Local Hero Travel Reviews 

- [ ] General: I think we had expected that a local touroperator would have pointed us to places that we would never have found ourselves. To special/unique accommodations, but also to places for hiking or sightseeing or other types of fun that are not the standard stuff. We did not get that in our itinerary. For example, in the La Fortuna area we found a place at the river called ‘El Salto’ (great!); we also found hot water springs for free, which was a lot more fun than the (very expensive) resorts than you had suggested; and we found a great place to eat near Linda Vista (La Ventanita, owned by a US guy and he knows how to run a restaurant). We had expected to find such suggestions in your itinerary. Our experience is that you usually pay a lot of dollars for nothing special (tours, food, fun), whereas the less touristic places are often better (and cheaper). That was the reason for us to engage Local Hero Travel. You have provided us with quite a standard program without really listening to our expectations and without real local knowledge.
- [ ] Itinerary: it has a day-to-day overview and a general part. The overview needs to be more extensive. For example, it needs to say what to wear (hiking shoes, water shoes, long sleeves, etc). It would be nice if the general part would be made more personal with concrete suggestions what to do and with which organisation. And with restaurant suggestions. And also with ideas on how/where to get laundry done (unless you want to pay the outrageous amounts that hotels are charging).
- [ ] San Jose: next time, I would not mind skipping the day in San Jose.
- [ ] Tortuguero: very touristic, everybody has the same program, starting with the collective bus trip from San Jose. We now understand that booking an individual trip to Tortuguero is difficult, but it would have been nice to get the explanation beforehand.
- [ ] Sarapiqui and La Tigra hiking: in your emails you mentioned that we did not need to book hikes, because there would be trails where we could hike ourselves without a guide. Those are not serious hikes, they only take 15-30 minutes.
- [ ] Sarapiqui rafting: we came on flip flops. That was not allowed, we needed water shoes. This type of information should be in the itinerary.
- [ ] La Tigra lodge: no realistic option to get dinner (and lunch) at another restaurant than at the resort. That is not a problem, but would be nice to know upfront.
- [ ] Linda Vista: by far the worst hotel so far. No service, the bed is way too small for 2 persons and breakfast is just a small plate with some egg or a pancake. Nothing else; no buffet like the other hotels. On top of that the rooms have beds and that’s it. They did not pay any attention to making it a pleasant place to be. I wouldn’t send clients to this place anymore.
- [ ] Rinconcita Lodge: great place, great accommodation, great service. A world of difference compared to Linda Vista. It is far away from villages and restaurants, so you have to eat at the lodge restaurant every evening. No problem at all, but would be nice to know beforehand. We needed more background information.
- [ ] Calala Lodge: nice lodge and nice place with very friendly staff. They had prepared the house for 5 persons though, because you had told them our youngest was just a baby. He is 9 and not a baby. Luckily, the staff solved this quickly. Besides that we had wanted to stay our last few days in a lively area with shops, restaurants and white beaches. None of that is true for Calala; and Montezuma is very small. Calala is quite remote. Places like Playa Carmen and Santa Theresa are much more vivid, but we did not get that option from you. We understand that recently another family that booked via Ecole had the same issue. I wonder if you have ever visited this place to see how remote it is?
- [ ] Snorkling tour: the Zuma tour was nice, but we understand that with a family of 6 you can book a private day tour for the same money. That is something that we would have expected to hear from our local tour operator. I think that is caused by the fact that Ecole works from San Jose and does not really have knowledge about the locations/areas that they book for their clients.

Very close to our intended departure date, Local Hero was able to assemble a great three week tour of Sri Lanka, with a wonderful array of locations, great suggested excursions, and excellent and often very beautiful hotels. Without Local Hero, we would have missed out on an unforgettable family holiday.

In January 2026, we travelled through Argentina with the support of Local Hero Travel. Their local knowledge provide us the best advice and support against much lower costs than other full service travel agents. Also their flexibility fitted perfectly with our desire to customize our travel experience.

We are incredibly satisfied with our experience on the Annapurna Circuit Trekking and would like to share our appreciation!

From the very first moment, we had contact with Abika, who responded very quickly and attentively to our questions. Everything was perfectly arranged. The various guides we had told us a lot about the culture here and what life is like in Nepal for them.

Our guide and porter were absolutely fantastic. Prem and Sujan were knowledgeable, friendly, and ensured that our trek went smoothly. From breathtaking views to warm hospitality along the way, every step was a true adventure. Thanks to the entire team for this unforgettable journey! 🏔️🌟

It was an unforgettable adventure for us. Best regards, father and daughter. 🤎🥾

Normally we always like to travel without any tour guides, so via Local Heroes we only arranged inland flight tickets and a rental car. However they were available 24h per day with assistance for everything including changing the car halfway to a 4x4 and arranging we could leave luggage at a hotel for some days. Felt really easy and secure to hace them as a backup for all our questions. I really recommend this for anyone!

Colombia experience.

We booked a 2 week vacation to Colombia on very short notice. Sjors, the local hero, did an excellent job in organizing a great tour for our family. Very good programs and excellent tour-guides made this a wonderful experience. Definitely would recommend.

From the first moment until the end of the trip Tanja has been extremely helpful, knowledgeable and always very quick with her responses. She came with a well thought through itinerary and ideas for our 3 week round trip but was also very open to incorporate some of the ideas we had, both on accommodation and activities. Tanja has been flexible all along and continuously answered our questions. Accommodations were nice and almost always as expected. We also received a very informative welcome pack. We would highly recommend Tanja for a trip in Africa!

Beautiful roadtrip thanks to Tanja from local hero! Amazing trip around Jo burg in 14days, awesome ecperience!

Incredible experience with Local Hero Vietnam. Everything so well organized. Great guide in the North. Overall homestays very good, hotels good.
Would highly recommend to book with this organization.

We made our first trip with local Hero to Sri Lanka and Maldives. The schedule was planned together with Nipun, the local agent. We were pleasantly surprised by the quality and service provided by Nipun! He provided us detailed information, took ample time to arrive at our optimal travel plan, and has an eye for detail.

During our entire trip we were well taken care of, first of all our great, professional and pleasant driver Nihal. During the entire trip in Sri Lanka he was at our disposal and we traveled in a large almost brand new air conditioned van. Especially the air conditioning was very welcome at the high temperatures during this period of time. Also, in Maldives we were waited for upon arrival on our island.
During the trip few issues happened and they were well handled by Nipun and/or Nihal.

The trip itself was a balance between sightseeing, activities and moments of rest. The quality and personal touch of the activities clearly outstood the standard. One attention point is the quality of the accomodation. Most places we stayed in were clean, well prepared and comfortable, however two hotels clearly were not up to the standard (mold, dirty).

I booked an unforgettable trip to South Africa together with my mom and sister. I chose this organisation because the trip is organized by a local, which I think is pretty special, especially when you want to contribute to the local economy. Our local hero Tanja knew everything about the country and managed to make a proposal that really matched all our needs and wishes. She’s very quick, friendly and pro-active in her support and contact. We travelled the country with our rental car for 22 days. From Jo’burg via the Panorama Route towards Kruger. And via Swaziland and Durban to Cape Town and Stellenbosch. Unforgettable were the Timbavati Private Game Reserve where we were saw so many animals and loved being in nature. Also our bush lodge in Nelspruit really stood out. So beautiful, very nice people and a fantastic accommodation with wild zebra’s in our backyard. Wow! On a regular basis Tanja checked if everything was still alright and assisted us during the trip where needed. Really a nice lady who we could count on and we were happy to meet her! When we wanted to arrange something special for our mom, Tanja arranged a nature drive with a private bush dinner at sunset. Imagine a camp fire, south african wine and an excellent diner temidst of fire lanterns and a breath taking view. Really appreciated all the great ideas and her service throughout the journey. I definitely recommend booking with Local Hero Tanja.

Our second time this year with local Hero travel. After our Nice expierences in Costa Rica we decided to work together again.
This time we were supported by Tanja for our trip to South-Africa and Swaziland.
Wonderful accomodations in the Kruger park with out rooftop tent and 4x4, great help and support. And we saw way more of SA because of the local knowledge of Tanja. This helped us very much in taking a non-turistic deepdive info this wonderful region.

South Afrika May 2018

Thanks Tanja,
You did a great job.
Next time we going again, whe will contact you.
Whe had a wonderfull time, and everthing went so well!

Thanks