MarSea Tours did not begin as a company created from a business plan or a meeting room. It grew slowly from many years of friendship, trust and working together around the Gulf of Papagayo.
Captain Marcy is at the center of the MarSea story. He has spent much of his life around the ocean, including years working on large merchant ships before getting his own boat and building a local operation in Playas del Coco.
Our Story
Around 2010, the Mytanfeet team met Marcy in Playas del Coco when he was starting to run boat tours in the area. Mytanfeet began referring travelers to him, and what started as a simple working relationship slowly became a close friendship and a partnership that continued for many years.
His company, Mystic Rides, became the operational side of the experience, with Marcy and his team taking care of the boats, the routes, the ocean conditions and everything that happens once guests are on the water. Mytanfeet continued to help by referring travelers and supporting the business from the reservation and customer service side.
After working together for many years, it became clear that both companies were good at very different parts of the same business. Marcy knew the water, the boats and the local operation, while the Mytanfeet team had years of experience with reservations, customer communication, administration, websites, online marketing and helping travelers before and after a tour.
Instead of continuing as two separate companies that happened to work together, the idea was to combine those strengths into one project. That is how MarSea Tours was born.
Local experience on the water. Marcy and his team focus on the boats, the routes, local conditions and the experience guests have once they are out on the Gulf of Papagayo.
A team behind every reservation. The Mytanfeet team handles the office work, reservations, customer service, sales, marketing, website management and the administrative side that keeps everything organized behind the scenes.
One project working together. The goal is simple: let everyone concentrate on what they know best while giving travelers a smoother experience from the first question until the boat returns.
The name itself is part of the story. Marcy is the captain and the person behind the local operation, while MarSea is the company name, a play on his nickname and the word mar, which means sea in Spanish.
Today, Marcy and his team continue to focus on the operational side on the water, while the Mytanfeet team takes care of the office work, reservations, customer service, sales, marketing, website management and administration. This allows everyone to concentrate on the part they know best while still working as one team.
For us, this is important because a great boat tour does not begin when someone steps onto the boat. It also depends on answering questions correctly, helping guests choose the right experience, organizing pickup details, communicating changes and making sure the captain has the information needed before leaving the dock.
Not sure which tour is right for you?
Tell us who is traveling, what you would like to do and where you are staying. Our team can help you figure out which MarSea experience makes the most sense for your group.
Ready to get out on the water?
If you already know what you want to do, you can check the available options and send us your reservation request directly from our booking page.
Where MarSea Is Going
MarSea Tours is not meant to be only about one captain or one group of boats. One of our main goals is to build a local platform where other responsible boat owners and captains in the area can eventually list their boats and receive the same kind of support with reservations, customer service, websites, technology and online exposure.
There are many excellent local captains around Playas del Coco and the Gulf of Papagayo who know these waters extremely well, but running a modern tourism business requires much more than knowing how to operate a boat. Someone has to answer emails, manage reservations, maintain a website, work with online payments, communicate with travelers and keep up with technology that changes very quickly.
For a small local operator, all of that can become a second full time job. Our idea is that MarSea can help with the part happening behind the scenes so captains can spend more of their time doing what they actually know best, operating safely on the water and giving guests a good experience.
We also want to approach partnerships differently from the constant race to find the cheapest possible operator. If a captain gives us a fair rate for a service, our goal is not to keep pushing that person lower simply so someone else can make a larger margin.
We believe a sustainable tourism business needs to make sense for everyone involved, including the traveler, the captain, the crew and the people handling the reservation. If the local operator cannot make a healthy living from the service, eventually the quality of the experience will suffer too.
At the same time, we want every operator working through MarSea Tours to do things correctly. Boats and captains must meet the legal, insurance, tax and operational requirements that apply to their business, because we do not believe that cutting corners is a good way to build something that should last for many years.
Operating the right way can sometimes cost more than doing everything informally, but we believe being part of a community also means contributing to it. Fair business, responsible operations and long term relationships are more important to us than simply being the cheapest option.
MarSea Tours is still growing, and we know the project will continue to change as we learn. The idea behind it, however, is very simple: combine real local knowledge on the water with a strong team behind the scenes, then use that same system to help more good local captains reach travelers without losing what makes a local operation special.
Come experience the Gulf of Papagayo with us
Whether you are still planning or already know exactly what you want to do, our team is here to help.