Swiss Travel Costa Rica Review: Why I recommend Swiss Travel Service Costa Rica

Earlier this year back in February, I booked a guided bus tour to Costa Rica called Costa Rica Eco Adventure. I booked with Trafalgar, but coming to find out, the tour is actually contracted out to a company called Swiss Travel Service Costa Rica (note: so is Brendan and European Vacations). That was fine with me but I had a very hard time finding out anything about this company online from a traveller point of view. I ended up having a great time and would highly recommend Swiss Travel Costa Rica. While I can't really speak for the entire company, and only for my particular tour, here are some reasons why I feel they're a great company to travel to Costa Rica with if you're looking for a guided tour.

I can't speak highly enough about my tour guide. I was travelling alone in a group of 31 and from the minute he picked me up at the airport, I felt safe and like there was someone looking out for me. He told me that I would not feel like I was travelling alone and this turned out to be true!

My tour guide was extremely knowledgeable about Costa Rica, especially about its biodiversity and especially about birds. He was always willing to answer questions and even if you asked something that he probably answered hundreds of times before, he managed to still respond with the enthusiasm of answering that question for the first time. He made a point of coming around and talking to every member of the group individually so that we actually felt like our needs and questions were unique rather than always speaking to us "as a group" (this is the approach taken by many tour guides in other tour groups I've been part of).

I've been on quite a few guided tours and my Swiss Travel Costa Rica guide was by far the best! He is very passionate about what he does and makes sure that you have a good time, whatever that means to you.

When you're travelling a lot in a bus on the steep, twisty and turny roads of Costa Rica (especially in Monteverde!), you want to make sure that your driver knows what he's doing. Luckily on my Swiss Travel Costa Rica tour, we had a great driver who I felt put our safety first and did not take risks on the road.

Every night or two, we would stay in a different location and I was very happy with the accomodations that were selected for us. While we never had to "rough it" by any stretch, we got to experience a range of not as nice to very nice hotels. Actually, when we were staying at what turned out to be the "not so nice hotel", I remember thinking at the time that it was my favorite hotel I've ever stayed in! As it turns out, they saved the best for last and that was in my opinion without question, the El Establo Mountain Hotel in Monteverde. The rooms are huge! I cried in that room on the last night of my tour because I absolutely did not want to leave.

When you are in Costa Rica, you will eat a lot of rice and beans. You will eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner - that is not really an exaggeration! Since I am vegetarian, I love this kind of diet. There is also meat available for you meat lovers, like chicken and steak. Also, one night we went to a very good Italian restaurant in Monteverde. You will not go hungry! Oh, and the coffee is divine!

I feel that Trafalgar made a great choice by contracting out their Costa Rica Eco Adventure Tour to Swiss Travel Service. I have been on a few other Trafalgar tours in my life and I have been really happy with them every time. So far, they have always done a great job in making sure everything runs smoothly and I will not hesitate to book with them again!