Okey Dokey Tours in Costa Rica recent experience?

Hello all, we are signed up for an Aerial Tram and Canopy Lines tour with Okey Dokey tours in Costa Rica coming up soon. I have seen comments on their tours, but most of it is at least 3-4 years old. Does anyone have any comments on them here in 2011, or at least 2010? Thanks!

I just got back from Costa Rica May 15th, 2011 and booked 6 people on Okey Dokey Tours, A1. He said he would give me the cruise critic price of $55. Below is what the website says for A-1 Tour:

Tortugero Canal Tour - See exotic birds and animals of the Costa Rican jungle, Banana Plantation - Fasinating tour of plantation and processing plant, Bonita Beach & Restaurant (Lunch included) Limon's most beautiful beach and good food, Viewpoint of Limon and countryside and Supermarket visit for wonderful Costa Rican Coffee, Vanilla, and much more at great prices. Admission fees included in the tour price.

CHARLIE'S EMAIL TO ME:

5 1/2 hrs....$69 p.p but w the special discount for c.c. members you can pay me only $55 p.p. include country side, to look for the sloths, 2nd monkey place to look for the monkeys, 3rd bananas plantation to see the process, 4th the wonderful tortuguero canal river cruise, to enjoy the 3 ecosistems: mangrove, rainforest, and beach , wild life, lizards, iguanas, crocs, monkeys, sloths, and exotics birds, 5th Bonita beach , to enjoy 6th view point for pictures and city for coffee, vanilla souvenirs, full air conditoned van , we provide you some diet & reg sodas, water, costarican beers, and fresh fruits, no extra charge, and you can pay me cash at the end of the tour, wear: t shirt, short pants, hat, sneakers or tennis shoes, this van can hold 14 people but i dont like to put more than 8 - people to be comfortable, would be an honor to be specting for you and your friends, thanks a lot have a wonderful and bleseed evening su amigo charlie

WHAT WE GOT:

-1st van had no AC, packed us into another van of WAY MORE than 8 people

- tour was done by another man, not Charlie Soto. Tour operator kept saying our tour price was $79, then $69. We showed him our email and he finally charged $55.

-Lunch was not really lunch and there was no beach time. Lunch was given at 2:30, right before going back to the ship. Everyone was starving.

-forgot to mention that he took out "lunch included" on the email price (says lunch included on his website), tried to make us all pay for extra at the end of the tour. Had I thought about it, I would've double-checked the email he sent but I didn't think he would be that shady! There were at least 4 other groups on the tour that got the bait n switch too.

BEWARE!!!!!

We have been to Costa Rica on two separate week+ long vacations so we were EXCITED we had a stop at Puerto Limon on Carnival Freedom. We have done lots of GREAT activities in CR, but we only had one day to show our parents and another family we traveled with how great CR is! After days of research on day-tours from the port, we found many nice reviews here and on Cruisecritic.com about OkeyDokey Tours Costa Rica. We booked in February for June 8, and reconfirmed the exact itinerary with Charlie the week before the tour.

We signed up for: Tour A-2, lasting from 10am till 5:30 pm (the entire time in port), with the following from the exact email from Charlie:

"Yes i really recommend you the A-2 tour for your family of 10 people, Full air conditoned van , private & personalized tour, and this is an description...

1) Bananas plantation to show them the process,

2) monkey place,

3) the wonderful tortuguero canal river cruise to enjoy the nature beauty, 3 ecosistems: mangrove, rainforest & beach , wild life: lizards, iguanas, crocs, monkeys, sloths, & exotics birds,

4) Jungle Breeze canopy & rainforest to do the zip line , 13 plattforms, this is the best zip line here, in Limon,

5) Bonita beach, lunch, and city for coffee, vanilla souvenirs, ....

=$109 p.p. but w the special discount for c.critic members you can pay only $89 p.p. include fresh fruits, refreshments & thipycal or snack lunch , at the Jungle breeze some of the people can do the zip line while others can do the rainforest walk , without zip line only $59 p.p.

We booked. We were met on time, and taken in a private van (with very little air conditioning... not a big deal.) We were told immediately there would be no time for lunch since we were doing so much... (OK, we can skip that if given fruit and drinks...).

Stops:

1) Fruit stand, which was very interesting as we tasted lots of different fresh fruits following our guide Harrison as he casually told us about the fruits.

2) Zip line - Instead of Jungle Breeze as told, we went to Rancho Cedar Valley. Because they had so many people, we waited 2 1/2 hours to get our equipment. (We were told Carnival had booked Jungle Breeze with no more room for private tour groups.) This is not an exageration... we saw MANY others leave mad. Our guide told us that there was still plenty of time for everything else-"no worries." Once we got to the first platform, there was another 45 minute wait! There were only 6 ziplines instead of the 13 promised with Jungle Breeze - so the actual ziplining took about 30 minutes.

** My parents were going to do the rainforest canopy walk as they are older, but at this location, there is not a canopy walk, so they sat for the entire 3+ hours.

3) Banana Plantation! A stop on the side of the road where (looking around as if we were trespassing) Harrison showed us bananas growing and talked about them for 5 minutes... No actual Del Monte workers etc. and there was a sign that had "no visitors" right next to where we stopped!

4)Tortuguero Canal Tour - this was actually interesting, knowing the wildlife cannot be promised... took about 1 hour start to finish. We did see some monkeys, a sloth, and some iguanas.

5) No more time - back to the boat!

NO discount for what we didn't get to do: the actual banana factory tour, the monkey place, Bonita Beach with lunch, OR the fact that my parents didn't get to do anything while we waited in line/ziplined for 3+ hours.

DO NOT book this tour as they promised more than they could deliver, but charged us the same amount.

** Note: We have been on the Original Canopy Tour in Monteverde twice - it is truly the best and safest! They have a new location near Puerto Limon, but Charlie/OkeyDokey told us there was not enough time to go there from the ship's port.... if you can, definitely go to the ORIGINAL CANOPY TOUR.

Wow..is this disappointing!!

I remember the a-1 tour fondly from 2009...We had a fantastic guide for the day, and the Torteguera tour was the best part of our day!! No ziplining back then because of a strike,but the day was fantastic!!

We toured with okeydokey in may 2011 off the carnival freedom. We did the zipline tour. The service and driver were excellent. The operators of the zipline we slow and lackidaisy, and that really annoyed our tour guide. We were running behind from that point on, but still managed to get everything in. We did however pass on the lunch at the beach, as we were running so late. Can not blame our guide, he did a wonderfull job and was more annoyed than we where about the hold up at the zipline. There was only 6 people in our van and yes it had a/c.

We toured with okeydokey in may 2011 off the carnival freedom. We did the zipline tour. The service and driver were excellent. The operators of the zipline we slow and lackidaisy, and that really annoyed our tour guide. We were running behind from that point on, but still managed to get everything in. We did however pass on the lunch at the beach, as we were running so late. Can not blame our guide, he did a wonderfull job and was more annoyed than we where about the hold up at the zipline. There was only 6 people in our van and yes it had a/c.

Went with a group of 8 off Celebrity Equinox last March. A little confusion initially getting several different groups sorted out, but otherwise our A-2 tour with Okeydokey was great and we got everything as promised at $89 pp. :)

Our roll call did the Okey Dokey A1 tour in January of this year. This was a fantastic tour and we had a great time. We had Carlos as our guide and had a large bus with air conditioning to hold all 18 of us very comfortably. He provided free drinks on the bus.

We got to see and hold a sloth, went to a fruit stand with short walk through the forest to see different native plants, got to see monkeys up in the trees, took a short boat ride on the Tortuguero canal and saw lots of wildlife, went to a banana plantation, went to a small restaurant on the beach and got a lunch of chicken and beans and rice, made a couple stops at scenic overlooks for pictures, and then made a short shopping stop in town before going back to the ship.

We did get the CC discount for our tour as well.

For those of you who had a different driver than Charlie and didn't get what you were originally quoted (like no free lunch), you need to email Charlie with the name of the guide and let him know. He told us to do that if we were not happy with our tour and if we didn't get what we were quoted.

Our roll call did the Okey Dokey A1 tour in January of this year. This was a fantastic tour and we had a great time. We had Carlos as our guide and had a large bus with air conditioning to hold all 18 of us very comfortably. He provided free drinks on the bus.

 

We got to see and hold a sloth, went to a fruit stand with short walk through the forest to see different native plants, got to see monkeys up in the trees, took a short boat ride on the Tortuguero canal and saw lots of wildlife, went to a banana plantation, went to a small restaurant on the beach and got a lunch of chicken and beans and rice, made a couple stops at scenic overlooks for pictures, and then made a short shopping stop in town before going back to the ship.

 

We did get the CC discount for our tour as well.

 

For those of you who had a different driver than Charlie and didn't get what you were originally quoted (like no free lunch), you need to email Charlie with the name of the guide and let him know. He told us to do that if we were not happy with our tour and if we didn't get what we were quoted.

I was with mosaic mom for the A-1 tour in Costa Rica,this by far was the best tour I ever had! We got everything as promised. I am sorry you had a bad experience but I email Charlie and let him know you were unhappy.

This is the van we were in!

Freedom Cruise 2011 140 by hobbyhrs97, on Flickr

We booked directly with Original Canopy Tour and had no problems. They were wonderful and really made our time in Puerto Limon special.

Our roll call did the Okey Dokey A1 tour in January of this year. This was a fantastic tour and we had a great time. We had Carlos as our guide and had a large bus with air conditioning to hold all 18 of us very comfortably. He provided free drinks on the bus.

 

We got to see and hold a sloth, went to a fruit stand with short walk through the forest to see different native plants, got to see monkeys up in the trees, took a short boat ride on the Tortuguero canal and saw lots of wildlife, went to a banana plantation, went to a small restaurant on the beach and got a lunch of chicken and beans and rice, made a couple stops at scenic overlooks for pictures, and then made a short shopping stop in town before going back to the ship.

 

We did get the CC discount for our tour as well.

 

For those of you who had a different driver than Charlie and didn't get what you were originally quoted (like no free lunch), you need to email Charlie with the name of the guide and let him know. He told us to do that if we were not happy with our tour and if we didn't get what we were quoted.

We also did the Okey Dokey Tour and Carlos was our guide, it was the best tour I have ever done, we started with Zip Lines at Jungle Breeze then on to all the other things, snacks were on us at a snack shop, but we got the fruit and drinks. Visited the jungle, held the sloth, did the boat tour, stopped for coffee, btw if anyone gets to a store in Costa Rica, the Oro coffee is fabulous, I packed up my suitcase with it, Customs was fine with it too.

We too were with Celebrity on that one, and it was about 3 years ago.

Hope this was just an anomaly, as we want to visit again!!!

Cheers, Carole

We were on Island Princess 10 day cruise to Panama Canal and one of our stops was Costa Rica. We had a group of 8 and had prebooked with Okey Dokey Tours and they did a FANTASTIC job! Everyone loved it.

I was able to easily set up the arrangements via email with the owner Charlie. He gave us a discount for being Cruise Critic member. We selected the A-2 tour which included lots of fun things esp ziplining, banana plantation, and tortuguero canal boat right, among other things, and included a wonderful lunch, total tour scheduled to last about 7 hours.

As promised, tour guide Carlos and his driver met us at the cruise port one hour after arrival. Owner Charlie was also there to see us off. We all fit comfortably in an air-conditioned van.

First we went to a banana plantation a short drive away. Got to see interesting things on the way there. The banana plantation was way more interesting than I thought it would be, they do everything from grow the trees, chop down the bananas, wash, sort, pack and ship all in one place.

Next we drove to the rainforest for zip-lining. On the way there we saw some monkeys along the road and stopped at a sugar cane place. I dont like heights and was apprehensive about zip-lining but it was AWESOME. 7 platforms, very long, we were the only ones there so no lines, guides helped us the whole way so no issues. here we are with Carlos as we get ready to go ziplining.

Next we went to the canal boat tours and this was fun. We didnt see LOTS of "creatures" but did see many birds, sloths, baby alligators etc. It was very nice and relaxing.

Next Carlos took us to a WONDERFUL restaurant right on the water for a fantastic lunch (included along with beer). Was a great local meal and filled us completely up, wonderful food, relaxing and great view.

Finally on the way back to the cruise port we stopped in town for brief shopping for some coffee etc. It was interesting seeing some of the shops and display of the food.

We got back to the ship by 3 pm or so in plenty of time. Everything about the tour was great, Carlos took very good care of us and we did everything we wanted to do and more. I would not hesitate to use Okey Dokey Tours again

Visited Costa Rica on December 19, 2012 from Cruise. We used Okey Dokey tours and had a wonderful time. If you choose to use them you should request Jonathan(Tour Guide) and Julio (Driver). They were attentive,personable, accommodating and very knowledge about the country. It was an EXCELLENT experience.

We paid $55 pp for 5 stops (Canal, Lunch and beach, Banana factory, Monkey sightings, and other stops)

The owner Charlie stopped by the Factory and the beach to make sure all was going well.

We are using Okey Dokey in March for the A-2 tour that includes zipline, canal, banana factory, lunch, etc. for 6-7 hours. Quoted $89 per person Cruise Critic rate. So how much is appropriate tip if we get excellent service? Do we tip the zipline staff, too? Thanks.

We booked with OkeyDokeyTours, his A-2 tour for December 18, 2012.

We tipped the zip line guides since they really worked for it and were fun and pleasant the entire time. There is a "tip jar" on the registration desk. We were happy to contribute.

Our tour ended abruptly by being victims of an armed robbery in the banana grove. Since there was a big confusing rush to get us back on the ship (among other things, my passport was stolen) our tour guide, a "day helper" to Mr. Soto, was not tipped (of course, our cash was also gone).

Just back today after using Okey Dokey last week. We arranged 4 stops - Jaguar Rescue Center, chocolate tour, banana plantation and jungle cruise - rather than using a standard package. We were charged $99 per person, a bit more than some other tour companies quoted, but Charlie's communication was clear and precise. We were assured an air conditioned van, an English speaking guide, cold drinks, fresh fruits, clean bathrooms, "authentic Costa Rican lunch" and shopping for coffee. We toured with Charlie's nephew Jonathan, a very nice young man, and brother Julio as our driver. The AC in the van did not compress so we had air blowing on us but it was not actually air conditioning. The stop for soft drinks was made at 8:45 am. No other cold drinks were provided for the remainder of our day long tour.

The only bathrooms were at the restaurant where we had lunch. While we were able to wash our hands with soap and water both bathrooms were posted with "Out of Service" signs so no working bathrooms were made available. The chocolate museum was closed when we arrived so Jonathan located an alternative "Chocolate House" where a young woman was able to show us the chocolate process in her home. She was pleasant and informative but it wasn't exactly the "tour" we expected. (We were able to use outdoor flush toilets here - better than an outhouse but not the "clean comfortable bathrooms" we were promised.) By this time it was almost 3 pm and Jonathan said we would have to choose between visiting the banana plantation or stopping for fruit and driving by the plantation. My daughter really wanted to try some tropical fruits so we chose to do that and drive by the banana plantation rather than tour it. At the fruit stand there were a few bunches of bananas hanging and 4 bowls with tiny pieces of papaya, coconut, pineapple and sugar cane - the stop took all of about 5 minutes. With the exception of the sugar cane all the fruits were available daily on our cruise. When I asked about driving by the banana plantation Jonathan said there was no reason to - they closed about an hour earlier. Not exactly sure what his plan would have been if we had insisted on the plantation visit we scheduled rather then falling for the fruit visit option...

It was after 3 when we arrived for our jungle cruise. We saw about a half dozen varieties of birds but no animals. When we returned Jonathan said "Of course you did not see animals - you were here too late. You would have to come earlier in the day to see animals."

Charlie called after we stopped for coffee to see how the tour went. When I told him we had not seen the banana plantation he did not understand why, "I told my guide to take you there." Jonathan became upset saying we had chosen to skip it in order to have the fruit stop - he took no responsibility for getting us there too late to see it or for the jungle cruise being done too late in the day for it to be worthwhile. Charlie did not offer to adjust the price for the missed stop. Jonathan asked me to write a review for Cruise Critic and I assured him that I would.

No I would not use Okey Dokey again. I understand that sometimes things don't go as planned but frankly I could have had the same level of service from a cab driver hired at the port for a fraction of the price. Only 1 of our stops went as planned and we missed one altogether. Technically the van was equipped with AC, we received cold drinks and tasted fruit but it certainly was not the experience we expected or paid for.

We were met by Mr. Soto, who was also boarding another tour for which he was the guide. Mr. Soto stood with my sister and I while we waited for his "helper for the day" to appear, and then waited while Mr. Soto organized the guide. Mr. Soto requested the our cash payment in advance in order to give money to the guide for admission fees. We were bundled into a taxi and headed for the zip line. In route, since it was still early, we stopped at a local fruit stand partaking of two types of very small bananas, a couple of bites of pineapple, and tasting a cocoa bean. Our guide presented us with a bottle of water as we left.

We went to "Jungle Breeze" zip line. Since it was just my sister and me, we were attached to a larger group from Greenway Tours. After getting our gear on and a safety demo, the Greenway Tour guide, and the non zip line riders from their group, joined the tractor driver for the ride to the 1st platform. The Greenway Tour guide had the tractor driver stop several times to explain the jungle ecosystem, floral and fauna, even digging into research books he’d brought in his backpack for information.

The zip line guides were impressively safety conscious -- no one, not even themselves, failed to be linked to the safety equipment, except for the short seconds between unlinking and linking again. They were hard workers, getting all of us hooked to the cable system and off the cable system ... sometimes even having to go "fetch" those zip line riders who braked too conscientiously and ended up stopping short of the platform!

There was a "tip jar" for the zip line guides to which we contributed. They worked for it; they were cute and funny and took care of us.

The zip line was 9 platforms. The Greenway Tours guide met the whole group, bringing with him the non zip line riders for a great view of the last cable, at the last platform, taking pictures as we zipped to the ground.

That became the end of our A-2 tour due to the armed robbery that occurred in the Del Monte banana grove which was our next stop.

Differences from advertised tour description:

Tour payment -- requested in advance though all published information and emails from Soto says payment at end acceptable.

Fruit stand stop -- the one we had was extremely limited in scope and time and very uncomfortable. It was a local place with locals just sitting around staring at us; the owner seemed unprepared, abrupt and very rude. The fruit offered was very limited -- but did include the two major Costa Rican crops - bananas and pineapple.

Cold water, soda and beer -- we received a bottle of water at the fruit stand. We could have used some cold water at the end of the zip line. No additional water was offered. Perhaps the soda and beer would have been made available at a later point in the tour. We don't know -- our tour abruptly ended.

13 platform zip line -- There were 9 platforms for the zip line -- less than 70% of what was advertised.

Notable for us - We like lots of information with our tours; we like a real guide showing us and telling us about their country. Our guide, who did not seem to be an actual employee of Mr. Soto, but more like someone he found for the day, was more a cab driver than an informational guide. He was very NICE; he was supportive and did what had to be done after the robbery (though there was quite a lot of dithering -- but he seemed upset and confused about the robbery) finally getting us to the municipal police station to make a report, helping with translation while there, and finally getting us back to the ship.

I have since learned that Mr. Soto, owner of OkeyDokeyTours, “sub contracts everything and owns only a cell phone.” (Information received from a certified ICT travel agent and guide). Mr. Soto has not provided his ICT tour guide certification number, although I've asked for it (after the fact.) Okey Dokey Tours is not really even found on Trip Advisor but appears on Cruise Critic and offers a "Cruise Critic discount" (which is also offered by Greenway Tours).

Mr. Soto, in an email to me, asserted "i toll him that, i never stop there, there is no people, or a security guard, i tell him everytime we better take our people to the Packing plant there is all the people". Frankly, it didn't seem that Mr Soto had that extensive a conversation with the driver while he "organized" the tour details (particularly since Soto had another tour already boarded and waiting for him to begin), but I don't speak the language well enough to say whether or not that statement is true.

Mr. Soto has, since December 22, 2012, agreed to refund our cash payment – but has continuously failed to do so though I’ve suggested many different avenues to effect the payment. His latest promise, asserting the national bank "but the banks close last Friday & they coming back on Jan 2nd", is for payment January 2, 2013.

What a shame you had such an unfortunate experience. I can understand why you were upset. Some of these tour organisers should provide better training for some of their contractors/employees.

Regarding the ziplining.... we had people added to our group when we did it... this was a decision of the ziplining company, so this was out of Charlie's hands. You would never have gotten personal service there, they put the numbers together, and don't care who you are with.

I am a bit confused..... was it you that was involved with the armed robbery? Or were you there when it happened? I don't think you can blame Charlie for such a thing happening. I agree, I would expect some recompense, but you did get to do the ziplining so I wouldn't expect to be refunded for that. I would never do a tour in this area of the world except in a large group.... safety in numbers.

Having said that, the day we spent in Costa Rica with Charlie (yes, he was with us all day along with his daughter) was one of our favourite tours ever in any country we have visited. I organised quite a large group tour and we were all exceptionally happy with the service, the tour and the price.

We, my sister and I, were the only ones in our tour group.

It was just she and I and our guide at the robbery -- well, except, of course, for the 4 teenage appearing, masked, pistol and machete wielding, bandits. I was personally involved - my camera was stolen, my travelers neck pouch strap cut when pulling on it didn't work. My passport, my credit cards, my cash ... all stolen.

I didn't say I "blamed" Mr. Soto but I do hold him responsible. Mr. Soto offered the information he'd told the guide to not go to that place. If that is accurate, the guide, Mr. Soto's employee, DID take us there anyway. If that is not accurate, Mr. Soto's apparently knew the area wasn't appropriate for touring, and should have informed his employee. In any case, we were in the care of Mr. Soto and his employees.

We were attached to the Greenway group at the zip line park -- and didn't mind in the least. It was a good sized group, all of whom were from our ship, and we were glad to be part of a larger group for the zip lining (we'd invited others from our roll call to join our tour).

However, there were only 9 platforms v. the 13 advertising in Mr. Soto's material.

Mr. Soto has already agreed to the refund. It has not been remitted.

Apparently an independent review thread is not permitted. So my full review:

OkeyDokey (Charlie Soto) A-2 Tour – zip lining

We were met by Mr. Soto, who was also boarding another tour for which he was the guide. Mr. Soto waited with my sister and I while we waited for his "helper for the day" to appear, and then waited while Mr. Soto organized the guide. Mr. Soto requested the our cash payment in advance in order to give money to the guide for admission fees. We were bundled into a taxi and headed for the zip line. In route, since it was still early, we stopped at a local fruit stand partaking of two types of very small bananas, a couple of bites of pineapple, and tasting a cocoa bean. Our guide presented us with a bottle of water as we left.

We went to "Jungle Breeze" zip line. Since it was just my sister and me, we were attached to a larger group from Greenway Tours. After getting our gear on and a safety demo, the Greenway Tour guide, and the non zipline riders from their group, joined the tractor driver for the ride to the 1st platform. The Greenway Tour guide had the tractor driver stop several times to explain the jungle eco system, floral and fauna, even digging into research books he’d brought in his backpack for information.

The zip line guides were impressively safety conscious -- no one, not even themselves, failed to be linked to the safety equipment, except for the short seconds between unlinking and linking again. They were hard workers, getting all of us hooked to the cable system and off the cable system ... sometimes even having to go "fetch" those zipline riders who braked too conscientiously and ended up stopping short of the platform!

There was a "tip jar" for the zip line guides to which we contributed. They worked for it; they were cute and funny and took care of us.

The zip line was 9 platforms. The Greenway Tours guide met the whole group, with the non zip line riders, at the last platform, taking pictures as we zipped to the ground.

That became the end of our A-2 tour due to the armed robbery that occurred in the banana grove which was our next stop.

Differences from advertised tour description:

Fruit stand stop -- the one we had was extremely limited and very uncomfortable. It was a local place with locals just sitting around staring at us; the owner seemed unprepared, abrupt and pretty rude. The fruit offered was very limited -- but did include the two major Costa Rican crops - bananas and pineapple.

Cold water, soda and beer -- we received a bottle of water at the fruit stand. We could have used some cold water at the end of the zip line. No additional water was offered. Perhaps the soda and beer would have been made available at a later point in the tour. We don't know -- our tour abruptly ended.

13 platform zip line -- There were 9 platforms for the zip line -- less than 70% of what was advertised.

Notable for us - We like lots of information with our tours; we like a real guide showing us and telling us about their country. Our guide, who did not seem to be an actual employee of Mr. Soto, but more like someone he found for the day, was more a cab driver than an informational guide. He was very NICE; he was supportive and did what had to be done after the robbery (though there was quite a lot of dithering -- but he seemed upset and confused about the robbery) finally getting us to the municipal police station to make a report, helping with translation while there, and finally getting us back to the ship.

I have since learned that Mr. Soto, owner of OkeyDokeyTours, “sub contracts everything and owns only a cell phone.” (Information received from a certified ICT travel agent and guide). Okey Dokey Tours is not really even found on Trip Advisor but appears on Cruise Critic and offers the Cruise Critic discount (which is also offered by Greenway Tours).

Mr. Soto, in an email to me, asserted "i toll him that, i never stop there, there is no people, or a security guard, i tell him everytime we better take our people to the Packing plant there is all the people". Frankly, it didn't seem that Mr Soto had that extensive a conversation with the driver while he "organized" the tour details, (particularly since Soto had another tour already boarded and waiting for him to begin), but I don't speak the language well enough to say whether or not that statement is true. If true, then, our guide took us to a place with known "no security" and where he was directed to not take us. If not true, then Mr. Soto, is willing to throw his hired help "under the bus".

Mr. Soto has, since December 22, 2012, agreed to refund our cash payment – but has continuously failed to do so though I’ve suggested tmany different avenues . His latest promise is for payment January 2, 2013.

BAD EXPERIENCE WITH OKEY DOKEY TOURS

In Puntarenas on a 98 degree day we had a van with NO working A/C. Drinks were to have been provided. There was a cooler in the van, but it was empty, not even any water bottles. Van driver was Charlie's brother and he had some woman with him and we were only told about this when we arrived at the van. Charlie was hired to be our guide almost a year in advance yet he did not show up but instead sent another man. We were not told about this in advance. DO NOT go with this tour company. Find another one with good recommendations !!!!!!!

I filed a complaint with the Department of Tourist Services in Costa Rica against Soto and OkeyDokey Tours ... who, after their investigation, told Soto to refund our tour payments -- which he had, repeatedly, promised me that he would do.

He has STILL failed to refund our payment.

What a difference a few years make. We used Okey Dokey and Charles Soto was our driver in March 2010 and we had nothing but great reviews from our ziplining tour in Puntarenas.

We are scheduled to go to Limon next March but after reading theses latest reviews I think I will stay clear of him this time.

Thanks to CC for keeping us informed.

My family used Okey Dokey tours in December, we had the most fabulous tour ever. We are very experienced travelers and it takes alot for me to really impressed. Charlie Soto wow'd us. He stayed with us every minute, answered all questions, even let me take a ride on the banana cable :) I asked him alot about how the locals lived and he asked if i wanted to have coffee at his sisters house. What an experience, they don't have coffee pots like we do, it was an experience I will never forget, and the coffee was amazing. Charlies sister welcomed us in as if she knew us, and even made us lunch, which was also amazing. Don't hesitate to use OKEY Dokey tours, he's amazing, honest sincere etc etc..

We are booked with Charlie for the rainforest and ziplining full day tour in mid-March. The recent posts for Okey Dokey Tours/Charlie Soto seem to be mostly negative. Are there any other recent positive experiences? We're debating changing our plans . . . Thanks.

My opinion is unchanged.