The People Behind Your Journey

A Boutique Team
Based in Costa Rica

Javier Echecopar has spent nearly two decades designing sophisticated journeys for travelers who know exactly how they like to move through the world. He and the team know the richest moments often live just beyond the familiar. They meet you where you are, then unlock a side of Costa Rica you hadn’t imagined. It’s travel designed around freedom, with 24/7 on-the-ground support. Journey Costa Rica guests spend nights under the stars anchored off secluded archipelagos, descend by helicopter onto hidden whitewater rapids, and dive alongside giant manta rays with ocean explorers. Read our blog: Javier Announced as Condé Nast Top Travel Specialist

Journey Costa Rica’s is a certified B Corporation, proud to be part of a global movement using business as a force for good. This rigorous, ongoing process examines every aspect of a company’s operations, measuring its social and environmental impact. It gives us a framework to track progress and keep raising the bar, while delivering the high-touch, immersive experiences our guests expect.

Zach Rabinor, President, Founder and CEO of Journey

Zach, President, Founder and CEO of Journey

Zach´s adventurous spirit and love of surfing have seen him backpacking from Mexico to Hawaii, stowing away on ships bound for the Galapagos Islands, and taking spontaneous, mind-opening trips to Costa Rica. Teamed with a Masters degree, learning to speak Spanish, and leading non-profit expeditions through Baja California, Zach´s eclectic mix of experiences eventually led him to launch his own travel company, Journey Mexico. After almost two decades of designing tailor-made, luxury trips in Mexico for an international audience, Zach and his team continue to innovate unforgettable experiences.

Javier Echecopar, Co-Founder and Managing Director

Javier Echecopar, Co-Founder and Managing Director

After growing up between Peru, a handful of U.S cities and Chile, Javier channeled his creativity and passion for outdoor adventure into working as a high-altitude mountain guide, starting his own photography-based travel company in Chile, and even climbing Mount Kilamanjaro! Following 11 years of international roles with luxury travel company Abercrombie & Kent, Javier joined forces with Zachary Rabinor, Rebecca Scotti and Matteo Luthi to spearhead Journey Costa Rica. A resident of Tamarindo on Costa Rica´s Pacific coast, Javier loves road tripping with his family, connecting to nature, and getting outside his comfort zone.

Where It All Started

Zach and Javier discovered they shared more than a love of Costa Rica: a belief that travel, done right, can be transformative, a force for good for travelers and for the people and places they visit. That shared philosophy became Journey Costa Rica, brought to life together two decades after Zach’s first Christmas in the country where it all began.

Read our blogs:

How a Surf Trip Transformed Zach’s Path
Javier, Zach, and the Story of Journey Costa Rica

Accolades

Best Destination & Experiences Sustainability Award 2025 Highest Growth - UK & Europe

A-LIST 2010-2023 - Best Villa Rental Agency

Top Travel Specialist Villa Specialist

Best Adventure Companies On Earth Tours of a Lifetime

The Wow List

Grand DMC Champion 2025 Best Destination & Experiences In Country Partner

Best Operator

Regenerational Travel Award - GOLD

How We Create Your Journey

DISCOVER

We listen to understand how you want to feel, what matters most, and what doesn’t. It’s a traveler-first approach: you’re one of a kind, and your experience should be too.

DESIGN

Your personal planner tailors every detail around how you like to travel, with you from the first conversation to the journey home and the next adventure. Each itinerary is built around the right properties, people, and places for you.

DELIVER

Arrive as a welcomed guest and stay present in the moment. Behind the scenes, we handle every detail with precise logistics and proactive care. Your dedicated Journey travel assistant is always close at hand, available around the clock.

Your Experts on the Ground

Why choose Us

Positive Impact

Costa Rica is an inspirational model for how to have a positive relationship with the environment and actively protect its natural wealth for future generations to enjoy. Taking a radical approach to luxury travel, Journey Costa Rica strives to have a positive impact on everyone we come into contact with while offering creative and high-touch trips.

Travel can benefit a destination in many ways; we also acknowledge that it can cause negative environmental consequences. That´s why we prioritize modes of transportation and accommodation partners based on their sustainable practices, as well as charging our guests a conservation fee which offsets the effects of international and domestic flights, all land transportation and accommodations.

We are aware that sustainability is a journey, and we will continue to adapt our practices as part of our mission: to be a leader in luxury travel that has a positive impact on the environment and local communities. We will continue to challenge ourselves, make mistakes, self-reflect, and improve.

Luxury

We propose exceptional travel experiences in Costa Rica, from a luxury perspective. Our team is well versed in curating ultra-luxe villas, private flights, and elegant yachts, but for us, a sense of luxury goes deeper. It´s also about ease, access, and privacy.

From the moment you touch down on Costa Rican soil, we take care of the details so that you´re free to experience. Journey is there every step of the way to assure a seamless trip, thanks to our thoughtful travel planning specialists, local fixers and hosts, and dedicated in-country coordinators, available 24/7.

Elevate your experience with special access to the knowledge of experts, the wisdom of local communities, and the grandeur of Costa Rica´s natural wealth. With us you can spend the night in a biological research station or in a luxury private villa that’s exclusive to Journey Costa Rica. Luxury has no limits.

Travel can benefit a destination in many ways; we also acknowledge that it can cause negative environmental consequences. That´s why we prioritize modes of transportation and accommodation partners based on their sustainable practices, as well as charging our guests a conservation fee which offsets the effects of international and domestic flights, all land transportation and accommodations.

We are aware that sustainability is a journey, and we will continue to adapt our practices as part of our mission: to be a leader in luxury travel that has a positive impact on the environment and local communities. We will continue to challenge ourselves, make mistakes, self-reflect, and improve.

Innovation

The best kind of travel challenges our perceptions and offers a new perspective, reinventing how we connect with a place, it´s people and cultures.

We´ll take you to experience Costa Rica´s must-sees with a creative twist and invite you on adventures never done before. We want to give you unique access to unreal places, so you can admire epic volcanic craters from a helicopter, catch perfect sunrise waves with a world-class surfer, or zipline over lush rainforest with no-one else around.

Let us introduce you to leading experts that will illuminate Costa Rica´s cultural and natural wonders. Live a day in the life of a wildlife conservation expert, capture extraordinary landscapes with a pro photographer, or discover the history of the coffee bean chatting to a top CEO in the business.

Our bespoke itineraries push the boundaries of what luxury travel in Costa Rica can inspire. At Journey, we´re driven by expanding the horizon and breaking frontiers.

Our Local Expertise

Our locally based team lives and breathes Costa Rica, with deep insight and a finger on the pulse to open doors for every guest’s journey.

Affiliations

Stories From Costa Rica

The Art of a Warm Welcome Series

The Art of a Warm Welcome: Playa Cativo with Kenneth Hidalgo

9 min read

Osa Peninsula

The Art of a Warm Welcome: Pasha Estate with Jennifer Lotz

9 min read

The Art of a Warm Welcome Series

The Art of a Warm Welcome: Reserva Panamaes with Iván Morales

7 min read