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When traveling in La Fortuna, make the most of your trip by staying somewhere beautiful. When we visited we stayed in a gorgeous guest house that was surrounded by beautiful farms and gardens, with a stunning view of the volcano. For hostel-style accommodations at a low price, many travelers recommend Arenal Backpackers Resort.

Comfort travelers will rejoice at Cerro Chato Ecolodge , an Arenal hotel that boasts a small pool, wifi, and gorgeous grounds. With plush beds and beautiful garden paths, this is a relaxing respite from the daily grind of office life. Many tours also provide transfer service to and from the tour facility. Since it will be getting dark soon after you arrive, we recommend heading into town an enjoying a nice dinner, orienting yourself with the town and your surroundings.

Catch the sunrise in the main plaza of La Fortuna, where you can see beautiful churches with the Arenal volcano in the background. Starting in the morning, this tour will take you on a day-long adventure through volcanoes, rainforests, sunset lookouts, and more. We highly recommend doing this as it is a wonderful way to see many areas of Arenal. Your first full day in Arenal will start early with a transfer from your hotel to start the Two Volcanoes hike. This trail is suitable for all levels of hikers.

Here, you can swim in the cold waters of the crater lagoon and snack beneath the shade of the trees. The day ends with a quick stop at a lookout point of the Observatory Lodge, where you can watch the sun set over the volcano. Takes 5 hours. Takes 4 hours.

The bus from Liberia to Canas takes 2 hours and there is one every half an hour from — 3 PM. There are buses at 7 AM and PM. There are plenty of shared shuttles from both San Jose and Liberia.

Read more about Costa Rica shuttles here. For the first day, I recommend arriving at Arenal and La Fortuna as early as possible. That way you can spend the rest of the day exploring La Fortuna town and you can spend two full days doing activities. You can read our La Fortuna guide for more information on the town.

There are over hotels to choose from in the Arenal area so it depends on your budget. If budget is not much of an issue, you can find some of the nicest hotels in the Arenal area. Check our list of luxury hotels in Arenal for recommendations. With 2 full days in Arenal, you can do a lot.

Since many of the activities take only a couple hours, you can do a combo tour to do multiple things in one day. Here are our recommendations. This is the best way to experience the highlights of Arenal. First is a visit to the Arenal Hanging Bridges, then La Fortuna waterfall, lunch, a hike around Arenal Volcano and you end the day at the hot springs. Best tour to hit all of the main attractions of Arenal! Read more about the Arenal combo tour. Hot springs are a must in Arenal as this area is famous for them.

You can book hot springs as part of a tour like the combo tour above or go on your own. Some popular ones are Tabacon, Ecotermales, Baldi or Termalitos. We love the horseback riding tours in Arenal because the views are spectacular and the horses are very well taken care of.

Trot through the valleys and around Arenal Volcano on your trusty steed. Read more about horseback riding in Arenal. For leisurely wildlife watching, the safari floats are the best. All you have to do is relax and enjoy as you float down a calm river surrounded by a lush rain forest. See monkeys, caimans, iguanas, sloths and other animals. Plus your guide does all the paddling! The most popular river for the safari float is Penas Blancas.

The magical sky blue river in Costa Rica is an incredible sight to see and only about a 1 hour drive from La Fortuna. Hike through the Tenorio Volcano National Park to see a stunning blue waterfall and learn how Rio Celeste gets its astonishing color.

Jump down foot waterfalls deep in the rainforest on this canyoning tour right outside La Fortuna. Perfect for thrill seekers and families looking for some excitement. Read more about canyoning in Arenal. To decide what to do, first I advise setting a budget as tours are costly.

If you have a limited budget, I recommend doing at least one or two activities you really want to do. Please check here for more information! Even though ziplining in both Arenal and Monteverde are excellent, they are very different. Here is why you should:. You will find the longest ziplines and craziest canopy tours in Monteverde bungee jumping, tarzan swing.

Arenal has over 10 canopy tours, most of which are perfect for first timers, families with little kids, those scared of heights or not looking for intense ziplines. The most exciting one is Sky Trek in Arenal which has magnificent views of Arenal Volcano and the lake. Additionally, since you only have 1 full day in Monteverde, you may want to spend that day hiking the cloud forest instead.

If so, then I do recommend going ziplining in Arenal and saving your day in Monteverde for hiking. Drive or take the taxi-boat-taxi to Monteverde. The taxi boat across Lake Arenal is the most fun way since you get to see the lake and enjoy a nice boat ride instead of sitting on a bus or shuttle for 3 hours.

Another very nice one is Hotel Belmar. Monteverde is famous for the cloud forests and ziplining and most people only spend full days there. Santa Elena is very small and you can easily explore the whole town on day 4 after you arrive. You can read our Monteverde travel guide for more information on the area. Selvatura Park and Sky Trek are the only two canopy tours that actually go over the cloud forest so those two have amazing views.

They also have a meter and 2 km zipline! The other option is to hike the cloud forests. We recommend either Monteverde or Santa Elena but you can read our guide to the 3 cloud forest reserves in Monteverde. The cloud forests are an extremely vulnerable ecosystem and can only be found in a few places in the world, Costa Rica being one of them. The trails in the cloud forest reserves lead to beautiful view points and you can see hundreds of unique trees and plants.

There are many places to eat and drink here. The real attractions, though, are the natural wonders around the town. Volcan Arenal rises immediately behind the town and can't be missed. As well as this major attraction, La Fortuna can be used as a convenient base for other, non-volcano related activities in northern Costa Rica. Basing yourself in La Fortuna for a few days means you'll have access to hiking trails, waterfalls, hot springs, plantations, and much more.

If you can only spend a few days in Costa Rica, then La Fortuna is a great place to focus on, as you'll be able to experience many of the country's highlights without needing to jump around to different places. La Fortuna and the Arenal Volcano are among the most popular tourist attractions in Costa Rica, so however long you want to stay in the area for, it's a good idea to book accommodation in advance. If your schedule only allows for half a day in and around La Fortuna, you have lots of options, depending on your preferred level of activity and interests.

But, it would be a shame to travel to this famous volcano without focusing on this beautiful attraction, so we recommend hiking to Arenal This privately owned reserve references the year in which Arenal erupted. Moderately challenging trails wind through lava fields and forests, giving great views and a varied sense of the topography and geology of the region. If you'd prefer a less challenging hike, head out into the jungle canopy instead. Well-marked trails and bridges and platforms through the treetops give you a great view of the volcano as well as the lush rainforest.

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