COSTA RICA EXPERIENCE - Ocean to Ocean tour 22nd Feb to 9th Mar 2025

Your trailblazing adventures in Patagonia in January/February 2024 and your wonderful feedback to ourselves and to your networks of friends motivated us to search for and design another tour full of sensational scenery, exciting and challenging routes, and wonderful places to relax and enjoy. There are stunning new places to see, new cultures and gastronomy to experience, hillwalking for the true adventurer, and a window into life far off the well-trod tourist path.  

Costa Rica is a fabulous country. One of the few worldwide that does not have an army.  Instead of investing in an army, they channel it into healthcare & education.   It is more firmly focussed on eco & environmental policy & related economic matters than most developed countries.  The economy is strong on agriculture, tourism, IT/electronics.  It is a very stable democracy with a significant % of middle-income earners, which is most unusual in Sth America!! The population size is  5.2million, similar to ours.  Two oceans border the country, the Atlantic on the East coast & the Pacific on its West.   The landmass connects two great continents, North America & South America.  280km from West to East.  The climate is tropical with two seasons, Dec to Apr is dry & May to Nov is the wet season.  Mar & Apr tend to be the hottest months & Dec Jan the coldest.  Across the country the climate differs, particularly on its coasts which are influenced by the currents, temperatures & winds generated by the two oceans.    This coast-to-coast route takes you across multiple rivers & rambles through ranch lands, rainforests, cloud forests, sugarcane plantations & indigenous Indian, native peoples settlements.  www.tourismincostarica.org/reserva-indigena-kekoldi-indian-reservation This trek was an initiative of Mar a Mar (Sea to Sea)—the nonprofit partnership formed in 2016 to develop, promote & help sustain it & the economic activity it would stimulate along its way.  It benefits local families, nonprofits & a network of micro-entrepreneurs, such as Ecomiel honey producers,  Finca El Casquillo organic farm, La Cabaña sustainable coffee micro-mill, provide most of the trail’s lodging, food, tours & other hiker amenities.   The 266km route was launched in 2018.  It showcases largely untrodden parts of the country, like the coffee-growing region of Tarrazú & the Indigenous territory of Nairi Awari.  The route spans four provinces & half a dozen or more microclimates; borders protected areas & meanders through remote villages, Native lands & more than 20 towns that receive little benefit from conventional tourism.  You can eat with the locals sleep in family-run lodges, campsites, or boutique hotels set on farms with hot springs. 

We think that late Feb/early Mar probably would offer the most agreeable temperatures & conditions for your Costa Rica adventure - El Camino de Costa Rica.  This route is one of the world’s iconic trekking adventures.  It crosses the territory of the country from the Atlantic ocean to the Pacific.   www.caminodecostarica.org   Although the overall walking distance of the trek is 266km over 16 days, we have reduced it to take breaks along the way.  We arranged transport between the rest points so that you can rest the feet.  Our local guides have facilitated us with the alternative routing.  It is now more likely to be an overall distance of c.195 kms.  The changes will give you all more time to immerse yourselves in the country & to enjoy each of the locations we visit in more depth.   Your baggage will be transported daily as you walk.  So you just carry just what you would normally carry for a day’s hillwalking, not the 12-15kgs you carried in Patagonia.