Pontes penduradas, caminhada pelo vulcão e La Fortuna Waterfall

Such as poor experience with this travel company! Before booking we confirmed via email the times of the tour both pick up times and end times of the tour. This was very important as we needed to book transportation back to Liberia and the airport so we could travel home. During the email exchange we were given every assurance that the tour would start at 7am and end at 1pm for a total of 6 hours. This would make a 3 pm transfer possible and give us lots of time as a buffer. Based on these written assurances we booked the tour. What a mistake. The night before the tour we get an email moving the start time forward by 75 mins, we then waited a further 35 minutes at the pick-up point as the tour guide and driver were late. We received no notice of this and we had to have our hotel call to see if they were still coming to pick us up. At this point we are already 1 hr and 50 mins late from the start time they promised. Given that this is a schedule 6-hour tour it would now end at 3 pm, and there would also be travel time back to the hotel which would have been approximately another 30 mins after the promised end time! This then makes the end time approximately 3:30pm and we would miss our transfer if we were to complete the entire tour. We had given ourselves a 2 hrs buffer but as it turned out this was not enough. Thus, my family had to leave the tour early and missed the lunch in order to meet our prearranged transportation or risk missing our ride back to the airport. The did have the driver return us during the tour so we could make the pickup but this does not change the fact they did not provide the full tour and changed the terms without notice. I speaking with the other passengers, several added the tour the day before… so in order to pick these passenger additional time would have been required. So in the end the company makes additional money from these passengers, while those that booked early and had promises made to them lose out on what we paid for. I will also add that in comparison to other guided tours we took on this trip, this one was poorly done by our assigned guide. She rushed through the tour, rarely stopped to provide additional examples nor did she attempt to point out wildlife. I observed other tour guides providing these example as we continued to walk by them on the tour. This also differed to our earlier tours with other companies where the guides were friendly and engaging, making those tours exceptional. My interpretation of this is that she was rushing to try and make up time because she was late. Therefore, we did not really get a fully guided tour as expected. Regardless of the reason for being late, we did not get the level of service they stated in the ad, nor was this tour of the quality we had with other companies. I am very disappointed with this and if I had anticipated they would arbitrarily make last-minute changes to our tour,. I would not have booked with them. Beware profit over guest experience. Save your time and money, book with another tour company that will deliver a good experience. You cannot trust this one, I have attempted to contact them but they now will simply not respond.

Carina was an amazing, knowledgeable guide. We learned so much and her pacing was great. Highly recommend! She is proud of her country (as she should be) and made our day for Mistico Park with the hanging bridges and Arenal Volcano. A few days later we went to the waterfall with Christian who is also knowledgeable about the rainforest and was very attentive. Highly recommend this company and these guides. Unforgettable experience!

Santos, Marcos, Diego all great and lunch wonderful. Fun filled, professional. And a little spanish lesson. Puda Vida

The tour was excellent. Yancy was amazing and very knowledgeable. We got to see many different animals and she was able to take amazing pictures for our memories. Truly worth it☺️☺️

Juan Carlos was absolutely amazing! His passion for the rainforest and excitement was completely infectious. He is incredibly knowledgeable and has the eyes of an eagle and the ears of a bat! Every moment with him was engaging, educational, and fun. I totally recommend him as a guide – he made the Hanging Bridges experience unforgettable.

We did the Volcano + Hanging Bridges hike with JP and were awed by his knowledge, professionalism, friendliness, and ability to roll with whatever came his way. We opted not to add the La Fortuna Waterfall since we were hiking with our 7yo and 5yo and felt that would have made the day too long (the right choice for us for sure!). Desafio is wise to frontload the Volcano hike. We were the first at Mirador el Silencio and were glad to have some cooler winds blowing on us given the morning sun already feeling quite strong. JP knew so much about the Volcano and happily answered questions about it from our kids as well. He was mindful to keep the tour moving while also taking into account our 5yo's slower hiking pace. I do think Desafio's recommended age for this tour at 6yo is right on. Our 5yo did great and hiked without complaint and sat down to rest whenever we stopped to listen to JP point out cool features from our latest vantage point, but she was probably right at her limit. Our 7yo had no problem whatsoever. The volcano hike is rocky and uneven, as you might imagine, so I was glad I had gotten the kids trail running shoes prior to the trip to make the terrain easier for them to navigate. Their Sunday Afternoon hats came in very handy as well and I wished I'd had a hat for myself also. JP had fruit snacks (watermelon and pineapple) and bottled water for us after we finished the volcano hike (thought definitely bring your own extra water to enjoy on the hike itself). This was great for my husband and me, but next time I'd bring a bar snack for my kids as well, because they got hungry midway through the second Hanging Bridges Mistico hike. The Hanging Bridges tour was incredible. Whatever you do, I highly recommend going to Mistico with a guide. There is so much you will walk right past without a knowledgeable guide to point it out and help you see it clearly through their scope. JP again shared his knowledge with us as well as his incredible photography skills. He snapped pics of the animals with my iPhone through his scope and offered to take family photos of us throughout the tour at scenic spots. But where he really shined was rolling with the punches when we told him our 5yo (who had taken a bathroom break prior to the Mistico hike) needed to go again :( even though we were already at least 15-20 min into the park. He told me the path the group would take so I could find them later and my daughter and I hustled back to the facilities and back again and found the group waiting for us at a rest area farther up the trail past the first bridge. My husband said JP had continued on with the tour but slowed the pace to give us a chance to catch back up--for which I was deeply appreciative. We saw so many incredible animals on the tour and somehow happened upon a treasure trove of them towards the end--coatis, spider monkeys, viper snake. Even though we were running behind schedule, JP never rushed anyone and instead made sure everyone got photos of these incredible creatures through his scope. Lunch was excellent afterwards, and I just can't say enough good things about JP specifically and Desafio in general. We and our children had an incredible experience and even became friends with the other family on the tour who had teenage kids. It was such a fun and rewarding experience. Totally worth it! Thank you, JP!

Tour was exceptional !!!! Our guide, Marco was amazing and very knowledgeable He made our day a memorable experience and was patient and humorous and provided interesting information about the nature we experienced

Santos was a wonderful guide. He shared so much information on the Primary Wet Tropical forest, the animals, the eco system and more. He treated us to pineapple and watermelon at the end of our walk and made a special stop to show us a sloth sleeping up in a tree. The bridges gave us great views and some fun swaying with the motion of people making there way across. A very good day!

A fun filled day. Santos was full of history, humor and knowledge. We would highly recommend this tour and Santos. Pura Vida.

My son and I had the very best day!! Our guide, Catalina, went out of her way to find us sloths and explain cool details about the flora and fauna. She's a biology student so she knew alot of the scientific facts. We saw so many animals... sloths, ant eater, spider monkeys and a yellow viper. We didn't see a toucan :( on the way into town Catalina had the driver go out of the way to an area she knew had toucan. Voila! A big Yellow Throated Toucan to end our tour.