Arenal Volcano, Center of Costa Rica Adventures

We spent four nights at the Volcano Lodge and enjoyed every almost minute at the hotel. Our room for four just had the standard two double beds, but it was a bit bigger than average and not as cramped as many chain hotels in the US. The bathroom was nice and they do provide a nice set of shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and soap.

The perfectly landscaped grounds were the nicest we saw anywhere in Costa Rica, with beautiful tropical flowers of every color all around. The cement paths between buildings are all lined with purple Mexican Heather. I think every room has a nice clear view of the Arenal volcano, either from the front or the back patio.

The pool and hot-tub were very nice and refreshing, again surrounded by tropical flowers. One of the two restaurants is a big open air Costa Rican style place beside the pool. They serve the very nice buffet breakfast (included with the room) there and it is the perfect place to begin your day. A nice assortment of fresh fruit, juice, eggs, pinto gallo, sausage, omelets to order, coffee, tea, and cocoa.

As a fun surprise each day, the staff supplying our clean bath towels would arrange them into a new inventive origami-like arrangement.

A few small complaints: the guy working the too-small tour desk wasn't very helpful at all. But we knew what we wanted to do and there were plenty of more helpful agencies in town. Everyone else at the hotel was friendly, nice, and helpful. The other complaint is that the rooms weren't very soundproof. This wasn't normally very much of an issue for us, but each night, the "loud family" in an adjoining room would return to their room about 10:30, and their conversations sounded like they were from inside our own room.

You can't currently see the hot lava from the volcano from this location. You will have to drive somewhere else on the north side to see lava (about a 15 minute drive).

As I write this, there are two other reviews for this same hotel here on igougo. One is of the wrong hotel, the Observatory Lodge, and the other appears to be the same place a few years ago, but the Volcano Lodge is much nicer than what their photo shows. I think the hotel has probably expanded a lot in the last 4 years.

The Volcano Lodge isn't a huge multi-story hotel. It is a very nice medium size, with the one story rooms divided into a few separate sections. It is about 5 km outside of the town of La Fortuna, on the way to the volcano national park. It was nice to have a car to pop into town with or to drive at night to watch for the lava, but it wouldn't be absolutely necessary since most of the adventure tour companies will pick you up from your hotel.

This soda is right on the main street of La Fortuna, across from the little park. Very much local style with picnic table seating, inexpensive local dishes. We had a pizza here which was very good and not too expensive ($12-14 for a large).

Great place for a fun, local-flavored, casual, inexpensive night out.

We went to Luigi's to share a large pizza for our family. We weren't terribly hungry and the large fed four of us just right. It was OK, but it was a little bit expensive for what they gave ((about US $20 for one large pizza).
Luigi's is right on the main street, and has a hotel also.

Ziplining from tree to tree in the jungle canopy is one of the highlights of a visit to Costa Rica. But you have to admit you're really there for the adrenaline rush rather than appreciating nature.

In the La Fortuna area, we found the ziplining prices ranged from about $35 to $60. We chose to splurge on the $60 tour at Mundo Aventura, just outside of La Fortuna. It had been recommended to us back in Alajuela and they (supposedly) had the longest single cable in the La Fortuna area (about 1000 meters). At Mundo Aventura, for ziplining, you go on a series of about 10 different runs, ranging from about 100 meters for the introductory lines to the long 1000 meter one. They give you sufficient training so you know what to do and they seemed pretty safety-conscious. We had a blast zipping through the canopy there and they have one run where you come in right over a waterfall which is really beautiful to see from the sky.

But wait! For your $60, you get much more. Our tour started at 8 a.m. and we didn't get out of there until around 2 p.m. After an introduction on how to use the equipment, you ride in a wagon pulled by a tractor most of the way up into the hills where the zip-lines are. Then you have to hike the last couple hundred yards (uphill, carrying your gear, but it isn't too hard) to the start point. After zipping along all the cables, you have a horseback ride to a recreated traditional village of an indigenous tribe, where members of the tribe greet you and tell you about their culture. You get to talk with the tribal members a little while and have the opportunity to buy various masks and other carvings produced by the tribe. It sounds pretty hokey writing it here, but it wasn't bad and we enjoyed it. Then you ride your horse back to the starting area.

Near the main entrance, they have a small butterfly enclosure with lots of butterflies fluttering around, and another greenhouse which is there "tree frog enclosure". Our guide pointed out at least one of three different kinds of tree frogs, a red one, a green one, and a yellow one. Those were pretty cool to see and I can now give up hope of seeing them in the wild not that I know how well-camoflauged they are.

At Mundo Aventura, you also have the opportunity to rappel down a waterfall (I think that is $30 more).

So they weren't the cheapest option in town, but we were satisfied with our day with them. Our canopy ziplining group was fairly small, about 15. We heard of other groups being much larger. A small group is nice because you don't have to wait too long.
Lots of people seem to want to go on horseback rides through the forest, so this is a nice way to experience that, too. It wouldn't have been the first choice for my wife and I, but our daughters had fun being on the horses. Other groups seemed to come there just for the horseback rides through the forest.

During the canopy tour, a photographer took a lot of photos of everyone ziplining and got some very nice professional-quality shots. They sell a CD at the end for $20 or so, but we decided not to buy. But if you don't want to bother with a camera, it would be a good option.

They also had a student discount price ($45 instead of $60) which you need a student ID for, so bring your ID, even if you are in grade school!

The La Fortuna waterfalls are in a park where you get to hike down to the bottom of the falls, then you can swim at the pool where the waterfall hits, climb around on the rocks, or swim and relax in the cool stream that comes out of the waterfall. It is a very enjoyable way to spend a couple hours and the area at the bottom is very scenic.

The road to the waterfall is just on the south edge of La Fortuna. It is just a couple kilometers to get to the park entrance, but it is all uphill and the road is pretty bad. The funniest part of the drive is that there was a speed bump in the road, when all the ruts, etc. make the entire road one big sequence of speed bumps. We saw some people hiking up the road, but it'd be a long hike. Others had rented horses to ride up to the top. Once you get to the top, you pay the park admission and then you hike down to the bottom of the falls. The trail is in good shape and has concrete or metal steps. It is about 300 stairs down or up.

The hike is well worth the effort! There were quite a few other people at the bottom, but it wasn't crowded. A fun treat at the bottom was watching the young Costa Rican boys take turns doing flips from a log into the stream pool draining out of the falls.

There is a warning that it may be dangerous to go deeply into the pool where the falls actually hit because of the suction caused by the waterfall. But the stream is great for swimming in, or just sitting between the rocks feeling the strong current rush by.

Wear good shoes for the hike up and down. You may want water shoes for the rocks and stream at the bottom. We wore our water shoes on the trail and the metal grates of the steps were pretty uncomfortable. There are restrooms and changing rooms in the park complex at the top. It is easy to do this on your own without booking a tour or anything.

La Fortuna was the best place we saw for buying souvenirs in Costa Rica. You have a lot of choices among the shops, although most of them sell the same basic things, such as wooden carvings or jewelry boxes, t-shirts, and pareos.

There were a couple good places on the opposite side of the central park that is on the main street going through town.

Cano Negro is a wetland wildlife refuge about two hours drive north of La Fortuna, towards the Nicaragua border. Its a great place for wildlife spotting and bird-watching. (It's really Can~o Negro, but I don't know how to make the spanish n~. Sorry.) Our jungle cruise to Cano Negro and on the adjacent Rio Frio was one of the highlights of our trip to Costa Rica. We saw monkeys, caimans, basilisks, a great assortment of birds, and much more.

We booked our jungle cruise to the Cano Negro wildlife area with Canoa Aventura in La Fortuna. Our guide from their agency was really great -- a lot of fun and very informative and good at spotting wildlife.

One the drive to Cano Negro, past miles of pineapple plantations, we stopped at the Iguana Bridge. There are dozens of huge iguanas hanging out in the trees near this bridge. (There is also a restaurant and souvenir store here.)

At the end of the ride (about 2 hours total), we were fed a pancake snack, then loaded up on a small excursion boat which held about 20 people. We cruised the rivers for about 2 hours, looking at wildlife. Then a nice lunch at the "El Caiman" restaurant and the long drive back to La Fortuna and a drop off at our hotel.

It's a full day, from 7:30 a.m. to about 4 p.m., but a very enjoyable one.

Baldi Hot Springs Spa has a series of pools with water heated by Arenal Volcano. There are around 20 different pools, with temperatures varying from about 90 F to about 150F. We tried to sample each of them. The 150 degree pool is really to hot for swimming of course, and is just at the massage area to make steam.

We spent about 2 hours there one evening and enjoyed the relaxing water. Several of the pools have little waterfalls that you can stand under to massage your back (but the waterfalls coming in tend to be hotter than the pool in general). There are a couple of swim-up bars which sell drinks for about $10.

One larger pool has three waterslides going into it. You really fly down the slides! The middle one seemed almost dangerously fast.

You can go there as part of a tour or just by tickets on your own. If you walk up and buy tickets at the reception, they are $28, but they have a deal with one tour agency in town (La Pasada, I think?) which lets you buy tickets for only $18/person (cash only), which seemed to be a pretty good deal. Baldi also charged a lot for lockers ($5, I think) once inside and required a $10/towel deposit, and of course other treatments like massages, etc. are extra. In contrast, Tabacon Hot Springs, a little further down the road toward the volcano park, charged $60 for a day pass. We thought that was a little ridiculous, but Tabacon's parking lot seemed jammed every time we went by, so it looked like they were really raking in the money there.

We enjoyed Baldi, but it wouldn't have been horrible if we had not had time to get there.

Baldi Hot Springs Spa has a series of pools with water heated by Arenal Volcano. There are around 20 different pools, with temperatures varying from about 90 F to about 150F. We tried to sample each of them. The 150 degree pool is really to hot for swimming of course, and is just at the massage area to make steam.

We spent about 2 hours there one evening and enjoyed the relaxing water. Several of the pools have little waterfalls that you can stand under to massage your back (but the waterfalls coming in tend to be hotter than the pool in general). There are a couple of swim-up bars which sell drinks for about $10.

One larger pool has three waterslides going into it. You really fly down the slides! The middle one seemed almost dangerously fast.

You can go there as part of a tour or just by tickets on your own. If you walk up and buy tickets at the reception, they are $28, but they have a deal with one tour agency in town (La Pasada, I think?) which lets you buy tickets for only $18/person (cash only), which seemed to be a pretty good deal. Baldi also charged a lot for lockers ($5, I think) once inside and required a $10/towel deposit, and of course other treatments like massages, etc. are extra. In contrast, Tabacon Hot Springs, a little further down the road toward the volcano park, charged $60 for a day pass. We thought that was a little ridiculous, but Tabacon's parking lot seemed jammed every time we went by, so it looked like they were really raking in the money there.

We enjoyed Baldi, but it wouldn't have been horrible if we had not had time to get there.

Arenal Hanging Bridges has about a 3 km trail where you cross 16 different hanging bridges in the rain forest canopy. All along the trail, there is plenty to see in the rain forest. We didn't see a lot of animals, just a few monkeys, but that was OK. The most interesting creature we saw was a huge walking stick insect, about 9 inches long and with antennae that were about 4 inches long.We didn't have a guide, we just enjoyed the trail ourselves, although for an additional fee, guided tours are also available at set times.

A couple of the bridges are very short (like 9 feet) and barely would qualify as bridges, but the view from the longer ones, and feeling them bounce as you walk along them, is spectacular. Another highlight is a side trail to a nice waterfall within the park. It isn't as thrilling as ziplining through the canopy, but it is still a lot of fun to explore.

Reaching the hanging bridges by car is easy. It's about 20 minutes from La Fortuna. Go out of town toward Arenal Volcano Park, but continue over the Lake Arenal dam. Make a right just past the dam, following the signs, and the hanging bridges are up a steep and narrow, but smooth, road.

The offered a discount for students, so bring your ID, no matter what school year you are.

Arenal Volcano looms over the town of La Fortuna. It is an active volcano, and the only one in Costa Rica that is producing visible lava currently. You can only see it at night, glowing red on the mountainside.You aren't allowed to get very close to the lava in the volcano national park for safety reasons, but you can see it from a distance.

You best bet for lava viewing is to stay at one of the hotels on the side of the volcano where the lava is currently flowing. This is currently the north side, and hotels with good lava views that were recommended to us by others staying there include the Observatory Lodge and Linda Vista Del Norte. There are others also.

However, we weren't staying at such a hotel. Our hotel had views of the volcano, but not the lava area. So we took the advice of others and drove around to the dam of Lake Arenal and parked to watch the lava. We were there at a fairly rainy time of year, so the top is often shrowded in clouds. We made the 15 minute drive 3 nights in a row to try to see the lava, and on our 3rd night we got to see it flowing and shooting into the air. (The first night, we didn't really have much hope since it was very rainy.) The clouds would part to give you a view for a few minutes, then close back in, then blow off again a little later. There were several other cars at the dam each night hoping for a glimpse also.

Driving at night wasn't too bad. The road to the dam is pretty good. But don't go too fast! We came around a corner at Tabacon Springs resort once to see a full-size coach bus across the whole road, trying to turn around.

If you don't have a car, various tour agencies in town will take you out there in a bus, park for an hour, then bring you back. No guarantees or anything of course, but if gives you a chance to see the lava. Staying at the lava-view hotels is a good idea because that way you can just hang out in your room, or at dinner, for as long as you want while watching for the clouds to clear away.