Puntarenas

[pilotdane]

It can be done but it's more time than I would want to spend on a bus. Traffic is worse Friday through Sunday between Quepos and Manuel Antonio since it's a very popular tourist spot popular for weekend getaways from San Jose. Your tour company should be familiar with the drive & traffic and will plan your schedule accordingly so you should be able to relax and enjoy your excursion.

 

Manuel Antonio is a beautiful park. It is the smallest and most heavily visited park in Costa Rica but many people just walk through on their way to the beach leaving the deeper trails quiet. The main road/trail is nice & wide and easy to walk and the park has restrooms.

 

Most guided tours walk in on the main road, turn right and head down to Manuel Antonio Beach and then cut through the peninsula where there is a small mangrove/swamp. Then you tip a guy a few Colones to walk across his boat so you don't get you feet wet in a tiny little creek (your guide should handle tipping the boat guy). It can be walked in a couple hours. One good thing about getting so much traffic is that the animals are not totally freaked out by humans so you have a very good chance of seeing two or three types of monkeys, sloths, various birds, crocodile, lizards & iguanas, snakes and some insects (but very few mosquitoes) in addition to the beautiful jungle and beaches.. So, you will have the chance to see a lot of wildlife in a very compact area with little (subjective) walking.

[leg]

Hi

Our group of 9 adults just finished a Sept. 19th Celebrity Panama Cruise and had Charlie from Okey Dokey Tours in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. We had a wonderful time, he was right at the port with the sign with our names on it. We had a very good English speaking guide that also rode with us named Evelyn. The monkeys were great to see and we got right up to feed them as they swung through the trees. The Aerial Tram was great to see the rain forest from above. We stopped for lunch at a great restaurant and all entry fees and lunch was included (even the beer which my group loved). His quote is below, I would hire hime again. Costa Rica was my favourite port.

7 hrs.... $129 p.p. but w the special discount my cruisecritic members you guys can pay me only $110 p.p. include : 1st La Roca forest where we can feed the cappuchin monkeys, nature havitat, 2nd Tarcoles Bridge to see a bunch crocodiles on the shore, 3rd Pacific aerial tram , to enjoy the nature beauty, W bromelias garden , toucans, & the wonderful Pacific aerial tram , 4th Jaco beach to look for the exotics Scarlet macaws, stop at the supermarket for coffee souvenirs, full air conditioned van , private & personalized tour, just for your party fresh fruits, water, sodas, & snacks , no deposit or payments, you can reserve by e mail and you can pay me cash at the end of the tour, wear: t shirt, short pants, hat, sneakers or tennis shoes, would be an honor to be spectiong for you and your party to give you an perfect introducction of my beautiful country , thanks a lot , best wishes Muchas Gracias su amigo Charlie de costa rica www.nanada.com www.okeydokeytours.com cell p. 506 8879 60 69

[SoCal09]

Has anyone heard of problems in Puntarenas caused by the recent big storms? Thanks for any input...

[waggie]

Have just returned from Panama Canal cruise. We had 2 groups through Charlie, 1 doing the full day including river trip and another doing a milder version excluding the river. We also had Evelyn and did the same things as leg.

Charlie was great to deal with, and although he took the other group, made sure a couple times during the day that we were OK. I would happily recommend him. The van was comfortable, cold drinks provided, lunch was excellent and we stopped at the market stalls before returning to the ship.Costa Rica is beautiful, and somewhere I would love to visit again. Puntarenas is rather run-down- don't just stay at the port - you will be missing a real treat!.

[carol459]

Have just returned from Panama Canal cruise. We had 2 groups through Charlie, 1 doing the full day including river trip and another doing a milder version excluding the river. We also had Evelyn and did the same things as leg.

Charlie was great to deal with, and although he took the other group, made sure a couple times during the day that we were OK. I would happily recommend him. The van was comfortable, cold drinks provided, lunch was excellent and we stopped at the market stalls before returning to the ship.Costa Rica is beautiful, and somewhere I would love to visit again. Puntarenas is rather run-down- don't just stay at the port - you will be missing a real treat!.

 

We were with the other group that day. Had a great time. See my post:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1357246&page=2

 

About our tour.

 

Rick

[cboyle]

We used Odyssey for our Panama Canal cruise in October. We had an excellent tour to the Poas Volcano National Park and the La Paz Waterfall Gardens. Full details of the tour can be found in my cruise review at:

www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=90929.

[katiepe]

We sailed the Canal with Island Princess.

We took the ships Tour to the Monteverde Cloud Forest. Marvelous trip. Had a great guide that gave us background information about her country. We saw a lot of countryside and the Cloud Forest is beautiful. There is everything from a Canopy Tour on a series of "skywalks" 100 to 300 feet high to a hummingbird sanctuary. There is also a canopy high zipline although we didnt do this.

I wasnt terribly impressed with the area at the Pier- beach or otherwise.

Mind you this was the year before last so maybe things have improved?

I too think this is a port for an excursion whether with the ship or someone else. We were "chicken" and took all ships tours when we did any excursions on our Canal cruise. They were countries I didnt feel comfortable touring with out the ship security. We did leave people behind at every port-just saying

[pilotdane]

You make a good point about being left behind especially when doing excursions that take you far from the ship. All it takes is a traffic jam or a flat tire to make you late. When going farish like Monteverde paying a little more for a ship sponsored excursion is cheap insurance.