Dear fellow traveling families,

Fabulous Costa Rica is the newest Quivertree destination!

Welcome to the Fall edition of our newsletter. It's always a busy time of year, with planning for Xmas and New Year well under way, and it's also high season in India and Myanmar, two of our most popular destinations.

Gideon and his 8 year old son Eitan have just returned from an exploratory trip to Costa Rica, our latest Quivertree family destination. Gideon says: "Costa Rica is an incredible family destination that can be summed up in three words - Adventure and Nature. If you have inquisitive kids who love nature and animals, it's fantastic - sloths, huge iguanas, "see-through" frogs, four different species of monkeys, butterflies disguised as snakes, fantastic birds - it's all there! We enjoyed night time safaris where we saw stick insects the size of one's hand, "blue-jeans" frogs, sleeping birds and we saw turtles laying eggs and a baby turtle hatch and run down to the sea! During the day sloths would take up residence in trees right outside our room and monkeys, macaws and toucans would scream from the trees above.

Costa Rican 3 toed sloth

Adventure wise it's hard to beat. White water rafting catering to all levels, ziplining (our longest single zipline was 1km long!), waterfall rappelling, biking, volcano hikes and more. And all suitable for kids! We planted endangered trees in the jungle, and visited farms where we milked cows, made sugar cane juice, and learned how coffee and chocolate are made!"

At Quivertree we always search for the special places in a country, where fewer tourists go and where everything is that much more authentic and exciting. Contact us today to find out more about the hidden gems of Costa Rica!

Gideon and Eitan during a waterfall adventure

Family trip to China

Don, Danielle, their sons Wyatt, Graham and Owen, and niece Kala went to China - their 4th Quivertree adventure, following their earlier trips to India, South East Asia and Italy. Danielle told us: "We had a great time on our trip! We were pleasantly surprised that China was so welcoming and friendly to foreigners. In fact, this may have been one of our favorite and most memorable trips because of the numerous fun activities that we participated in and the excellence of our guides.

Terracotta Warriors, Xian

I'm not sure I could give you a favorite part...the Great Wall is of course something that everyone needs to see, but the Terracotta Army in Xian is also a must-see. We rode the chair lift up to the Great Wall and did the sled toboggan down. My children would say that they most enjoyed the panda experience. I really think that this 'volunteer' opportunity is the best way to get really close to the pandas. I especially enjoyed watching the children shovel poop! And the baby pandas are so cute. We also really enjoyed the shows that we saw...Kung Fu Show and Acrobatics Show in Beijing were good as well as the Changing Faces Opera in Chengdu and the Sound and Light/Water Show in Yangshuo.

But truly one of our childrens' most favorite activities for the whole trip was when we visited Huanglongxi Old Town on the way to the Leshan Buddha. This town has a cascading man-made waterfall/stone creek which runs through a large portion of the town. This was the scene of an all-out water-gun fight of such that I have never seen. We purchased $3 plastic water guns for our boys (which were for sale everywhere) and it was on! They were immediately attacked by all the Chinese children, especially the girls. They were followed the entire time by a gaggle of children and some adults as we walked our way through the pedestrian streets of the town. It was so funny to watch and they got absolutely soaking wet and had such a great time. Our guide, CiCi (who we really liked), waited so patiently on us. I would suggest all families with children to visit this place and wear swimsuits!

Epic water fight, Huanglongxi!

We all really enjoyed the Longsheng and Yangshuo regions. This is the area where we hiked, biked, kayaked, had a Li River cruise, took a cooking class, and shopped at lots of markets. Our cooking class in Yangshuo was stupendous and the visit to the meat and vegetable market (dogs/cats/rabbits/chickens) was enlightening. This portion of our trip may have been our favorite in general due to all the outdoor activities and the location outside of the big cities. We had more opportunities to interact with the local people and enjoyed visiting the small minority villages."

Getting to grips with cormorants, Yangshuo

Hiking in the spectacular Longsheng area

Some recent Quivertree family trip photos

We've had families all over the world recently! Wendy, Jerry, and kids Garrick and Adelaide went to Ecuador and the Galapagos. Wendy said: "Our trip was wonderful and we had a great time. We had a good balance of active and down time. Thank you for coordinating such a wonderful itinerary - now that we are home and facing a mountain of laundry, at least we have some extraordinary memories!"

Next up, Barbara and her granddaughter, Grace, who also went to Ecuador and the Galapagos. Barbara told us: "We thank you for a great trip. Upon return, Grace sent me a home made card that said, "Dear Grandma, Thank you for taking me on the super fun, fantastic, amazing, once in a lifetime trip to the Galapagos!! I am so glad that you invited me!!"

Jenny, Geraint, and boys Lewis and Nathan went to Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia. They said: "The holiday was just amazing. Quivertree designed the program to perfectly meet our needs - and it was delivered with true excellence."

Finally for this issue, Rapti, Nisha, Maya and John went to Kenya and Tanzania. "The trip was fabulous, excellently planned and arranged by you, and everything went perfectly."