Hello Cece!

This is a great question and one with a somewhat convoluted answer! Let me clarify things for you and any other travelers who happen to be asking themselves the same thing. 🙂

Each tour operator in Costa Rica chooses for themselves if they want to include round-trip transportation to/from area hotels in the cost of their tours. Most do, but some do not, especially tours run by adventure parks like Sky Adventures and the Mistico Arenal Hanging Bridges Park, for example. Each tour operator in Costa Rica also chooses for themselves the boundaries of what they consider to be their normal transportation zone. By “normal transportation zone” I mean the geographical region wherein the tour operator most often provides hotel pick-up and drop-off services.

For tours operated by companies that opt to include round-trip transportation in their tour rates, round-trip transportation is only provided free of charge to/from hotels that fall inside of the tour operator’s normal transportation zone. Transportation to/from hotels that fall outside of the tour operator’s normal transportation zone requires payment of an extra fee, usually to cover the extra gas and the driver’s time to leave and return to the normal transportation zone.

For tours operated by companies that opt not to include round-trip transportation in their tour rates, round-trip transportation is never provided free of charge. Regardless of whether a particular hotel falls inside or outside of the tour operator’s normal transportation zone, round-trip transportation requires payment of an extra fee to cover the cost of gas and the driver’s time. The exact cost of the extra fee is determined by the hotel’s location. If the hotel falls within the tour operator’s normal transportation zone, the fee is a set amount (this is the amount noted on our website as the “Transportation Option” add-on). If the hotel falls outside of the tour operator’s normal transportation zone, the fee would be a custom amount that’s higher than the set amount (the custom amount would be determined by the tour operator according to how far the hotel sits outside of the normal transportation zone).

To help travelers determine which tours listed on our website automatically include round-trip transportation (to/from hotels that fall inside of the tour operator’s normal transportation zone), we confirm this under the “Tour includes” section of each tour’s listing page. You can find the “Tour includes” section just under the price of the tour, following the “Tour departure/return location”, “Tour times”, and “Tour duration” details. You’ll usually see a line that reads something like “Tour includes: [Activity name] tour, lunch, and round-trip transportation to/from [destination name] area hotels.”

If you don’t see “round-trip transportation to/from [destination name] area hotels” listed, then round-trip transportation isn’t automatically included with the tour. In these cases, if there’s an option to purchase round-trip transportation through the tour operator, you’ll see a “Transportation Option” add-on noted just above the blue “Add to cart” button. When you select “Yes” with the “Transportation Option” add-on, the fee (which represents the cost to add round-trip transportation to/from hotels that fall inside of the tour operator’s normal transportation zone) is automatically added to the total tour cost.

I should also confirm that displayed inside the “Hotel name (for pick-up/drop-off coordination, if applicable)” box visible on each tour’s listing page on our website is the text “Some hotels require payment of an extra transport fee. If a fee applies to your chosen hotel, we will email you for approval of the fee amount prior to processing the reservation.” This text appears regardless of whether the tour’s operator opts to include round-trip transportation in the cost of the tour or not because with any tour it could be the case that a traveler wants to be picked-up/dropped-off at a hotel that requires an extra charge. For example, if a traveler selects a tour that is run by a company that automatically includes round-trip transportation in its tour rates, but the traveler needs transportation to/from a hotel that falls outside of the tour operator’s normal transportation zone, then an extra fee would apply. Similarly, if a traveler selects a tour that is run by a company that does not automatically include round-trip transportation in its tour rates, then an extra fee would apply.

To sum up, if you’re looking at a particular tour listed on our website and the “Tour includes” section notes that round-trip transportation is included, there’s a good chance that a complimentary hotel pick-up/drop-off service will be provided to you because most hotels fall within the tour operator’s normal transportation zone. If you tell us the name of your hotel (when you place your order) and it doesn’t fall within the tour operator’s normal transportation zone, we’ll confirm this with you via email before the order is finalized so you can decide whether or not you want to pay the tour operator’s transportation fee. If you’re looking at a particular tour listed on our website that does not include round-trip transportation, you can opt to add this (if available) by selecting “Yes” with the “Transportation Option” add-on. When you do, there’s a good chance that you’ll only pay the set transport fee noted with the “Transportation Option” because most hotels fall within the tour operator’s normal transportation zone. If you tell us the name of your hotel (when you place your order) and it doesn’t fall within the tour operator’s normal transportation zone, we’ll confirm this with you via email before the order is finalized so you can decide whether or not you want to pay the tour operator’s extra transportation fee.

If you’d prefer us to confirm in advance whether a) your particular hotel qualifies for free round-trip transportation, b) your particular hotel qualifies for the tour operator’s set transportation fee (i.e., the cost associated with the “Transportation Option” add-on noted on our website), or c) your particular hotel requires payment of a custom/extra fee because it falls outside of the tour operator’s normal transportation zone, feel free to leave us a question/comment in our forum that describes the name of the tour(s) you’re interested in and the name of the hotel you plan to stay at. We can then confirm with you which transportation costs will apply, if any.

Pura vida! 🙂