Best Costa Rica shore excursions in Limon

Looking for what shore excursions to choose on your cruise to Costa Rica? I always recommend what Costa Rica is most famous for – its rainforest and nature.

At your Caribbean port of call in Limon, Costa Rica, one of the best Costa Rica shore excursions to experience the rainforest and its exotic wildlife is Veragua Rainforest Eco-Adventure.

On cruise ship stops, you normally only have time for a half-day tour, or maybe a full-day tour. The nice thing about Veragua Rainforest Eco-Adventure is that it is located less than an hour away from the pier at Limon. You have minimal travel time, which means more time in the rainforest.

This is real rainforest, not contrived. Veragua Rainforest’s 3,212-acre (1,300-hectare) park is set in the Caribbean coastal mountains bordering the renowned La Amistad International Park. Howler and white-faced monkeys roam the treetops. Hundreds of species of tropical and migratory birds fly through the forest. Brightly colored poison-dart frogs hop along the forest floor.

The award-winning adventure park design at Veragua gives you the most complete rainforest experience possible in a Costa Rica day tour. In addition to being a tourist attraction, important national scientific research is conducted here by Veragua’s team of on-site biologists.

You can choose either a half-day tour (pier-to-pier 5½ hours) or full-day tour (pier-to-pier 7½ hours) for your Limon shore excursion at Veragua. Both tours include a fascinating aerial tram ride through the rainforest canopy, walking trails along a river under giant trees to a beautiful waterfall, and interesting interactive wildlife exhibits: the largest indoor nocturnal and diurnal frog exhibit in the world, reptile and insect areas, and a huge butterfly garden filled with some of the world’s most colorful butterflies including the famed electric-blue Morpho. Veragua Rainforest is completely accessible for disabled visitors.

The full-day tour adds the exciting zip-lines of The Original Canopy Tour®, which has been featured on Discovery Channel, National Geographic and Travel Channel. Lunch is included on the full-day tour.

Article by Shannon Farley

Best place to see frogs in Costa Rica: Veragua Rainforest

Walking through the Costa Rica rainforest in rainy season is the time to hear frogs: calling, croaking, barking, whistling, tinkling, trilling and making all manner of loud sounds.

Why are they so noisy? The quick answer is to attract a mate, and to defend a territory – especially in breeding season. In an evergreen rainforest, newly formed ponds, puddles and pools erupt into a cacophony of several species of frogs all calling and competing at the same time for mates.

The tropics hold many such natural wonders. Costa Rica is home to 133 species of frogs and toads, which are found on all of the planet’s continents except Antarctica. The greatest numbers of species are found in the regions with warm, humid tropical forest.

One of the most frog-diverse places in all of Costa Rica is Veragua Rainforest Eco-Adventure, with 54 recorded species. In the Caribbean mountains by the La Amistad International Park, Veragua hosts a unique Frog Habitat. Their fun interactive exhibits, created by resident biologists, will teach you a lot about the rainforest frogs and toads in Costa Rica.

In the fascinating Nocturnal Frog exhibit, day is artificially turned into night so you can see these nighttime frogs and toads going about their normal lives. You will be given a small flashlight to help you spot the intriguing amphibians. When visitors are gone, night becomes day to allow the frogs to sleep.

In the open-air Diurnal Frog area, you will see native frogs that are most active during the day, such as the colorful Strawberry poison-dart frog. This special group of frogs is so-named from the practice of indigenous hunters in South and Central America to coat the tips of their blow darts or arrows with the toxic secretions from the Dendrobates frogs’ skin.

Learn more about frogs in Costa Rica, along with birds, reptiles, insects and butterflies at Veragua Rainforest Eco-Adventure. The rainforest adventure park is a top attraction in the Caribbean region of Costa Rica, and an important national scientific research center. 

On a cruise to Costa Rica, Veragua Rainforest is one of the best shore excursions from the Caribbean port of Limón Costa Rica. For passengers who only have a few hours to experience Costa Rica’s wonders, Veragua Rainforest is located an hour away from the port of Limon and offers half-day and full-day shore excursions with minimal travel time.

Article by Shannon Farley