We just got back from Costa Rica and what was probably the best vacation we have ever had. (Mostly due to Amy with Avispa's Adventures) If you think I am exaggerating, you haven't gone on tours with Amy and Avispa. They do personalized tours no matter what size group you have. Although we were in a large group (16 people) we did not all want to do the same thing everyday. Amy was fantastic. She worked with us as individual couples as well as our large group. She made sure that everyone did exactly what they wanted to do when they wanted to do it. (And with our group that is no easy task!) As a group we did their signature tour (Miravalles Adventure), Palo Verde and whitewater rafting (Many of us were beginners while others were experienced whitewater rafters, but we all had a blast!) I must say you wouldn't want to miss them. She also arranged everything from fishing and golfing to private dining experiences and bar hopping.

Having various food allergies, I was concerned about eating off of the resort. However even when we were traveling in the large group, Amy always made it a point to have a special meal for me! I was shocked! Having so many people to deal with and she still remembered! The personal attention you get with Avispa’s Adventures is unmatchable. Amy says, “You come to Costa Rica and Avispa’s Adventures as clients, but you go home our friends”. This is so true! They truly make you feel like you are visiting friends that you have known for years.

We can’t wait for our next vacation in Costa Rica with our new friends.

If you are going to vacation in Guanacaste, contact Amy with Avispa's Adventures. They will make your vacation unforgettable!
(When you look them up make sure you put the "s" on Avispa's or you will get another persons website. Also if you email Amy and she does not get back to you in a day or so, send her another email sometimes she has internet problems-but it is worth the wait)

After reviews on trip advisor, I'd emailed Amy before leaving England and had booked their Miravelles Adventure and white water rafting for my husband, sons aged 16 & 14 and myself.

Avispas is a very small outfit which specialises in personalised tours in small buses. The drivers are Carlos who doesn't speak English as fluently as some guides but who is a great character and Jose who is also lovely. We had Carlos for the Miravelles Adventure which is such a buzz. The ziplines were amazing fun, followed by lunch in a small restaurant on site and then we went horse riding (leisurely!) and then on a short walk to the waterfall followed by a fascinating tour around the volcanic springs and mud pools of the activity centre. Only my husband and one son braved the hot and cold pools although we all helped to finish the champagne which ended the day!

We also did the white water rafting tour. As we hadn't done rafting before, we chose to do a 2 hour trip in small 2 person kayaks with a guide each. That was also great fun and included stopping to swim at a place which had a tarzan swing and diving platform - great for teenagers in these days of health and safety regulations!

At the end of the tour, we met up with Amy and asked her to organise a trip to Arenal for us. I didn't want to do the hot springs there, which is what all the big tours do (we heard afterwards that there was deafening disco music playing there, so it was anything but relaxing!). However I also wanted to stay overnight at a hotel overlooking the lava flow from Arenal. Amy said that would be practically impossible as very few hotels were on that side and they booked up months in advance, but she'd see what she could do.

Well she was brilliant and we had the trip of a lifetime. We travelled in our own mini-bus (as on all our trips) with Jose to Arenal. We had lunch at a restaurant and spent the afternoon at the Hanging Bridges in the true rainforest - what an experience! We were then taken to the Hotel Linda Queste del Norte - a small hotel with the most amazing views of Arenal from the enormous picture windows. We watched the volcano erupting as dusk came, but were disappointed that after the meal the clouds descended and we couldn't see any more. However we woke at about 1am to find the clouds had dispersed and we could again see the lava flow from our bed. However Jose had given us his powerful binoculars so we went to sit on the bench outside our room, watching the lava flow down the volcano accompanied by the amazing sounds of the rainforest at night - a truly magical experience!

The folowing day I'd requested a trip up in Sky Tram followed by ziplining as we'd all enjoyed that on the previous trip. This was incredible! Some of the ziplines were 600m or more long. The first long one set off in the trees, but then opened out over the valley to the rainforest floor with incredible views of Arenal Lake and the volcano. Experience of a lifetime - completed when Arenal actually erupted whilst we were up there.

We finished the trip with a personalised tour around a small botanical garden where we saw butterflies, a sloth, blue jeans frogs and a whole variety of wild life followed by a final lunch in a 'real' not tourist restaurant.

This tour, as you've probably guessed, was the absolute highlight of our holiday. The variety of experiences and wildlife and just being in an actual rainforest was extraordinary. Thanks to Amy and Avispas for putting in so much effort to arrange this. I really can't recommend them highly enough. None of the other tours even mentioned Sky Tram and Sky Trek and we had this amazing experience and personalisation for far less money than the big tours were costing. Do look at their webste and if you want the experience of a lifetime, ask about the Arenal trip. I would say stay overnight as it's a long journey from Guanacaste and watching a volcano erupting is something else!

Amy and the Avispa'a Adventure's crew was recommended to my wife and I by some friends of ours who had utilized them previously, and for my money (actually our friend's money-they paid for our adventures as a wedding present!), there is no other way to go. Amy and Carlos made our trip to the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica very personal and absolutely unforgettable. They are very accommodating, and are willing to customize any tour you like. We heard several horror stories from people utilizing hotel-sponsored mega-tour companies...let me tell you that we experienced none of the waiting in line, long, bumpy tour bus rides, and the strict schedules enforced by these uber-tour companies. We ate a meal after each tour at an authentic, 'cozy' Costa Rican restaurant...definitely a unique personal touch. Highly recommended is their 'signature' Miravalles Adventure, which includes canopy zip line tour (do NOT miss this!), horseback riding, hiking, and relaxing at a natural hot spring/mud bath (not what you might think, but a once in a lifetime experience)-all in one day! DEFINITELY do NOT utilize hotel-based tour companies-Avispa'a is DEFINITELY the way to experience Costa Rica.

What a beautiful area of the world! If you like wild life and the jungle this is the place for you. Monkeys everywhere (we saw some a 2-3 minute walk from the hotel). Diving (we used Diving Safaris and they were great, run by Earl & his daughter Kellie) was pretty good and I am glad we went out a few days. The water is so calm, warm (75-80 F at depth, I never used a wet suit and was fine), visibility is so so (20-30 feet). Lots of marine life; I have never seen so many puffer fish & eels (3 types) and saw my first Harlequin shrimp. We went to Catalina Island one day and saw a manta ray despite it not being the season, also saw a couple sharks there (white tip reef I think). If you go to Catalina it's a little far so make sure you get the fast boat! We did 2 day tours, using Avispas Adventures (make sure you get the "s" at the end of Avispas because there is someone else out there trying to imitate that doesn't have that) and they were fabulous. Amy, the American that runs it with her Tico husband, brought customer service to a whole new level. We had a large group (20 people) and we 2 the 2 trips together and it ran fairly smoothly and all 20 people (ages 30-68) were content. We did the all day Mirvalles Vocano tour that included a zip line tour of the canopy (sounds scary but we all did it and loved it - 14 lines in all), typical Costa Rican lunch (with beer included), a hourseback ride (or tractor ride if you don't want the horse) to a hike to waterfalls (real waterfalls, not just a trickle down the hillside) and finally to the crater of a volcano where we went in the natural hot to warm mud baths and natural steam room (yes, she does this all in one day; many other operators take 2 days to do all this; it's a long day but so worth it). The second tour we did was only half to 3/4 day, it was the Palo Verde river tour to see wildlife and have another Tico lunch; we saw 2 kinds of monkeys (and they get relly close to the boat) and the most amazing crocodille. I'd say between the 2 it was a great sampling & use of time. Amy was so wonderful she lent us a cell phone to use during the trip to contact her and even gave us the phone number ahead of time to leave as a contact here in the states, adn at the end of the vacation she gave us a CD full of all sorts of great pictures she took of us throughout the trips. She was also our transport to & from the airport. Some people in the group also did the beach tour and enjoyed it and used her for other trips to places they wanted to go that she doesn't offer "trips" to; but her whole thing is she will take you where you want to go and customize the trip for you. She took us to a grocery store once, and souvenier shopping as well as to a bank (everyone there wants to be paid in cash, preferably US dollars). We had some golfers who went out twice, said the Papgayo Country Club was not great and really liked Hacienda PInnelas (spelling?). Nothing is really far away but the roads are indirect and in poor condition so it does take a long time to go anywhere. The ocean off the resort (gulf of papagayo) was so calm (it was calm everywhere) and made for great kayaking. Ocean floor is very rocky so if you want to be in it, like for snonrkeling which is decent, I recomend water socks. I was surprised at how early the sun set; we were there on the "longest day of the year" June 21 and the sun sets between 6:30-7:00. It does come up early (I think it was pretty bright by 5:30 in the mornings) but this did surprise me. Also, it rained most afternoons (time varied, sometimes it was about 1, other times it was not until 5 or so). The only real drawbacks are the bugs (mosquitos have always liked me but I counted about 60 bites on 1 leg at one point) and the humidity (being from California where we have none, it was very humid). I'd go back, I'd do tours with Amy at Avispas Adventures again [--], probably do the Mirvalles tour again and try the gourmet dinner tour and maybe the beach tour (she takes you to up to 6 different beaches); if I had other people with me I'd also do Palo Verde again. I'd dive with Diving Safaris again (I heard some other divers say they went to a spot where while waiting between dives they saw monkeys). And I'd lay out at the pool with a rum drink in hand and read my books again. We stayed at the all inclusive Occidental Grand Papgayo and I'd stay there again (that's another review I will write up).