www.CostaRicaTicas.com

I came across this tour that I hadn't heard of before. http://www.costa-rica-tour.net/tours/super_combo.php. I don't know how good it really is, but it sounded interesting and unique so I thought I'd share it with you.

It may not be the best of each activity and it ain't cheap $125 for the complete 11 hr tour, but if you don't have much time and want to squeeze in as many different extreme sports as you can into the time you have or even if you want to get a variety of activities that you can photograph out of the way so you can free up the rest of your time for MP visits and things you'd rather not tell the folks at home about, well then this tour may just be for you. It includes the 1.5 hr drive each way to Sarapiqui, 1.5 hours on horseback, 1.5 hours on 9 zip lines including a 900 ft one across the sarapiqui river canyon, buffet lunch and 2 hours on a class II-III river.

I've done everytghing but the horsback and would never combine the zipline and rafting. After class 3 & 4 rapids I am totally drained and would not be able to enjoy a zip line tour. To combine those 3 tours (IMO) together you would have to be getting a short, modified version of each 3. Zipline and horseback is doable. Rafting and a volcano/crater tour is also doable. Do whatcha can and save the rest for your next visit!!

Toadtamer

TT,
Read the post.

To the extent the activities are actually shortened they're also probably less tiring than what you're used to (at least individually). But even if they aren't, the horseback ride and zip line are both done BEFORE lunch and the rafting is done last AFTER the lunch break. So what you consider the most tiresome activity isn't done until the very end. If you're still totally drained after just 2 hours of class II-III rafting, you can simply relax during the van-ride back to town and then get a massage.

As far as everything being modified and shortened, of course they are. My post said as much and even gave the exact number of hours of each. The activities themselves are shortened somewhat but not by as much as you'd think. If you did these tours individually on seperate days, much of the time would be spent driving around SJ picking up and dropping off other tour participants and then driving out to and back from whereever the activity takes place. Instead of going through that part of the process 3 times you only have to do that once and since the total length of the day is extended the actual amount of time spent on each activity is fairly close to what you'd have spent on them if you had done them on seperate tours.

The real compromise is actually in where you do the activities as much as the time spent on them since they are all done around the same property. For example, you're going on a class II-III Sarapiqui river instead of a III-IV Pacuare. And the sip line may not be as long, or high or as fast as they are at some other zipline operations. The horseback portion may actually be a blessing. You said you thought the class 3-4 rafting was draining, so maybe you'd really prefer the Sarapiqui. Actually, in my book, the horseback part has always been the toughest activity. My first trip to CR, I went on a day long horseback ride and was sore for 2 days after. My last trip I went out for just a few hours around Mt. Arenal and had to soak in the springs for an hour or 2 afterwards. 1.5 hours on horseback sounds just about right to me.

You suggest that this trip squeezes too much in, that it wipes you out and that it would better just to save what you can't do for a future trip. The same can be said about the traditional 4-in-1 tour and yet many people love that tour. I presented this as a tour that I have no personal experience with and which I would not recommend for everyone. But it does certainly have some unique and intriguing advantages that might make it just the thing for the right person under the right circumstances.

I am not sure if it was just because there were 10 of us, but in March 04, I negotiated a two day package for $70 each for each day per person. The host at the Best Western SJ was able to do what I asked without any problem. They pick you up right at your hotel.

The first day we did the rafting on the Pacuare ( ihave a post on that) and the second day we did the river trip with Canopy Zip line with 15 stations. You take a tour bus up the mountains for about 1 1/2 hrs, stop and then have a fantastic Costa Rican breakfast. Our tour host was a very funny Tico and spoke very good english. Then a boat ride on one of those Humphrey Bogart African Queen boats on the river for about 45 minutes and then stop at the site where the Zip Stations are. At one point in the trip you are on the river about 15 miles from Nicaragua. Rode a horse (you didn't ride, you walked down a road) for only about a mile to the first Zip line and then after the Zip Lines a fantastic lunch and then back on the river and back on the bus to SJ.

If you have not done it, it is a must. There were Tucans, Crocks on the river banks, bats, Monkeys in the trees, birds everywhere, natives along the banks at different places along the river and just a nice perspective of what the river jungles were like in one beautiful country.

If you can't negotiate, you don't belong in Costa Rica.