ATV Tamarindo to Puerto Viejo

I've been on at least 8 different ATV tours around the world including one other in Costa Rica, this was by far the worst one I've been on. Ronny was an absolutely miserable guide - rude, condescending, and not informative at all and the owners of this company should take SERIOUS note of this. I cant speak on the other guides but he is actually terrible. He made several off handed comments during the tour and just seemed miserable and impatient the whole time. We had to give him a lecture on coordinating instructions with a large group including some beginners after he got angry with part of our group not heeding his hand gestures because they couldnt see how many fingers he was holding up from 200m away. Honestly ridiculous. The front brake was completely disabled which made stopping on a whim very dangerous as we had to rely wholly on the rear break. On several cases with the momentum of two riders on a single ATV going downhill with some speed required some experienced swerving and maneuvering to avoid crashing into riders ahead of us who got stuck on the difficult terrain because the brakes were simply inadequate. Before the tour, some riders in our group asked how to use the reverse function and Ronny insisted that we would not need it and refused to show us. Early on in the tour we had difficult terrain and a sharp turn that nearly sent two ATVs off of a cliff. The riders were stuck with their front wheels partly off the edge of the road without the knowledge of how to reverse. Ronny and the group continued down the hill and it took him a long time before he realized he lost some riders and had to go back and pull their vehicles back into safety simply because they didnt know how to shift into reverse. Ronny expressed no concern, only frustration at the drivers inexperience and had no reservations in voicing his displeasure. The mood was killed for the rest of the tour right from the start. About half of the tour was incredibly dusty enough to reduce visibility from the ATVs ahead of us. We had no expectation of this or opportunity to do anything to protect us from inhaling mouthfuls of dirt. We also crossed paths with two other ATV tour where everyone had bandanas or masks and we can only presume that they were given the bandanas or at least informed and had the opportunity to prepare in advance to deal with the insane amount of dust. At the beach stop my wife asked me to help her take off her helmet, I reached up to help her and Ronny nudged my hand away stating "she has to learn on her own" and continued to show her how to take it off herself, it was strangely aggressive and risked a confrontation with me in the process. By the end of the stop we gave him some gentle remarks that the group was not at all pleased with him and his tone had changed and he assured us the second half was a more gentle ride but it was far too late, no one was having a good time with him. There were a number of other small incidents and off handed comments throughout the trip that I wont speak to but it left a bad taste in the group. At the end of the tour he explicitly asked us for a tip... lol. ATV were a 5/10. They worked okay but the disabling of front brakes weren't a good idea especially on an intermediate terrain. Tour guide was a 2/10. Anything worse would have led to a full out confrontation but he really towed the line. Trail 6/10. Besides the dust it was an OK trail, not very scenic and partly challenging, some of it was on main streets and it made some beginners feel unsafe but as an intermediate rider it was fun for me and there were good opportunities to drive faster than what some might expect around ~50kmph.

This was really fun! Our guide did a great job making sure we knew how to ride our ATVs. We drove down some gravel paths and some dirt paths and saw a really beautiful beach.

We had a fantastic ride with our tour guide, Gabriel! Easy to follow your, ATVs were user friendly, and good scenery. We highly recommend!

My tour guide was Yader and he made the experience so fun. It was so laid back and he was able to point out some monkeys! Super fun would do again.

Ronnie our guide was great! He was so patient. He went slow because I was nervous . Made me feel at ease! He also found monkeys for us since my friend was dying to see them. Great experience!