Every booking is made directly with our team. Here is how it works.
How you can book
By WhatsApp, email or a form on this site. Tell us your dates, where you are staying and what you would like to do, and we quote you directly.
Bookings are confirmed with a 50% deposit, and the balance is due before your cancellation window closes — 24 hours before a land day tour, 72 hours before a boat charter or a La Fortuna trip. That timing is deliberate: it is the same moment your booking stops being refundable.
On peak dates the windows are longer and payment is in full — see below.
If the balance is not paid by then, the booking is released and the deposit is not refunded. We will remind you before that happens.
You are also welcome to pay in full from the start if you prefer.
Either way, the price you see is the price you pay. Taxes, card processing and door-to-door pickup are included. We do not add booking fees.
How you pay
We accept a secure payment link from Banco Nacional de Costa Rica, a state bank; PayPal; or your card, in person. Cash is also welcome, paid before your cancellation window closes.
We never ask for your card details by message or email. If anyone claiming to be us does, do not answer — write to us on the WhatsApp number below.
Cancellation — day tours on land
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before your start time. Full refund, no questions asked.
Within 24 hours, no refund is available. By then your guide is assigned and your vehicle is committed to you and nobody else.
That 24-hour line is not arbitrary. It is the point where our costs become real.
Cancellation — boat charters and ocean days
Boats work differently, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. A charter commits a captain, a crew and a vessel, and those commitments are made further in advance.
Free cancellation up to 72 hours before pickup. The clock runs from your actual pickup time, not from the calendar day — we confirm that time with you when you book.
Inside 72 hours there is no refund.
Cancellation — multi-day trips and La Fortuna
Anything overnight, and everything we run in the La Fortuna and Arenal area, follows the same 72-hour rule as the boats.
Free cancellation up to 72 hours before your start time. Inside 72 hours there is no refund.
The reason is honest and simple: those days involve lodges, partners and a rainforest operator on the other side of the country. Once they are committed, they are committed — that part is not in our hands the way a morning in Guanacaste is.
Cancellation — airport and private transfers
Transfers within Guanacaste — Playas del Coco, Playa Hermosa, Tamarindo and the other beach areas: free cancellation up to 36 hours before your pickup time.
Long-distance transfers to Arenal, Monteverde or San José: free cancellation up to 72 hours before your pickup time.
Inside those windows there is no refund. If we cancel for safety, you get everything back, whatever the timing.
Cancellation — peak dates
Some weeks of the year everyone wants the same boat, the same guide and the same day. On those dates, a guide, a vehicle or a boat held for you is one we turn other travelers away for, so the rules are firmer.
Peak dates: December 15 to January 15; all of Holy Week, from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday; and all of Thanksgiving week, Monday to Sunday.
Day tours on land: free cancellation up to 7 days before your start time. Inside 7 days there is no refund.
Boat charters, multi-day trips and La Fortuna: free cancellation up to 14 days before your start time. Inside 14 days there is no refund.
Airport and private transfers: free cancellation up to 5 days before your pickup time. Inside 5 days there is no refund.
On peak dates, bookings are paid in full at the time of booking. The 50% deposit does not apply.
If we cancel for safety, or for any reason of our own, you still get everything back.
What happens when the weather turns
This is where land and sea part ways, and it is worth explaining why.
On land, we move — we don’t cancel. Guanacaste holds several different climates within a couple of hours’ drive. When the coast is wet, the dry forest inland may be clear. When the lowlands are hot, the rainforest is comfortable. Part of what you are paying for is somebody who knows which direction to point the car that morning. Rain also tends to help: frogs call, birds feed low, and the forest smells like something.
At sea, we don’t argue with the ocean. High wind, storms or any kind of severe weather, and if the captain calls it off, your refund is 100%. We would rather lose the booking than take you out on a day the sea does not allow.
If we cancel for any reason of our own, on land or water, you get everything back. That is not a policy we negotiate.
Minimum group size
Our tours are private and require a minimum of 2 paying travelers, unless the tour page states a higher minimum.
Traveling alone? You are welcome — simply book 2 spaces. The price covers your private guide and vehicle either way.
Children are welcome on most tours and pay the same as adults, because a private tour costs us the same whoever is in the vehicle. So one adult traveling with one child pays the 2-traveler minimum.
Private means private
Your group is never combined with strangers. You have your own guide, your own vehicle and your own pace.
Other visitors may be present at national parks, reserves and beaches. That is a public place, not a shared tour.
Pickup and timing
Pickup times vary depending on where you are staying. We confirm your exact time by WhatsApp or email after booking.
Published durations are door to door — from pickup to drop-off — and are approximate. They vary with your pickup location and how long you choose to stay at each stop.
Please be ready at the agreed time. We wait 30 minutes. If you are not at the pickup point and we cannot reach you within that time, the tour is treated as a no-show and no refund applies.
Changing your dates
Date changes are not automatic, and we would rather tell you that plainly than promise something we cannot always deliver.
Ask us as early as you can and we will do our best. Whether a change is possible depends on the tour, on availability, and on what has already been committed on your behalf — a guide held for your date, a boat reserved, park entries arranged. Those costs do not disappear because the date moved.
Boat charters and La Fortuna trips are the hardest to move. A vessel and crew are booked for a specific day. A La Fortuna trip commits lodges and a rainforest operator on the other side of the country. In both cases, once those commitments are made they are hard to undo — so a change there is rarely possible. Ask anyway, with as much notice as you can give us.
We are not trying to trap you. We are telling you where the real costs sit so you can plan around them.
Health, age and suitability
Some tours involve walking on uneven ground, boats, or activities with age restrictions. Those are stated on each tour page.
Tell us at booking about mobility limitations, medical conditions, allergies or dietary needs. We would much rather adapt the plan than watch you struggle on the day.
Where we judge an activity genuinely unsafe for a traveler, we will offer an alternative or refund that portion.
Insurance and permits
Guanadreams CR carries civil liability insurance with the Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS), Costa Rica’s national insurer.
Our own vehicles are insured and hold their tourist transport permits from the ICT and the CTP.
Every reserve, park and operator we take you to works under its own Costa Rican permits and regulations. We do not work with anyone who does not.
What we cannot promise
We are not responsible for personal belongings, or for delays outside our control.
And we do not promise animals. We guide in wild places: we know where the wildlife is, at what hour, in what season, and we will give you the best chance anyone can give you. But nature does not take reservations, and any operator who guarantees you a sighting is selling you something they cannot deliver.
Contact
Guanadreams CR — Guanacaste, Costa Rica
WhatsApp: +506 8540 7408
Email: info@guanadreamscr.com