Hi Guys,

My boyfriend and I are arriving around June 15th and are interested in a tour as well, before we head to Russia the first week of July.

We are in China now and are working are way north at the moment. I am from the states have traveled the world and have done many multi- day overnight trips rafting, hiking, etc around the world. Santino is costa rican and has been traveling with me the last few years as well.

Let s know if you have any interest in setting something up together.

Mel

The other areas birders flock to in Costa Rica, are Sarapiqui-La Selva, and Tortuguero, both on the caribe side via San Jose.

Once you bus from Los Chiles to Muelle San Carlos turn off, Rt 4, to Pt Viejo Sarapiqui should be a bus...

From Sarapiqui to Tortuguero, you would bus to Guapiles, (1 hr) then bus to Cariarri, (1hr) then bus to La Pavona (35 Min) for boats to Tortuguero (45 Min), need to get to Cariarri by 11;30 or 2;30 pm for bus/boat connections..from Tortuguero you boat south 3 hours to Moin, then can bus to Cahuita NP via Limon, or taxi hire.

Thank you both so much for the replies, Bocas del Toro in Panama does look great , but the difficulty to get there is a little off-putting. The fact you can fly directly from Panama City to Houston is nice though :) Cahuita looks good, it seems like you need a guide to be able to snorkel there which we're okay with, and is a good option if we just stay in Costa Rica.

The cruise is stopping off in Jamaica, Mexico and the Cayman Islands, but we're only having a day in each. The Bay Islands and Roatan look absolutely amazing but looking at how to get there and I don't think we have enough time to spend days traveling unfortunately.

The Caribbean places you mentioned all look fantastic too, it's a shame there are no direct flights but changing at Miami is a great idea. Going to look at them all properly now and try to find one which has relatively easy transport from Miami and to Houston :D

Thanks again, really appreciate your help.

I don´t know how much time you are going to spend in each destination, but you have to visit Costa Rica volcanoes, specially Arenal and Turrialba, and Marco Antonio National Park. While in Mexico, try to spend DOD in Oaxaca, is one of the best destinations to join the celebration.

We can recommend you more places to visit if you tell us how much time you are planning to spend in each destination and your travel interests.

I have just come back home after a trip to Los Guatuzos (end of April 2018).
For sure land border crossing is very near and is possible (at least for locals) between Los Guatuzos and Costa Rica: when we were in Los Guatuzos, a local "festival" took place there (Nicaragua side), with several temporary food stalls and plastic toy booths owned by people from Costa Rica. Participants were mainly locals from Costa Rica. There was even a wood arena built on purpose for young bull rodeo: I paid show entrance in Nica cordoba, and got change in CR colon!
CR people arrived and left every hour or so with their car (CR number plate) or motorbike, through a gravel road.
So crossing the border there is not a question: the real question is whether foreigners are allowed to cross.

Another (pricey) solution would be to cross border at Peñas Blancas. We arrived in Los Guatuzos from Ometepe island, but on a quite unfrequent and undocumented itinerary:
- we hired a private taxi from San Jorge/Rivas to Sapoa and all the way to Colon (small village on the south bank of Lake Nicaragua, at the end of the road) (about 1.5 hour-2 hours). Cabañas Caiman proposed to book a taxi for us in advance for 150 USD, but once in Ometepe our local hotel could hire a cheaper taxi for us (60 USD). I suppose such a difference may be explained mostly because Cabañas Caiman had planned a large 4WD taxi (we are a 5-people family), whereas we booked a normal 2WD one (4 seats, my wife had the little one on her knees). Part of the road is a good paved road (western end), (central) part of the road is a gravel road under heavy work (paving?) but can be driven with a normal 2WD car without any problem , small part of the road (eastern end) is sometimes in bad condition but still passable with a normal 2WD car (unless it rains). As Cabañas Caiman had warned us, we met 3 military checkpoints: each time, soldiers inspected carefully our passports and stamps, and asked for a sheet of paper with a list of our names, given names, DoB, country and passport numbers.
- then we hired a private boat from Colon to Los Guatuzos (about 2 hours). Cabañas Caiman organized this part well in advance and asked for 150 USD. Since Colon is such a small and remote village, with absolutely no tourist or any visitor spot and no tourist infrastructure, I suppose this private boat does not park in Colon, boat captain probably lives in Los Guatuzos or Solentiname or even San Carlos (hence the price).
Reading Cabañas Caiman tourist register on our arrival ("Coming from:" column), it seems several other visitors did the same a few weeks/months ago.

We did it this way, so I suppose reverse way is also possible!

I would take the second option. Costa Rica is expensive but it has a lot of good places and activities for families, especially for kids, such as Arenal, Manuel Antonio, etc. I think you are going to have a great time around there. And you also have Bocas del Toro and San Blas in Panama, which are two of the most beautiful places in Central America and definitely a must visit.

Now, if you want to save your budget, take the first option, skip Belize because it is really expensive and add more places around Mexico which fit into your ideal budget.