When your cruise ship docks in Limon, spend the day exploring highlights of Costa Rica's Caribbean side on this combo shore excursion. Taste farm-fresh tropical fruit and learn about the region's sweetest export and see a banana plantation. You'll also get an up-close look at Costa Rican wildlife like birds, monkeys, and frogs on a rainforest boat safari tour down the biodiverse Tortuguero Canals. Swim or sun at a local beach and take a tour of the bustling port city of Limon before getting back on your ship.

Full-day combo shore excursion from Limon
Explore Caribbean Costa Rica with a local guide
Learn how bananas are cultivated and harvested
Cruise along the Tortuguero Canals on a boat safari
Relax and swim on Playa Bonita beach
Take a sightseeing tour of Limon's port city
Great way to get a taste of the region's nature and culture in one day

What's Included

Transportation
Bilingual tour guide
Fruit-tasting experience
Banana plantation tour
Tortuguero Canals boat safari
Stop at Playa Bonita beach
Limon port sightseeing
Port pickup and drop-off

Food and drinks
Gratuities
Lunch

Meeting And Pickup

You can head directly to the meeting point, or request pickup

Meeting point

Puerto Limon
Puerto Limon, Puerto Limon, Province of Limon
We wait for our passengers on the blue pier gate about 200 m following the white stripes in the ground with a sign with their names. All our vans and staff are identified with our GioTours logo.

Pickup point

Limon

Start time

08:00 am

End point

This activity ends back at the meeting point.

Pickup details

We wait for our passengers on the blue pier gate about 200 m following the white stripes in the ground with a sign with their names. All our vans and staff are identified with our GioTours logo.

What To Expect

Tortuguero Canal

1 hour 30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Playa Bonita

1 hour 30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received within 48 hours of booking, subject to availability
Not wheelchair accessible
Minimum drinking age is 18 years
May be operated by a multi-lingual guide
At time of booking, cruise ship passengers must provide the following information: ship name, docking time, disembarkation time, and re-boarding time
Refunds will not be issued if tour/activity is missed due to late or non-arrival of cruise ship

A minimum of 4 people per booking is required
Infant seats available
Most travellers can participate
If infant seats are needed please inform us
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 40 travellers

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.

Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.
This experience requires good weather. If it’s cancelled due to poor weather, you’ll be offered a different date or a full refund.
This experience requires a minimum number of travellers. If it’s cancelled because the minimum isn’t met, you’ll be offered a different date/experience or a full refund.

Traveller Photos

Reviews

4.5

52 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travellers.

Showing 1-10 of 52 reviews

Saw lots of wild life,...

Stephanie_A, Feb 2023

Saw lots of wild life, including sloths. Brilliant, friendly, knowledgeable guide, nothing was too much trouble

Response from Host, Feb 2023

Dear Stephanie_A, Thank you very much for taking the time to write us a review! We are happy to know that you had a nice tour, got to see so many animals and that the tour guide did a good job. If you ever come back to Costa Rica again don't hesitate in letting us know as it would be our pleasure to show you every detail of this beautiful country!

Highlights

KMMGeller, Feb 2023

Liked getting up close to see the sloths when on the canal cruise. People up front on the bus said they didn't want to stop at the beach or the fruit stand stop so we missed those 2 experiences. Jose should have gone down the aisle and taken a vote to see who would like to make those stops! Disappointing for us. So highlights wasn't really accurate. Missed 2 important highlights.

Response from Host, Feb 2023

Dear KMMGeller, Thank you very much for taking the time to write us a review! We appreciate your comments about the experiences, we have talked to our tour guides and will make sure that our tour guides keep the expected schedule and if anything needs to be changed for them to discuss it with the whole group. If you ever come back to Costa Rica again don't hesitate in letting us know as it would be our pleasure to show you every detail of this beautiful country!

Broken air conditioning

floridawineaux, Feb 2023

Pablo, our tour guide, was very nice and knowledgeable…however he should not have allowed a very small minority of people dictate whether we saw certain things that we expected on this excursion…namely the beach and fruit stand. The worst thing was the air conditioning on the bus, which was almost non-existent. We have done many excursions with Viator all over the world and been pleased, but this was not one of those times.

Response from Host, Feb 2023

Dear floridawineaux, Thank you very much for taking the time to write us a review! We are sorry to hear that the way the activity management was not ideal, we have talked to our tour guides and will make sure that this is avoided in the future. We also apologize for the situation with the A/C, the bus we were using for the day had a mechanical failure in the middle of the tour that kept half of the bus without the air conditioner. As soon as the bus came back to our headquarters we send it to the shop to fix it. Unfortunately this was an out of the ordinary situation that happened the very day of the tour.

More educational and fun than you can imagine

Scott_O, Jan 2023

Guide was amazing and informative. He knew everything about the plants, animals and locations we went. this was very educational and very fun. The time flew by. Family loved it. Out of all the tours we took this was their favorite.

Response from Host, Jan 2023

Dear Scott_O, Thank you very much for taking the time to write us a review! We are very pleased to know that you and your family liked and had fun in our tour. If you ever come back to Costa Rica again don't hesitate in letting us know as it would be our pleasure to show you every detail of this beautiful country!

Not a good time. Very bad ending

Sookyeon_K, Jan 2023

Do yourself a favor and please avoid playa Bianca. The canal safari was decent and we had fun. But the beach is so lame. And the tour guide told us to go to restaurant called quinbamba on the beach. That was a nightmare. The guide said the other restaurant was too expensive. Ha! That true. We waited for food for 50 minutes and still no sign of food. So we went to reina‘s that tour guide said was too expensive and not good. Liar! We wasted time on the beach and the restaurants Are really bad and the beach is super bad. Skip the beach. On top of that, they overbooked and my husband had to sit on the some tiny stool on the bus

Response from Host, Jan 2023

Dear Sookyeon_K, Thank you for taking the time to write us a review We are glad to know that you had fun in the Safari Boat tour and the other portions of the tour. We are sorry that the beach portion at the end of the tour was not of your liking. Since you visited our country for such a small period of time our options to go to beaches close by are limited. As you were able to notice, you came to Costa Rica on peak season, our tour guide made recommendations of restaurant options, however, they were probably full and that was the reason why it took so long, as you may understand, the serving capacity of a restaurant is out of our control and our tour guide made recommendations based on their experience of the local area. We are very sorry about the overbooking and are working hard to avoid this situation from happening again.

Limon Canal and bananas

Stacy_S, Dec 2022

Pablo was an incredible guide. He spotted wildlife and helped us get great pictures. We enjoyed the canal and found the banana plantation that was created for tourists to keep the real plantations safe and was neat. He broke open a cacao pod for us to taste. The fruit stand was fun also. We enjoyed many small bananas. We would do the tour again.

Response from Host, Jan 2023

Dear Stacy_S, Thank you very much for taking the time to write us a review! We are happy to learn that you enjoyed our our tour and the banana plantation experience. If you ever come back to Costa Rica again don't hesitate in letting us know as it would be our pleasure to show you every detail of this beautiful country!

Great Experience

Shawn_H, May 2022

Fantastic tour and fantastic tour guide. Pablo was amazing and we felt safe and secure the entire trip while seeing beautiful scenery, visiting awesome local spots and hearing about rich Colombian history. Would recommend.

Response from Host, Aug 2022

Dear Shawn_H, Thank you very much for taking the time to write us a review! We are glad you were able to enjoy our Caribbean Highlights Shore Excursion tour here in Costa Rica. If you ever come back to Costa Rica again don't hesitate in letting us know as it would be our pleasure to show you every detail of this beautiful country! Just access our website for information or write us directly to our email!

Great experience

Dona_H, Dec 2021

Great experience with Jesus!! Spotted lots of animals for us!! Knowledgeable and great guide. Would recommend if coming to Limo n.

Response from Host, Mar 2022

Dear Dona_H, Thank you very much for taking the time to write us a review! We are glad you were able to enjoy this tour as much as we did! We are happy that you were able to see so many animals and that Jesus our tour guide did a good job. If you ever come back to Costa Rica again don't hesitate in letting us know as it would be our pleasure to show you every detail of this beautiful country! Just access our website for information or write us directly to our email!

Best shore excursion ever!!

Rcbiggert, Dec 2021

We booked this as a shore excursion. It was fantastic the tour guide was amazing , pick up and drop off right at the port terminal. I would highly recommend this trip.

Response from Host, Mar 2022

Dear Rcbiggert, Thank you very much for taking the time to write us a review! We are glad you were able to enjoy this tour as much as we did! If you ever come back to Costa Rica again don't hesitate in letting us know as it would be our pleasure to show you every detail of this beautiful country! Just access our website for information or write us directly to our email!

Great tour

Thomas, Mar 2020

Many thanks to our great tour guide during this day. Very informative day, we saw sloths, he found a beautiful frog and I really liked the respectful way he treated the animals, the wildlife and his country.

Response from Host, Apr 2020

Dear Thomas, Thank you very much for taking the time to write us a review! We appreciate your comments and are glad you were able to see a small section of this beautiful country. If you ever come back to Costa Rica again don't hesitate in letting us know as it would be our pleasure to show you every detail of this beautiful country! Just access our website for information or write us directly to our email! Owner, Gian Carlo Granados

Local flavor tour

David_P, Mar 2020

Very good tour. Tour guide Adonys was well spoken, informative, humorous, and an overall nice guy. Good history of Costa Rica and Limon. Banana plantation was disappointing as we could only drive close to the fields. Beach tour was no more than having a 15 minute look-see. The river tour was pretty neat although the resident animals were difficult to see. The market tour was very good as we were able to sample fruits and other foods and do some shopping for local merchandise.

Response from Host, Apr 2020

Dear David_P, Thank you very much for taking the time to write us a review! We are glad to know that you considered our tour very good as well as our tour guide. Unfortunately due to the banana disease Fusarium we cannot enter the fields due to mandatory phytosanitary restrictions and well being of the local economy. We are happy to know that you also enjoyed the tour even though animals, as you can understand, live on their own and move freely across the rain forest. If you ever come back to Costa Rica again don't hesitate in letting us know as it would be our pleasure to show you every detail of this beautiful country! Just access our website for information or write us directly to our email! Owner, Gian Carlo Granados

Amazing trip

James_P, Feb 2020

This was a fun and informative excursion. Our guide was Jesus and he did an amazing job. We saw a sloth which had come down from a tree and got close up photos and videos of it walking on the ground before climbing up another tree. The boat ride on the canals was a little disappointing due to limited wildlife observations and lots of other boats around. Jesus grew up in the area and he took us out into the jungle a little ways where he found a strawberry dart frog to show us for up close photos. We highly recommend this excursion.

Response from Host, Feb 2020

Dear James_P, Thank you very much for taking the time to write us a review! We are happy to know that you were able to enjoy the excursion and even see a sloth! As you understand sometimes wildlife may be complicated to spot as it moves freely but that's just part of been in the tropics and not a zoo! If you ever come back to Costa Rica again don't hesitate in letting us know as it would be our pleasure to show you every detail of this beautiful country! Just access our website for information or write us directly to our email! Owner, Gian Carlo Granados

Great experience.

misch99, Jan 2020

Our guide Pablo was excellent. It seemed like he loved the country and was excited to share everything with us. We enjoyed the tour.

Really enjoyed the tour.

Sue_E, Jan 2020

Jesus our guide was excellent. i use a walker. Staff were great in assisting me, They even made sure I had the first seat on the bus.

Guides had as much fun as we did!

JMM-LA, Jan 2020

Pablo & driver Jose were eager to share their city with us - stopping along the route to view wild monkeys and sloths in the trees - INCREDIBLE! Absolutely loved the cruise along Tortuguero Canal - spotted lots of wildlife. This was the best tour on our Panama Canal cruise!

Avoid at all Costs! False Advertising and total Bait and Switch.

Rick_L, Jan 2020

Let me first note that the tour guides themselves were wonderful and had nothing to do with this falsely advertised tour. However, there was NO opportunity for any Rainforest hike as described in the tour description. In addition, when we arrived to the banana plantation, we were told that due to a long-running "fungus" affecting the banana crop, we were not allowed to get off the bus. Instead, we sat on the bus and looked at the entrance while being told about bananas. Choose this tour if you only want to sit on the Tortuguero Canals in a boat for 2 hot hours looking for wildlife. Really? We only signed up for this tour because it described "You'll also get an up-close look at Costa Rican wildlife like birds, monkeys, and frogs on A RAINFOREST HIKE and a boat safari down the biodiverse Tortuguero Canals." Too bad, there was NO rainforest hike. We would not have even signed up for this tour if we had known it was only a boat tour. And Viator has not been of very much help either. Do NOT go with GioTours unless you wish to be deceived.

Response from Host, Jan 2020

We are truly sorry for the honest mistake in the description text in Viator. And we are also glad to find that your tour guides were excellent as well as mostly all of the tour was as described. In Costa Rica is truly hard to miss the rainforest and even if you didn't have the hike, you were, as you consigned two hours in the tropical forest, looking for wildlife. The banana fungi is not a story, it is a tragedy that is affecting the Caribbean plains plantations, and they are in quarantine. Not our choice, at all. But if we pass in, your shoes would have taken the disease abroad as it is very contagious and on rainy season the precautions are extremed. Unfortunately these situations are not predictable and our mistake was not updating fast enough our descriptions. If you are back in Costa Rica ever, please let us know, so that we can make it up to you. Owner, Gian Carlo Granados

Great deal!

Joel_G, Dec 2019

Great opportunity to see much of the area. Boat trip especially good with guide who pointed our various creatures living near the water: lizards, sloths, birds, and more.

Wonderful tour

GWalsh77, Dec 2019

This was the best tour we did on our Caribbean cruise, it is excellent. The guides and especially Jesus are amazing. Costa Rica is great.

Jesus was great

Joann_S, Dec 2019

5 star Jesus was great. we got to go places other tours did not go! If you have a chance to go with him grab it.

Caribbean highlights

Rick_B, Dec 2019

Best Excursion we have ever taken seen places that no other tour would ever take you ,the guide loved his island his lsland and new we agree.