Holiday review by Susan
Name: Susan
Date of trip: 15/03/2018
Number of people: 2
Seeing a humming bird on her nest. Climbing the lava flow on Arenal. Sunset at Bahia del sol.
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© Hotel Presidente
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© Hotel Presidente
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© Arenal Springs
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© Bahia del Sol
Tribes Overall:
A fabulous introduction to a beautiful country. Never having travelled in the America’s until now, this holiday was an excellent way to see just a very small portion.
Tribes Service:
Good, timely info provided. 4 points that may help,others -
1. Would have liked to know we could come across scorpions ( one found in trousers and one on the bath mat! ). We gently put them outside.
2. Written routes provided by San Jose guide who greeted us ( and he was a joy to speak with) were not consistent with maps provided with these - the Sat Nav we used provided by National was superb.
3. Luckily we had colones for the several tolls we encountered on the routes back to the airport. We could have spent all of these by then as we had not known about the tolls. The tolls per se were not a problem.
4. The “motorway” return along the pan American highway was significantly slower than the sat nav timing due to very heavy traffic on the two way sections. We left ourselves a lot of time to get to the airport.
Guides:
Guides were exceptional- experienced and knowledgeable and friendly. We could not have hoped to learn so much on our own and would not have seen the wildlife without them. They looked after us on walks. We drove ourselves.
Social & Environmental Responsibility:
As you say, not easy to say, Good recycling facilities, passionate care for wildlife in the parks. Impressive wildlife conservation In the parks and reserves. Clever design to minimise need for air conditioning with internal rooms, I trust the workers we encountered were paid properly. I can see that development for tourists (and for retirees?) - necessary to provide employment is encroaching on the land, and increasing need for water. Where we stayed was sympathetic with the environment, not all we saw was.
Biggest concern was amount of plastic litter. A national problem.
The places you stayed
© Hotel Presidente
Hotel Presidente
San Jose
Atmospheric; good service, brilliant breakfast, a quiet oasis in the heart of a frantically busy city.
© Bahia del Sol
Bahia del Sol
Playa Potrero, Guanacaste
Out of this world, the setting, the food, facilities; wonderful.
