After a week of relaxation at Rio Perdido, we headed to La Fortuna, Costa Rica for a week of adventure.
Costa Rica has a focus on ecotourism, so this week was filled with nature, and wildlife.
Below is a list of the best things to do with one week in La Fortuna.
1. Arenal Observatory
This place is really cool. It’s hard to describe everything I loved about it (and it even started pouring rain while we were there, so that’s how you know it was a really special place).
One of my favourite things were the Eucalyptus trees. I have never seen such colourful trees before. They looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.
The wildlife here was unreal. I mean, check-out this gorgeous Jacamar Callum captured! This place is a big deal for birders. We even ran into a group of them from our home province of Ontario, Canada. We also saw a curassow. This thing looked prehistoric.
In addition to birds we saw capuchins, and coatis. This was my first time seeing coatis, and they were on my mental Costa Rica Wildlife bucket list.
As someone who is also super into plants, Arenal Observatory was great for seeing some of my tropical houseplants in the wild, and some I didn’t expect like Alocasia, since they are native to Borneo.
Why I Loved Arenal Observatory
The nature is unreal. You can see so many beautiful species of plants, and wildlife. It was also nice that it’s so wild that we were able to do self-guided trail walks (Sino Trail and Waterfall Trail), and still see things. For many of our other stops, guides were essential. You can also swim in the waterfall at the base of the waterfall trail, but the weather wasn’t good, so we didn’t do this.
2. Mistico Hanging Bridges
This is somewhere it’s necessary to have a guide. There are so many creatures we would have missed on the trails without once (like the eyelash viper, and the poison dart frog). Plus, the guides at Mistico come with a telescope so you can see the details of the creatures from a safe distance.
We were also able to ask questions like, “what’s the deal with the trails of ants carrying leaves that we keep seeing,” and get an expert answer.
One of the big attractions here are the hanging bridges themselves. I found these fun. If you are afraid of heights, you probably won’t find these fun.
From the bridges themselves, we saw a sloth! Which we for sure would not have spotted without a guide. Sloths honestly blend in perfectly with the their environment so well.
Animals blending into their environment was definitely a theme on our trip. It’s actually really rewarding when you can spot these animals yourself because it is difficult without an expert eye.
Why I Loved Mistico
I learned a lot about local wildlife, and saw a lot of creatures I didn’t even know existed in the world. Our guide was super knowledgeable, and passionate. The bridges were really cool. Plus we saw a sloth descending for its weekly poop! The view of the Arenal Volcano was also stellar. Callum was able to get a cool drone shot from here.
3. Sloth Territory
Sloths are one of the iconic animals in Costa Rica. Seeing sloths is a must.
At Sloth Territory, we went on a guided tour, and had a guide who had a very trained eye. I don’t know how he spotted these sloths so far away. This guide also had a telescope, which was crucial to us actually seeing the sloths.
At Sloth Territory they have both two-toed, and three-toed sloths.
We also learned here that the green in the fur of the sloth is actually algae growing on them because they move so slow.
Fun fact, but the Sloth Territory was started by the Gonzalez for birding, but eventually sloths came! They have a lot of sloths.
Why I Loved Sloth Territory
We knew we would see wild sloths since this farm has many of them. The guide was super knowledgeable on sloths and told us many sloth facts, like the differences between two-toed vs. three-toed sloths, and how to tell the difference between male and female sloths. We also saw a juvenile sloth which was super cute, and at the end of the tour they gave us a snack of fresh fruit.
4. Tabacon Hot Springs
Wow, do I ever love this place. You would think maybe I would have been tired of thermal hot springs after my relaxing week at Rio Perdido, but no.
Tabacon Hot Springs is one of the largest thermal hot springs in all of Costa Rica. The water is naturally heated from the Arenal Volcano. Which is honestly pretty cool.
I recommend getting a day pass combined with a meal. We spent the whole day at the hot springs, hopping from the different temperature pools, and then had an amazing dinner.
We went with my mom, and step-dad and they got a massage part way through the day. This is a great option if you want to break up your thermal time before dinner.
Why I Love Tabacon
Even though this is a popular attraction, they’ve done a good job setting it up so you feel like you are in nature. You can find pools that are more secluded, and feel like you are in the jungle, and not see all of the people. We found we often weren’t sharing a pool with strangers. If you are staying at the hotel, you actually have your own private area as well that the day pass visitors don’t have access to.
4. Caño Negro
This technically isn’t in La Fortuna, but it’s worth the drive, and early morning.
Caño Negro is a nature reserve towards the Nicaragua border. We did a boat tour, and saw a lot of cool birds including the Great Egret, Amazon Kingfisher, Cormorant, and many others I don’t know the name of. We also saw a lot of cayman.
They provided us with a and yummy soursop blended juice around lunch, and in the afternoon we did a forest walk, saw a jaguar print, and a poison dart frog.
On our walk back to the car, we saw the cutest spider monkey in a tree. It yawned, and my heart grew.
We had a delicious dinner included. We had short rib, patacones (my favourite), and pico de gallo.
Why I loved Caño Negro
Our guide was super knowledgeable, and I learned a lot. As a wildlife lover, it was really cool to see animals I didn’t see closer to La Fortuna (or ever in my life). It was also really cool to be in a different part of Costa Rica, and see how it compared to the La Fortuna, and Guanacaste region.
5. La Fortuna Waterfall
This is perhaps one of the most popular attractions in La Fortuna. It’s understandable, but the La Fortuna Waterfall can be busy.
You walk down over 400 stairs through jungle, to reach the base of the waterfall. The walk down isn’t so bad, but the walk up can be a bit more challenging from a cardio perspective. But it’s okay to take breaks!
Callum was feeling really inspired here, and took photos the waterfall from different perspectives (see below), further from the people for literally half an hour.
Why I Loved La Fortuna Waterfall
It was really cool seeing the scale of the La Fortuna waterfall, and getting to swim in it. Even if it wasn’t as idyllic as I expected since the current was really strong, and there were a lot of people there. The water was also cold.
6. Volcano Hike
The more time you spend in Costa Rica, the more you will notice how much the volcanoes impact the lifestyle.
To get up close, and personal to the Arenal Volcano, I suggest doing a hike at the Arenal Volcano. Depending on your fitness level, you can do a volcano walk + a walk to the lake (combined trail), but if you just want a nice walk with nice views, do the Forest 1968 trail. This leads up to the Volcano, but not up it.
I didn’t do this on this trip, but Callum did this on a previous trip with his brother, and he provides his recommendation below.
Why Callum Loved This (From Callum)
This hike was an interesting one for me, since I had never walked on lava before! It was a beautiful mix of rock and foliage, giving both a sense of destruction and growth. Arenal made its appearance throughout the entire hike, giving a cool perspective on how the volcano had erupted and sent lava as far as it did.
I loved walking around to different areas, crossing lava patches and rocks while keeping Arenal in the background. From certain points, I also had a beautiful view of the lake with the volcano in the background, which further expanded the feeling of being in a unique environment.
We started the hike early in the afternoon, which ended getting far too hot, so I recommend doing this hike in the morning or late afternoon if you can. You’re also much more likely to see wildlife if you go soon after sunrise or around sunset, so that’s an added perk of walking around this area; you never know what you’ll see!
After we finished the volcano trail hike, we moved on to combined the hike with a walk to the lake. This section was much cooler with some shade in the jungle, helping alleviate some of the heat from the first part of the trek.
At the end of the trail, there was a lovely little shelter where we could sit and have lunch, taking in the panoramic views of the lake and Arenal Volcano. The perfect setting to relax and appreciate the beauty of a mixed landscape, and also to reflect on the destruction that had been caused in the past by this now dormant beast of a mountain.
I really enjoyed this journey as a great way to get out of town and explore the jungle with beautiful views of the volcano throughout the entire hike. I’m sure you’ll love it as well!
7. Eat Local Food!
Some of my favourite foods were gallo pinto, and patacones. You can find these all over. One of our favourite restaurants in La Fortuna for Costa Rican food was La Fonda 506. Don Rufino is also really good. The ravioli was incredible.
The fresh fruit in Costa Rica is also incredible. I didn’t even know I liked melon until I had a fresh one at Rio Perdido.
For a comprehensive of where I recommend eating, and when, check-out my Costa Rica Travel Itinerary! It covers when to do each of these activities, and goes more in-depth on the logistics.
