Eco Tourism and Costa Rica Guided Tours 

Have you ever wondered how some places and companies can call themselves “eco-friendly” yet don’t seem to display any good environment saving practices?   Costa Rica Rios offers true eco-tours and is continually striving to set the standard for other companies in our area.

Here are some of the ways we are improving and protecting our environment:

• Recycling – the local municipal of Turrialba has a good recycling plan in place and has a central pick up each month.  There is also a collection point every Saturday in case we gather too much to store.  We recycle almost everything, including plastic bags, individual wrappings from cookies and candy, styrofoam, plastic, tin, aluminum, glass, card, paper etc.  We even donate our organic waste to a local pig and cocoa farmer – imagine turning your food scraps into chocolate?  That is what we are doing, in a round-a-bout way!
• Paper – we only use recycled paper or paper from sustainable sources (sometimes the recycled paper is not available in our town).  We print only when necessary and try to use minimum paper in our office.
• Hotels – we do our best to only use hotels that also have sustainable practices in place.  The hotel that is our base for our Costa Rica adventure tour packages has solar hot water, recycling and is walking distance to our equipment warehouse and office, therefore eliminating the need to transport guests, on our scheduled Costa Rica guided tours, by bus or car.  Walking is the best way to see any town and we are in the heart of this small agriculture center.  For your custom Costa Rica adventure vacation or Costa Rica honeymoon we select hotels in your budget with an emphasis on conservation.  There are many hotels here in Costa Rica that have their own private reserves helping sustain the natural environment, flora and fauna.
• Buying locally – we buy all of our food locally which means it is grown here and sold at the local farmers’ market each week.  We see no sense in buy imported goods when we can purchase almost everything we need, right here.  This helps us keep our carbon footprint small.  This includes cheese, meat, fish (OK, that comes from the coast, but at least it is within Costa Rica), and all fruit and vegetables.  We eat seasonal, tasty and exotic foods.  Any packaged food (ie cookies, candy etc) we buy from local stores and they are also made within Costa Rica.  Our cotton t-shirts and  craft souvenirs are made right here in Turrialba and our biodegradable water bottles are made just down the road in San Jose.
• Laundry – we use cold water washes and biodegradable soaps for our laundry and the sun’s amazing energy for drying.
• No trace – we operate our Costa Rica guided tours and adventure vacations with a no trace policy.  We leave only footprints and take only photos.

There are other practices that we are implementing and we are also educating our local community by teaching our employees the importance of caring for their environment and they in turn are teaching their families and friends.  So if you want a fun Costa Rica adventure vacation and a guided tour that you can take with a clear conscience then you know who to choose; Costa Rica Rios.