Mona, March 2017

Thank you very much for all your help with the planning. It really made the whole thing so manageable to do with a 3 year old and made our visit to Costa Rica, which was on our list of places to go, possible.

Our trip started in Arenal and we loved staying at the hotel Silence del Campo. What an amazing place. Our kids loved the place and the hot springs. Most of the time only our family was using their host springs. We actually ended up eating at their restaurant for 2 of our diners and 2 lunches as it was very good and also convenient after long hiking trips or other activities. The staff very very friendly and welcoming. We would definitely go back to this hotel. While in Arenal we did one of the volcano hikes, a safari rafting (which was lots of fun and kids got to see monkeys, sloths and crocodiles) as well as hike to the La Fortuna waterfalls. We visited the La Fortuna school which was an amazing experience and ended up being there for about an hour. One of the highlights for my son (11 yrs) was the visit to the cacao planation, the chocolate tour. We learned so much and ate so much chocolate but I would not recommend this for kids under age of 6 as the 2-2.5hr tour can be long for them. Our guide Diego was very knowledgeable and very kind. He made stops along the way as much as he could. When he realized our son had just finished a project on wind Turbines at his school, he took his time in Tilaran to explain the history of the wind turbines in that area.

We did choose the boat ride across the lake to go to Montverede and was a great decision given that we had a 2.5 yr old. By the time we got to our hotel in Montverede, Diego had already put all our luggage in our room. This made it so much easier. We did enjoy visiting the Selvetura park and spent most morning and half of the afternoon doing the hanging bridges as well as some of the exhibitions such as the reptile one. My husband and son did the zipline and enjoyed it so much. It was their first time but the staff were so professional that you felt you were in good hands. One of the highlights in Montverede was the Santa Maria night forest tour. We saw sloths, armadillo, snakes, birds and more. The guides were very professional and we highly recommend. Again, I think this tour is suitable for kids at least 5 and above as we walked almost straight for 2.5 hrs in complete darkness and sometimes had to take shortcuts and walk fast to see something that was spotted by other guides. In town we tried the Tree House Restaurant and liked it but for 2 adults and 2 kids, without any drinks, it was $100 which seems very pricey. Our favourite food was from Taco Taco and Cafe Orchid for nice sandwiches and kid friendly foods.

We also loved Villas Kalimba and Roberto’s feast in Samara. What a lovely place to relax at the end of the trip. We took lessons at the C & C surfing right across the street and Didier was a great instructor and we highly recommend him. We did go to Carillo beach for half day and liked it as you could find more shade to hide under than in Samara beach.

I told my son that you have asked how you can improve your services and he said, “she can’t, everything was perfect”!

Thank you again,

From our family