Mar 26, 2024
Book with Gino!!!! - We had an amazing tour with Gino Garcia! He was so informative and patient and accommodating. He took the time to meet our needs and put us first to make sure we had a safe and comfortable tour.
Always book with Gino!
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Mar 4, 2024
Fabulous excursion! - Pablo was very friendly, professional, patent, and nice. Please be sure to ask for him when booking these tours. He’s very knowledgeable and kind. Thank you Pablo. We had a great time!!
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Feb 25, 2023
Do yourself a favor and book your trip!!! - Aaron and his team are exceptional. From start to finish our tour was a most delightful and unforgettable, once in a lifetime adventure. Gino, our fabulous guide was top notch and made the day easy, fun, and full of knowledge, experience and joy. Thank you for your great service and for taking such wonderful care of our family! Couldn’t recommend these guys any more.
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Aug 26, 2022
The perfect nature lovers excursion. - We booked our tour via Aron the Big Papi on the beach in front of the Planet Hollywood hotel. This was the fourth tour we did booked through them, as they proved to be punctual and very attentive. This tour was probably the best we did, as the very good personal tour guide answered every question we had about both Costa Rica and the local wildlife. We managed to see a huge array of creatures, including a range of monkeys, iguanas, crocodiles, Ospreys to name a few. The rainforest part of the tour, we encountered numerous frogs, many humming birds and of course a very close up encounter with a sloth. Because the tour was a private tour for just the four of us in our family, we were given as much time as we liked to take photos, or watch the wildlife. We were never under any pressure, with the tour guide often stopping by the roadside to take pictures of wildlife just seen by chance. I don't think you would get this with a traditional operator. The prices we paid though, were cheaper than our tour company, or the hotels own tour facility. Aron was great, as you can get a great idea of what trips will suit you, and also he seems to really care about you having a great time, with our tour guide checking in with him during our trip. I highly recommend Costa Rica Xplores, they are a reliable, and adaptable excursion company.
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Jun 24, 2022
Great private sailboat tour - We booked a full day sailboat tour from the Marina bear Planet Hollywood Papagayo, Costa Rica. They showed up early, gave a great briefing, and then took us for a fun morning of snorkeling, fishing, and swimming at a private beach. Then we had a simple lunch if sandwiches and guacamole, and all beers, wine, and rum cocktails included.
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Apr 3, 2022
Awesome local tours with Big Papi and Costa Rica Xplores - We met Aaron The Big Papi from Costa Rica Xplores on the beach at PH. We loved the first tour he suggested so much that we ended up booking 3 tours in total and they were all 5 star experiences! Each tour was a private experience for just the two of us with local guides who were punctual, personable and spoke English really well!
The first tour was the Combo Rainforest Bijagua and Floating with the incredible Melvin as our guide. Melvin knows A LOT about Costa Rica and is happy to share his knowledge about this beautiful country. The rafting with Alex was a blast. We saw crocodiles, howler monkeys, bats, ospreys and other birds, all in close proximity. We moved onto the rain forest next and saw different frogs, sloths and beautiful vegetation. Lunch was delicious and Melvin surprised us with his favourite drink, cantaloupe and milk on ice. if someone offers you this in CR don’t turn them down it’s delicious!
Big Papi booked our next excursion, the half day fishing tour with Rambo and Miller - these guys are great, they know this water and where to find fish! My husband caught Jack fish, rooster and black-fin tunas. We were provided with excellent tackle and caught most fish casting. Miller even made sure “Mama” reeled in a tuna lol! It was an excellent morning spent on the water.
Lastly, we did the Miravalles Volcano tour with Carlos. It was a full day of sightseeing waterfalls, volcanic activity, copper river, suspension bridges, rain forest beauty, natural mud baths, hot springs and sauna. Carlos is incredibly knowledgeable about the area, the insects, animals, vegetation and volcanos. we learned a lot on this enjoyable day and once again had a delicious local lunch!
We were never rushed or pressured or felt unsafe in any of our excursions. We highly recommend Big Papi and Costa Rica Xplores for local private tours!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Mar 22, 2022
Nature and fun with the best guides! - This was the 1st experience we did with Aron the Big Papi and we were so impressed we booked a second day for hot springs and ziplining and requested the same guide Melvin.
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Mar 16, 2022
Costa Rica Memories - This was our first family trip to Costa Rica for spring break. We met Aron Big Papi on the beach of our hotel (Planet Hollywood). Big Papi did a wonderful job in suggesting activities for our family based on our interests. We booked two tours through Big Papi’s travel company, Costa Rica Explores.
Adventure 1–Private tour for zip lining, white water tubing, and rainforest walk. We were picked up at our hotel 7:30 am, greeted by Big Papi, introduced to our guide, Eduardo the Dady, and driver for the day. Eduardo made sure we were comfortable, brought waters, and told us to let them know if we needed to stop for a break or the restroom.
Enroute to the rainforest walk, Eduardo pointed out sights of interest as well as sharing his expansive knowledge of Costa Rica’s history, geography, and culture. Eduardo was just brilliant!
Our first stop was zip lining; our guides there, Johnny and Charro, were amazing! With me (the mom) being terrified of heights, Johnny and Charro put me at ease, reassuring me things were okay and to have fun! (Charro was mi angel 👼). My husband and son loved trying out their Spider-Man skills in the canopy. The next activity was white water tubing; assisted and guided by Johnny, we had a BLAST venturing down the blue river! Our final stop was for the rainforest walk and observation of Costa Rican animals/plants. We saw so many incredible sights (SLOTHS!); walking and being in nature does good for your soul💕 An amazing Costa Rican lunch was provided there also.
An extra special and meaningful addition Big Papi and Eduardo Dady prepared was a surprise birthday cake for our son’s 9th birthday!! The entire staff at the rainforest walk surprised and sang to our son, a complete and wonderful surprise for him! We shared our cake with all who were there, such a memorable birthday for our kiddo🥳
We returned to the hotel around 5:30 pm, tired, happy, and feeling grateful. Thank you Big Papi, Eduardo Dady, and the entire Costa Rica Explores crew for making us feel like family. Truly a memorable vacation because of you all! Muchas Gracias mis Amigos!! Pura Vida✌️
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Jan 27, 2022
Fantastic Experience (Inglesa) - Inglesa: we are from Canada and met Oscar near our resort (planet Hollywood), and we are so happy he did! The tour was full of great information and Oscar was a great guide. Being a local business, it also was very nice to support the local industry. Oscar also arranged a tasty lunch for us and made sure our experience was comfortable.
In addition to this trip we hired Oscar a second time to take us to tamarindo for a day trip, again excellent transportation and information. Also Oscar made sure we (2 females) were safe the whole time.
I will recommend Oscar to all visitors and will use him again myself in the future.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jan 25, 2022
Highly recommend - We met Aron on the beach of PH. He customized our tours to our liking, and we had an amazing time with his very knowledgeable and with great personalities tour guy and an excellent driver. We were very happy with their service so we booked them for a second time. We went to the beach hoping. Again, we had a great time, ate at the good restaurant. We highly recommend Aron and his company for your Costa Rica activities 😀. Till next time! 👏
Review provided by Tripadvisor