sbaum323

I highly recommend you odysseytourcr.com super reliable and very nice new vehicles with budget friendly rates 

They have a new website: odysseytourcr.com

I’m very glad to know you had such a nice experience!!

I also had great tours with them years ago.

Hi there,

I highly recommend you Odyssey tours in Puntarenas, it’s run by two brothers Álvaro and Diego, I went with them few times years ago, website is odysseytourscr.com

Hi whycruisewhynot,

I would like to know more about your negative experience with odyssey. Alvaro is now my best friend in Costa Rica and so I copied your input here to him and he already send me a screenshot of your email in which it clearly reads you asked for a stop by a coffee plantation along the way with the time limitation you had making it impossible to visit a full coffee tour due your departure flight, I can share the screenshot here if you wish. Not nice to lie!!

He says he send you a personal English speaking guide and driver and a new Mercedes Benz for only $140 for two people special deal since you reserved multiple services with them for week or so and you were expecting that super affordable ride to include a full coffee factory which cost much more, I have been told $29 each just the coffee tour ticket for a tour of 1 hour on spot.

I would like to add Costa Rica is a very beautiful country but also very expensive, I love to visit it and try to travel in a budget the must I can, and I've found Alvaro by odyssey tours to be my best travel consultant in order to make the most of my money. Sorry if you two didn't have really good communication which I feel it was your issue petty much.

Another vote for odyssey tours by brothers Diego and Alvaro, their email is odysseytours@gmail.com they are actually from Caldera town and the only drivers allowed to access with their very nice new Mercedes Benz vans the port facility in Caldera, very impressive for an independent operator not working direct with the cruise lines arriving there. Their website has very good information of Caldera port and their services: http://www.odysseytourscr.com/htmls/caldera.html

I went with them to Caldera twice so far and enjoyed the rides so much with all their knowledge and perfect English they speak (native) and also I was so happy I didn't have to walk those two miles from the gates to our ship carrying our luggage through the busy port full of trucks as everyone else with other drivers had to do so. I highly recommend them.

I have been to port of Caldera twice and it was almost 3 years ago when I went for my one week windstar sail in Costa Rica, I found several excellent reviews of Alvaro and his local family-run business odysseytourscr.com and hired him for the rides back and forth the airport and ended up having him for my tours as well since his tour operator is fully certificated and authorized to access the ports with his very nice new Mercedes Benz van and others don't have those permits so you need to pay an extra taxi to take you off the port, they don't let you just walk out since Caldera is a big commercial port full of containers and trucks so it is not safe. He took us on tours out of Quepos port and Golfito, he is incredible spotting wildlife and a profesional tour guide very knowledge of the nature and history of the country. I'm coming back this year to another port of Costa Rica now on the east coast and I already asked Alvaro to meet us there for another wonderful tour, he runs tours all over the country since he also took us to the volcanoes from San Jose city.

Hello dear cruise fans,

I just wanted to share my feedback from my recent visit to Puntarenas port and again how much we enjoyed touring with Alvaro and his odyssey tours, this time we went to San Luis cloud forest park for the best zip line adventure ever and also walked the suspended bridges and saw the butterflies gardens, he suggested this instead of Monteverde cloud forest since the road is much better and it's located closer to port so we didn't waste as that time getting back and forth.

We are now booking our next cruise to visit Costa Rica and from the east coast this time, so I already have Alvaro book to meet us in Limon port since he told me he is running tours from there since a couple of years or so and being very successful thanks to his friendship with locals around that area. I didn't realize Costa Rica such a small country till Alvaro advised me it takes only likely 5 hours drive from coast to coast.

One more time I give 5 stars to odysseytourscr.com and their tours, I highly recommended, posting my reviews on trip advisor as well.

Cheers!

Scott B.

Dear Crunchii,

I have been in Tarcolis River a couple of times for the amazing crocodiles river cruise and bird watching tour and noticed there are a lot of boat operators and they all seemed well organized with clean and nice large boats, however they don't operate the entire day tour but another local tour operators from Puntarenas or Caldera ports, several you can find on trip advisor and I can highly recommend odysseytourscr.com by Alvaro for this tour among several others sightseeing he includes in his 10 in 1 highlights tours for a very low cost in the honor of the true, I have been with him 3 times so far and looking forward to seeing him again this year, he arrange small group tours from the cruises and offers special deals for cruise critic members, he is the best!!

Hi there,

I have done a couple of tours with a local guide Alvaro from Odyssey tours "tico" and I realized he runs rafting on both ports since someone in our group from the roll call has arranged a private tour to whitewater rafting from Puntarenas port, later we met them back at the ship and they were super happy with the adventure they had, I talked to Alvaro and advised me he runs rivers from both Puntarenas and Limon ports for cruise passengers and crew members as well. Odysseytourscr.com is his website and I read information about those adventures activities on his site. I highly recommend him!!

There is a park likely 1 hour away from Puntarenas at the cloud forest (not Monteverde park which is far) with suspended bridges and a waterfall and it is lovely, I took a tour there with local guides Al and Diego from odysseytourscr.com a couple of years ago and it was great. The drive is long but scenic we saw coffee plantations, nice towns and much wildlife.

Cheers!

Scott

Never heard about that agency thumbs up till a couple of months, I read somewhere the young guy who runs this new business used to work as a guide for odysseytourscr.com a tour operator for Puntarenas and has been recommended since 2005 here on cruise critic.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1608857&page=2

I was just looking at Thumbs Up Tours. They are rated #1 of the tours in Puntarenas on tripadvisor. The 10 in 1 tour looks really good; and it's only $70. Their website goes into a lot of detail of what's included: http://www.thumbsuptours.com/#!tours---activities/it10u

 

It's listed as a cruise ship tour; so they are used to being on time.

Who has gone on that one?

You will find here in many CC threads regarding transportation to/from Calderathe local Costa Rican agency Odyssey tours comes highly recommended. I Found in google the video on link bellow as well:

I will invite you to get these wonderful tours with the local people and get a real sense of the country with small group tour and more personal. tourspuntarenas.com comes highly recommended on trip advisor and cruise critic. Costa Rica is a very safe country to go on independent tours.

we have read tons of excellent reviews and only one or two negative so we decided to give it a try...we had a private tour for small group of 8 adults on their brand new Mercedes Benz Van and the tour was excellent with a great English speaking guide and lots of information, the price was very good and lunch included. odysseytourscr.com is their site.

odyssey tours in Caldera is highly recommended on another forums such as:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=22450923&highlight=windstar+odyssey+caldera#post22450923

I also found a cute video of Caldera beach:

The following two local operators have been recommended here on another cruise critic chats several times:

http://www.tourspuntarenas.com/costa_rica.html

http://www.odysseytourscr.com/htmls/caldera.html

Hello I have been reading a lot of information about odysseytourscr.com here for few months and finally had my chance to go on their tour days ago and had an excellent experience, 10 in 1 day tour is highly recommended.

I found some info on another threads with the search function of cruise critic so I want to share links:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1244585

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1344947

Cheers!

There was already a thread regarding odyssey tours with any reviews since years ago here on this forum:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1608857

I'm a big fan of Costa Rica : )

Odyssey Tours and Ricky Ricardo are the most popular guides here for Puntarenas, I believe the two you are asking for are just new competitors copying their advertising on trip advisor or others.

Yes payment is on same day of the tour at the end.

Correct, every cruise will now arrive to Puntarenas apparently because the taxes for Caldera are higher now since it is a commercial dock and not touristy.