EF Educational Tours
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Panama/Costa Rica
1. Lack of freedom-- We had very little time to experience the countries on our own. I would have liked to have had more opportunities to shop and explore the areas with my daughter. 2. Too big of a group-- I felt out of my comfort zone having to do every activity with groups outside of my town. If there was more free time away from the group as a whole, I may have better tolerated traveling with strangers. 3. Malo-- Malo was difficult to understand, and his voice did not carry. Even with the headset in Panama City and the Arenal area, those of us toward the back could not hear/understand what he was saying about the different sites leaving us clueless as to what we were observing. On the bus Malo would start educating about sites we were passing but would drift off the microphone as if he was only taking to those sitting in the front of the bus. Those of us in the back of the bus would only get bits and pieces of his conversations. Additionally, his 'talks' seemed very spontaneous and with little thought/preparation for what he was educating us on. 4. Accommodations-- I feel the large amount of time spent on the bus could have been reduced by better planning of accommodations. There were hotels closer to the Fortuna/Hot Springs area that we passed several times that would have been closer and more ideal to allow earlier bedtimes, opportunities to get more sleep, and reduce travel time. The impression is that the company prioritizes traveling in large groups with subpar accommodations rather than prioritizing the comfort of their travelers. My husband and I traveled to Costa Rica 17 years ago. We stayed in one resort and were able to hike, go horseback riding, go on a zip line tour, go white water rafting, and spend a day on the beach. I would have preferred to have activities closer together as I felt a large portion of my vacation was on a bus. 5. Privacy-- I don't like that, unless I wanted to pay more $$, I had to room with someone I wasn't familiar with. Furthermore, my daughter almost had to room with a stranger from another state. As we are already paying a significant amount of money for the trip, I don't care for the extra $$ required if a parent prefers to room with their child.