The fam trip that 'nailed' the experience of authentic travel
Sarah DennisNot in the Guidebooks lived up to its billing when hosting its first long-haul fam trip to Costa Rica, with agents wowed as much by the people they met as the flora and fauna they saw
Ours are the only two kayaks in a lagoon area of Tortuguero National Park. My tandem partner and I paddle in easy camaraderie along the still water, taking in the endless acres of forestry enveloping us in a bubble of greenery. As we follow our paddling guide down a narrow channel, it’s not long before we are two feet away from a caiman, staring at us lazily out of one eye. With no utterance from either humans or croc, there’s an unspoken agreement that we’ll each let the other get on with our day.
HEART OF THE COMMUNITY
Costa Rica is a bucket-list trip for many a traveller, with draws including wildlife, cloud forests, volcanoes and zip lining at eye-watering heights. The country’s motto – pura vida (pure life) – is a principle steeped in how communities live their lives. So specialist operator Not in the Guidebooks (NITGB) has a lot to do to make its name a reality when hosting seven agents (plus this privileged TTGer) on its first long-haul fam trip.
“I don’t know why it’s a surprise, but the highlight I’ve noticed most is the people here. They are so passionate about their country, their businesses and what they offer,” says Travel Counsellor Lucy Althorpe.
Travel Den’s Gilli Knight agrees: “You know you’re going to come and see wildlife [in Costa Rica], but what I didn’t expect was the local-community feel and the heart of the people, their beliefs and their sense of family.”
These comments are heartening to NITGB founder and chief Carol Savage. “What’s important to me is agents understand the types of journeys our customers go on – which is the communities, meeting local people. It’s really hard to get across that it’s not just ‘a good thing to do’, but an amazing experience you can have. We want agents to be able to communicate that to their customers.”
Savage hits the nail on the head when it comes to selling sustainable travel as a truly amazing experience – and this trip opens our eyes to the benefits of being in touch with local communities in a way that a cookie-cutter, more mainstream trip would not achieve.
A TASTE OF FARM LIFE
An agro-ecological farm tour becomes the surprise trip highlight with our visit to Finca Sura in Sarapiqui, about two hours’ drive from capital San Jose, topping almost every agent’s list. Our guide, Alejandro, nephew of owners Rodolfo and Rosa, shares his family’s fascinating story, which includes the farm’s refusal to embrace modern technologies and chemicals to mass-produce for commercial benefit, as we are invited to taste the juiciest pineapples cultivated on the land.
An overnight stay in family-run Santa Juana Lodge, where the accommodation offers sprawling views of the Manuel Antonio coastline from balcony hammocks, includes a 45-minute hike into the depths of jungle. On paper, a traveller may not appreciate the 7am start, until they get to the crashing waterfall surrounding by embracing flora. Here you can swim, or bravely jump from a four-metre vantage point, as some of our party do.
At Don Juan’s Monteverde coffee and cacao plantation, no product is exported beyond the local communities, a surprising fact when we learn from our spirited guide Katy that Costa Ricans are not huge chocoholics (I have no idea why not, because it’s delicious). Katy puts us to work, and we grind and mix bitter-tasting raw cacao beans with cinnamon, vanilla sugar and chilli. A demonstration of a sugar cane press becomes a workout as we have a go at operating the spindle to crunch the cane, and we are amazed by the sheer amount of juice that comes out of one long, thin reed.
No trip to Costa Rica can be complete without mentioning the opportunities to spot wildlife. Whether it’s peaceful early-morning boat excursions at Tortuguero National Park, a mangrove swamp tour run by a father-and-daughter team or a trek with guide Gabriel through Corcovado National Park, we are joined by knowledgeable experts who treat every sighting with wonder, like it’s their first time. All of which is done by viewing animals – such as monkeys, coatis and birds, and for some, that sought-after sloth – from a respectful distance in their natural habitat.
ENCHANTED FORESTS
We are also bowled over by the trees, flowers and forest structures – which some of us encounter on a hanging bridge tour in Monteverde Cloud Forest, while others take an even more suspended route across Latin America’s longest zip line. It’s some of the greenest, densest forestry any of us have ever encountered, and the panoramas are imprinted in our minds.
Once in a Lifetime Holidays agent Louise Rush says: “From conjoined trees to the washed-up bones of an enormous humpback whale, these memories will outlast those of yet another poolside cocktail. Walking across misty hanging bridges in Monteverde isn’t just a ‘sustainable excursion’; it’s a front-row seat to nature.”
Some of our wildlife experiences turn out to be very up close and personal – be it a shower shared with a frog or a night sleeping with a bat at Drake Bay’s Aguila de Osa (that I find surprisingly comforting). Our accommodation varies from Santa Juana’s rustic lodges, boutique hotel Villa Caletas in Jaco and glamping in style at Palo Alto Glamping – an advantage of the variety on offer through NITGB means agents can tailor stays to guests’ preferences.
Our trip across 10 nights covers a lot of ground so transfers are inevitable. Our group quickly coins the motto “it’s not a transfer, it’s an adventure”. Many are via a small bus, but one boat transfer to Monteverde sees us disembarking on a bank hauling our suitcases through mud while another to Drake Bay has us rushing to pull on ponchos as a tropical rain storm blows in.
Our agents agree that NITGB “nails” the experience of authentic travel for those wishing to unleash their adventurous side and connect with welcoming locals who have fascinating stories to tell.
Oyster Travel’s Vicky Samwell-Buckenham will be stressing to her clients how they will be “fully immersed in the country” when booking with NITGB, while TradeMark Travel’s Mark Cooper has this to say: “What’s testament is I want to book an NITGB holiday to Costa Rica for my family. My daughter will be impacted by all that’s on offer here and my son will be blown away by the wildlife. This trip has made me think of how I impact society and how society affects the environment.”
Book it: The 14-night Costa Rica East to West package takes in both the Caribbean and Pacific Coasts, the jungle of Monteverde and La Fortuna. Prices start from £2,856pp including accommodation but excluding flights, based on a March 2025 departure; notintheguidebooks.com
Costa Rica snapshot
Smarter: British Airways has direct options, but if booking clients to travel to Costa Rica via the US, consider an overnight stay before the connection. Many transfer windows are short and one small delay can lead to a missed connection. Other options are via European cities such as Madrid or Paris.
Better: Rice and beans are a daily feature of culinary life in Costa Rica, but vegetarians and vegans are not restricted to these staples. Trademark Travel’s Mark Cooper, a vegan, was impressed by the options on offer and the ease of sourcing tasty alternatives to meat or fish in many places we visited.
Fairer: Costa Rica’s wildlife is a priority for travellers, but don’t be drawn into offers of “100% guaranteed” sightings simply to tick off a list. This often means animals have been taken out of the forests into a yard and you are not viewing them in their natural habitat.
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Sarah Dennis
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