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Birdwatching in Costa Rica
Preferred
Overview
Short Description
Discover the famous resplendent quetzal in the tranquil cloud forest of San Gerardo de Dota. Enjoy the services of an expert naturalist guide at the Turrialba's renowned birding lodge, Rancho Naturalista. Visit La Selva Biological Station to explore the pristine tropical forest trails, home to 448 species of birds.
Itinerary
Day 1 : International outbound flight
Today you begin your journey by boarding your international outbound flight to San Jose.
Day 2 : Finca Rosa Blanca
Arriving in Costa Rica's capital city San Jose, you will be met at the airport by an English-speaking guide and driven to your hotel in the green hills close that surround the city.
Day 3 : Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui
If you are up early this morning you can get some bird spotting in straight away. The Finca is home to a vast array of bird life from pygmy owls to golden browed chlorophonias.After breakfast you will be driven to La Selva Biological Station near Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui. The accommodation here is simple but in one of the most bio diverse regions of the country, with forest right outside the window.
Day 4 : Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui
In the company of a knowledgeable bilingual naturalist guide, enjoy a private two hour tour of La Selva Biological Station, one of the world's most important sites for tropical ecosystem research and home to over 445 species of birds.
Day 5 : Turrialba
This morning travel to your specialist birding lodge in the Turrialba region, nestled in the verdant hills of the Central Volcanic Range.
Day 6 : Turrialba
We have left your time here free for you to go and explore from the lodge. There are many options to go birdwatching independently or hire one of the specialist guides (payable locally) and much will depend on your precise interest, the time of year and the conditions. The forest trails here are renowned in the birding world, and countless lesser-spotted birds can also be viewed from the observatory terrace.
Day 7 : Turrialba
Second day to arrange further bird watching from Rancho Naturalista or arrange alternative tours exploring the local area.
Day 8 : San Gerardo de Dota
Today you will be driven to the remote and tranquil cloud forest of San Gerardo de Dota.
Day 9 : San Gerardo de Dota
Enjoy an early morning walk with an expert birding guide in search of San Gerardo's most famous year-round resident, the Resplendent Quetzal.
Day 10 : San Gerardo de Dota
Second day exploring the Cloudforest trails of San Gerardo. In addition to longer hikes in search of over 200 species of highland birds, you could hike to the Savegre waterfall, explore on horseback or try your hand at trout fishing.
Day 11 : El Remanso
A scenic drive of about four hours will take you to Puerto Jimenez, gateway to the Osa Peninsula. Here you will be met by a representative and transfer to your lodge.
Day 12 : El Remanso
Activities in the Osa Peninsula (payable locally) - we recommend spending as much time as possible on the forest trails with the specialist guides to maximise your chances of spotting wildlife and birds.
Day 13 : El Remanso
Free time in the Osa Peninsula - in addition to wildlife walks and bird watching, the lodge can also arrange horse riding, surf lessons, or even sea kaya king and waterfall rappelling.
Day 14 : International return flight
Group transfer to Puerto Jimenez for your domestic flight back to San Jose, followed by international flight home.
Day 15 : International return flight
Arrive home today to complete your journey.
Availability
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3,322 Audley Travel Travel Reviews & Ratings
Birdwatching in Costa Rica
Company Reviews
I’ll use Audley for all my travel moving forward
The locations were perfect and the activities made the experience extra special.
I would definitely recommend Audley and especially Ewan to anyone looking for a more bespoke experience.
Unresponsive
I contacted Audley as they came recommended by Wilderness Travel, the company we traveled with previously.
I left multiple messages for their regional specialist Adam -- voice messages through his co-workers (Alec and Jacky), email, website inquiry -- he didn't reply. I finally spoke to another specialist at the office (Lydia) and pressed her to not take yet another message for Adam, but tell me honestly if they are interested in working on our itinerary or we should move on. She then told me that they are busy. Well, wish they had some integrity to tell me on the first call, so I didn't have to loose time on trying to contact their "specialist".
p.s. They sent their automated marketing message with ALL their trips listed in response to my website inquiry. In this message they included: "When you are ready...". I replied that, indeed, we are ready, as I explained in my inquiry -- ready, know where and when we want to travel and are inquiring if you are interested in creating a private journey for us. No reply! Instead, they sent another marketing message the next day (and after Lydia already told us that they are very busy and won't be able to make reservations.) The second marketing message had no option to "unsubscribe". Again, I replied to that message and asked them to stop spamming me with marketing materials.
UPDATE: Audley's Client Experience Executive reached out to me in response to this review. She apologized profusely and wanted me to know that my "feedback is being heard". She said that she spoke with the employees' manager to "ensure mistakes like this don’t happen again and provide additional training to support their growth." She also promised to ask the marketing to delete my name from their marketing list. I took her at her word.
I don't know if this interaction with the client experience executive convinced me to seek Audley's services in the future, but I promised her to include in my review this "status update".
There are much better travel companies than Audley
I’m booking for South Africa and they simply can’t accept that another company can provide a better itinerary at a lower price - even to the point of asking for the other quote and saying this is usual practice in the industry!! ( rubbish) . Totally unprofessional behaviour. Furthermore , sending me emails knocking my choice of hotel and safari park while at the same time promoting hotels that clearly have issues as evidenced by poor ratings on the major sites
I use another well known travel provider that actually provide high quality at a decent price
Audley are simply interested in selling the highest price hotels etc that give them the maximum profit rather than what is right for you
They love themselves and keep on saying nonsense such as “ I’m really pleased with what I’ve come up with and hope you are too “
They need to get real
I won’t reveal the name of the agent dealing with me as that’s probably unfair
Amazing Trip of a life time
Christmas in Thailand
Mark Hotham at Audley Travel helped us to put together the holiday of a lifetime. He helped us through the complexity of different start dates, advised on a suitable hotel and arranged a terrific trip to the Elephant Hills camp in the jungle.
The arrangements worked splendidly, the hotel in Khao Lak was first class and the Elephant Hills trip was magical.
Nothing was ever too much trouble for Mark and every effort was made to deliver the holiday we were looking for.
We have already recommended Audley travel to our friends and they will be our first choice of travel agency from now on.
Our California Trip
Details
Flight & Transport Inclusions
All internal ground transport
Group Size
Intimate Group - 12 max
Trip ID#:
audley-travel-39760
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