Laura was a good tour leader. She always put recommendations in the chat when we arrived at a new place. And also suggested different activities we could do. Favourite experience was probably the zip lining in Monteverde, definitely very fun and memorable.
Although on paper it might look as if we were in a bus a lot, every moment was worth it for the variety of terrain and wildlife we saw, and the people we met. The wildlife was stunning, made more so through the expertise of our guide, the Tortuguera boat pilot, and the bus driver too. The accommodation was invariably clean and well looked after.
The only concern was Manuel Antonio park, which is highly commercialised. We queued for a hour from just after 7 am to get in, and there was (in contrast to all the other parks) close to mayhem inside. I suspect that mangrove wildlife is not as happy as it should be there.
The coffee farm and the over-canopy walkways were well worth the money. The visit to a dairy farm was very good too, and the farming ladies did so much to make us welcome.
The National Museum in San Jose is excellent.
This was an action packed trip, with moving every couple of days an improvement on the one night only trips I have done in the past. You have the opportunity to see as much of the country as possible, yes it rains but you are visiting rain and cloud forest. We where very lucky seeing some amazing sightings (the list was eight pages long - birds, animals, insects, reptiles, plants and trees - and that was not complete there was much more). Hotel catering was good were we availed ourselves, the driver safe and proud of his vehicle as well as being good fun and a good dancer and our guide was outstanding - his knowledge, honesty, humour, sightings but equally the obvious care he had for us - his guests.