TURISMO CURU AGENCIA DE VIAJES
Tour Operator
2024
Recommended
•
2024
Curu Tourism Agency has been offering organized tours in connection with the national reserve for 20 years. With seriousness, the agency and its guides will take you to the open sea for numerous excursions around different themes: bioluminescence, whales or snorkeling around the Tortuga Islands, Alcatraz or near the playa Quesera. To take advantage of Curu Park, the agency can also accompany you on horseback or on foot. In short, a smart address.
Did you know? This review was written by our professional authors.
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Members' reviews on TURISMO CURU AGENCIA DE VIAJES
4.5/5
37 reviews
Value for money
Sport in general
The ratings and reviews below reflect the subjective opinions of members and not the opinion of The Little Witty.
Our opinion in short: Nice trip, but not worth the money. The park itself, however, is highly underrated: gorgeous maritime forests with palm trees, mangroves and more, lots of wildlife (we saw coatis, cappuchins, aras flying above us, and deer), very cool trails featuring a short hanging bridge and awesome make-shift wooden walkways over the water, and not busy at all!
Thus, in hindsight, we would recommend to only go into the park, enjoy some walks there and hike to Quesera Beach (maybe with the boat transfer back if walking both ways is not what you're into).
More detailed pros & cons:
+ Quesera Beach is absolutely gorgeous and not very busy, we definitely recommend to go! Remember to get a permit in the park office (where the gift store is inside Curú Refuge), it is free of charge but they limit visitors to the beach to keep it less busy
+ after snorkeling for 40min, it is part of the snorkeling tour that they take you to a beach on Tortuga Island, it was nice to go to the beach next to the main touristy beach so that we felt a bit more secluded
+ part of the bioluminescence tour are the boat ride during sunset and also in the dark with a beautiful star lit sky above
+ you do not have to book in advance, you can just be at the counter inside the Refuge at the right time and buy your tickets there (paying by card comes with a surcharge compared to cash)
+ the lady at the office in Paquera spoke perfect English and provided helpful recommendations the evening before our tour
+ she was also present at the counter on the morning of our tour and explained the practicalities and kindly advised us to change our timeline and go snorkeling in the morning as the visibility would get worse during the day
+ the guide on the snorkeling tour spoke perfect English
- all the other employees did not speak much English, especially on the bioluminescence tour (sometimes, the guide kindly translated parts into English, but often he would just interact with the people fluent in Spanish, so we felt left out since we only understand basic Spanish)
- communication in general felt inattentive (except mentioned lady at the office): For instance, we were told the bioluminescence tour starts at 5 and we should be there at 4:50. But when we were there, none of the present employees greeted or even spoke with us. It was only at ~5:20 when they handed us life vests and told us to step on the boat (without explaining the delay). We were also told beforehand that we would see the sunset on a beach, but (perhaps due to the delay?) we saw it from the boat, again noone commented on that change of plans (the view from the boat was very nice too, it was just the lousy communication that frustrated us)
- Regardless of tour operator, we would not recommend the snorkeling spot. Admitting, on the day we went the visibility was really bad due to the high tide, but still, if you have some experience with snorkeling (and went in Egypt, Canaries, or south-east Asia for example), it is not that special and definitely not worth the money in our opinion. If it is your first time, you may be happy though because yes, you do see smaller fish & schools. On the other hand, we found the conditions not suitable for beginners: The guide told us to go into the water near a big rock and said we could swim around the rock without mentioning any difficulties, but on one side of the rock, the water was really shallow above spikey rocks and the waves were really powerful, so a beginner/not so strong swimmer may have been smashed against the rocks (note that this was during high tide, so this may be different in better conditions)
La plongée est un plaisir et partout dans le monde la philosophie est l'accueil et la sympathie. Il faut venir chez Curu Turismo pour découvrir l'exception : un patron qui ne pense qu'à l'argent et est immédiatement odieux avec tout le monde. A la tête de ses employés, nous avons vite compris que c'était usuel de recevoir ainsi les clients plongeurs. Difficile après ça de profiter de la plongée...
Je déconseille vivement ce centre !