Arenal National Park Adventure

Wonderful hike with spectacular views and wildlife

Our guide Daniel from Aventuras Arenal picked us up on time and drove us to the boat landing on the far side of the dam. From there we took a short boat ride on the lake past the dam to the peninsula of Arenal Volcano Park. We got off there and hiked up a well paved path to the visitor center. From the landing, you get some great panoramas of the lake and the mountain range to the south where MonteVerde is. The wildlife we saw on this part of the tour was arguably better than what we saw at many dedicated nature reserves or at the Hanging Bridges. Daniel spotted a 3-toed sloth and several different types of birds along the way (vultures, turkeys, toucans, wrens, and hummingbirds). We were able to see them up close with his spotting scope, and we got great shots with our cameras. We heard howler monkeys, but they declined to show themselves. From there, it was a short drive to the main Arenal Volcano Park, where we got off again and hiked to the 1992 lava flow. You're able to get up on the flow and see the natural landscape reclaim the lava flow, but you need to stay on the marked trails and aren't allowed to go very far onto the lava flow. While it would technically be possible to hire a taxi and do the main parts of this tour yourself, having a guide is well worth the price. He spotted so many different animals that we would have been completely oblivious to, had we just walked it ourselves. We did this tour in late December, which is technically the start of the dry season, but we had scattered rainstorms throughout. The rain let up right at the beggining of the hike, which meant that we probably saw more birds than normal, since they were emerging from shelter and drying themselves off in the sun.

Amazing variety of birds

Billy was our guide. He brought a spotting scope and took photos with our smartphones looking through the eyepiece. We saw an amazing variety of birds, and our first coati. Billy was very knowledgeable about everything we saw.

Exceeded expectations

Although the day was not accompanied by rain, Natalia and driver Germsn’s great professionalism made for an unforgettable day. Showed to be a great naturalist and fully adapted to the needs of the group

Professionals out of 10

One day with a lot of rain we could not see the.volcano but still our guide Natalia and the driver Germán made our experience unforgettable a 10 to both Thanks