Jacamar Naturalist Tours — Local services in La Fortuna

We stayed at the Tabacon resort. Jacamar has a desk right in the Tabacon from reception area, making it easy to work with Jacamar for our tours.

We began with a transit from the Liberia airport to the Tabacon resort. Our Jacamar driver was Johny. He was very knowledgeable about the Arenal region, and gave us a lot of good advice on tours and places to see.

Our first tour with Jacamar was on their zip-line course. Our guides were Harvin, Herson, and a high-school trainee Kristin. They were extremely knowledgeable with all of the natural fauna and flora that we saw on the zip-lines, and they were highly skilled with the safety precautions. Also, they were very personable and able to joke around with us in both English and Spanish.

In the afternoon, we participated in the Jacamar farm and cooking class tour. Kevin and David were our guides on this tour. Again, they were very knowledgeable about all of the the different fruit and vegetables that grew on the farm, as well as the birds we were able to see. The cooking class was led by Chef Nino. She was an amazing teacher, and even though both my wife and I are very good cooks, we learned a lot from Nino. My wife, daughter, and I enjoyed the Chicken tingla, baked plantains, fresh casaba and plantain chips, as well as the company of Kevin, David, and Nino.

The next day, we participated in the coffee, chocolate, and sugar-cane tour. Again, the guides were knowledgeable and informative.

In the afternoon, we went on the sloth and bird walking tour. While it was raining quite a bit, we were still able to see some sloths and beautiful birds.

On our fourth day, we went on the Arenal volcano hike. Helen was our guide, and she carefully led us on the tour, stopping to explain different things about the volcano, wildlife, and history. While the beginning of the tour was rainy, by the end of the tour the rain stopped, allowing for some great views of the volcano.

Our fifth day we went zip-lining again, as this was our daughters favorite. Again, Harvin and Kristin were our guides and we even got to see howler monkey's during one of the zip-lines.

On our seventh day, we took a Jacamar shuttle from Tabacon to Liberia airport. We left early in the morning, before breakfast began at Tabacon. Our driver, Gerard, found us a great place near the airport to have an authentic Costa Rican breakfast.

At the Tabacon resort, we interacted with both Fabian and Edson at the Jacamar desk. Both were very helpful in scheduling all of the tours and providing recommendations.

While we definitely enjoyed of the tours from Jacamar, the best was definitely the farm and...

TLDR: We were charged 800 USD for a 400 USD private tour, and given a tour that should have cost us 240, or even as little as 180 if booked with their frequent discounts. Jacamar then gaslit and delayed the refund until it was necessary to cancel the payment with the credit card company.

Jacamar Naturalist Tours are willing to scam vulnerable people.

My mum, upon reading guide books, was very keen to ensure that she went on the best possible tour that went all the way into the wetlands and not the cheaper tour that skirted around the edges. To that end she paid 800 USD for 3 people to go on the boat tour. I didn't question it at the time, but on the tour there were 2 additional people and this seemed definitely like we had paid for a private tour price and been given a group tour. The 2 people had paid 100 USD each. I went on the Jacamar website after and saw that their tours are typically 80 USD per person, and can be as low as 60 USD per person if they are giving a discount (which they often are if you book the day before and they need to fill up). Their private tour was listed at 400 USD. Giving the kindest interpretation of events, they double charged us, and if I had booked the tour myself - they had quadruple charged us. So, I let my mum take the lead in talking to them and asking for a refund - giving them the benefit of the doubt that this was all a huge misunderstanding or mistake. At first, they tried to gaslight her into thinking that the price was correct. After about a week of back and forth, they finally admitted to it being the wrong price and agreed to refund the difference of 500 USD. After a month of back and forth they had still not done so, despite repeatedly claiming that they would, and so my mum finally got the credit card company to cancel the charges with the now substantial weight of email proof...

We used this company for three different tours. The zipline tour, the horseback riding tour, and the hanging bridges tour. The horseback riding and zipline was a combined tour. I think this was due to the location of both. ($87 each before taxes). We had a wonderful time. The guides, Joel, Jordy, and Alonzo, were fantastic. The young ladies that helped at the reception were very helpful. The horseback ride was about 2 hours long, Jordy showed us a viper and some pavas (crested turkey), Verde Lago, and the volcano, which was hiding under a cover of clouds. The fact that the volcano was hiding definitely did not detract from the adventure. After the horse ride, we terrified ourselves with the zipline and Tarzan swing. Joel, Jordy, and Alberto made sure we were safely secured in the cable. There are 8 total ziplines. The last line is over 600 meters long. We also had the opportunity to try the Tarzan swing. That was an experience. Our group had ages 12-64 and everyone had a wonderful time. We all zipped through the forest with joyful noise. Our 3rd tour was to the hanging bridges ($70 each). WOW, we had been told that the hanging bridges were okay but not wonderful. We disagree. It was a fun adventure with many animals to see. We went in the afternoon and saw 2 different vipers, spider monkeys, squirrels, raccoon like critters, different birds, and beautiful views of Volcan Arenal, not to mention the swinging bridges. Some children may not like it so much if they are not interested in animals. Our guide, Alonso C. Was excellent. He gave the group options as we went along the trail. He was able to spot a variety of animals and told us a lot of information not only about the animals but also many of...