Puntarenas sightseeing tour
Puntarenas, Costa Rica
- 4 to 5 hours (approx.)
- Pickup offered
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
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Overview
Embark on a sightseeing tour around the seaside city of Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Visit a local farmers market and walk along the Tárcoles Bridge looking for crocodiles. Then explore Carara National Park, taking in the lush rainforest and stunning ocean views. Check off the region’s highlights in just five hours, with photo opportunities aplenty.
- Make the most of your time in Puntarenas with a guided tour
- Visit the city’s must-see nature attractions
- Spot birds, monkeys, crocodiles, and sloths in their natural habitat
- Tour offers an ideal introduction for first-time visitors
What's Included
- Air-conditioned vehicle
Meeting and Pickup
Pickup points
Select a pickup point
Pickup details
9am or 9:30am pick up time at Puntarenas or Caldera port dependes on your cruise ship. Upon request we can pick up at either home or condo from Puntarenas area. Please meet us outside the dock by it’s gates, guide will be holding our Odyssey tours sign reading tour name as well and he will have your name on a check list
Start time.9:00 am
Itinerary
1
Tarcoles Bridge
40 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
2
Carara National Park
1 hour • Admission Ticket Free
3
Orotina
45 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
4
Catedral de Puntarenas
30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Stroller accessible
- Infant seats available
- No heart problems or other serious medical conditions
- Most travelers can participate
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 60 travelers
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Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Featured review
Our cruise ship arrived 2 hours late and we were worried that we would miss this tour. We messaged on the morning and they were aware of the delay and that they would wait for us and start the trip late. Thank you so much.
Fabulous trip out with Alex as our excellent guide and Ronaldo as our amazing driver. Alex was full of information and interesting facts about Costa Rica. What a lovely country! We were delighted to see monkeys, crocodiles, parrots, toucans, butterflies and a coati. We bought lunch at a Rancho in the countryside which was reasonably priced. What a lovely day!
Reviews
4.5
based on 123 reviews
Sort by: Most insightful
I only gave it 1 star because they advised us the morning we were due to go that others had dropped out, and they couldn't take us alone without an upgrade to a private tour. We walked to the end of the pier and found a great tour guide who took us to all the sites and had a great time. Still waiting for a promised refund.
We booked this as a private shore excursion, instead of the ones offered by NCL, in large part because it offered a smaller group size. This allowed us into some locations that a large tour bus could not go. (ex monkey sanctuary, mountain restaurant, roadside pull-outs, etc.)
Our guide, Hazel, was excellent. She was well-educated and well-informed and gave us an in-depth and personal experience. She also would adjust some portions of our tour to fit the needs and wishes of our smaller group.
Hazel brought along a spotting scope and used it to help us see distant wildlife that our cameras could not reach.
Only "down side" was there was not a lot of time for local shopping.
We would do this tour again if we re-visit Costa Rica.
Tour was so much more than expected for the money. Our tour
guide was Alex, the bus driver was Ricardo. Alex was a great guide who was very knowledgeable about the area. Sorry we only got to see 1 croc but lunch was very tasty. They tried very hard to show us whatever animals that appeared on the roadside. Great Tour!!
Fantastic day out, lovely driver and host who took his telescope for wildlife watching, this was great.
Lovely food at the restaurant we were taken to. Itinerary ran like clockwork. Would not hesitate in recommending this tour. Comfortable minibus, the right length of time at each stop and all questions answered about everything with knowledge and friendliness.
It's a scenic but not exciting day out, with shorter walks and a very nice lunch with opportunities to see the wildlife in the area.
Mary Rose was so nice and an excellent tour guide. She was very knowledgeable of the area and so easy to talk too. Would highly recommend her!
It was a wonderful experience… we saw Coatimundi, Scarlett Macaws, Toucan, crocodiles, monkeys, egrets, ibis, frigate birds, a black headed vulture, leaf cutter ants at work…. Views of beauty and learned a lot. Hazel was delightful, smart, and taught us much. It was a long day but very rewarding!
Great tour and a good value. Hazel was a GREAT guide. She is super knowledgeable and helpful. Vini was a great driver.
Our tour guide, Laura was fantastic. Very knowledgeable about region and history.
I loved that we spotted animals in the wild, not a zoo.
Some roads are rough in places but overall it’s fine. Mini bus was good enough for compost and safety
The crocodile experience from the platform is a waste of time. Souvenirs were the highlight of the day. We drove forever up a range and for not much interest. The fishing village was great but only had 5 minutes.
Great excursion and so worth the money. Alex our guide was super! He spoke good English, was friendly, very accommodating and told us lots of interesting info. We hot to see lots of monkeys, macaws and the butterfly garden. We thouroughly enjoyed our tour, highly recommend.
Great way to see a bit of the countryside. Good animal sightings, lots of cultural information. And a delicious lunch with a scenic view. Our guide, Alex, and driver Jesus were 5 stars.
This was one of the best tours I have taken. Alex and Ricardo did a great job. We saw so many different things in a short period of time. The monkeys were the best. The day was perfect!!
Our cruise ship arrived 2 hours late and we were worried that we would miss this tour. We messaged on the morning and they were aware of the delay and that they would wait for us and start the trip late. Thank you so much.
Fabulous trip out with Alex as our excellent guide and Ronaldo as our amazing driver. Alex was full of information and interesting facts about Costa Rica. What a lovely country! We were delighted to see monkeys, crocodiles, parrots, toucans, butterflies and a coati. We bought lunch at a Rancho in the countryside which was reasonably priced. What a lovely day!
A great tour for the price. We were in a small group of ten and saw monkeys, butterflies, crocodiles, iguanas and macaw parrots at various stops. Also went to a farmers’ market where fruit was on display. Stopped for lunch at Rancho Vista Limonal ( not included) which had a good selection and was very tasty.
Very easy and comfortable with air conditioned mini bus. The guide Hazel speaks good English. The tour company is very pro active. They messaged me right the morning of the tour and informed.me that the tour company is providing a tour pick ip from both Ports Caldera and Puntarenas, since they anticipated that the Holland America ship will.change dock at last minute. They were so intuitive. The cruise captain just announced the change of port from Caldera to Puntarenas. We were spared the stress of contacting the tour company🙂
I rated the tour with 1 star but not because it was a bad tour but because it didn't really happen and they have requested a review. Our tour guide, Hazel, was great and about 40 minutes or so into our tour when she received an urgent message indicating that she was to return us to the ship immediately. It turned out that the captain was concerned about some strong winds and how they were affecting the ship. He had requested tugs to help stabilize us at the pier. It took a little time to round up several of the the passengers but once that was accomplished we left pretty quickly.
Based on the start of the tour, I believe that we were in for a great day. When/if we are again in Costa Rica we will give this another go.
We had a WONDERFUL time on this tour. The value for the price is really unbeatable. Ive been to Costa Rica before and we saw most of the highlights. Our tour guide, Alex, was very conversational and had a lot of info about the country and the wildlife. We even spotted a group of scarlet Macaws.
I did wish to have a little bit more time at the souvenir shop at the end because it is also a butterfly garden so we spent a good amount of time with the butterflies rather than shopping.
The pick up and drop off was easy and they keep track of your cruise ship in case of a port change.
We had a great day with our tour guide Albert and only 6 other people. The minivan was even equipped with free wi-fi! First stop was to visit Capuchin monkeys. Albert gave us bananas to bribe them and soon they were crawling on our shoulders. Long beautiful drive up to a remote village, a quick stop at the crocodile bridge, a break for a beer at a cute little bar, and a stop at a butterfly garden/gift shop. Overall, it was a great day. I would highly recommend this tour to anyone.
Excellent tour with Viní? who was our tour driver & guide who did a great job for the four of us on our tour.
First stop, a monkey preserve with monkeys freely moving around from the adjacent woods. Second stop was a roadside fruit stand consuming samples of "water apple," mango, caimito, and cashew fruit (Marinon in Spanish). Then we drove through the countryside looking for macaws and toucans but without initial success We did however see Brama cows and an iguana.
We then visited the town of Orotina and traveled up a bumpy dirt road to Rancho Vista Limonal restaurant for a 360°view of this area and snacks. Then went to El Garden, a large combo butterfly garden, restaurant & souvenir shop, where we sawd 2 scarlet macaws mating in the trees nearby. On the way back to our cruise ship we stopped along the river and saw a crocodile suddenly crawl out of it onto an island in the middle near an Igret. We also saw over 100 tiny, white sand crabs on the shore. A very varied tour with various discoveries.thst he worked hard to ensure we had a worthwhile visit.
Bini, our guide, have met us next to the gates of the terminal and told us about the plan of our excursion, invited us in a very comfortable A/C equipped van and drove us to monkey house, where we enjoyed watching clever monkeys under Bini’s caring guidance. Then we had been lucky to see birds during their mating period, crocodile showed of the river for us, we dropped to the fruit and vegetables market where we tried exotic fruits that were unique for us even in our California, as Kalmito -purple fruit, water apples, we tried coconut water, ceviche and more.
Bini did his very best to show life in his town.
It was a very enjoyable and comfortable trip for us. We highly recommend it.
Viator rep was waiting for us outside the cruise gate as described on their website, we were a 1/2 hour early and so where they. Alex our guide was the Best also the driver, Allen! Very friendly, knowledgeable, accommodating, can't say enough. We stopped at all the major attractions in Puntarenas for just enough time to experience the area. Saw the oldest church, hung around with monkeys, saw crocodiles, birds, beautiful butterflies, had lunch and a little shopping, we did it all!
Good experience and the tour guide was really informative. Great deal for those on a cruise ship when there wasn’t much to do in the main part of the port. We were traveling with our 6 yr old and for the most part, she had a good time. Specifically seeing the monkeys! Wish we had a little more time at the last stop which was at the souvenir shop, but we were already over the timeframe for the tour. Van was clean and had AC which was needed! Overall, a good option vs the cruise ship excursions and much cheaper!
Too much driving along the terrible roads, too few things to see. Would not recommend this tour. Guide and driver were super professional thought!
We had the best guides ever! The driver and tour guide were so knowledgeable, friendly, funny and easy to get along with! They did everything they could to give us the best experience.
Great meet up just off the pier. Charlie Brown was a super guide. He knew just where to find monkeys, birds and crocodiles in the wild.
We enjoyed this tour . Excellent value as well.
Great guide and driver. Saw toucans, macaws, monkeys and crocodiles Our guide, Carlos and driver Ronnie did a wonderful job.
If you want to just see the sights of the towns and countryside, this is OK. See monkeys at a planned house stop where monkeys hang out, saw crocodiles at a bridge you walk across. A stop at a restaurant bar that was unnecessary but there’s nothing else to do. Butterflies are at a tourist souvenir shop. You get what you pay for. Pick up and drop off went smoothly.
Guide was great. The only problem I encountered was the van did not cool down at all during the trip. That made life miserable and could enjoy the trip.
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per personWas $49.00(-5%)
up to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)
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