Special Interest Group Tours

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Many travelers have special interests, such as ornithology, botany, agriculture, horticulture etc. Over the years Costa Rica Connection has organized trips for high school and college student groups, hiking clubs, birding and botanical garden groups, and farm tours, plus all varieties of ecotourism in Costa Rica. If you are an individual or member of a group with a special interest, we will design a tour specifically geared to you.

With our ample contacts within Costa Rica, we may be able to provide you with a Costa Rica guide with extensive knowledge in your field of interest to lead the tour, and/or arrange for experts in the field to meet with the group and give talks, slide show(s), or lead tour segments. There are many possibilities for special interest tours, and a tour need not be exclusive to a single theme: a generalized tour can also include segments of specific interest. Here are a few possibilities:

Indigenous Culture: We have excellent museums with Pre-Columbian artifacts, including pottery, jade, and gold. Guaybo National Monument contains stone remnants of an ancient indigenous community, stone carvings (petroglyphs) and an aqueduct system that still functions. Some remaining indigenous groups welcome visitors to their communities and sell hand-made crafts. This tour could be incorporated into a tour emphasizing historic/cultural aspects of Costa Rica.

Orchids/Botanical Tour: Costa Rica has some 1400 species of orchids and about 11,000 plant species, although scores of species more are likely yet to be identified. Costa Rica ecotourism tours could include visits to botanical gardens, local plant nurseries selling ornamental tropical landscape plants, rainforests etc. Tour leaders or guest speakers could include botanists, or members of local horticultural societies. Costa Rica is an outstanding location for this type of tour.

Tropical agriculture tour: Costa Rica exports hundreds of millions of dollars in agriculture products each year. Well-known are its exports of high quality coffee and bananas, but Costa Rica also exports mangoes, papayas, melons, sugar, pineapples, manioc, ferns, flowers, house plants, palm oil, farmed Tilapia fish(!) and more. Agriculture in Costa Rica is stratified by elevation. Cool-climate crops are grown in the upper mountains, coffee is grown at mid-elevations, and tropical hot climate crops are grown in the lowlands. A Costa Rica tour from the highlands to lowlands will reveal a vast variety of agricultural activity, and this tour will have both planned and improvised stops en route.

Costa Rica Bird Tour: With over 800 bird species, Costa Rica has become a Mecca for birdwatchers. Due to its small size and diverse habitat, Costa Rica bird-watching is particularly rewarding: a large variety of birds can be encountered in relatively short distances.

Geology/Volcanology: With over 200 volcanic structures, and 7 active volcanoes, visitors interested in geology have much to see in Costa Rica. The lunar landscape of 11,260 ft. Irazu Volcano reveals a summit still recovering from its violent eruptions from 1963 to 1965. Poas Volcano has sulphurous steam vents around an acidic crater lake that can be viewed from its rim. Rincon de la Vieja has steam vents and boiling mud pots in the forest at its base. Geothermal power is generated by Miravalles Volcano. Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica's most active, has thermal waters, intermittent rumbles, constant steam venting and continual flows of red-hot pasty lava. There are many options to choose from here!

If you have any specific interests for a visit to Costa Rica, we at Costa Rica Connection will be delighted to help you design a customized Costa Rica tour. Try us!

Example of a Custom Group Tour:      10 Day/9 Night  Birding Tour:
This trip includes visits to the Poas Volcano National Park, La Paz Waterfall Gardens, the Organization for Tropical Studies (O.T.S.) at La Selva, hikes in the Cerro de la Muerte’s Cloud Forest, and a 3 night stay in the Central Pacific Coast visiting Carara National Park, the Tarcoles River and La Ensenada. Click here to see a day to day itinerary.
 
Example of a Custom Group Tour:      10 Days/9 nights  Tropical Garden Tour:
This trip includes 2 nights in San Jose, a tour of Lankester Botanical Gardens, a 2 night trip to Tiskita Jungle Lodge in the remote region of Golfito on the southern Pacific coast, 2 nights in Monteverde with visits to Selvatura Tree Top Walkways and Monteverde Reserve. It also includes 2 nights in Arenal at the Arenal Observatory Lodge and hikes to the Arenal Volcano National Park and La Paz Waterfall Gardens. Click here to see a day to day itinerary.

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