Things to Do in Arenal & La Fortuna

La Fortuna sits at the foot of the Arenal Volcano, and it is the destination most Costa Rica itineraries are built around. The reason is simple: almost every kind of experience the country is known for is available within a short drive of the same small town.

It is also, by a wide margin, the place with the most to do. That creates a different problem from most destinations — not finding something worth doing, but choosing.

The volcano and the classic walks

A guided hike takes you around the base of Arenal Volcano along forest trails, walking across solidified lava fields from past eruptions while a naturalist guide explains the region's flora and fauna. It runs at 8:30 am or 2:30 pm and takes about 2.5 hours.

The hanging bridges walk is the other classic: a series of suspension bridges through the rainforest sub-canopy and canopy, offering a perspective on the forest you cannot get from the ground. Also about 2.5 hours, at 8:00 am or 1:00 pm.

La Fortuna Waterfall is the third fixture — a 70-metre cascade you can swim at — usually combined with the volcano hike into a 5 to 6 hour morning departing 8:30 am.

Hot springs

The volcano heats the groundwater here, and soaking in it at the end of an active day is as much part of Arenal as the volcano itself.

Paradise Hot Springs offers chemical-free, telluric waters rich in magnesium, sulfates, calcium and bicarbonates, with hydromassage features. The day pass runs 10:00 am to 10:00 pm, so it works either as an afternoon in its own right or as the last stop after a morning hike.

Wildlife

Sloths are the region's signature sighting. A dedicated tour travels the scenic roads around the volcano with a bilingual naturalist guide who spots both two-toed and three-toed sloths — 2.5 hours, at 6:00 am or 2:00 pm.

The Peñas Blancas River float is the most relaxed option available: your guide does the rowing while you watch for monkeys, sloths, reptiles and tropical birds, finishing with a visit to a local family's home for a taste of Costa Rican life. About 3.5 hours, at 8:25 am or 1:25 pm.

For birdwatchers, the Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge boat safari is the most serious wildlife commitment here — a full 8 hours from 7:00 am, passing local plantations of cassava, papaya, pineapple and sugar cane on the way to one of the country's best birding areas.

After dark, the night walk visits Arenal's only wild frog sanctuary — flat trails and spring-fed ponds in a private reserve connecting to the volcano's rainforest, with up to 28 species of frogs. It starts at 6:00 pm and is the one experience that cannot be replicated during the day.

Adventure, by intensity

Ziplining here flies over La Fortuna Waterfall on a 7-cable canopy tour, beginning from an 18-metre (59-foot) launch tower and crossing a 120-metre-deep canyon. Two hours, with departures spread from 7:30 am to 1:30 pm.

ATV tours run through the fields surrounding the volcano to the Monterrey viewpoint, with a visit to the Maleku Indigenous Village. Two hours, available as single or double rider.

Canyoning is a half-day of 4 rappels — three down waterfalls and one down a rock wall — plus the Monkey Drop, with certified bilingual guides. About four hours.

Whitewater rafting on the Sarapiquí River is the biggest commitment at about seven hours from 8:30 am, covering over 30 rapids, many of them Class IV, and finishing with a Costa Rican meal.

Coffee and cacao

Not everything here is adrenaline. A farm tour follows two of Costa Rica's most iconic crops — coffee and cacao — from the plantations through harvesting, drying, roasting and brewing. It has the most flexible schedule of anything in Arenal, with departures from 7:30 am through 2:30 pm.

Combination tours: the practical answer

With this much available, the region's most useful products are the combinations. Roughly a third of what is offered here pairs two or three activities into a single guided day with private transport — hanging bridges with the volcano hike, the waterfall with the bridges, sloths with hot springs, ziplining with an evening in the springs.

At the top end, a single full day runs the hanging bridges, the volcano hike, La Fortuna Waterfall and Paradise Hot Springs with dinner, departing 7:30 am.

If you have two days in Arenal and want to see the headline sights without spending both of them in transit, a combination is almost always the better structure than booking the same activities separately.

Putting a few days together

Wildlife tours cluster at the start and end of the day — 6:00 am, 8:25 am, 2:00 pm, 6:00 pm — because that is when animals are active. The bigger adventures take the middle: rafting runs seven hours from 8:30 am, canyoning four from 7:15 am, the waterfall-and-hike combination five to six from 8:30 am. Hot springs stay open until 10:00 pm and absorb whatever is left.

That is why three nights is the sensible minimum here. Two full days lets you pair one big adventure with one wildlife outing and still have an evening in the springs.