Costa Rica Vacations & Adventure Tours

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We are accustomed to catering to the following special diets:

• vegan (no meat or animal products)
• vegetarian (no meat products)
• fishatarian (vegetarian, and eat fish)
• no red meat (eat chicken & fish)
• gluten intolerant (no wheat, rye, barley or oats)
• lactose intolerant (no dairy products)

You will get the opportunity to specify your particular requirements when you fill in our pre-trip questionnaire. If you have any other dietary requirements please let us know well in advance, via email or the online questionnaire.

We recommend booking your flights through our preferred travel partner – Fuzion Travel. They’re our experienced hand-picked experts in travel, passionate about what they do, and will tailor-make your flight itinerary to match your Active Adventures tour. Get in touch with them directly by email – active@fuziontravel.co.nz or on +1-833-244-5886. Let them know your preferred travel plans, including any stopovers or extra nights’ accommodation, and they’ll put everything in place for you. They offer a total travel solution and five star service that you’ll want to tell your friends about!

You will need proper hiking boots - trail shoes are not good enough. We'll be taking you to some awesome places where you'll be hiking over a variety of terrain, therefore your boots should have full ankle support and a stiff sole with a high profile tread. It's also important that whichever footwear you decide to bring that it's well broken-in and waterproofed before you come down. If you have good ankles that will be able to cope pretty well with varied terrain, then good hiking shoes should be fine, but if not then hiking boots will give you better support.

You’ll need one piece of luggage on your trip, plus a daypack. Your main piece of luggage can be anything from a backpack, to a sports bag with wheels or a suitcase and a good quality trekking daypack 25-30 litres (2000 cubic inches) to use throughout the days on the trails. 

Once you've booked your trip, you'll have access to a gear list in your portal on exactly what to bring along. The gear list is carefully thought out to provide you with everything you need to be warm and happy, or cool and relaxed, whatever the weather! So it is best to bring everything we recommend along, if you don't bring everything you need, we can't guarantee your comfort.

Tap water in Costa Rica is generally clean and safe to drink. However in some areas, mainly on the Caribbean side and in non-touristy pockets around the country, it's best to stick to bottled water and this is widely available to purchase.
Active Adventures is promoting ‘Travellers Against Plastic’ pledge, so to reduce single use plastic we encourage you to bring a durable water bottle to refill instead of purchasing bottled water.

Costa Rica food is tasty, rather than spicy with base ingredients of plantains, rice, fresh fruits, beans, vegetables and corn (rather than wheat), making it easy to cater for a gluten-free diet. Beef and pork are the most common meats, but chicken is also standard, and the fish is excellent, especially on the coasts. Costa Rica isn’t known for being overly vegan-friendly, however there are vegan food options available.

The currency of Costa Rica is the Colón (CRC/₡) however US dollars are accepted just about everywhere, so you won’t have to convert your cash into Costa Rican colones. 

Your trip fare includes all transportation, guiding, meals and activities (except any optional activities). Most people like to bring a little extra to cover a round of drinks at the pub, take home some souvenirs, book a tour and eat out on their free day, and tip our guides if they've had a great time. 

A small amount of cash is useful when you first arrive to cover costs until you join your group. You can withdraw either US Dollars or Colons from ATMs inside San Jose airport, as both are accepted. When paying for goods and services in dollars, you’ll more than likely get your change in colones. Bills larger than $20 may not be taken by some businesses. With larger amounts of cash, we suggest going directly to the bank for the best exchange rates.

Usually the easiest thing to do is use your credit or debit card to withdraw money directly from your home account, in local currency. 

We recommend keeping enough cash on you to handle everyday expenses like meals, however not to carry so much that you’ll worry about losing it or becoming a victim of theft. 

San Jose is located at 1,172m (9,350 feet) and the highest elevation reached on our trips there is 1,000m (3,300 feet). If you’re concerned about the altitude on your arrival into Quito, chat to your doctor about a Diamox prescription or consider taking alternative treatments of ginkgo or Oxyshot/Oxishot.

Spanish is the main language of Costa Rica, with Quechua being the main indigenous language. English is spoken in some hotels, airports and tourist areas but not everywhere. A little would be helpful, especially on arrival and for ordering food in restaurants, but it's certainly not required. Our trip leaders are all fluent Spanish speakers so if you don't have time to learn a little Spanish before arrival you don't have to worry... they will take care of everything.

Costa Rica is in the Central Standard Time. It is -6 hours behind of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Costa Rica is in the Central Standard Time. It is -6 hours behind of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

WiFi is available almost everywhere in cities and easy enough to find in most towns/villages so you can rely on having regular access during your trip. If you have data roaming switched on, then you'll be able to use the internet on your smartphone, but beware of the fees! WiFi is available at some of the accommodations that you'll be staying at, usually for a small cost so check this out at each location when you arrive, though it may be sporadic.

Internet cafes are readily available, economical (~US$0.60 per hour for high speed access), and have long opening hours, so we don’t recommend bringing a laptop - although the Spanish keyboard can sometimes be a little challenging!

Costa Rica is made up of many different climate zones, which also creates a lot of microclimates within the country. This tropical couintry is very close to the Equator, with a dry (high) and rainy (green) season, and plentiful sunshine! The temperature difference between January as opposed to July does not vary greatly, with the average annual temperature sitting between 70° and 81°F (12° and 27°C), with February to April recording the highest temperatures. However the amount of rainfall in Costa Rica does fluctuate fairly drastically with the heaviest rainfall from May to November.
Dry Season (December - April)
During these months, the weather in many parts of the country is very warm getting little to no rain, and with temperatures ranging from the mid 80’s to the high 90’s (F) depending on which part of Costa Rica you are in. However, in some provinces, seasonally cool winds offer some respite from the heat, particularly in January and February. Temperatures tend to reach their highest in March and April at the peak of the dry season.
Rainy Season (May - November)
Its affectionately called “The Green Season” and is the time of year when all vegetation starts to grow again and the country blooms into life and becomes incredibly lush. The overall climate is much wetter, and thunderstorms, heavy rains, and tropical depressions are far from unusual, especially in the afternoon, though it’s unarguably the time of year when Costa Rica is at its most beautiful, with temperatures rarely drop below the mid-60s (18°C).