Costa Rica adventure vacations and holidays — with Gusto!

Serendipity Adventures Costa Rica named Best of Costa Rica in NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ADVENTURE MAGAZINE

Costa Rica adventures so intense you'll never want to leave

Adventure travel means more than adrenaline — it means learning and practicing skills, it means team work, it means immersion and concentration on accomplishing a goal. We push you, pull you, and, when you're the "top dog" in the pack, you will help pull the others along with you.

  • 4 wheel drive land cruiser crossing a creek

    Serendipity's 4x4's get places others can't

  • Person carrying a mountain bike over a creek in front of a giant waterfall

    Even mountain biking is a wet experience

  • Smiling passengers in balloon basket over rainforest

    Hot air ballooning over rainforest — awesome!

  • Woman hanging from a zip line

    Zip lines are pure adrenaline

  • Two men paddle through a rapid in an inflatable kayak a.k.a. duckie

    White water is more extreme in Duckies

  • Two men hike across a rushing creek

    Hiking without tourists is very special

  • A group of people running on horseback surrounded by nature

    Our horses- ideal for experts to beginners

  • 6 passengers in a raft paddle through a very white rapid on the Pacuare River

    The Pacuare River - adrenaline in white water

  • A smiling woman starts a rappel with tree tops below

    Getting up was hard - getting down is fun

  • A man carries a surfboard into the surf

    Relax at the beach - or beat yourself up

  • A man swinging on a rope swing into a river

    Old fashioned swim hole - and no buses

  • A woman wearing a helmet and gloves stands waist deep in water at the bottom of a waterfall with her arms raised in triumph

    The reward for hard biking - cold water!

 

Only Serendipity can provide you with this amazing combination of true adventure and privacy. We're not a vacation package company, sending you off with one tour operator here, another tour operator there. We design our "big" trips around your priorities, using our expertise, our own guides, equipment, and many private places.

Private Costa Rica Adventure Vacations

You decide dates and who is on your trip. These sample itineraries are meant to help you visualize your own Costa Rica adventure vacation. Have more time? No worries - we can easily fill 30 days of different adventures each day. Call us. Tell us your priorities, your vision of a great experience, your ideal travel dates, and a bit about your budget.

  • Active family vacation: 8 days - a good place to start designing your custom vacation

    Family at base of wet canyon rappel

    If you want rafting and tree climbing and horseback and lots of different things, something different every day, then look at our 8 day active family adventure trip as a good starting point.

    This Costa Rica family vacation itinerary was designed for a family with kids down to 12 years.. The parents are very active, and they want their young children to get a lot of physical challenges as well as to meet real Costa Ricans, not just hotel staff and tourist people. They want activities that all four can enjoy together, and the kids will not have to stay behind on the more rigorous stuff. They have only 9 days during school break to be with us, and want to do and see — everything!

  • Fast rappel Do-It-All! The Eclectic Voyager: 10 days for all the adventures. Then take off for the beach

    The Eclectic Voyager includes diverse adventures for fit people, yet it accommodates three generations enjoying Costa Rica together. Great place to start designing a longer stay in Costa Rica

  • Cabecar trail hiking: 6 days with remote hiking, bushwhacking, rafting and mountain biking - an extreme adventure

    Hiking on the Cabecar trail

    If you love the idea of using your own muscle power — mountain biking, hiking, and rafting (and horses carry the gear) — and get far away from tourists, then the 6-day Cabecar Trail may be your trip.

    The Cabecar Indians are among the most private, and remote, indigenous people left in Central America. Their mountainous land is isolated, and the Cabecars live within their own communities, wishing to stay away from the buzzing civilization outside their mountains. We at Serendipity are privileged to be permitted to enter their land. We have agreed that we will not alter the land in any way. We have agreed, also, to make no effort to contact Cabecars while using their land. If, during our expedition, they wish to contact us, they will do so.

  • Specialty horseback vacations: 4 to 10 days, you decide when, which horse, and who rides with you

    Running horse through river in Costa Rica

    If you enjoy horses, you will have serious fun on an expedition with Centaura, Serendipity's specialty horseback vacation division. From one day to 14 days, with our extraordinary animals and places to ride — you'll form a relationship with your horse, and with Costa Rica, that will bring you back to us over and over again. No kidding!

  • Tropical bike tour: 9 days cross country (route depends on when you travel - changed for weather)

    Biking through creek

    Mountain biking with a purpose! The Tropical Mountain Biking itinerary crosses some diverse terrain, starting from the Central Valley and ending at the Pacific Coast. Picked by OUTSIDE MAGAZINE as one of the top 30 adventures of the world. We have three routes, for three levels of biking skills Only one of these routes is described in our sample itinerary.

    You'll want to select your travel mates carefully, because the route is rugged. This is NOT a fixed departure trip — it is a route for exceptional biking, designed for bike experts and people who don't care how tired they get, and designed for people who arrive as friends and leave as teammates.

  • Tarzan and Jane adventure vacation: 8 day sample itinerary with beach and volcano - modify as you wish

    Honeymooners kissing on horseback

    8 day adventure vacation in Costa Rica - an ideal adventure honeymoon — with all the rough stuff mixed with some very romantic private stuff.

    Designed as a honeymoon for Steve and Judy, a very adventurous pair of newlyweds, this trip offers challenges and excitement for the young and foolish, including horseback, rappelling, ascents into the canopy, and mountain biking - plus time all alone at a secluded beach. This fast paced trip requires some stamina, but more importantly, a strong spirit of adventure and a good sense of humor.

  • High adrenaline vacation: 8 days focused on hard core rafting, canyoning - you decide who goes and when

    Whitewater heaven

    White water rafting in Costa Rica is world famous, but Serendipity elevates the fun to a life changing experience. How? We start with just you and your hand-picked team, add some remarkable rivers, and extraordinary places to camp, then horseback riding for you, and pack horses to haul the equipment, some ropes, harnesses, hiking, waterfalls, canyoning — and you end up with a Serendipity white water adventure par excellence.

  • Costa Rica Bike Quest: 7 days of hard core biking (with some white water and canyoning) for you and your friends

    Mountain biking in river

    7 days of maximum muscle stretching and adrenaline for serious pedalers through rain forests and into cloud forest. Four days of mountain biking, three days white water rafting including the magnificent Pacuare, hiking, or rather bushwhacking, through rain forest, canyoning - rappelling waterfalls. Share the natural world in pristine campsites with amazing views... More Bike Quest Costa Rica ...

 

JOIN A GROUP! Itineraries with fixed departure dates you can join

Or you can decide to use one of these fixed itineraries for your private itinerary (and your dates) - with costs as shown. These trips are more economical because we use specfic hotels and a more restricted meal plan, but the adventures remain the same high quaslity and are still operated Serendipity Style.

  • Costa Rica Intrepid Adventure Tour

    Running on horse back

    7 days of riding on horseback, hiking and climbing trees, wild rafting, great food and nature and, of course, rain forest, cloud forest and a lava-belching volcano, soaking in hot springs, zipping through a canopy tour on ropes and cables.. All this, with high quality hotels and great food. More intrepid adventure...

  • Costa Rica Jurassic Experience

    Serendipity guest holds a tree frog

    After soaking in hot springs, hiking through rain forests and Jurassic era cloud forests, getting very close to nature in stealth boats, and lunch in the tree tops in a primary forest, we head to the primordial sea for turtle watching. Oh, yes. active volcano, too. More jurassic experience...

  • Costa Rica Challenge Adventure Tour

    White water rafting on the Pacuare River

    Seven days of muscle stretching, surprising adrenaline and action adventure. Only for the young of soul and fit of body. You'll barely have time to rest between the canopy tour, mountain biking, canyoning in tropical streams, and class IV rafting on the Pacuare River. More challenge adventure...

The first step to enjoying a Serendipity adventure is to contact us.

Quote:

Cata was amazing. She was sensitive to what our family was capable of doing, and what we need to be comfortable and enjoy. We always fell safe on the adventure. A very important point for us. She kept a perfect pace for us, always moving but never in a hurry -- my girls learned a lot from her.

Matias was great help on planning and everything he said and suggested came true. Overall everybody was very professional are gave us great service.

—David T., Plymouth, MN, Mar. 2007

More Testimonials...