www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Made you look!

In a recent post there was a link posted for gay tours in Costa Rica and I clicked on the link to see how the "boys" like to par-tay and came across the rates as listed below.

Price: $1,799 per couple/Double; Single: $1,599 All-Inclusive

(All tours begin on Sunday morning and end the following Sunday morning.
The price for the tour does not include airfare or hotel cost the night before the tour begins.)

So my question is this...

Has any one on here ever taken a trip, anywhere, where you signed up for a tour, not including half-day and/or full-day tours but tours where you were pretty much in the company of the other tourist for a long period of time or the duration of your trip?

What are the benefits of such a tour? And is this something that is cost affective? It seems to me that many folks choose to take trips to other countries and use the Tour Guide approach. Any specific reasons and/or advantages?

How much did the cost of the tour set you back? Was it worth it?

It seems like a lot of cash to fork over on top of paying for own airfare and hotel.
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"If I lived each day as if it was my last I would have been dead a long time ago." - Traylor Park

Many years ago I used to work in customer relations for a very large tour operator in LA, Club Universe. We had thousands of tours world wide. My job was to read the bitch letters and respond. Costs vary greatly from economy to QE2 Around the World. It is cost effective only if you have a good time, and choose the right tour cost for the quality of what you desire. Many of the complaints were about hotels and not being whatever amount of stars the brochure said they were. People usually choose a tour because they like to be lead, and don't want to have to think or have any adventure.

As always YMWV (Your Milage Will Vary):
Advantages (not that I think many of these are advantages to me):
Not many decisions to make, you are told where to be and when; picked up and dropped off at your hotel; restaurants are usually picked for you; you are told what you will see and visit prior to the trip; they choose the class of hotels (usually by cost) prior to leaving; transportation is furnished; you know the basic cost prior to leaving.

Disadvantages (which far out weight the advantages IMHO):
you are told where to be and when; you are on the time schedule of others; very little outside of the structured activities you can choose; no chance to stay longer at a location if you love it; restaurants are chosen for you (usually by how much the guide gets in kick backs, not by quality); you have to stay at the hotel even if the brochure lied and it is a dump; very little time to yourself outside of structured activities; long days of bus rides; traveling with blue hairs (which I may be now 59) at their pace; having to listen to couples pissing and moaning at each other for hours on end, while you are seated right behind them; being in very close proximity, all day, to people that you would never spend time with anywhere else for even a minute; with transportation furnished delays are inevitable (charters, buses, etc.); being taken to one rip-off place after another because the guide gets a KB; very little chance of refund for what is perceived as poor quality or services.

Basically, if you enjoy being taken care of and structure, the right tour may not be a bad idea. If your idea of fun is to wing it, no chance on the guided tour.

My idea of taking an organized tour is much like I feel about wearing a plaid sports coat. If you ever see me doing either, just shoot me right there.

Health & happiness

Santas Bro

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It's not the size of the wand that put the rabbit in the hat, it's the magic in it!!!

WHEN YOU SAID "BITCH" LETTERS
i thought you were refering to a certain sex of the client

but very informative thanks

i have to agree with Santos on this one. I' m sitting in a 5 star resort in Puerto Rico now, beautiful, but totally Americanized. Everything is pretty much choreographed. Really no exploring to be done, but I did take my 18 year old nephew and his friend into town, Fajardo, to a Puerto Rican bar, and had a blast. I used to like this type of travel, but doing yopur own thing makes life that more interesting.
Squidface

Structured tours come in all types, varieties and price ranges. A blanket condemnation of them is quite unfair. My first trip to CR was deliberately chosen as a structured tour because I wanted a once-over-lightly overview of a country I knew I'd be visiting again and had rough plans to retire in. I looked hard at various tour operators and chose Caravan Tours because of price, reputation and flexibility . All my expectations were met. The #1 travel advisory site (TripAdvisor.com, to which one of our Brothers contributes mightily) has nothing but good to say about Caravan and frequently has trip reports--very few complaints. You all seem to be filtering your opinions through your own consciousness and experience without considering the wants and needs of the thousands of Brothers who don't post but who might be scared off from a great first overall look at this wonderful country--hate to see that happen.

jazzbocr the thread dumpster diver

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"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

I hate Gay men!



Theys are all assholes!!!



j/k...no flame wars.

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Hit them fast, Hit them hard and NEXT!
A good chica is like a good carpenter - No wood gets wasted!!!