Costa Rica Travel: Adventurous Activities in La Fortuna, Home of Arenal Volcano
Costa Rica has a special place in my heart. I first learned about it in elementary school when my class watched a documentary about a banana plantation there. I didn’t know much about the small Central American country besides the video clip I saw in school showcasing its gorgeous rainforest and a story I overheard of someone visiting and going on adventures. I couldn’t explain why, but I just wanted to be there.
Because of this strong desire to go, Costa Rica now lives in my heart for a special reason: it was the first country I visited outside the United States! This adventure started my quest to explore the world, which so far has been five countries outside the U.S. (most recently New Zealand).
If you’re planning to vacation in Costa Rica, read this guide to one of the best Costa Rica resort towns - La Fortuna! Costa Rica travel would not be complete without visiting this paradise, including its volcanoes, hot springs, and scenic waterfalls.
FAQs about La Fortuna, Costa Rica
Is La Fortuna worth visiting?
Yes! After dreaming about Costa Rica travel for years, I am glad I chose to visit La Fortuna. This area in the northern central part of Costa Rica was everything I hoped it would be—home of the most famous Costa Rica volcano, hot springs, gorgeous rainforests, and tons of outdoor adventures. The only thing La Fortuna is missing that I wish I experienced in Costa Rica is an ocean beach.
How many days do you need in La Fortuna?
At least 3. There are tons of activities to do in La Fortuna, and many of them take at least half a day and a lot of energy. I stayed for five days (not including travel days), with plenty of time relax, enjoy slow dinners, and explore the town. In those five days, I experienced many incredible outdoor adventures, including ziplining over the rainforest, white water river rafting, and searching for native animals on guided tours.
How far is the beach from La Fortuna?
La Fortuna, Costa Rica is unfortunately not close to a beach. One of the closest beach cities, Puntarenas, is about three hours away. If you are staying in La Fortuna for your entire vacation in Costa Rica and want to visit the beach, be sure to add an extra day to your itinerary since it will be an all-day excursion. Despite not being near a beach, there are lots of water activities to do around La Fortuna, including hiking to waterfalls, white water river rafting, swimming in lakes and hot springs, and taking boat tours.
Do you need a car in La Fortuna?
It depends. I didn’t have a car in La Fortuna for several reasons: my hotel had a free shuttle to town, the city center of La Fortuna is very walkable, and I mostly went on tours that picked me up at my hotel. However, if you won’t be doing a lot of tours a rental car is necessary since most of the sights around the area are distant from the city center.
Is La Fortuna safe at night?
I was warned about visiting the park in the middle of La Fortuna at night because it’s dimly lit and has a reputation for being dangerous. However, I didn’t run into any problems around the town despite being there every night of my trip. Of course, it’s always smart to be extra aware when traveling in a foreign country or unfamiliar area, including throughout your vacation in Costa Rica, which has been known to be a popular place for pickpocketing and car break-ins.
Activities in La Fortuna, Costa Rica
Arenal Volcano in La Fortuna
Arenal Volcano is the center of life in La Fortuna. Large tourist crowds come to see the volcano and do one of the activities around it, including hiking, ziplining, and soaking in natural hot springs. No vacation in Costa Rica would be complete without seeing this beautiful volcano! It is seen from all around La Fortuna, but to get a closer view, hike Cerro Chato, the smaller volcano next to Arenal, or another hike in Arenal Volcano National Park.
Hot Springs in La Fortuna
Because of its location near two volcanoes, La Fortuna is home to many hot springs. There are three major hot spring resorts—Baldi Hot Springs, Ecotermales, and Tabacon—as well as several other hot springs at hotels and in free natural areas. I visited Baldi Hot Springs and one of the free natural hot springs.
Baldi Hot Springs
Baldi Hot Springs is the perfect place to relax between adventures on your Costa Rica vacation. There are several large covered hot pools, which was nice when it was raining, as well as several large uncovered pools. Each pool differs in temperature, scenery, and vibe. There was even a cave sauna, a spa, and partly submerged smooth boulders for lounging on. We stayed at the resort all day and dined on a fancy buffet dinner there in the evening.
Natural Hot Spring
During one of my tours, the guide pulled off to the side of the road in the evening and led us on a short hike to natural hot springs under a bridge covered in graffiti. We could only see by the light from our flashlights as we felt our way to the warm gushing water. It was quite an adventure! If you don’t take a tour, be sure to accompany a local or ask one where to find natural hot springs in the area to experience it for yourself.
Ziplining Adventure Combo in La Fortuna
There are many adventurous things to do in Costa Rica, but my absolute favorite is ziplining over the rainforest! I did the ziplining adventure combo, which packed in a ton of activities. I highly recommend the full day combo tour at Arenal Mundo Aventura, or at least signing up to experience all eight ziplines.
La Fortuna Waterfall
The first stop of the tour was hiking to La Fortuna Waterfall, the most famous waterfall around Arenal Volcano. The waterfall was stunning and made me realize what a paradise I was in. People were swimming in the falls, but I were short on time (and it was raining) so I decided not to. I then made a steep climb back to the trailhead and on to the first zipline!
Ziplines
The first zipline was very short and not too high in the air. I was surprisingly not at all scared and couldn’t wait to try the longer and higher ones. Over the course of the day, I zipped back and forth for miles, soaring high above the tall rainforest. The sights from the ziplines were stunning, with a volcano or waterfall or valley occasionally appearing and taking my breath away.
At one point, my travel partner lost momentum on a zipline about twenty feet from the end and had to shimmy his way across. I worried for him, but he made it to the end just fine by following the advice from our guide. The tour guides were really good at helping us feel safe and directing us, which helped us really enjoy our experience.
Rappelling down a waterfall
Between ziplines, we reached another gorgeous waterfall and had the chance to rappel down it. Rappelling is actually really easy, as long as you keep your legs straight and your feet against the wall. Rappelling near a waterfall just adds another level of adventure!
When the last tour guide finished rappelling he announced that we would head to the next zipline. I was curious to see where we would walk to because I didn’t see a trail, I just saw a swinging ladder near the waterfall. To my horror, he exclaimed that the wet ladder was our way back. On top of that, he told me to go first. On top of that, as I started to climb the ladder I saw there were spiders all over the rocks we were climbing back up and my fingers kept getting caught between the rocks and the ladder, making my ascent painfully slow. I anxiously wondered if I was going to slip and fall to my death or if spiders were going to eat me alive.
Okay, I obviously made it out of there alive after being encouraged by the guide, but that experience lives on as one of my scariest travel memories abroad—and one I’m super glad I conquered!
Horseback ride & Maleku Village
After one heck of a zipline tour, we hopped on horses and rode into the sunset!
Well, actually we rode into a local Maleku village. And it was still midday.
The Maleku people are natives to Costa Rica who have a rich culture and history in the area. We learned about their way of life and browsed the supply of handicrafts they had for sale. It was a fun ending to the highlight adventure of my trip! I highly recommend this ziplining tour to anyone visiting Costa Rica. It was easily my favorite ziplining experience ever, even when compared to ziplining in the gorgeous Utah mountains and over the New Zealand rainforest.
La Fortuna White Water River Rafting
Costa Rica is known for its rivers, which contain some of the best whitewater river rafting in the world, especially after a heavy rain. While there, we had a tour to raft down Rio Balsa’s class 3/4 rapids.
The tour was very impressive, with expert guides who knew the river well. The rafting team worked well together and often united paddles and exclaimed “Pura Vida!” when we made it over a major rapid safely. Parts of the water were very calm, so our guide encouraged us to jump out of the raft and wade in the water. He was a lot of fun and had a great balance between entertaining us and ensuring our safety. He also saved my life.
As we reached the most rapid part of the river, I lost my balance and fell in! One of my shoes fell off and the other was slipping off, so I was struggling with trying to keep it on and not drown at the same. The guide expertly maneuvered the raft to me and pulled me back into the raft, exclaiming, “I don’t care about your shoe, I care about YOU!” I lost one shoe and I was a little beat up from rocks, but I was safe.
Despite that experience, the tour was a blast and I’m really glad I did it. We even took a break halfway down the river to eat fresh pineapple and other fruit the guides provided.
Oh and if you’re wondering about my bare foot—someone shared their (much larger) shoes with me after packing an extra pair! I walked awkwardly for the rest of the day, but I felt very grateful to not be barefoot!
Nature Tours in La Fortuna
Visiting Costa Rica means exploring and enjoying nature! There are many wild animals throughout the country, including toucans, parrots, monkeys, sloths, pumas, and colorful frogs. I constantly kept an eye out for wildlife during shuttle rides! Two tours I took that helped me find many animals and unique plants are Cano Negro and Hanging Bridges.
Cano Negro
Cano Negro is a brown murky river that has a lot of wildlife and beautiful surrounding scenery. The tour is on a boat that takes visitors down the river at a leisurely pace to look for wildlife. The guides were very knowledgeable and helped me spot a variety of animals, including caimans (similar to mini alligators), monkeys, and many types of birds.
Hanging Bridges
Hanging Bridges was one of my favorite tours. I hiked through a beautiful rainforest, across swinging bridges with views of Arenal Volcano in the distance. The guide helped me find cool things I wouldn’t have found on my own, such as red hearts on the back of large green leaves, or small jumping green frogs with bulging eyes, camouflaged against the plants they perched on. There is so much to discover in the rainforest, so be sure to go on a guided hike to find neat things like I did!
Planning a Trip to La Fortuna, Costa Rica
La Fortuna Hotels
With so many things to do in Costa Rica, many people choose to take a road trip throughout the country and stay in different locations. I, however, spent my whole time in La Fortuna and stayed at Hotel Lavas del Arenal the entire trip.
This small hotel was a great experience! They folded the towels in animal shapes, provided a homecooked classic Costa Rican breakfast every morning, and are situated in a lovely setting near a river and the rainforest. They are a bit far from town, but do offer a free one-way shuttle to the center of La Fortuna upon request.
For more hotels in La Fortuna, check here. For other Costa Rica resorts, check here.
La Fortuna Restaurants
The star of Costa Rica’s cuisine is their breakfasts. My hotel provided a free breakfast, which consisted of fresh fruit slices, gallo pinto (deliciously seasoned white rice and black beans), buttery scrambled eggs, and toast or fried plantains. These meals were by far my favorite thing to eat in Costa Rica—and I still miss those beans and rice!
Most of my lunches were provided by tours (typically sandwiches or casado—roasted chicken or meat with local fruits and salad), but I ate dinner in town almost every night. There aren’t many restaurants I fell in love with and would visit again in La Fortuna, but some that may be worth trying are Soda la Hormiga, Pollo Fortuneño, and La Choza de Laurel.
Also note that the burritos in Costa Rica are very different from burritos in the United States, as well as the pizza and even the fries. Don’t be afraid to try something totally new and unique to Costa Rican cuisine—sticking to familiar foods was often disappointing, so I really enjoyed discovering new foods native to the country.
Getting around Costa Rica
As mentioned above, shuttles were provided by my hotel and tour companies, but if I didn’t have those I would have used a rental car. Find rental cars in La Fortuna, Costa Rica here. Also note that La Fortuna is a very touristy area, so there are taxis available throughout the city.
Road tripping to the other things to do in Costa Rica will make using a rental a car necessary. Here are car rentals near San Jose, the major international airport in the heart of the country.
Costa Rican Culture
Costa Ricans call themselves Ticos and they live by the motto “Pura Vida” which translates to “Pure Life.” They respect nature, love to have fun, and are generally laidback and easy-going. Spanish is widely spoken throughout the country, but many people, especially tour guides, also speak English. I had no problem getting around, meeting locals, or learning about the best spots in town. Most Ticos are very friendly (well, except that woman that stomped on my foot when I decided not to purchase something from her shop…) and I had a great time experiencing their culture and their beautiful home.
Overall, Costa Rica is a blast to visit! It rained most of my trip, like it did during my visit to the U.S. Smoky Mountains, but I still had plenty of outdoor adventures and exciting moments. Get ready for a party when you venture to the land of Pura Vida.
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