I am wanting to escape a bit of the winter here and am thinking why not go to Costa Rica for some off road riding. Yea I know....ADVrider why don't I just ride there. :huh https://www.google.com/search?q=costa+rica+off+road+tours&oq=costa+rica+off+road+tours&aqs=chrome..69i57.8768j0j4&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8 Anyone ever take one of these tours and can give me some feedback on a good tour guide and maybe more important....any to avoid. TIA
Go do it! My gf asked if I wanted to celebrate her 40th in Colombia; advice to anyone reading: don't think, GOooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!! Same goes for the rich coast, don't over think it: go.
I'm going. Just wanted to see if any others have gone and could give feedback on the company they went with. They all look good but you never know.
I am talking with Terry who operates Costa Rica Unlimited regarding the Dirty Girls going in February. He has been awesome to deal with and it looks and sounds like a great tour company. Here is the link: http://www.costaricaunlimited.com/
Google doesn't list me? :huh Oh yeah, I'm still slaving away up here in the states. What are you looking for in your "tour"? ala carte, all inclusive? Wide roads? Hurry up and see all the country? Tight and technical? Other activities? Let me know if I can help..... My next trip down is Nov or Feb
Thanks. I'll check them out. Have a fun trip and looking forward to your ride report. We (brother and I so far) want to show up with our riding gear and have a guide to follow and see the scenery. Mostly dirt roads with some single track if needed to get to the best scenery. Time to take pictures and enjoy the trip. We do not want to spend 8 hours riding (wrestling the bikes) to cover 50 miles. Also want half way decent to nice hotels and meals. A place every night to have a few....or more beers and enjoy a cigar. I have seen the volcano's to beaches tours and they look like what we want. Good coffee in the AM will be a plus. Lot's of
Fly down have a good time and return recharged. These folks do pretty good and are recommended. http://www.wild-rider.com/
Mototourscr or CR Unlimited both fit in this category. You will eat up alot of tarmac on the beaches to mtns tour, but see alot of country, almost zero singletrack. What kind of bike are you looking for? Those two use 450's, orange and blue. Nov is a nice month to go.......
tuanis mae I believe it's the other company that has the "beaches to mtns tour", correct? let's go surf!
Thanks. I'll check them out. A quick look and I kinda want a bike with more performance than DR400/650. I would like to ride a blue bike. A Husaberg. But a KTM will do. Don't really want to do much tarmac. Not looking to spend what little energy we have wrestling bikes through hard core single track. BTDT. Really want to do mostly dirt roads and if needed, single track or challenging sections to get to the good scenery. I am mid 50's and not in the best shape....so want to stick with the easier roads so I look forward to riding the next day and not dreading it.
I saw that on one site and it sounded great. See an active volcano and then ride to a hotel on the beach. I am sure it will be hard not to have a great time. Tried surfing once......the ocean won.
Went in the first week of December with Moto Tours Costa Rica. https://www.mototourscostarica.com Condensed to the highlights......... I met my brother at Houston where we had a nice long wait. So we had lunch and a few beers. We then had some drinks on the plane. For some reason I went with gin/tonic. Then when we got there we picked up some more beer. WTF!!!!! $20 USD for a 6 pack????? Oh well we are on vacation and it's not like we not going to buy beer to try and save a few $$. You can guess what is next. Little bro walks in on me the next morning to tell me we are leaving as I am purging my empty stomach. We get to ride in the back of the truck to go pick up the bikes and meet the owner/guide and chase crew. I feel like shite and my brother has not been on a dirt bike for....10+ years. We told them we wanted to do a scenic tour on some nice easy dirt roads. Take our time, stop frequently for pictures and beer. A nice easy tourist ride. We start off on pavement and our guide is just flying through traffic. He did wait at intersections but being our first ride there we were a little concerned about tickets. A short time later we are in dirt. A nice easy, dusty dirt road. Then the road starts to degrade and turn really crappy. Then it starts to climb and becomes covered with marble to baby head rocks. I am slowly picking my way and my brother comes up fast behind me and looses his momentum and falls off. Did I mention it was really hot and humid? I got lucky and made it to the top without any incident other than some slow going. We wait as others had gotten stuck on the hill. After about 10-15 minutes the last rider is up top and we are just resting. Me being moderately hung over and my brother being way out of "dirt biking shape", are wondering where the easy, scenic dirt roads we asked for are? :fyyff I am so glad I topped off the camel back as I was drinking a lot of water......but did not pee all day. It all came out through the pores and my riding jersey smelled like it the next day. We head on and come to a place where the road is blocked. Right around here I got bit or stung on my left side by something that managed to get through my jersey. We found a way around and rode on. The road disappeared into some really tall weeds/plants/grass that we went through. After that it was time to head down the hill. Just like the one we came up only with a lot of erosion channels to try and dodge. It was slow going and did I mention it was hot and humid? My brother and I are not happy and the other brothers, from Spain, are with us in wanting to avoid the "special test sections". We split off to an easier ride back to the hotel. Easy.....not for long. We end up going down a drainage ditch, only about 100 yards but it started off with baby head rocks that got bigger and bigger. Our guide (Costa Rica enduro champ some years ago) even bulldogged his bike. My brother fell off and just walked down leaving the bike for the guide to get. Our plan was to just survive and not do this again. Did I say how hot and humid it was? Imaging wrestling a KTM 450 over big ass rocks, hung over and sweating so much my boots are filling up. We meet up for a late lunch and tell Wayne we absolutely do not want to go on anything like that the rest of the trip. The Spanish brothers are with us. Mike and Eric from northern California and gung ho for more so they will split us up for the rest of the tour. The next day we are tired and sore and hoping we will have an easy ride and looking forward to our rest day tomorrow. We take off and it is not too long before we hit some mild challenges and our mood starts to go down hill fast. We then go through a deep stream followed by a slick up hill with a turn that got our Spanish brother, We were really starting to hate the whole trip and wondering why I ever wanted to do this. :huh We got a little closer to the coast and the roads were better and it started to rain. The rain cooled it off a bit and kept the dust down and the traction up. That was the first part of the ride we enjoyed. A quick lunch stop where we watched Mike ride wheelies up and down the street. The rest of the ride was pretty good. The roads were better and the rain kept it..... not quite as hot. Wayne and Willie kept up a really good pace that was really fun but made it risky to try and enjoy the scenery.
The rest day....we wanted to do a little ride to see the alligator farm or the jungle booze cruz, you get a case of beer and an open jeep and ride through the jungle to see the monkeys and drink beer. What could be better than that? All good intentions, but we were just so wiped out from the first day and knowing we had 2 more days of riding we ended up just hanging out, sleeping and having a few beers. The next 2 days were just great. Rain soaked dirt roads, great bikes and feeling good after a recovery day. Now we were really having fun and almost forgot about the first days punishment. We had an excellent dinner at a restaurant that claimed to have the CIA cocaine smuggling plane. https://www.costaverde.com/avion01.htm The ride back to base camp the next day was great. Rain kept the roads dust free and also helped us from getting too hot. We are planning on going back next year (if Wayne will have us ).....but having shorter ride days so we can do a little more tourist stuff and just not beat ourselves up riding and also avoiding the roads we did on day 1.
If you want to see more...... https://mototourscostarica.smugmug.com/20142015-Season/Spanish-American-Tour/i-qkCnJbR https://plus.google.com/photos/111977724832533871020/albums/6101324566634353329?banner=pwa