Costa Rica Lures Big Tour
Outfits
By Arthur Frommer, King Features
Syndicate
Several years ago, when the
Chicago-based Caravan Tours
(800-Caravan or caravantours.com)
created a 10-day, $995 tour of
Costa Rica (not including
airfare there and back), it
attracted so many bookings that
it is today the largest single
source of tourists to that
Central American nation.
The price of $995 was the key -
the catchy, bargain- level
figure that distinguished its
tours from most others. Caravan,
which had always been known for
its somewhat pricey tours of
Europe, suddenly was launched as
a operator of no fewer than 10
quite frugal, eight-to- 10-day
trips to Central America, Mexico
and parts of the American
Southwest, each one of them
going for $995.
It's clear that other big tour
operators are frantically
scrambling to match Caravan's
success in Costa Rica. In its
seven-day "Affordable Costa
Rica" tour, which will operate
from April through October 2008,
Gate 1 Travel (gate1travel.com)
will be charging exactly $899,
which includes round-trip
airfare from Miami to San José,
Costa Rica, and fully escorted
motorcoach arrangements. From
there, vacationers will spend
two nights in San José, two
nights in Arenal and two nights
in Monteverde, with daily
breakfasts included. En garde,
Caravan!
And GAP Adventures, of Toronto (gapadventures.com),
will be offering a 16-day,
escorted tour of Costa Rica for
$950 per person, plus $250 in
local payments. This does not
include round- trip airfare to
San José (from any U.S. city).
Here, in typical GAP Adventures
fashion, your transportation
will be by "public bus, tractor,
van, boat or horseback," lodging
will be in simple hotels or inns
for 13 nights and in a
multishare cabin for two nights,
each weekly group will consist
of no more than 15 people, and
the trip should be an authentic
adventure experience.
But why travel to Costa Rica in
a group? Some of the best
reactions I've heard to that
popular Central America nation
have been from people who rented
a car on arrival and then simply
struck out on their own.
Go to GapAdventures.com and
click on "Central America," then
"Costa Rica" and then
"Independent," and you'll find a
large assortment of self-drive
tours that cost about $525 per
person for a week, $765 for 11
days (all plus airfare), which
includes a rental car for those
periods and hotels with
breakfast daily in all the
locations along suggested
itineraries. You fly into San
José, pick up your car and
thereafter follow the indicated
route, arriving at each hotel
location on the prescribed day.
Here's an appealing way to
absorb all the sights and
atmosphere of Central America
without the burden of having 15
to 40 other people dogging your
every step.
And for those who don't want to
drive themselves, GAP offers the
"Adventure Bus," a similarly
priced alternative involving
hotel shuttle vans. |
|
|
|
|
