Kimkim Trip Reviews for Costa Rica

Unbelievable view

Manuel Antonio park is a bit confusing at first since we hadn't book out entrance fee before hand and had to get a guide to get in.

EXCEPTIONAL!! Amazing view, massages in room when purchased and great ambiance.

Amazing views, wonderful spa bathtub and great restaurant.

Great lodging, friendly staff and wonderful location

Our guide was Gloriana who lived around the tour area which made the hike even more interesting as she was able to share her childhood experiences along the way. The hike was the perfect amount of exertion and exercise and the view was amazing.

Great location. There was a feel of a resort without all the fanciness. If you're not into ziplining, rapelling and tubing, there are fewer hiking options, though.

Great location- walking easy to beach and town, very helpful and friendly staff.

great location, beautiful setting, nice breakfasts

This park is VERY busy and there are limited trails but very interesting to see fumaroles, mud pots and water pots. Our group was fairly large and the guide was fair, but not superb. The Oropendola waterfall hike was great!

Our guide, Rio, was born and bred in Nosara and his family goes back generations there. It was worth getting up for a 6 am birdwalk. Rio's spotting scope was broken, but he was able to spot birds easily since he's so experienced.

Our guide, again- it was Marcella- was wonderful. Santa Elena was a busy place but going with a guide allowed us to see way more birds and have a good understanding of the ecosystem.

Nice and quiet and we had a great guide, Roberto, all to ourselves. He was into birds, trees, spiders- couldn't have asked for more.

Our guide Marcella was great. The waiver process was cumbersome and didn't seem necessary

I would've driven to the location instead of taking the shuttle bus.

We had our tour guide Bella again. He was so much fun and awesome. Challenging - but not too challenging. LOTS OF LAUGHS.

Our tour guide Bella was outstanding. He was able to spot animals and birds that were SO FAR AWAY. The hike was fantastic. Very interactive and fun.

Absolutely beautiful area.

Great time, was my first time fishing in the ocean. Enjoyed it immensely. Caught a tuna and Kevin and his crew prepared the best meal from it I've ever had.

Beautiful area, great hike.

Possibly the highlight of the entire trip. Walking through the forest at night was incredible. Starting the hike in the daylight and then watching the sun set before continuing was amazing.

Everything was great, walking over the hanging bridges was an incredible experience.

So much fun.

So much fun, eating chocolate and drinking coffee in the morning, what more can one ask for?

Once again, the view from our room and balcony was awesome. Quite beautiful and luxurious.

This hotel was very nice. However, in comparison to Tabacon, the staff here really avoided us and were not that helpful nor kind. Often in entering the lobby, I felt like I was interrupting their day, and that they did not really want to assist us or offer any touristy information. I did leave a review of this and gave it to the front desk.

We had the honeymoon suite (been married 31 years!) but what an experience this room was. The balcony view of the volcano was simply amazing. The hotel offered everything we needed and more. Everyone was so knowledgeable and kind to us.

This tour was crowded with so many people. So many people on tours with guides, and our guide, unfortunately, did not really seem expert. He followed the other guides and seemed to just view from their perspective. He was very nice and energetic.

Very good experience and saw some monkeys and birds. I enjoyed going over the 5 bridges in the clouds. Unique experience.

Unfortunately, this guide did not speak English well and had a tendency to speak to just the one in front of the group. So we often had to ask him to repeat and say again...

Ziplining was FANTASTIC. THOSE GUYS REALLY EARN THEIR PAY. I simply loved this activity and so glad that I did the "freefall," too. Very knowledgeable and happy personnel.

Great hike. Our guide did not ensure that we all had water before we left for the hike, though. Thankfully, one of the hikers gave me a bottle of water.

Our guide, Diego was just outstanding. He knew so much and showed us everything important.

Great hot springs s as nd beautiful setting

Enrico was great

Lots of animals- sloth, monkey, turtle etc…

Boring

Staff was superb!

Fantastic view of the bay and beach below. Very caring staff. Clean and well appointed. Very nice swimming pool. The cat in residence was a nice touch as well as the young sloth that slept above the veranda. They were also very accommodating with us hanging out at the pool till it was time to leave for our late night flight back to the US.

Beautiful facilities and grounds. Very attentive staff. Great view of the volcano. Excellent pools.

We had a nice calm day. Were able to see dolphins close to the boat. The staff was very helpful when learning that our grandson has celiac disease and can't have gluten. The snorkeling was good and the food was too,

This was one of the highlights of the trip. The park is filled with many different kinds of animals. We wouldn't have seen many without the expertise of Andres Martin Socio, our guide. I can't say enough positive things about him and what he shared with us. He showed us sloths, igauanas, bats, land crabs, numerous birds, lizards, orchids, and all sorts of plants. The park is beautiful, and if you can request him as a guide, absolutely do so.

I was impressed by the thoroughness of the staff in getting us ready and checking the equipment at each transfer point. There are 7 zip lines, one that is a half mile in length, so it was exciting! Definitely something we would do again,

Great fun in excellent weather. Our boatman, Antonio was skilled and gave us a terrific experience. The water level was a little low so we scrapped over some rocks, but had a very fun time.

The hike was very interesting. Roy was a great guide. The walk down to the base of the waterfall was memorable because the 515 steps down and back up contributed to sore legs the next couple of days, but totally worth it.

Staying in this resort is an incredible experience on its own merit. It is located next to the national park. You cannot reach it unless by boat. We took a private road trip to the port near Sierpe and from there a met the hotel team. Then a beautiful river ride (2h stopping along to observe animals) and final ocean ride to hotel beach (30m). On the way back we took a 30m boat ride to Drake bay and 30m to the Drake airport back to San Jose to our international flight same day. All of it organized by the hotel, impeccable planning and execution. The hotel borders the national park and has beautiful beaches of its own. There are many nature and eco activities to be done here. There are 2 restaurants all great, one with stunning view of the pacific. We had a regular bungalow and was excellent. Thank you LUIZ at the restaurant for tables with beautiful views and MARISA and SOL at front desk and coordination of everything including our perfect return trip. In this resort everyone of their staff is focused on a delightful and awesome experience for all their guests.

The views from the top of the hill down to the ocean are stunning. Very good restaurant and pool with same great views. Front desk staff not as friendly (not even a smile upon arrival) as we learned to expect in Costa Rica, including a discussion due to a disappointing lack of room cleaning on the first day (had to call at 3:30pm to clean room, though we had been out of it since 7:00am on our activity). The restaurant staff was great, thank you to JOHN and MAGALY for getting us an awesome view table twice. The hotel is relatively far from the beautiful beach below, hotel offers rides 4x/daily (walking is 25min down and 40min up if you are fit - which is what we did - also taxi is $10).

A beautiful bungalow hotel located within its own park, with jacuzzi overlooking the forest/mountain. Plenty of animals around the wonderfully manicured gardens. Very good food and drink options. Quiet, and isolated from the town. Great pool. GIORGIOLINA at the front desk was wonderful, providing us with the mountain view bungalow we thought we were getting (but some miscommunication between the travel agent and the hotel prevented us to have that on first night). Spending time here was a blessing immersion into the Arenal park forest setting.

Great resort, across the street from the beautiful beach. Pool opened 24h with a good happy hour. They have a restaurant right on the beach, we had dinner there everyday given the beautiful view and atmosphere. Water filters conveniently placed around the property. Competent staff and friendly front desk. Beautiful forest/garden setting embedded around the rooms.

The location of the Valverde is excellent, with beautiful river views, including from the open dining room. Our bedroom was better than a glamping experience, as we had a hotel style room with a very large bathroom and AC. What made the greatest difference was the awesome staff attention to details and extreme friendliness. We felt truly welcome. Thank you to manager RONNY and restaurant team and captain JASON. This hotel offer guided trips to the park multiple times of day, with their own boat, super convenient. This was a simple hotel but had an interesting character being directly on the river and a great attentive staff.

This tour was programmed by our Corcovado Wilderness Lodge and it was better than expected. RALPH was our lead along with STEPHEN captain. On the way to the island, the captain spotted a number of boats circling and he promptly headed a bit out of our way to check it out. What a great decision, because we came to a female humpback whale and her calf playing around. SUPER! The snorkel was great, we saw 3 species of turtles, a giant manta-ray (another further out excursion from the snorkel site, AWESOME!) and innumerous fishes. The water is not the most clear, but good enough. There were many boats around, including divers below, so we followed our leader around to avoid them. Still a great experience and included short stop at the island.

This tour was programmed by our hotel Corcovado Wildness Lodge, and it was great. TIDI was a great guide. We hiked through the jungle and along beaches and along the beach. Many animals and birds around and a very beautiful forest and coast. Unfortunately we did not get to the waterfall because some members of the group became tired.

This was hosted by Tucane Tours. The guide was just average, based on our previous guides, but we did get to see some birds and monkeys and sloth. This park is very beautiful, lush forest and breathtaking ocean side, with an isthmus connecting two wonderful beaches. At the end of the regular tour we decided to stay behind at the park (optional) and hiked the trail at the end of the beaches

This trip was hosted by North Adventures again and it was excellent. Our guide BYRON was very knowledgeable and attentive. We were luckily the only ones on this activity, so it was perfect logistics. This visit is an amazing display of nature, when 2 rivers meet and due to the drastic Ph change causes Alumina Silicate particles to expand and thus reflect blue light. We did also hike through the Tenorio volcano park and saw many birds and animals. This was an incredible tour, and though far from La Fortuna, it is definitely worth it.

NOTE: This rating is based on all the transports we had by Exploradores Outdoors, not just this one. On this trip there were 2 parts, the first bringing us from S. Jose to their bus hub, not very eventful, as leader Roberto could not even muster a "good morning" at pick-up, and spent most of the time on his phone, with some occasional comment where we are and making jokes at the expense of clients. After a basic lunch, taking us from the hub to the port where we joined a boat to our final destination, we were led by CARLA. She was very entertaining and provided a lot of useful and insightful information about banana growing and harvest. The boat trip was good, passing through the beautiful jungle. It was not guided, just transport. This poor rating is based on further issues we experienced with Exploradores Outdoors: they overcrowded the buses (not a small group as advertised, but packed us like sardines with 20+ people), so needless to say it took forever for each guest to be delivered to their hotel. In one case we arrived 3.5 hours later than the estimated time.

This was a double tour from North Adventures. First we hiked in the Arenal volcano park, great tour with the very experienced Marlon guide. Identified sloths and many birds. The park setting is very beautiful with forests and mountains. Second we went to the Mistico park site with the exciting hanging bridges. Here again our very experience guide Marlon identified many birds and animals, as we hiked through the forest. We were lucky that the volcano was clear of clouds so we had a picture perfect experience with the mountain.

We wanted to experience the hot springs and booked this event in the evening. The food buffet was very extensive. We were lucky to have a driver to ourselves, as we chose to leave earlier than scheduled. Maybe a daily event would have been better for us, so we could see more. But it was great to relax in the hot pools after a long journey.

This is a very beautiful park. The tour was excellent, we saw many birds (too many to list) and animals (sloth, snake, monkeys). Our guide was great and even ventured on beautiful locations before entering the park that where remarkable. We hiked all the way to the tip and spend there another 30min swimming.

This tour (or better, multiple tours) are arranged by our Valverde Lodge, with their own boat and hired guide. Ronny was great at managing everything and captain Jason and guide Jairo. This made the Valverde location a great choice, as it was very convenient to join to join early tours. The hotel also offered regular trips (5min) to the Tortuguero town, as we were down the river. We felt great being in a quiet place with river views, but also able to join the lively town as we wanted. In the tour we saw a lot of birds (too many to list) and other animals, including 2 types of monkeys, sloths and cayman.

The staff seemed a bit lackluster.

Absolutely amazing, our favorite place, especially the yoga and food!

The rooms were lovely. I appreciated its boutique feel. The only small issue was that the restaurant prepared the beef ultra rare and did not really fix the issue when asked to do so (another patron appeared to return her steak to the kitchen for the same reason).

Short but worthwhile, quite warm though.

There was some confusion re: pick up, but the dive master was great even if the vis was limited (no one's fault obviously).

So much night life!

This was my favorite activity, loved getting out and hiking in the national park with a private gruide, who was quite knowledgable.

Loved our private tour of this area, our guide was very knowledgable.

Great restaurants there and loved the breakfast buffet!

We were moved to the Poco a Poco Hotel by the Monteverde Country Lodge which turned out to be fine since we think the Poco a Poco turned out to be a nicer hotel.

Loved this hotel and we were lucky to get the honeymoon suite.

This hotel was conveniently located in LaFortuna. The rooms were clean and comfortable. The negatives were that the walls were pretty thin and we could hear the neighbors quite loudly. Also, the breakfast was kind of weak, not a lot of options.

This was an amazing hotel. Our entire family loved the overall experience and wished we had more time to spend here!

This is a very basic hotel. It was clean and the outsides were beautiful and very close to nature. However, it is just off the main road and very loud. The property is dated. There was a very limited breakfast on offer that was poor! We ended up avoiding the associated restaurant.

Having never gone cliff diving, I completed one off the bucket list. The whole family would definitely do it again.

This activity was so close to nature! Everyone enjoyed the leisurely walking pace and the heights of the bridges. Would definitely recommend!

The ziplining part was truly breath taking. However, there was a very clear line of misunderstanding about what was happening and when. We were given a different itinerary from the travel agent and one at the front desk. I understand things may change. However, with small children a scheduling heads up might have helped in allowing us to better prepare what we should carry with us in terms of food and water.

Nice hotel but only gave us two bath towels when booked for three people. Could not get anyone to answer the phone for an extra towel. Gym was really good.

Loved the complete disconnection. This is camping … no electricity, no wifi and no hot water which was all good but wish we knew this in advance to set our expectations. Best sleep listening to the river.

Excellent gym - comfortable beds / room and the breakfast was amazing. Very large hotel campus on steep mountain so you cannot get around unless you order a shuttle. It is open air - open windows as it’s very cool in Monteverde. Due to that you do hear other guests as they walk in the hall … Really enjoyed but it was a bit too big of a hotel campus for me.

Amazing experience and our guides were amazing cooks…. best food we ate during our vacation

It's a basic B&B

We enjoyed staying here the room was lovely

Sorry but this was not our favourite. Room was dark, few powerpoints, no bedside lights, WC horrible. There were nicer rooms but ours was not one. Restaurant overpriced and bad food. Also it's too far from La Fortuna

Good for first night

we really enjoyed this hotel, lovely surroundings, friendly staff, good restaurant and bar, nice big room and shower in a natural and exotic setting.

This was not a 'birdwatching' tour but was OK. Our fellow guests were a strange lot and not very friendly. But we did see a quetzal so that was cool. It was quite crowded.

One of the best trips - Kendall was amazing. Took us outside the reserve to see toucanets - brilliant. Lots of people but we saw lots of things thanks to him. He would have liked to start earlier and I think it would be good if he could have contacted us directly.

This was OK , butterfly enclosure a highlight. Not many birds

This was good after a rather scary drive to the park in the dark. Ronald very knowledgeable and pleasant. Nice selection of birds and good breakfast afterwards - appreciated after missing breakfast at the hotel

This was good and we saw loads. Minor problem was others on the boat had no binoculars so it slowed everything down. 2 good guides and nice lunch afterwards.

Good guide for early morning walk after downpour Christian 2. Best part about BT was the feeders which brought loads of birds

Our first bird tour, very good. Loads of birds. Christian very knowledgeable

The link sent us to the wrong place; we eventually got there but it was pouring with rain. The bridge was very scary