgeable. Fun for all ages.
Review provided by Viator
Steve_s
May 4, 2023
Great experience - Great driver and guide. All in All great experience. Both did a great job.
We were a party of 5 and all enjoyed it. Our bus had 28 people and was easy to
Hear the guide
Review provided by Viator
Gary_c
Jan 12, 2024
Great tour and got to see... - Great tour and got to see a lot of wildlife. Also saw the 18ft crocodile name Osama bin Ladin (named that because he is hard to find).
Review provided by Viator
Joseph_b
May 4, 2024
Half good, half boring - This trip covers a large amount of time, but a lot of that is not productive. Some of the people in our van were getting dropped off for a different tour, which took more time. The drive to the activity is pretty long and traffic is evident. We were disappointed with the jungle walk because it was really short, and there were no critters to observe. The crocodile boat ride was the best part of the day. Our guide was very knowledgeable and good about pointing out all the birds, and we saw several crocodiles. Notice the wild bananas with a beautiful flower on the shoreline. The fruit tasting was welcome, but nothing special. The whole long drive back to Port was pretty quiet. I appreciate that guide was very in tune with making sure we got back to the ship on time. Overall, we were disappointed in this trip based on enjoyment compared to cost and time invested.
Review provided by Viator
Michael_m
Apr 14, 2024
Not our time to see critters - I suppose it is a matter of timing when you plan an excursion that involves wildlife. This wasn’t our time. It was a very hot day so all the birds were hiding as were the crocodiles.
This excursion included a hike to swinging bridges. The description under estimated the difficulty. Our tour group had folks with mild mobility challenges. And again, nothing interesting to see.
Our host and bus driver did a pretty good job considering what nature was not doing.
Review provided by Viator
Steve_b
Feb 18, 2024
Not what I expected 😒 - The tour operator was very knowledgeable of the area and nice. We could understand his English. The sky bridges were good, but we saw no birds or monkeys. It is a lot of walking on this portion of the trip. The stop at the Spanish village resort was nice and the fruit snack was fresh. We saw some wildlife here. The crocodile trip was not good. We saw one large crocodile and a few small ones. The guides on this trip were not good. The driver of the bus was not good. He missed several turns and had to turn around. He also locked the keys in the van at the shopping stop. The bus was okay, but no microphone so he was hard to hear sometimes. We skipped the city portion because we were running an hour behind getting back to the ship. I wish we had chosen a different tour.
Review provided by Viator
Virginia_a
Apr 14, 2024
Recommend if in good shape - Unfortunately, the most memorable part of the trip was the walk thru the jungle and suspension bridges, that were advertised as moderate walk. Not at all moderate as up and down on trails that are stair steps with concretes cement blocks of various heights, not level, or crumbling. The majority of the time there was only rope to hang onto. Very unstable. Had to concentrate so much on not falling, we didn’t get to enjoy the scenery.
Review provided by Viator
Steve57c
Oct 30, 2023
Nothing Much Here - This was a port of call on a cruise, Had a walk about around trinket stall/market
Rained very heavily, strolled around the town.
Nothing much to do or see here.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Lindads1913ap
May 7, 2023
Not 6 in 1 - It is not explained that you need to choose btn a zip line, a jungle hike, or a trailer pulled by a tractor through the "jungle". If I had known that you didn't have to climb a lot of stairs, we would have gone on the zip line. My friends went on the hike and said it was moderately difficult, many uneven steps that were very high, a lot of up and down. They do hike and have gone on some difficult hikes.
We went on the trailer because my Mother knew she could not do the stairs (that we thought we had to climb), and could not do the hike. If there were any animals in the 'jungle' (more like a rain forest) they heard the tractor coming. The gentleman driving the tractor really tried to find something for us to see. We saw an iguana, a frog, and a lizard.
We were taken to the crocodile boats, and I did see one of the biggest crocodiles I have ever seen.
Our tour guide did the best he could and really tried to keep us happy. But I feel the tour was misrepresented. You need to choose between the tours, ( we were not told that), you take a quick ride through town (not much), the crocodile boat ride, and a tourist shopping area.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
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