Costa Rica Coast to Coast Ride

Begin your adventure in La Garita de Alajuela, around a 15-minute drive from San José airport. We start cycling tomorrow, so enjoy the rest of the day to relax and prepare for the exciting adventures ahead. Want more time in San José or La Garita de Alajuela? Secure pre-tour hotel nights through your sales representative.

After breakfast, say hi to your tour leader and fellow travellers, when we gather as a group to get to know each other, learn more about the adventures ahead and to collect and adjust our bikes. Our cycling then starts right from the hotel, riding towards the town of Atenas, where we meet our bus and transfer (one hour) to Guacalillo. Here, we embark on a beautiful boat tour through mangrove forests to the Rio Tárcoles, hoping to see crocodiles, waterbirds and even scarlet macaws as we go. Enjoy lunch followed by a transfer (around one hour) to our beach hotel at Playa Bejuco. If tide and sand conditions permit, we can fit in more cycling and arrive at the hotel riding on the immense tropical beach (extra 6.2mi/10km for beach ride option). Terrain: 95% paved/5% gravel

Start with a transfer (approximately one hour) to Manuel Antonio National Park, one of the great wildlife-watching destinations in Costa Rica. Join an expert guide for a two-hour nature walk, who can teach us all about the local flora and fauna and help us spot the iguanas and white-faced capuchin monkeys that live here. Leaving the park, we transfer (approximately 40 minutes) to Rio Savegre. From here, our route follows a main street to the vibrant beach town of Dominical and the calmer surf beach of Dominicalito. Reaching La Parcela Restaurant in Punta Dominical, we have lunch before heading to our next hotel, where the evening is free to enjoy the pool and jungle setting at our hotel. Terrain: 95% paved/5% gravel

Leave the hotel by bike, riding to the town of Uvita, where we hike to the jungle-wrapped Uvita Waterfall for a refreshing swim. After, we continue cycling towards the beautiful Marino Ballena National Park, where we leave our bikes for a walk in the sand; if tides allow, we enjoy the view of the Whale Tale Tombolo, a natural rocky and sandy geological formation that can only be accessed during the six hours of low tide. Terrain: 90% paved/10% gravel

This morning, we take a 30-minute bus transfer to the village of Piñuelas. From here, we enjoy a scenic ride along the south coastal highway, granting beautiful views of the Sierpe Mangrove every now and then. Upon arrival at Palmar Sur, we enjoy a short visit to the Park of the Stone Spheres, where we explore the mystery behind these impressive stone globes created by pre-Colombian Indigenous people. We lunch in the town of Chacarita, then transfer (1hr 30min) to Las Cruces Biological Station, a leading tropical biology research hub, where we stay tonight. Terrain: 100% paved

Cycle to the southern town of San Vito this morning, enjoying rural Costa Rica as we go. On this circular route, we visit Sabalito town, where we stop at the coffee mill of the local coffee cooperative Coope Sabalito, before riding the ascent back to Las Cruces. After lunch at the biological station, we join an expert guide for a nature walk. Terrain: 90% paved/10% gravel

Start today with a 10-minute transfer to San Vito, where we enjoy a nice downhill ride near the biological corridor between Costa Rica and Panama: La Amistad National Park. It is also an area of indigenous territories, where the Ngöbe Buglé people can sometimes be seen in traditional dress. At Paso Real, where the Río General meets the huge Río Térraba, we finish today’s route with our box lunch, before we transfer (about two hours) to our mountain hotel in San Gerardo de Rivas. Terrain: 85% paved/15% gravel