Prices include: International airfare from London to San José and return, all transfers and all tours listed in itinerary. Accommodations at El Silencio Lodge include Deluxe Suite featuring a gas fireplace, premium bedding, and L’Occitane personal care products, 3 daily a-la-carte meals per person (including non-alcoholic beverages), personal eco-concierge per party and complimentary daily minibar per Suite. Two nights stay at Finca Rosa Blanca and two nights in Manuel Antonio including breakfast. Local airport departure taxes that are payable in the country of destination are not included. Airfare taxes and security fees that can be paid at time of ticketing are included in the cost.

Local flights within Costa Rica have a weight limitation of 30 lbs (13 kgs) per person, including carry-on and storable luggage. Extra baggage (if any) can be left in San José where it will be stored at our local office. Collapsible carry-on bags are recommended to allow for separating luggage if needed.

Actities available at Finca Rosa Blanca

We will gladly arrange for transportation to any of the following sites or you can book Manolo, our own naturalist guide on staff to take you to the destination of your choice. Please give us as much advance notice as possible, preferably the day before. For tour prices please contact the Reception Desk.

Horseback Riding:

We have horses to rent on the premises and an expert guide who is available for trips of any length. We recommend a 2-3 hour trip into the coffee farms and up onto the slopes of the Barva Volcano. Riders can stop for lunch or refreshment in a rustic restaurant before returning home through the pine forests of San Jose de la Montana where the views of the Central Valley are spectacular. These tours are a wonderful way to experience the local neighborhoods and the friendly people of the area as well as touring first hand a large coffee plantation.

Barva Volcano and/ or Parque Braulio Carrillo:

Barva Volcano (2,906-meters/9,534 ft.) on the western extreme of Braulio Carrillo National Park offers excellent hiking through Cloud Forest to the Crater Lake where resplendent quetzals have been sighted. The park supports one of the last zones of wild vegetation and animals in the high areas of the Central Volcanic Zone. Finca Rosa Blanca assists the park management by writing and printing brochures; trail maintenance, general technical, and life support. A 6-mile hike, some of it uphill includes guide and rain gear as well as transportation to and from the park. Entrance Fee: $7.00 Half to Full Day Tour, mornings best from May-December. Bring a poncho or light jacket, hiking or tennis shoes, binoculars and camera.

Café Britt:

The “Adventura de Café Tour” includes an educational tour of the coffee farm and roasting plant, complete with live-theatre skit telling the history of coffee and the tasting room where you are shown how the experts taste coffee.

Entrance Fee: $30.00, Lunch Included. Tours are offered daily from at 9 am, 11 am and during the summer time, at 3 p.m.

The Butterfly Farm:

Costa Rica has more species of butterflies than any other country in the world and the

Butterfly Farm is the second largest exporter of living pupae in the world. An educational tour begins with a video documentary introducing the world of butterflies, followed by a guided tour through the gardens and laboratory where you witness and learn all about each stage of the butterfly life cycle.

Entrance Fee: $15.00 adults, $7.50 children. Tours are offered daily at 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

Poás Volcano National Park and the La Paz Waterfall Gardens:

Poás Volcano (2,708 meters) is a still active, but tranquil volcano with three craters; one the second largest crater in the world- bubbling with active fumaroles and a simmering lake. On your way to the volcano and waterfalls you will pass by coffee and sugar plantations, strawberry fields, and small towns with picturesque homes adorned with colorful flowers. At the La Paz Waterfall Gardens there are nine platforms that allow the visitor to see the five magnificent waterfalls. The park includes one of the world’s largest butterfly gardens in the country, hummingbird garden, orchid garden, and snake and frog exhibition. Park Entrance Fee: $7 Park hours are 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.. Entrance Fee: La Paz: $29.00 Full

Day Tour. Bring a light jacket, poncho, comfortable shoes, binoculars and camera.

Sarchí:

Sarchí is famous for the intricately detailed, hand-painted oxcarts still used here in Costa Rica during festivals and the town is a major artisan center known for a myriad of beautifully handcrafted wooden items. One can combine Poás Volcano with Sarchí for a day trip including lunch at a typical Costa Rican Restaurant in the town of Fraijanes just below the volcano. Else Kientzler Botanical Garden, located in Sarchí.is a comfortable walk on paths exhibiting in the wild the diversity of plant life in the tropics. Their collection includes around 2,000 different types of plants that come from more than 80 families from around the world including, of course, Costa Rica.

Entrance Fee: $12.00 adults, $6.00 children. Open every day from 8am to 4pm. Half Day Tour. Bring poncho, comfortable shoes and camera.

Zoo Ave:

A fantastic private zoological garden including dozens of toucans, macaws, cranes, curacaos and parrots in addition to crocodiles, indigenous deer, turtle and spider, howler and white face monkeys in open-air cages with lots of trees and meandering paths.

Entrance Fee: $15.00 adults, $1.50 children. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Ark Herb and Botanical Garden:

Visit one of the most comprehensive collections of medicinal and aromatic herbs from around the world in a beautiful botanical garden that is a part of a larger farm growing herbs for export. The garden tour given by the vastly informative owners includes tasting and smelling of herbs

and a glass of herbal tea and homemade cookies.

Hours Entrance Fee: $12.00 includes herbal tea and cookies. Open Mon- Sat. 8 a.m.-4 p.m. or by appointment. Half Day Tour.

Finca Rosa Blanca Bird Watching and Coffee Tour:

Walk with our naturalist guide through the grounds of Rosa Blanca and the surrounding coffee farms at dawn, experiencing the wealth of bird life in our own backyard. Enjoy the high altitude coffee farms of the area while discovering such birds as Wild Parakeets, Mot Mots and bonking bell birds. Learn how organic coffee is grown, harvested and dried for roasting at Finca Rosa Blanca’s own organic and Rain Forest Alliance certified coffee farm. Duration: Two hours

Finca Rosa Blanca’s Community Projects and Neighbors:

Community tour of Barrio Jesus Elementary School, the Children’s Food Bank, Senior Citizens Center, Recycling Center and Clinic as well as local artists and artisans will highlight the tour with our bi-lingual guide. Meet the children and members of the community at work and play.

Offered only Monday –Friday when school is in session.

Finca Rosa Blanca Sustainability Tour:

Walk with a bilingual guide through the property of Finca Rosa Blanca discovering the myriad of ways we are working with the environment and the community. Perhaps you will take away our methods and ideas to your own community and home, joining our efforts to change the future of our planet. After a brief history of Rosa Blanca and our journey toward total sustainability, we will visit the “back of the house” to learn about our “good practices”; including our use of biodegradable products in the hotel and laundry, solar drying area, solar panels for heating water, and the copper silver ionization system for the pool. We will walk the trails identifying native trees and plants, their uses and tastes, the organic garden, coffee and orchards, the recycling center, compost center

and red-worm farm, as well as the horse stables. Tours offered upon availability of guides; please inquire at the office for more information.

San Jose Museums and Shopping:

A city tour which includes, the famous National Theater, the Gold Museum and the Jade

Museum of pre-Columbian artifacts and several art and artisan galleries as well as the Central

Market, an entire covered city block overflowing with local color. Tour may include any of the following Museums:

National Museum of Costa Rica: Open Tues-Sun, 8:30am-4:00pm Entrance Fee: $4.00

Musuem of Costa Rican Art: Open Mon-Fri, 10am-5pm, Sat-Sun, 10am-2pm

Museo Numismática: (old notes, banknotes) Open Tues-Sun. 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Gold Museum/Central Bank Museum: Open Mon-Sun. 9:30am-5 pm Entrance Fee: $6.00

Jade Museum: Open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m.-5 p.m.. Free entrance

Childrens Museum and National Art Gallery: Open Wed – Sun from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. and 2

p.m.-5 p.m.

Museum of Contemporary Art and Design: Open Monday – Saturday from 10:30am-5:30pm

Museum of Spaces, Forms and Sounds: (The Antigua Train Station of the Atlantic) Mon-Fri,

9am-4pm, Sat. 10am-3pm

Cerro Dantas Wildlife Refuge:

Explore wonderful hiking through the magnificent cloud forest of Cerro Dantas offering an extraordinary variety of flora and fauna with an excellent chance of seeing the elusive giant tapir.

Entrance Fee: $15.00 Adults, $8.00 children, lunch included. Full Day Tour. Bring: sweater, poncho, hiking shoes, binoculars and camera.

Sarapiqui River:

A guided floating tour on the Sarapiqui River, declared a National Historical Monument,

where you will have the opportunity to spot many kinds of reptiles, crocodiles, caimans, iguanas among many, howler, spider, and squirrel monkeys and countless exotic birds such as toucans and green macaws in their natural habitat. This exciting tour is all day with naturalist guide and transportation.

La Tirimbina Biological Reserve:

Experience the magnificent 860 foot suspended bridge by foot over the rushing Sarapiqui River; continue hiking through an 800 acre mid-elevation rain forest reserve with an enormous biodiversity from two-toed sloth to spider monkeys, ant eaters and countless exotic birds.

Entrance Fee: $15.00 adults, $8.00 children. Full day tour includes the guided float trip on the Sarapiqui River. Bring poncho, comfortable shoes, binoculars and camera.

Irazu Volcano and the Orosi Valley:

Reaching 11,256 feet, Irazú Volcano is Costa Rica’s highest volcano with four craters, each with its own fascinating characteristics. On a clear day one can see both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. On the way to the volcano one can make a stop-off at Lankester Gardens, a 25-acre tropical paradise that houses more than 3,000 species of plants, including bromeliads, heliconias, ferns, bamboos, palm trees and a wide variety of tropical trees and one of the world’s foremost collection of orchids. On the way back, the tour will pass through the town of Orosi where you will visit Costa Rica’s oldest colonial church.

Entrance Fee: $7.00. Full Day Tour. Bring sweater, poncho, comfortable shoes, binoculars and camera.

Inbioparque:

Nowhere else in the world are so many types of habitats squeezed into such a small area. The range of habitats in Costa Rica, a consequence of its unique geography, creates an incredibly rich diversity of flora and fauna; in fact no other country on the planet has such variety. This educational excursion allows visitors to discover the characteristics and benefits of Costa Rican biodiversity through interactive exhibition halls and interpretive paths that meander through the many diverse habitats of native plant species. Inbioparque is a recreational and educational space where one can enter the vast world of Costa Rica’s biological diversity and protected areas and national parks. If you want to take full advantage of your trip to Costa Rica, we recommend that

you start with a visit to Inbioparque.

Entrance Fee: $15.00 adults, $8.00 children. Open Tuesday-Sunday, 8am-5pm. Bring: poncho in the rainy season or umbrella, comfortable shoes, binoculars and camera.

Turu Bari:

Turu Bari is a private park that offers nature and adventure tours. It is located in a transition forest (from dry to rain forest) and covers 240 hectares (600 acres) of beautiful landscape. The Turu Bari Canopy Tour consists of 12 platforms and 7 cables, the last of which stretches 650 meters

(2,000 feet), one of the longest in the country. The park includes a Butterfly Garden, Forest Paths, and the Orchid and Bromeliad Galleries in addition to a typical Country Farm where one can partake in a buffet-style lunch, admire the Huétar Palenque (a traditional indigenous construction), an ox-driven sugar mill, and maze ending by means of a cable car.

Entrance Fee: $55.00 adults, $45.00 children under 11yrs. Lunch included. Bring: comfortable shoes, binoculars and camera. Full Day Tour.

Carrara National Park and Bijagual Waterfall Tour:

Relatively small in size (4,700 Hectares), the significance of Carrara National Park stems from its geographical location in a transition area between the Tropical Dry Forest region to the north, and the more humid Pacific Rainforest to the south. Carrara has flora and fauna from both ecosystems and the virgin forest that covers most of the park is the ideal environment for such rare wildlife as the Scarlet Macaw, the Collared Aracari and three species of monkeys. Discover Costa Rica’s tallest waterfall (200 meters), the Bijagual Waterfall, by hiking through the mountains with breathtaking ocean views. One of the highlights of the tour is the chance to swim in refreshing spring-fed pools surrounded by nature’s gardens while viewing howler monkeys, scarlet macaws

and toucans at play.

Entrance Fee: $7.00 Carrara Park plus $8.00 Bijagual Waterfall per person. Bring: poncho, insect repellent, waterproof shoes, binoculars and camera. Full Day Tour.

Note: If you are interested in destinations further a field or river rafting on one of the three renowned white water rivers, bungee jumping, hot air ballooning and canopy tours, please let us know in ample time and we can help you to arrange a tour through a reputable company. We can provide information and directions to other volcanoes, bird reserves and botanical gardens within the Central Valley.

Private guides are also available and their fees vary depending upon number of passengers and type of tour.