TURISMO CURU AGENCIA DE VIAJES

Muy bello, increible lugar.

Muy bonito, limpio, seguro y ordenado

We booked the whole-day package including snorkeling at Tortuga Island + boat transfer to Quesera Beach + bioluminescence boat ride (in total: 44k colones per person, does not include park admission for ~8k pp). Note that you can get information on the tours in the office in Paquera (location: "Turismo Curú" on Google maps), but the tours start at the main area inside Curú Wildlife Refuge.

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)

Mi esposa y yo pagamos el tour a Isla Tortuga y nos gustó mucho. Los guías fueron muy amables y nos llevaron a una zona de snorkel muy clara para que pudiésemos ver los peces. Se preocuparon siempre por nuestra seguridad y la de las personas que nos acompañaban. Nos explicaron a detalle sobre lo que estábamos observando en varios puntos del recorrido en inglés y español. Muy bonita experiencia. Y aunque no tomamos el tour de la bioluminiscencia la muchacha que nos atiende también nos brindó información muy importante sobre el mismo para cuando vayamos a adquirirlo. Excelente experiencia.

Nous étions vraiment ravi d'aller faire une belle journée de plongée avec Curu Turismo. D'abord pour accéder à la plage de départ qui est dans une réserve, il faut payer 50$ sans en avoir été informé. Ensuite Luis, le patron, avait perdu notre caution et me l'a réclamé la veille de la plongée... Enfin l'accueil est épouvantable: la patronne nous demande de payer en cash 240$ pour ne pas avoir à les declarer. Quand je lui demande de payer en carte Visa, ça devient 270$. A ce moment le fameux Luis arrive et se met à nous invectiver violemment en disant que si on ne veut pas payer en cash, on peut partir et qu'il va s'occuper des autres clients!

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 !