Travel to the Arenal Volcano area, the most popular touristic region of Costa Rica, and enjoy many of the beauties of the country on this full-day trip. Your tour starts in the morning when you are picked up from your hotel in the San Jose area in an air-conditioned vehicle and you will then travel to Arenal on an alternative route that is more scenic than the regular highway to this popular destination. On the way to Arenal, you will stop in a plantation where you will learn about coffee of Costa Rica, here you will be able to observe the coffee plants and see the workers picking the ripe cherries during the harvest season. Your guide will share information on this important product to the local economy and other important facts (coffee degustation will be provided later in a rustic coffee shop).
Continue your tour with a visit to the famous La Paz Waterfall, where you will stop on the side of the road for a few minutes to take pictures of this popular attraction surrounded by lush tropical rainforest.
Later on, you will stop at the San Fernando Waterfall look-out point, where you will also have the chance to take pictures of this beautiful attraction and observe many exotic birds of Costa Rica at the birds’ gallery; it is very common to see toucans, hummingbirds and many other colorful tropical species. Taste a freshly brewed cup of some of the best coffee in the world while admiring the beautiful waterfall, definitely a great place to drink your coffee! This degustation will be accompanied by traditional snacks that local Costa Ricans normally eat with their coffee.
Following you will stop at the iguana’s center, a place where you will see lots of iguanas at eye level, resting on the top of numerous trees. As part of this stop, you will also go to a place nearby where sloths are normally observed in their natural habitat.
Continue on to the Town of La Fortuna, where you will savor a delicious Costa Rican lunch in a restaurant located near the famous Arenal Volcano. After lunch, participate in an indigenous presentation performed by native people from the local “Maleku Tribe”, where you will learn about the traditions and culture of this ethnic group.
Afterward, you will visit various points around the volcano to take pictures of this amazing mountain on clear days, and you will then travel to the beautiful Paradise Hot Springs Resort, a place where you will be able to relax for a few hours in the multiple hot springs pools surrounded by lush tropical gardens. This hot springs facility is one of the best in the Arenal area and provides the perfect environment to relax in thermal mineral water pools, jacuzzis, and cascading waterfalls. After enjoying the relaxing hot springs you will go to a local typical restaurant to have a delicious Costa Rican dinner and then will be taken back to your hotel in the San Jose area.
Alex was an excellent guide and made the tour greatly enjoyable! Admission was fair for the variety of activities, ride, and meals as well. Highly recommend for people who want to experience a large variety of things in one day.
Had a great time. Alex got us to our destinations safe and timely. Hot springs was great. Food on the tour was awesome!
Alex was a pleasant and very coordinated guide will recommend
Fernando was excellent as a host. He was knowledgeable, entertaining. and informative. Seeing sloths was a highlight, thank you.
Alex was a wonderful, upbeat tour guide. Although the tour itself could be better, especially the malakui village it wasn’t at all what I expected. Overall the tour could be better and somethings should be changed. Seeing the Arenal volcano was super cool thankfully we got to see the tip of the volcano and the hot springs were great.
Alex was an amazing tour guide! We learned so much about Costa Rica’s culture and history, saw breathtaking waterfalls, and had an incredible time at the hot springs. What made the day even more special was his thoughtfulness—he stopped to get us strawberries, gooseberries, and chocolate! Those little touches made an already wonderful experience unforgettable. Thank you, Alex, for such an amazing day! We highly recommend Go Tours and especially we recommend Alex to anyone looking to explore the beauty of Costa Rica!
Alex was great a great guide, very knowledgeable and funny. Explained everything we were seeing and kept us laughing. I enjoyed being immersed into nature and the end at the hot springs was amazing ! Thank you for everything Alex !
We had an amazing time really enjoyed the views and the guide Alex was very knowledgeable and great personality
The overall experience was nice. Enjoyed the day with Alex. Thanks a lot!
It was great. Alex entertained us whole trip.
Alex is very nice and knowledgeable. We did bird, iguanas, sloths watching. Coffee plantation, waterfalls, hot spring, and the Arenal Volcano are beautiful.
Alex was a great tour guide. He showed us all these beautiful places in Costa Rica as well as the coffee plantations. It was a great day
Alex is a fantastic gids with explanations all the way, from coffee plantage to Arenal vulcano. We had a good very time the whole day. Paradise hot springs at the food of Arenal is really relax en enjoy.
Our guide Alex was very knowledgeable and kept everyone engaged. It was a great trip.
Very good value and host. My driver was very knowledgeable and very good attitude
You can trust Alex. He will take you to places with some pleasant surprises.
Fernando was the best very knowledgeable, courteous, and helpful Tour was totally worth it!! definitely would do this tour again
Our tour with Fernando was wonderful!!! From the beautiful sites to interesting facts he told us throughout our tour, we had a tremendous experience. Food was also amazing, and just added to the time we had. Also went at the end of October, which is during the end of the rainy season, but hardly got any adverse weather. Would definitely do this tour again!
Our tour guide Alex was very enthusiastic, professional, and skilled at finding animals; we had a great time.
Review Alex was AMAZING! The best tour guide. He was prompt to pick us up at the time he said he would arrive. We saw waterfalls. Stopped to eat local food many times throughout the tour. Alex bought us fresh fruit to eat along the drive. We pulled over off the side of the road every time Alex saw an animal we were seeking. Sloths, all the toucans and such beautiful birds and wildlife. We went to a coffee plantation and had the opportunity to purchase coffee and souvenirs. We also met indigenous people, learned a bit of their language and experienced their culture. The hot springs were so amazing. We spent two hours there. He had WiFi on the bus and sent us all of the photos he took as well via WhatsApp. Such an amazing time. The food for lunch and dinner was great! I really love the dinner. I ordered the Chifrijo with fish. So good. All food was seasoned so well. It was an all day tour from 6:10 AM to 7:30 PM but worth every minute. I truly feel like I saw 75% of Costa Rica in one day. Thank you Alex for a time I will remember for the rest of my life. 🫶🏼
Alex was a wonderful guide. He was very informative and funny. Alex was also a great driver on those crazy dark roads. Planning on booking another trip with them
Alex was an amazing guide! From seeing the waterfalls, wildlife, enjoy a relaxing time at the Hot Springs. My wife and I booked this trip for our wedding anniversary trip. This has been an amazing experience! If you are looking for an all day tour to do this is the one to book.
Great experience. Good lunch & dinner. Alex is the best.
Fernando was amazing.. Would recommend him 110%. I would definitely do it again!
Money well spent, I had a blast and at the same time ,saw and learnt so much about the culture of Costa Rica. Our tour guide Ovi was very informative and excellent. He is very welcoming and jovial. I highly recommend this tour.
Alex was a great guide and we loved all the surprises along the way! Definitely worth it! Just be prepared for a lot of driving!
Alex made seeing Costa Rica for the first time amazing! We had laughs while also being educated on the culture and seeing spectacular views. He got us everywhere timely and was trustworthy, kind, and helpful. Every stop was something new and exciting. We were well taken care of.
I had an amazing experience. Our tour guide Alex was very informative and kind. We made a lot of stops and experienced a lot of great surprises.
Alex blanco was really nice and did a lot to make our experience better. Would definitely recommend Alex.
It was an amazing experience I loved everything
Fernando was a wonderful tour guide and really taught the group in a fun interactive way. Would definitely recommend going on one of his tours with Go Tours!
This tour was an excellent experience. The Arenal volcano is absolutely beautiful and well worth the trip. Our tour guide Alex was knowledgeable and took good care of everyone in our group. If you're on the fence, I say go for it!
The absolute best tour. Fernando was knowledgeable about Costa Rica!
Steven is professional and we were able to see a sloth which was awake (finally) on the top of a tree, and it was only a spot along our driving route! Amazing!
Fernando was an incredible guide! We learned a lot and got to do many things over the span of about fourteen hours.
I had an amazing experience during my trip to Costa Rica. From the beginning, the tour was very well organized, with guided visits to all the places included in the itinerary and detailed explanations about each destination and its surroundings. A special mention goes to our guide, Alex, who was always courteous, friendly, and attentive to every detail. His knowledge and willingness to help made the experience even more enjoyable and allowed us to appreciate Costa Rica from a different perspective. I highly recommend this tour to anyone with an adventurous spirit and a desire to discover at least a small part of everything Costa Rica has to offer. It was a wonderful experience, full of beautiful places, interesting information, and unforgettable moments.
The tour was amazing!! Got to see lots in one day and I like that we had a decent amount of stops to breakup the day. Food was great and the views were awesome!! Fernando was a fantastic guide very informative and full of knowledge and let us know exactly how the day was going to go. Pickup and drop off was super easy as well with quick reply after booking tour night before.
It was an amazing experience, the guide tour named Fernando explained us very clearly, he’s absolutely knowledgeable and a brilliant guy! Totally worth every single penny lol and it was a great day we could see the volcano arenal and have different pints of view to take photos
Fernando was excellent. The best part with him is that we got lucky with weather and he covered all the valuable spot. He was the best to guide us all the history and right on questions we can’t answer. It was so fun with him to make the most of our time in this trip.
Amazing experience! Just as it was described on TripAdvisor and so much fun. You'll have plenty of time to see everything. The hot springs were my favorite part, sooo relaxing and plenty of time to spend there. The views are fantastic too. Fernando was our tour guide, he was awesome!! Lots of fun facts, very kind, and great driver. My husband and I were the only native English speakers in the tour group but knew enough Spanish that we preferred to try listening to some of the tour in Spanish. Fernando is a bilingual guide and accommodated us perfectly, speaking in a way we could understand while also keeping it fun and engaging for everyone. He also explained parts in English whenever we needed it. Also, at one point in the trip I had an upset stomach and became a little car sick (not fault of driver or any food from the trip, was just me). He was super kind about it and handled it smoothly. We all had a blast and I would absolutely recommend this trip! Everyone we interacted with was great. Huge shout-out to Fernando for making the day so great!
This trip was amazing! Our guide Fernando was so nice and he taught us a lot! My wife and I have been casually learning Spanish and he made it fun for us to practice. The sights were beautiful and the hot springs were a highlight of our trip to Costa Rica. Would recommend!
Overall this was a decent trip. The high point was Fernando, our guide. He is a high energy person who cares deeply about educating his guests about Costa Rica. The many birds, monkeys, iguanas, sloths, waterfalls, coffee plantations etc were wonderful to experience. Costa Rica has incredible biodiversity and this tour shows it well. But there are downsides. Clearly, a trip from San Jose to Alajuela province and back makes for a VERY long 14 hour day. In the end it’s worth the time, but be prepared. And the ride is brutal much of the time. It’s not the guide’s fault. Costa Rican roads are frequently brutal to traverse. A 90ish kilometer (about 60 miles) takes about three hours to travel. As a result we spent between seven to ten hours (approx) driving and the remainder actually doing things on the tour. Eight-ish hours of Costa Rican roads rattling the fillings from your teeth is not pleasant. We didn’t get much out of the hot springs stop. That’s just personal preference. But … it’s hot and humid ALL DAY, and then in the late afternoon. we get in water between 27 to 38 C. (80 to 100 F.). With those caveats, I hope you have as good a time as we did!
Wow, wow, and more wow! Our guide and driver, Alex, curated a magical day of surprises and delights. We give him a solid 200 out of 10! He turned city traffic jams into an introduction to the geography and culture of Costa Rica using a map the entire van could see. What might look like a long drive in the description became a journey of discovery at each of Alex’s carefully chosen spots. Lunch and dinner were filling and delicious. We stayed on schedule without feeling rushed, with multiple stops to break up the trip. The landscape is unbelievably beautiful and well worth the drive. The Arenal volcano delivers - we even saw steam from yesterday’s eruption! The hot springs is a relaxing and beautiful place with a view of the volcano and pools surrounded with flowers, bamboo, and so much greenery. Waterfalls, animals, surprises, beauty, and fun - the perfect day withe the perfect guide.
Alex is the best guide you could ask for! He is very attentive, sweet, caring, and funny. We enjoyed many stops to check out waterfalls, iguanas, birds, and some sloths. I recommend this tour to everyone! Thank you Alex for such a special day filled with smiles and laughs!
Alex is a very friendly and good-humored guide. He was approachable and always seemed excited to answer questions and help each guest make the most of their experience.
Great road trip and guide! Alex explained so much and added in lots of insight to the local areas.
Alex was amazing and did an awesome job explaining the culture. Definitely recommend him for all your tours.
Alex was a great tour guide. He even stopped on the roads to show us animals that he saw while driving. Very nice and thorough. Glad I had him as my tour guide
We had a great experience on this tour! We loved our guide. He explained all the Costa Rican Culture, we learned a lot from all his knowledge. It was a long day but well worth it. Admission fee to the Volcano Springs was included, also lunch and dinner. With my family and three others, total of eight people.
We weren’t able to see one of the main attractions which was the volcano so I feel ripped off. We then spent 30 minutes at the gift shop when we could have had extra time at the hot spring we paid for.
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