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Exploring this coastline by ship provides a rich South America adventure and learning opportunities, without the hassles of getting around a foreign country.

If you're looking for a family adventure that explores the natural world yet doesn't require roughing it, then Cruise West's annual summer family cruises on Costa Rica's Pacific Coast will certainly fit your style. My 10-year-old daughter Alex, her godmother Kathy, and I sailed aboard the Pacific Explorer in June 2004 and were totally in awe of Costa Rica's prolific and exotic natural life. We got to ride zip lines through the tree tops, hold a baby monkey, and swim in a river in the midst of the rainforest, to name a few adventures

Adventurerers of All Ages

While Alex was a perfect age to partake in all the varied outdoor activities for both kids and adults, I don't recommend this cruise for families with very little children -- or the elderly -- due to physical requirements. Other than embarkation and disembarkation day, the ship never calls in a port but rather, drops anchor off a deserted beach. Thus, all passengers must climb into a bobbing Zodiac (motorized, rubber boats) off the ship's stern and then have a wet landing on the beach.

On our cruise, the youngest child was 5-years (I wouldn't recommend it for a younger child) and he seemed to handle the physical rigors fairly well. While there were a number of intergenerational families aboard our sailing, the grandparents were in all good shape.

Kids Learning the Activities Ashore

About the year 2002, Cruise West began offering summer family cruises with a youth counselor aboard ship. If there are large numbers of children and teens aboard - as was the case on our late June cruise where one-third of the passengers were youngsters - then the guest programs manager also helps the youth counselor.

While most traditional, large cruise ships only offer youth activities aboard ship and don't get involved in "edutaining" kids ashore, Cruise West is just the opposite. There are a limited number of onboard activities, probably because of the lack of a dedicated youth room to hold games or crafts. Instead, there are plenty of supervised kids-only activities held ashore such as short hikes in the rainforest, snorkeling from the comfort of a Zodiac, and kayaking lessons.

I applaud Cruise West for their policy since my only objection with the large ships' youth programs is that the children are stuck indoors the whole time, although there is usually beautiful scenery right outside, on deck or ashore! In contrast, Cruise West's youth counselor, Krissia, even supervised kids on the beach and in gentle waters. One day on Corcovado Beach, the children flocked to a wide stream leading to the ocean. Krissia remained with them throughout much of the day while they played in the sand.

Kids Learning Activities Aboard Ship

Among activities aboard ship, there is a bridge tour of the pilot's control room. Youngsters can also dine daily with their peers and the youth counselor at 6:15pm, prior to the adult dinnertime. After that, there are mostly unstructured activities in the adjacent lounge such as board games, coloring, and videos on a large screen television.

I felt that there could have been a bit more imagination in the activities offered (such as group games to get all the children involved) but it is a challenge to entertain a broad range of ages at one time. The large cruise ships, on the other hand, have the luxury of more counselors to tailor their activities specifically to one age group rather than trying to appease kindergartners to teens.

"This is very much a Latin experience," remarked Rudy Zamora, our Exploration Leader. "We don't try to structure the kids too much," he added, noting that this is part of Cruise West's philosophy. For example, there is no daily program of events for children like on the large ships, so basically you have to ask the youth counselor, guest program manager or exploration leader what special things are happening for children each morning.

On the second to last night, Zamora gave a slide show just for the kids that showed them some of the wildlife and plants they witnessed during the cruise. I was impressed that when he asked them, "What's this?" as each new image appeared on the screen, many of them remembered what they had seen and learned. Then on the last night, there was an endearing slide show of kids' photos taken during the cruise, followed by one for the adults later in the evening.