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has anyone taken a week or 10 day tour of the different zones of cr through christopher howard?
just wondering if they are worth it.
thanks.doug
Doug, it depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. If it’s an introduction to Costa Rica on a tourism level, then I think you’d be far better off to look into a Caravan Tours tour. We have known a number of folks who have traveled with Caravan Tours and raved about the experience.
On the other hand, if you’re looking into looking into Costa Rica as a relocation destination, then Caravan Tours will be much too “touristy” to meet your needs.
Christopher Howard has been doing his tours for years and the reviews are generally very favorable. His tours always include the monthly two-day seminar put on by the Association of Residents of Costa Rica.
Another excellent option would be to take George Lundquist’s four-day tour of the Central Valley that’s specifically targeted at folks who are thinking of Costa Rica as a retirement destination. We took George’s tour in January of 2005 and found it to be well worth the time and money. Maybe the best part is the opportunity to learn from George’s experience while you’re on the road.
thanks for the info. this is my first post and i am surprised that it worked!
the c. howard tour is 8 days 7 really but you get transported to the hotel torremolinos in s. jose for a night and then you head for the beaches. they start a jaco then, queppos/manuel antonio, dominical, ojochal/tortuga, cinco ventana, exotica, san isidro back to s. jose.
there is an arcr seminar.
its kind of expensive at $1,949 or maybe it isn’t. i’m learning all the time. lots of research to do.thanks again. maybe i’ll see you there, someday.
doug
Doug, I think you’ll find both Caravan Tours and George Lundquist’s tours to be less expensive but also shorter. Too, look into just what is and is not included.
A friend of my wife and her daughter were here a year or so ago. They found a tour that was less expensive than Caravan’s, but it included much, much less. The additional out-of-pocket expenses more than covered the difference. As always, the devil is in the details.
If I were coming here just to visit Costa Rica, with no serious plan to consider moving here, I would not spend two days in ARCR’s monthly seminar. It’s packed with good information from reliable sources, but how much does the average tourist really need to know about residency, container shipping, hiring help, buying real estate, etc?
Howard has a real estate agenda and tries to sell at his tours. He seems nice but kind of dopey and reminds me of an old San Fransico hippy with bad hair transplants on the lamb in Costa Rica (LOL). I saw him at the ARCR thing and I would save my money if I were you. Typical want a be slick tell you what you want to hear salesmen guy. I was not impressed as you can probally tell. He makes himself out to be the all knowing Costa Rica Expert Allah. Kind of creepy.
in christopher’s defense, he HAS been here 30 years, so i would think he knows quite a lot about costa rica, regardless of his agenda. i’d be wary of the people giving tours who have only been here a year and think they know all there is to know about costa rica, and who don’t even speak spanish. those are the ones to be careful of.
I agree about how people come down here for a day and think they know everything about CR and give tours. You see to many people in the past doing that. I think though it is starting to change since tourism is slowing down and we will see what happens this year. I am now seeing more people moving on since the money isn’t flowing like it used to.
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