Best trip of our life.  – Aratinga has some nice trips in its portfolio, but we asked Pieter Westra to adapt one of them somehow to what we would like to see and make the trip… read more longer and less intensive.

This 4 weeks tour through Costa Rica was one of the best trips of our life, he knows the best guides, everything was organised perfectly. He thinks together with the client till everything is how you like it. Highly recommended.

Fantastic Costa Rica Birding & Wildlife Trip  – Pieter set up the perfect Costa Rica birding & wildlife trip for me and my wife for the second straight year! He not only makes sure we have great guides,… read more but makes sure every aspect of our trip is perfect for us. He takes the time to make sure all the accommodations, food, & transportation are perfect. This was very affordable for everything that we had planned.

Birding heaven  – Pieter Westra organized a tour for me–my second time! Wonderful birding, well-selected locations, lodges, and most of all, Pieter’s excellent care and attention to detail. Thank you, Pieter.

Always good – I had another wonderful tour organized by Pieter Westra. Wonderful guides, locations, accommodations, and perfect communication!

Great trip well organised  – I had looked at a lot of options for a a two week wildlife tour of Costa Rica and landed on Pieter of aratinga tours as offering best what we… read more were looking for which was a personalised tour with onsite guides at each site. Discussion beforehand led to some tweaking which Pieter was very accommodating about and n the holiday itself everything worked like clockwork. Hotels transport and guides were all good and all the arrangements were on time and as expected

Great Personalized Tour and Excellent Birding Opportunity  – We worked with Aratinga/Pieter and combined elements from Birding Costa Rica’s 4 Ecozones and Eco Tour Costa Rica tours for a 25-day tour. We also spent several days pre-tour on… read more our own in San Jose. Pieter arranged for us to be picked up at our San Jose hotel instead of meeting us at the airport. We spent extra days at some of the lodges and hiked/birded on our own. Both my husband and I are biologists; we love birding but wanted to experience any Costa Rican wildlife we could. Aratinga/Pieter made planning less overwhelming. Our tour was in June with clear mornings through lunch with rain, sometimes heavy, in the afternoon.

This tour was a perfect fit for us. The itinerary and information provided by Aratinga was informative and easy to follow. The guides selected for us were excellent. All the accommodations booked for us were great and the food was excellent. We would gladly stay at any of the accommodations again. Larger lodges had restaurant style options or buffet; the smaller lodges had “home-cooked” meals. We really enjoyed the hiking trails on our own after our guided hikes at Selva Verde Lodge, Arenal Volcano Observatory Lodge, Bosque de Paz Lodge, La Ensenada Lodge, Hacienda Barú, and Hotel Savegre.

Driving in Costa Rica was easy outside San Jose; however, a 4×4 is helpful in a few places.