A Day Exploring La Fortuna’s Highlights

Disclaimer: Included in this post are links to tours I have personally taken or booked for clients on Viator. If you book these tours thru the links in this post, as a travel agent, I will receive a small commission.

Costa Rica is a beautiful country to visit, not only does it have beautiful beaches on both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, but it also has over 200 volcanoes, numerous hot springs, abundant wildlife and beautiful waterfalls. If you are looking to explore more than the beaches of Costa Rica, spending some time in La Fortuna should be on your Costa Rica itinerary. Located just a few hours from both major airports, San Jose and Liberia, La Fortuna is fairly easy to get to no matter which airport you fly into.

La Fortuna is the Spanish word for fortune, which the town got for the fertile lands in the area. You could also say that this fortune extended to the tourism brought to the area by its abundance of outdoor activities and natural sites.

If you are looking for a great tour that shows you the highlights of the La Fortuna area, I highly recommend this Arenal Volcano, La Fortuna Waterfall, Hot Springs Full Day Tour with Red Lava Tours which I will be discussing in this post.

Things to Bring on the Tour

While on the tour I saw many people that were unprepared and did not have the necessary items to make themselves comfortable enough to fully enjoy the tour. As a reminder, when booking a tour, always look at the list of recommended items to bring so you are prepared. For this tour it’s recommended to bring the following items:

• Water Shoes – these are very necessary if you plan on going in the water at the waterfall, there is a rocky section in the river that you will need to cross to get closer to the waterfall.
• Hiking Shoes – While the hiking in this tour isn’t too aggressive, there is hiking involved both at La Fortuna Waterfall and Arenal Volcano. Make sure to have shoes that are good to hike in, either hiking shoes, trail sneakers or even running sneakers will do.
• Sunscreen – Always make sure to have sunscreen with you when taking a tour somewhere tropical, even if it’s a cloudy day.
• Bug Spray – Tropical climates also mean the possibility of mosquitoes exist, especially as you are hiking thru the rain forest.
• Water – Costa Rica is hot and you’ll be active, make sure to have a plenty of water. I like to travel with a filtered water bottle that I can fill up.
• Snacks – While lunch is included in the tour, it’s a good idea to have snacks with you.
• Bathing Suit and Towel – This tour involves the chance to swim at the waterfall and in the hot springs so make sure to bring or wear your suit and have a towel with you to dry off. There are great options of travel towels that dry quick and take up little room in your bag.
• Bag for your wet clothes – There are restrooms after the waterfall if you want to change out of your bathing suit if you’d like, bring along a bag to keep your wet clothes away from your other items.
• Rain gear – You’ll be hiking in the rain forest where there can be a chance of rain, make sure to bring a raincoat just in case. It started raining a bit during the waterfall hike for me, I was glad I had a light raincoat with me.
• Waterproof Phone Case – You’ll more than likely want to take some photos in the water at LaFortuna Waterfall, make sure to protect your phone with a waterproof case.
• Backpack – It’s a lot to bring and you’ll be hiking, so a backpack is the best option to carry all of your gear.

This is just a list of the main things that you should bring. There may be other things you might like to bring on a day trip. The day starts early, so I recommend packing your bag the night before, so you don’t forget anything.

Let the Tour Begin

The tour began with a hotel pickup, which started early, my hotel was further from town than some of the other hotels, so I was one of the first to be picked up. I was picked up quite early, in fact a bit too early to have much time for the free breakfast that was included with my hotel room. It was a large group for this popular tour so there were quite a few stops to pick everyone up, including picking up one of the tour guides at Red Lava Tours office in La Fortuna. We probably ended up spending about 45 minutes picking everyone up, a minor inconvenience and this was all dependent on the order you were picked up.

Once we were all in the shuttle, we were given an introduction from the tour guides and told the itinerary for the day, we would first be heading to La Fortuna waterfall, followed by a visit at an Indigenous village, lunch, a hike at Arenal Volcano and finally ending the day relaxing in the hot springs. All of the stops were very centrally located in the La Fortuna area, so we would not be spending too much time in the shuttle which was nice to hear.

There were two tour guides, and our group was split up with half of the group who spoke Spanish going with one guide and the rest of us who spoke English going with the other guide. This gave us a manageable amount of people with each tour guide.

From here we were off to our first stop for our first of two hikes for the day.

La Fortuna Waterfall

One of the top attractions in La Fortuna is none other than La Fortuna Waterfall. At approximately 230 feet tall, this waterfall is a beautiful site to see and a great spot to take a dip to cool off.

We arrived at an ecological park, Arenal Mundo Aventura. From here we boarded a tractor led wagon that reminded me of fall hayrides back home. It was an interesting, bumpy ride thru the forest to the start point of the La Fortuna Waterfall trail. At the starting point, we stopped at a viewing platform where we could see a waterfall in the distance, this was Pinco Blanco Waterfall not the La Fortuna Waterfall we were hiking to.

This was a nice surprise that we were seeing more than one waterfall on the tour. After taking in the view, we started the hike down to the waterfall. While it’s short in distance, the hike is considered more of a moderate hike than an easy hike. This is because there are 500 stairs down to the waterfall. Doesn’t seem all that bad going down to the waterfall, but heading back up was a different story. It was a very beautiful hike down which also included a short hanging bridge. For those with a fear of heights, this might be a bit scary, but it’s not too bad as it’s not as high as a lot of the hanging bridges in the area. I’m not the biggest fan of heights and I was fine with the bridge; I was even able to stop and take pictures while on it.

When we got down to the waterfall, there was a platform where we left our belongings. We were on the left bank of the waterfall, per the guides only tour groups have access to this side, and we were told it was safe to leave our belongings here. I personally put my cash and credit card in my waterproof case for my phone instead of just leaving it in my bag on a platform in the woods. Others in my tour just left all their belongings there even valuables and everything was safely still there when we were leaving the waterfall.

After leaving our bags and putting on our water shoes, we had some time (I believe it was a little more than an hour) at the waterfall. As previously mentioned, to get to the waterfall, we had to walk thru some rather rocky water first, so make sure to wear your water shoes. La Fortuna waterfall is extremely popular so we definitely did not have the waterfall to ourselves, in fact it was a bit more crowded than I would have liked (the joys of overtourism).

Regardless of the crowds, I really enjoyed my time at La Fortuna waterfall. The water was a bit cold at first but after a while it was so refreshing and I enjoyed being able to swim so close to the waterfall. The tour guides were really great about taking photos of people in front of the waterfall which was nice.

If you wanted to avoid getting wet, there was also a short hike up to a viewing platform closer to La Fortuna waterfall. I recommend everyone to head up to this viewing platform after your swim as it’s a great way to see the waterfall from a different angle and you are able to get some great photos, without all the people in them.

After some time at the waterfall, it was time for the dreaded walk up the 500 steps. If you aren’t in the best shape or even if you are in good shape and stairs just aren’t your strong suit, leave plenty of time to get up with some rest stops along the way. The rest stops are a great time to get some photos during the hike up.

After the somewhat difficult hike up we were rewarded with some fresh pineapple and boy did it hit the spot, there is definitely nothing better than fresh pineapple in a tropical location, so much better than what you buy in the grocery store at home.

Maleku Village

Once everyone had made their way back up from the waterfall and had a chance to enjoy some pineapple and fill up their water bottles, we got back on the tractor led wagon to head to the Maleku Village to learn more about these indigenous people from Costa Rica.

The Maleku tribe is made up of about 650 people and its name means “People of the Forest”. The Maleku people have a deep relationship with the forest and the animals that reside in the forest. Reforesting is very important to their culture, and this helps them to live off the land for the important things in life, like food, medicine and clothing.

We arrived at the village and one of the Maleku people told us more about her people and their daily lives. She was speaking in the Maleku language and one of our tour guides was translating for us and she even taught us a few words. She also passed around some of their artifacts and items they had made by hand. After this we had the opportunity to purchase items made by the Maleku people, this was a great way to not only bring home a unique and handmade gift but also support this indigenous tribe.

Wildlife Sightings and Lunch

Instead of waiting for the tractor led wagon to take us down to the front of the park, we started walking down until the wagon came to us. This gave us a great opportunity for the guides to point out some of the wildlife along the way.

On our short walk we were able to see a frog and a sloth. The guides were really good at making sure we all got a chance to see the wildlife and even took pictures for each of us thru their telescope so we could get a close-up photo.

After we all got a chance to see the frog and sloth and get our photos the wagon appeared, and we took it down to the front of the park where we had a typical Costa Rican lunch. The lunch consisted of a choice of meat with rice, beans, veggies and fruit. There was also juice, water and coffee included to drink. If you’re a coffee drinker, you must try the Costa Rican coffee, it’s absolutely delicious, so good that even if you aren’t a black coffee drinker, you won’t need any cream or sugar with this coffee.

Arenal Volcano Hike

After a filling lunch, we were off to our next activity for the day, a hike at Arenal Volcano. While we weren’t hiking the actual volcano itself, we were taking a hike to one of the best and closest views of Arenal Volcano at Mirador El Silencio.

Costa Rica is home to over 200 volcanoes in its 5 volcanic mountain ranges. There are 6 active volcanoes with Arenal being the youngest of the active volcanoes. Arenal Volcano was dormant until 1968 when it erupted unexpectedly and destroyed entire towns on the western side of the Volcano. While many believe La Fortuna got its name due to its fertile lands, many also believe it’s from Arenal erupting to the west as opposed to the east where La Fortuna is located, making it in a fortunate spot. The volcano continued to have regular eruptions until 2010 and it’s remained dormant since then. As you can see from this photo below, while dormant, there continues to be plumes escaping the volcano even now.

The hike we took was not too long and led to a close-up view of the volcano. As mentioned earlier, hiking shoes or at least a good pair of running shoes are a must. When I did the tour a girl was wearing little slip-on sneakers and was sliding a bit.

The trail started from the parking lot and took us thru a field up some hills. As we were hiking thru this part of the trail, we came to a view of a green lake in the valley below. The minerals from the volcano are what gives the lake this bright green color.

At this point, we left the field and were on the trail heading to the viewpoint. As we went up, we started to encounter more and more lava rocks along the way. While we were gaining some elevation on this part of the trail, it didn’t seem too bad compared to the steps at the La Fortuna Waterfall earlier in the day. In the photo below, you can see the trail thru the fields prior to getting closer to the lava rocks.

We then made it to the viewpoint, and it was very impressive to be so close to the volcano. We stayed up at the viewpoint for about 20 minutes which gave us plenty of time to take photos and rest from the hike up. The tour guides were wonderful about making sure that they took everyone’s photo in front of the volcano for them.

After our time at the viewpoint, we started to make our way down to the trailhead to meet the shuttle to head to our next and final destination of the day.

Termalitas del Arenal Hot Springs

After a long and busy day of hiking, it was now time to relax for a bit at the final destination of the tour. No trip to La Fortuna is complete without some time in the hot springs.

Due to the geothermal activity from Arenal Volcano, there is no shortage of hot springs to visit in the area, in fact many of the hotels in the area have hot springs on site for guests to enjoy. The geothermal activity heats the water in the springs to a range of 80-105 degrees Fahrenheit. With minerals such as magnesium and potassium in the water, it’s said that the water of the hot springs has healing effects and one of its main benefits is soothing sore muscles, making it a great stop after hiking.

We arrived at Termalitas del Arenal and it was more of a crowded hot spring waterpark. This was the only disappointing part of the tour as I was expecting a more natural hot spring experience. But it was still enjoyable and a great way to soothe my sore muscles.

There were multiple pools, large and small and different temperature levels. There was also a waterslide, bar, changing rooms and plenty of places to sit and relax. Some of the pools were large and had many people, while others were small and more secluded. We had a private cabana type area where we were able to store our things and were offered a refreshing alcoholic drink with delicious fruit juices.

We were there for about an hour or more depending on what group you were in to leave to be brought back to your hotel. It was the perfect relaxing way to end a full day of seeing the top sights in La Fortuna.

I highly recommend this tour if you are visiting the La Fortuna area of Costa Rica. I loved that all the different stops were fairly close so even though it was a long day, the time spent in the shuttle was very minimal. The tour guides definitely made this tour very special, they were extremely knowledgeable and made a real effort to talk with all of us, answer any questions we may have and made sure that we were all having a great time and got all the photos we needed to remember this wonderful day.

I loved my trip to Costa Rica and would love to help you plan the perfect vacation that includes this incredible tour. Contact me today to plan your Costa Rica Vacation.

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