Tour di birdwatching mattutino

I booked this tour three months in advance of my trip and was so excited to add tons of birds to my life list. The tour operator canceled on me the night before my tour, said road out of Tamarindo was closed, it wasn’t. I rescheduled for the next day, he canceled again because not enough people were going. I rescheduled for the next day and was put with people on a nature tour, not a birding tour. Spent several hours driving around to different locations to see crocs, iguanas, monkeys and sloths but very few birds. I had paid the operator an extra $50 to go to the rainforest for birds but ended up at a sloth walk where the guide walked too fast to bird and didn’t know many birds when I spotted them. Our driver was very nice so I’m giving a 2 star rating for his sake. The tour operator is unreliable.

My husband and I did a private kayak tour with our tour guide Anthony. We went up the river near Langosta. It was a 2 hour morning tour. We saw beautiful birds and it was just so beautiful and peaceful. We also saw a small baby crocodile. Anthony was so knowledgeable about the trees and wildlife on the river.

The highlight of the Bird Watching morning was seeing and capturing the Long-tailed Manikins and not only seeing but videoing the two males as they courted a female manikin. The other was finding and photographing the Barred Antshrike. The location for the bird watching tour was great and the fact we didn't have to drive 2 hour or more to get there. For myself I always want more time to spend photographing the birds we find. 2 hours goes by too quickly. The other thing that would make this tour even better is leaving earlier in the morning but our guide was great and I really enjoyed the tour even with the lens/camera issues I was having.

Be aware: misleading advertising and altogether disappointing tour. 3 hours drive squeezed in a 3rd row of SUV and 1 hour 7 min exactly on the boat tour - Nothing to do with “early bird watching tour”. We’ve paid 170 USD for nothing. As pervious reviewer wrote: not honest description. As a comparison the day before we had boat trip with local guide which cost 60 USD for two people. It was exciting and professionally arranged. Full 3 hour on the boat and lots of birds, monkeys and crocodiles. Cold bottle of water included. So called tour sold by Leon from Side by Side ATV Tours & WildLife was nothing like it and it’s simply waste of time and money. Better and much cheaper was taking local guide on the north end of Playa Tamarindo. Think twice please before getting any tour from Side by Side ATV Tours & WildLife.

We did see a number of birds at the water’s edge of the estuary, but as we had already taken an estuary boat tour many of them were repeats. The trip description could have been much clearer telling us the areas we would be going to and being more honest about the time frame. This was advertised as a 5 hour trip and in fact was only 3 hours.

We booked a private early morning bird watching tour with Juan Carlos as our guide. The guide and driver arrived on time with a comfortable sized van. We left the Occidental Papagayo resort and hadn't gone 1 mile when we pulled off the road and were looking at birds. This continued for several hours until we reached the private natural reserve located near the rainforest. Juan Carlos's and the drivers skills to spot birds and wildlife were uncanny. Both guides were enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and had excellent English speaking skills. Unfortunately, when bending down to see a hummingbird, a sharp, tiny, pointed stick entered the side of my wife's eye. We cut the tour short, and Juan Carlos working with the tour company, got us an appt with an eye specialist and we were in and out in 30 minutes. Not serious. This could have been a disaster, but the tour company really stepped it up and there was no medical cost to us. We saw monkeys, sloths, humming birds, caracara, and many other species.