North America Guided Tours

Despite some iffy weather we were able to visit all itinerary sites. Orienting us to restaurants at the last hotel was lacking until pressed by a traveler for more precise information. Favorite experiences was the Road to Hana and coffee plantation tour.

The visit to the island of Tortuguero was unique with many options, rustic, but good quarters, and excellent service by staff. For us, it was unique with different options to explore this new country and territory. The tour options we chose were appropriate for us. Our guide, Sergio, was terrific for the entire trip. His knowledge of the rivers, woods, and wildlife was awesome with many details about insects, birds, sloths (I had previously known nothing about, among many others that were new to us, e.g., the howler monkeys fascinated me. Sergio was exceptional in the options he offered and his knowledge about all we saw. What I liked about the trip especially is that the excursions were optional and you could choose from one or the other, e.g., the climb up the volcano or zip lining. With the range of ages in our group, the options were great. As our third trip with Collette, I though this was the best with several options.

Great trip, little rain , little chilly. But is was beautiful

Birding

Loved the variety of landscapes/climates/ wildlife in Costa Rica. Saw four different areas, the accommodations ranged from decent to very nice, and the excursions were all different, interesting, and fun. It was a very active tour, exactly as described. The guide was excellent, very knowledgeable about the geography and history of the country, and especially about all the flora and fauna. He even led a couple of early morning bird walks that were not an advertised part of the tour which he did because people were interested. And he was very personable. Would highly recommend the tour!

Our tour guide was fabulous. We saw lots and lots of animals. Everything was wonderful.

The trip was wonderful. The tour manager was very organized, knowledgeable, funny and accommodating. Much more than expected. The hotels were wonderful and absolutely beautiful. There was a communication issue with Collette where we stayed one night at a different location (much colder and wetter) than what was communicated (after the initial change of itinerary). The tours were educational and enjoyable, flexible enough for some self exploration. The tour manager let us know what to expect ahead of time. The stops when traveling were well planned. Excellent adventure!!!

The tour manager Ozzy was absolutely incredible! A walk through the Monte Verde cloud forest with Ozzy is a college level botany field trip!

Our tour manager, Ozzy, was an incredible host and historian for Costa Rica. The best stay was in the eco lodge on the Caribbean coast.

I have done 27 Road Scholar tours plus many other tours. This Colette was my first. It was excellent and so amazingly cost effective. Wonderful experience.

I would have given an ‘excellent’ for tour inclusions but Manuel Antonio National Park was not great. Too many people and we really didn’t see anything, the swimming area was small, long walk back. The coffee plantation was a must stop. Informative, interesting, loved the shop! Cloud forest preserve was very good, TM shared a lot of info about all the plants and environment. Everyone (not me) seemed to love the bridges and zip lining the next day (I’m afraid of heights) but got a couple great tee shirts! My favorite time was the pre tour. We experienced so many rare birds, toucans, sloths, monkeys. Wonderful boat rides, Tortuguero National Park was amazing! The turtle history, conservation, seeing their natural nesting habitat. Amazing! All the hotel accommodations were wonderful and I enjoyed them all. My favorite was in Guanacaste. So glad we had time to enjoy the beach and pool. Perfect end to the vacation. And the boat tour included whales and dolphins. Had the best TM and bus driver. So attentive, always organized, well educated, polite, they are the best I’ve ever had on a tour. A true dream vacation!

The road to Hana was our favorite day planned by Collette. We also enjoyed learning about the wars that finally unified the islands under King Kamehameha 1 and visiting the Iolani Palace. We took excursions on our own - whale watching on Maui and a helicopter ride over Kauai. We were supposed to visit HI in 2023 for our 50th anniversary, but the fire on Maui caused the trip to be canceled. So, 3 years later we finally visited our 50th state!

It was a great trip despite the rough start due to winter storm. Collette did a great job changing our flights so we could beat the storm. Rafa did an excellent job managing everyone and went above and beyond when my friend got sick. Costa Rica is a beautiful, diverse county and we a nice taste of different regions. Shout out to our bus driver Julio who did a fantastic job.

Enjoyable trip. Tour manager was the best. Very considerate of our needs and full of information.

helicopter ride

Diana Lee was a great tour manager, and we loved the whole trip. The train portion was so fun with the gondola car, plus the food was excellent on the train.

Excellent trip!! Best one ever! I loved this trip even more than 2 trips to Italy. The people are so very friendly! We had an excellent tour manager and bus driver. Outstanding accommodations and perfect weather!

We had a wonderful experience. Maui was my favorite of the 3 islands.

Zip lining was the highlight for me. I liked that there was optional down time if you wanted

Wonderfully planned and executed tour reasonably priced for what you get. Tour director was exceptional! She gave personal attention to all, was accessible and had answers to any questions that arose.