Coffee Farm Experience And Poás Volcano Crater Tour From San José

Well worth the tour! Eric was a fantastic guide. Great experience for a short vacation.

It was a good half day activity to get out of the city. The coffee plantation was interesting. We learned something’s about coffee and coffee in Costa Rica. Poas volcano is hit or miss. Our day was a miss. Clouds covered the volcano the whole time. We got to walk a bit, so that was good. I don’t think Viator does a good job of letting you know what to bring. It was cool and rainy at the volcano. I was prepared, but others were not.

Roberth entertained and informed our group throughout the whole experience. We had only booked the half day (Doka & Poas) and we were sad to leave the group when they continued on to the waterfall portion. The volcano is a bit of a gamble depending on the weather, when we arrived the clouds had just filled the crater, but many in the crowds had just taken the most beautiful clear photos of the view only 5 min prior. So we waited for 10 min, and we were able to see a part of the crater when for a brief moment the blue sky appeared. We weren’t able to stay long as the amber light began to flash indicating unhealthy levels of sulphur. All in all it was a great opportunity, that shouldn’t be missed. The facilities were nice. If you are one of the lucky ones… the photos of the open crater are amazing!

Responsive tour company, would notify and confirm time of pick-up the day before (which I appreciate as some companies here don’t seem to do that). The guide was trying his best to tell us everything about Costa Rica. The experience was good too - not too rush but sufficient time. Except it really depends on the weather to see the volcano which nobody had control over.

The tour itself is fine. The coffee tour and breakfast were good. My main issue was with the transportation. The pickup was very late (~20 minutes after the scheduled pick up time) and I thought they had forgotten to pick me up or just straight up canceled the tour. When the shuttle was returning to San José to drop us off, there was insane traffic, as it took us almost 3 hours to get back into the city center. By the time we arrived at the drop off point, it was almost 5pm, and I had missed my other tour I had booked that started at 4:30pm, which was nonrefundable. I know the traffic is not their fault, but please keep in mind that while this is advertised as a half day tour, it will most likely turn into a full day tour with the traffic.

My husband and I actually scheduled a private excursion to accommodate my mobility needs, but this is the closest tour to what we had, I believe. We started with the Poas Volcano with a stop at the Fresi Coffee and Souvenir Shop, where we sampled (and bought) delicious coffee and some gifts. Our tour guide, Eric Florez, arranged for the Red Cross ambulance to take us up the long, steep hill from the visitor center to the volcano, which was the only way I would have been able to see it. The scenery on the way was gorgeous and Eric shared about many aspects of Costa Rica on the way. Next we went to the Doka coffee farm, which was gorgeous and amazing. We had a delicious Cota Rican lunch and then Eric taught us about growing, harvesting and processing the coffee beans, showing us around the equipment. We sampled the coffee and chocolates there and shopped at the gift shop. Eric comes from generations of tour guides and is very knowledgeable. He was receptive to our many questions and seemed well liked and respected by the staff at the sites. He was very patient with and helpful to me. I would highly recommend him. Also, our driver was amazing how he navigated the steep, winding mountain roads. I never felt unsafe, even though it was scary. I would highly recommend Expediciones Tropicales!

From the moment I received my booking confirmation to the moment I got dropped off the experience was magnificent. Henry was an amazing driver ensuring the safety of all passengers, José was an amazing tour guide, showing the true love not only for his own job but his beautiful country, explaining every single thing very detailed and switching from English to Spanish to make sure everyone understood everything he was talking about. I can’t wait to come back to Costa Rica and book more adventures with Expediciones Tropicales Day Tours

We had such an incredible time. We had our 15 month old and everything was seamless and really fun. Pedro was our guide and he is so knowledgeable and skillful. There were a total of 16 people, 4 different groups, and we all bonded quickly. I accidentally selected the wrong pick up location and despite it being Christmas Day, I was able to easily fix the pickup location. I highly recommend both the specific your we went on and the company.

We had a lovely ride with views of the central valley and the minibus was quite comfortable. It was very interesting learning about coffee production. We were afraid that we’d miss the volcano since it was covered with cloud, but then it cleared and the view was great.

The half day tour was actually 8 hours start to finish but we had a good time. The guide was very informative.

This was a nice way to learn about coffee and its production in a more traditional fashion. The breakfast was nice but the coffee was excellent! Unfortunately, we had no view of the volcano, but that is just how nature goes sometimes.

My husband and I did the half day tour visiting the Doka coffee plantation and the Poaz Volcano. It was such a wonderful experience! We were lucky and had a super clear viewing of the crater. The breakfast was delicious, the coffee tour was so fun to learn about, the volcano experience was superb and the guide (Adrienne?) was exceptional! Highly recommend!

Great experience! The only thing I would improve/change is to allow a bit more time for breakfast. In our case it felt really rushed, and we were looking forward to having a nice breakfast with the opportunity of tasting the different coffee types calmly. ~25 min (maybe even a little less) for ordering food eating it and trying different coffee, was not the relaxing morning start we were looking for. The food quality and taste (traditional costa rican cuisine) was enjoyable! Max was a great tour guide with plenty of experience and knowledge! He was very thorough when explaining the different stages of coffee processing and types. We really enjoyed the tour. After the coffee experience we headed to Poas, and we were lucky to have a beautiful sunny day to enjoy the walk towards the crater. We even had time to walk to the lagoon and do some souvenir shopping! Overall a very pleasant experience and a good way to get to know more about the coffee industry in Costa Rica, plus enjoy some of its natural wonders!

Not really recommendable to book a tour from San José with personal pick-up. Although it might be comfortable for you, it is quite exhausting, when you have to wait that several other participants are picked-up. Coffee tour and volcano were quite nice tho.

Roy and Javier were wonderful. Despite the clouds, it was a fantastic tour and Javier was very knowledgeable and personable. Quick tip—you get coffee samples at both the beginning and end of the coffee tour, so pace yourself (or don’t!).

Martin was the best tour guide I had in a week of tours in Costa Rica. I learned a ton and was lucky to be one of the 30% of people that actually sees the crater (be warned, there's often clouds). I'm not a coffee fan, but the experience was great and I learned a lot (it's not a coffee tasting experience, though you do get coffee, this is more of a planation educational tour)

Our guide was entertaining and informative at the locations and on the bus. The coffee at Doka was just okay. The plantation offers so much to see that we did not get to see, such as butterfly garden and bonsai garden. We would have liked more time there. The Volcano was amazing. We were lucky as it was clear and we could see it The walk yo the lake/crater also beautiful Our biggest complaint and why we would never do it again was the travel. They forgot to pick us up.But the made it right and sent a driver to have us catch up with the the bus. Fortunately because we heard it turned out to be lucky they missed us or we would have been on the bus for 90 minutes for 11 hotel stops. That is why we were able yo catch up leaving at 7:30 vs 6:20 The reason so many stops is they combined the half day and full day tours on one bus. When tour was over they put us on half days on a smaller van and told we would be back in 35 minutes. It took 2 hours to get back thanks to hotel stops and San Jose traffic. All our zen feeling from the volcano site was gone! Had there been a better description we would picked a different tour.

Boring tour, not enough information. And there is no tour of the plantation grounds. The coffee was more expensive on this tour and not very exciting to drink. The volcano was beautiful but the overall tour was meh.

The tour guide was excellent and so knowledgeable. This was a great tour of you love coffee and want to see an active volcano.

On time pick up, very organized and tour bus very clean, comfortable and new. Had a wonderful tour guide Gary and driver Roy. Doka coffee plantation tour very informative, breakfast was good. Was Able to see the crater of the Poas Volcano with extra effort from our guide who kept us updated all the time with the activity. Highly recommended tour company.

Coffee tasting experience was not as expected. We were shown to 5 coffee dispensers and told here try whatever you wanted

Wonderful visit to Poas Volcano and the Doka Estate Coffee Plantation! I also enjoyed the humor and overall knowledge of our tour guide Pedro, even though we got caught up in some heavy rain after seeing the volcano and lagoon on the way back to our tour bus (but that’s to be expected during the rainy season). I recommend this tour to other travelers.

Spectacular views , awesome,knowledgeable & friendly tour guide(Gary).This tour is amazing I highly recommend this tour for anyone want to see part of Costa Rica beauty & magic. Thank you very much Costa Rica.

Pickup at 5:45am even though I booked for 7:30. Total of 9 hours not 6 as advertised due to all the driving round, pickups, drop offs. Breakfast was minimal but edible. Coffee tour wasn’t great. Volcano was amazing but we had less than an hour there. Would not recommend for the price.

This day was excellent. The guide we had was Alejandro. He was wonderful, so informative. The coffee tour was great, loads of info and so informative. The volcano was beautiful and really enjoyed his wise words and knowledge. Overall highly recommend. The guide was superb, speaks english perfectly and answered all questions! Wonderful, thank you

Gari and Christiano make an amazing team. Very true to themselves and their land they help you discover. Based on my somewhat overlapping experience with other tours, I can tell how much more knowledgeable and down-to-earth they are.

Wonderful trip. Everything worked like clockwork and Donal our guide was great. The coffee farm trip was excellent and we were fortunate to have good weather and clear views of Poas Volcano and the upper lake before the clouds came over. Would have no hesitation in recommending the tour.

If more time can be allocated to POAS Volcano, it would serve seniors enough time to see both craters. On my return trip to the hotel. I waited an hour at the pit stop to wait for another group before taking the van back to the hotel. Not too good an arrangement. For half day tour, it is important to know approx. what time we can get back to the hotel as time is tight for tourist.

A glimpse at the Poas crater in between 2 clouds, excellent information provided by the guide. Great group to be with!

Well planned trip to view one of the largest Calderas and taste some great coffee along the way. The weather favored us and we got some fantastic views. Our guide Pedro was very enthusiastic and kept us informed about the sights along the way. His sense of humor made the trip more memorable.

Loved the coffee tour! Unfortunately it was really cloudy when we went so we didn’t see anything but that’s just the weather in the mountains! The guide was fantastic and very knowledgeable. Completely recommend!

Donald was very knowledgeable; he walked us through Doka coffee plantation after we had a traditional Costa Rican breakfast and tried locally produced coffee. We learnt about the production process and peaberry coffee. Then we went to Poas and enjoyed an easy and pleasant hike to see the crator and the lagoon while learning about the plants that grow at the foot of the volcano. We got lucky and the crator wasn't covered by clouds. After the tour was over, we made a stop at a local shop where we were offered to try cheese and wine. Totally worth getting up at 5 am for!

Exciting, good guide, everything very organized, you must walk, but the view at the end is totally worth it.

What a pleasure to hike, our guide of excellence Pablo and our driver Edgar. Pablo ; besides being an excellent person has a lot of knowledge and enthusiasm! We had a wonderful day..an otherwise delicious breakfast and the whole walk was magnificent and excellently organized! Poas Volcano gave us unforgettable postcards and the weather was AMAZING! Without a doubt, SUPER RECOMMENDED.. don't miss it! And Pure Life ✌🏽

Great experience. Beautiful places. I highly recommend Costa Rica. Max, excellent guide. Thanks for the charisma, wonderful dialogue.

Due to a sudden illness, I was unfortunately unable to start the booked excursion on the original date. I then contacted the travel agency and had contact with Daniel. I would like to commend the team and especially Daniel, Max and David for the quick, uncomplicated help and great goodwill. Without additional costs or long discussions, my trip was immediately postponed to the next day. Such accommodation is not a given and shows that the travel agency really values its customers. Thank you again for this excellent Service! I can highly recommend this travel agency.

What a pleasant experience my husband and I had. Thank you very much, Mario (Bubba) for all your attention. We had a delicious breakfast, it was a very pleasant tour of the coffee plantation and the crater of the volcano was super clear. We carry Costa Rica in our hearts. PURE LIFE! 🇨🇷

We did the day tour to the Poas + Doka volcano. We did it with Martín and Vladimir as the driver. The experience was super good. We learned from Martín the coffee production process and many things about the volcano. It seemed that the crater of the volcano was not going to be seen, but hey, Martín told us to think positively and about 20 minutes later the crater cleared and we could see it!! We were very impressed with how Martín handled the explanations in Spanish and English in parallel. Our group was small, which was appreciated. Martín even made an effort to speak in sign language so that a participant in the group could understand the explanations. Oh, and the breakfast, very delicious! 100% recommended

Die besuchten Orte waren sehr beeindruckend und lohnenswert. Diese Tour allerdings können wir leider nicht empfehlen. Es ist uns mehr als einmal aufgefallen, dass hier alles so schnell wie möglich hinter sich gebracht werden sollte, sowohl die relativ kurze Kaffeetour, als auch die knapp bemessene Zeit am Vulkankrater. Wirklich unverschämt fanden wir allerdings die Aussage von unserem Guide Gary zu dem Vulkankrater. Hier gibt es neben dem dem Krater noch einen Pfad, der zu einer Lagune führt. Gary hat gesagt, dass er uns zwar die einmalige Chance bieten würde, dort lang zu laufen, allerdings sehr stark davon abrät, da dieser eigentlich gesperrt wäre und sehr schwierig zu bewältigen sei. Er selbst würde dort auch auf keinen Fall laufen. Dadurch war die Gruppe sehr verunsichert. Als wir dort waren, sahen wir jedoch, dass der Pfad keineswegs gesperrt ist und sehr viele Leute von allen Altersklassen dort entlang gegangen sind. Nachdem wir uns in unserer Gruppe ohne Guide beraten hatten, ging ein kleiner Teil inklusive uns den Pfad. Es war ein sehr gut mit Treppen und Geländer befestigter Wanderpfad, nach 20 Minuten war man an der (sehr schönen) Lagune. Leider haben sich aufgrund Garys Aussagen letztendlich nicht alle getraut, den Pfad zu gehen, was wir wirklich unverschämt finden, denn seine Aussagen waren zum einen unfassbar übertrieben und zum anderen auch teilweise gelogen. Höchstwahrscheinlich wollte er die Reisenden davon abbringen, damit der eng getaktete Zeitplan nicht überschritten wird. Aber bei ca. 94 € pro Person erwarten wir da wirklich mehr, sowas geht überhaupt nicht. Auch weitere komische Aussagen kamen von dem Guide, beispielsweise wurde uns das integrierte Frühstück als all-you-can-eat Buffet angepriesen, wo man sich zwar nur einmal was holen darf, aber dabei so viel nehmen kann wie man will. Auch das war nicht wahr, die Küche an der Kaffee-Farm hat exakt für die Personenzahl der Tour Essen vorbereitet und jeder hat eine vom Personal zugewiesene Menge erhalten. Das ist ja an sich in Ordnung, aber dann bitte nicht vorher so einen Schwachsinn erzählen. Wir möchten nochmal betonen, dass sich der Vulkankrater wirklich lohnt. Nur von dieser Tour müssen wir leider sehr abraten.

Excellent guide Adrian, very attentive, tour in Spanish and English. Din setbacks, food very good, explanation of each place

Gary was very friendly and explained many important facts about Costa Rica and the Poás volcano. He also gave us the coffee plantation tour and we had an excellent breakfast typical of Costa Rica, everything was delicious. We took the half day tour and would have loved to take it full with the falls.

The visit to the cafe was very interesting but it is a pity that we spent far too much time there when the sky was clear in the early morning and therefore arrived too late at the Poas volcano. We could see the volcano only 10 min and impossible to see the lagoon because we were in the fog. Really disappointed!

Weather is really important. Be sure to check the weather and participate in the tour... There was no rain, but there was a lot of rain on the Poirot volcano and it was impossible to see the volcano at all. Especially though there was plenty to avoid the rain, the guide left everyone in the rain and explained everything, which he felt a little difficult to understand and careless.

Excellent experience!!!!, very friendly, entertaining and trained guide. Fully recommended. Chaaaoooo