Pacuare River Whitewater Rafting From San Jose

The river experience was exciting and fun. Roberto, our guide was fantastic and helped make the trip very enjoyable.

Guide very experience pleasant humorous

I went solo and I had a blast. Aaron and Esteban were the guides, they made the experience a lot of fun and safe! Good food was also included.

So much fun. The watery was murky because it rained the night before. Other than that, it was fun. Luis was our water guide I guess that’s what they are called, he was funny and fun and let us jump in the river and swim for a little bit.

Awesome experience that I hope to do again! Eduardo was an amazing guide - he knew the river well and was fun to talk with! Breakfast and lunch were both great, plenty of food, plenty of space and time to change and store your bags. Don't forget to bring a towel. Everyone was fun and made the experience welcoming for the first timers and more experienced rafters.

My friends and I recently went on a rafting tour, and unfortunately, what should have been an exciting and memorable experience turned into a very disappointing one due to poor service from one of the guides. To start on a positive note, the transportation service was excellent. We were picked up on time, and our driver/guide, Roberto, was incredibly friendly, professional, and charismatic. He provided outstanding customer service and made us feel welcomed from the very beginning. Additionally, the breakfast and the staff at the base location were great well organized and very attentive. However, the experience drastically changed once we were assigned a different rafting guide who goes by “Camarón.” From the moment we started, his attitude was rude, disrespectful, and completely unprofessional. Instead of encouraging and guiding us as one would expect he constantly made vulgar and offensive comments. At one point, while we were paddling (we were a group of all women), another raft asked how things were going. Our guide responded with comments implying he was “struggling” because we “weren’t doing anything,” using inappropriate and offensive language. This kind of behavior continued throughout the entire trip. Rather than motivating us, he belittled us, made us feel uncomfortable, and completely ruined the atmosphere. We were doing our best, but instead of support, we received constant negativity and disrespect. By the end of the tour, all of us felt discouraged and upset. What should have been a fun and empowering activity turned into a negative experience because of his attitude. To make matters worse, at the end of the tour, he had the audacity to ask for a tip, referring to himself as a “great guide,” which was honestly shocking given how poorly he treated us. We were five women in total, and all of us were extremely disappointed. The guide’s use of vulgar language, disrespectful tone, and lack of professionalism are completely unacceptable, especially for a paid tourist experience. I would not recommend this company if this is the type of staff they employ. At the very least, I strongly advise against being assigned to this particular guide. A good guide can make an experience unforgettable in our case, it made it unforgettable for all the wrong reasons.

My friends and I recently went on a rafting tour, and unfortunately, what should have been an exciting and memorable experience turned into a very disappointing one due to poor service from one of the guides. To start on a positive note, the transportation service was excellent. We were picked up on time, and our driver/guide, Roberto, was incredibly friendly, professional, and charismatic. He provided outstanding customer service and made us feel welcomed from the very beginning. Additionally, the breakfast and the staff at the base location were great—well organized and very attentive. However, the experience drastically changed once we were assigned a different rafting guide who goes by “Camarón.” From the moment we started, his attitude was rude, disrespectful, and completely unprofessional. Instead of encouraging and guiding us as one would expect he constantly made vulgar and offensive comments. At one point, while we were paddling (we were a group of all women), another raft asked how things were going. Our guide responded with comments implying he was “struggling” because we “weren’t doing anything,” using inappropriate and offensive language. This kind of behavior continued throughout the entire trip. Rather than motivating us, he belittled us, made us feel uncomfortable, and completely ruined the atmosphere. We were doing our best, but instead of support, we received constant negativity and disrespect. By the end of the tour, all of us felt discouraged and upset. What should have been a fun and empowering activity turned into a negative experience because of his attitude. To make matters worse, at the end of the tour, he had the audacity to ask for a tip, referring to himself as a “great guide,” which was honestly shocking given how poorly he treated us. We were five women in total (three locals and two from Mexico), and all of us were extremely disappointed. The guide’s use of vulgar language, disrespectful tone, and lack of professionalism are completely unacceptable, especially for a paid tourist experience. I would not recommend this company if this is the type of staff they employ. At the very least, I strongly advise against being assigned to this particular guide. A good guide can make an experience unforgettable in our case, it made it unforgettable for all the wrong reasons.

This was my first solo trip, and this excursion was amazing! Everything was smooth sailing from pick up to drop off. Highly recommend!

Our guide was amazing and we had a fabulous time. We went from smooth waters to level 4 rapids, all with laughter and a bit of apprehension. Never flipped over. Excellent rip. Beautiful scenery. I highly recommend.

The guide I was assigned from Exploradores lacked professionalism and made several comments that objectified women. While on the raft, he tried to be playful by splashing water on the group, but many of his remarks came across as flirtatious. At one point during the trip, five out of the six people on my raft—including myself—fell into the water. Two individuals were injured: one person had a bleeding nose and another was also bleeding from the face. We were all shaken up, yet the guide showed little concern in checking on anyone or addressing the situation. Instead, his response was simply, “You all signed a waiver.” When I asked how the accident had happened, he appeared irritated and told me that I could stop the activity if I wanted to. This comment felt sarcastic and dismissive, especially considering we were in the middle of a river surrounded by forest. Toward the end of the tour, the guide became visibly frustrated when two other participants and I chose not to jump into the water to swim. He sighed, muttered under his breath, threw the paddles into the raft, and jumped into the river himself. After the tour ended, he approached me directly and asked for a tip. Given the experience, I chose not to tip him. When I declined, his demeanor shifted noticeably and he appeared angry. Overall, this company seems to operate large tour groups with many participants, but the guides appeared careless. During our trip, several other rafts flipped as well. In one case, a guide was unable to get back into his own raft to assist the people in his group. Based on this experience, I would recommend choosing a smaller tour operator, as they may provide more attentive and customer-focused service.

This was my third time on the Pacuare. Such a scenic river with almost constant action. Eduardo was a great guide and we really enjoyed the trip.

This was by far the most disappointing experience of our entire 10-day trip in Costa Rica. Our pickup was scheduled for 5:45 AM, but the guide arrived at 6:15 AM. When we asked about the delay, he responded rudely, saying, “You’re not the only ones,” and blamed traffic — even though there were only four people on the bus before us and no traffic at all. The dismissive attitude was completely unprofessional and set the tone for the day. After picking up the entire group, we were informed that we would not be going to the Pacuare River due to “rainy conditions” and could be dropped off if we didn’t agree. At that point, it was too late to cancel or make other plans — we had already committed our entire morning. Later, we met other guests from our hotel who did the Pacuare that same day without any weather issues. This made the explanation feel misleading at best. Instead, we were taken to the Reventazón River. The rafting lasted only about one hour and felt more like a lazy float, with just one or two mild rapids. We spent roughly seven hours commuting for a single hour of underwhelming rafting — absolutely not worth the price. Communication throughout the tour was nearly nonexistent. No clear instructions, no engagement, and no effort to create a positive experience. Lunch was mediocre and didn’t even include a vegetarian option. The guides and staff were unwelcoming and disengaged. After so many incredible tours in Costa Rica with passionate, professional guides, this one stood out — for all the wrong reasons. For the cost, the long commute, the last-minute change of river, and the unprofessional behavior, this tour was a complete letdown. I would strongly recommend choosing a different rafting company.

Great experience! Good safety instructions and measures, great organisation (shuttle, food etc). We were first timers and had a great rafting experience with Esteban. Only small minus: there was no wildlife to be seen (wrong time of the day and also quite far away on the river), not like described.

Pick up was right on time. Great breakfast and then on to the river. Our guide, Rob, was excellent. He pointed out different wildlife and trees/plants and explained them. He was a master of his craft on the water. Our raft was all adult, so he gave us the full experience of the rapids. Comfortable A/C on the bus. Overall, a great trip with a great outfitter. Highly recommended.

Roberto was an excellent guide. Fun and knowledgeable Excellent teaching us how to paddle correctly. Did a great job getting us through some tough rapids. Great time!!!

Awesome veiws and physically challenging. Our guide Ricardo was extremely knowledgeable and made this day trip a blast! 100% recommended!

This tour was sooooooooo fun. I have no complaints whatsoever. Everything was perfect - the transportation (roundtrip) was on time, they fed us a delicious Costa Rican breakfast along with lunch. Most people in my group were first timers at rafting, including myself. We all did well even on the lll & llll grades - under the direction and expertise of the guide. You have to pay attention at all times, the water moves rapidly. If you can do that, you'll be fine. It was so fun I almost booked the tour a second time. I would love to do this again. 10/10.

I had an amazing experience!! I will definitely do this again when I visit Costa Rica. My guide was awesome!

Excellent rafting tour. Professional, on time, and fun. This is not to be missed if you enjoy nature. Our tour guide, Robert, was great. He had fun personality and balanced it with fun and adventure. He also spotted many animals from afar and told us so many great things about the river. I learned a lot about Costa Rica. Well done!

I went by myself but they put me with a group and it was fun! Our tour guide was clear with instructions and all went well. I do recommend to take water shoes (since you are going to be wet) and rash guard to protect yourself from sun. Overall, it was an awesome experience!

Loved every second. I've always wanted to try this and it did not disappoint. The water was warm, the guides were extremely friendly. The scenery was beautiful and the rapids were perfect intensity. They also provided pickup and drop-off with food included. It was a great day and I'd happily do it again.

Absolutely the best guides. Cautious and very informative about who what where we would experience. It was fun and a very lengthy excursion.

From beginning to end it was a great day! The rafting is mindblowingly beautiful. The gorges are amazing! The wildlife sightings were an added bonus. Great Bfast to start, which is good, since the length is about 20 miiles of river. Be prepared for a work out! But all worth it! Lunch and transport back- was all timed. It’s a long fay. Pace yourself. Our river guide Kay and all the guys are super informed and fun! I would, I will be back to do it again.

Breath taking country, beautiful canyons, rain forest vegetation, indigenous people along shore, fantastic & challenging river; friendly, fun, expert guides - this river has everything. The breakfast & lunch were also good.

Great experience- experienced and friendly guides made rafting super fun! We also got good breakfast and lunch. Lots of fun!

I had an amazing rafting tour! Beauty everywhere. The experience was memorable in a fabulous way! They group of guides were fantastic and fun! I could listen to my guide, Roberto's voice all day long!PURAVIDA!Kara

The scenery was amazing and humbling! The rafting was a blast, and experience il never forget. The guide was great, but the views of the mountains, rainforest, wildlife was once In a life time experience.

Rod is the best guide and this is highlight of our trip. Everything was perfect and excellent. Two thumbs up for you guys.

This river rocks! Great action with several class IV rapids. Nothing beats floating down a river in the middle of a lush rain forest.

We weren't sure what to expect, but everything from the pick up at our Airbnb to rafting, floating in the river, seeing huge blue, morpho butterfiles, toucans, howlers, waterfalls and more was great. We overnighted and really recommend doing that if you have time! Waking up in your jungle bungalow with the wildlife is exquisite. Loved our trip so much!

This was a great day float! It was so beautiful and the guides were very kind. They had guides that spoke both English and Spanish. The rapids were fun and exciting too! The company also had a very nice facility with outdoor showers, food, and beverages.

That’s ‘must have’ experience in Costa Rica, just outstanding and challenging in the same time. It’s totally fine for inexperienced people, but you need to be in a good shape, great workout for entire body. Guides were so great, friendly, funny and helpful. Breakfast and lunch are so good. Definitely would go again and recommend to have this fun!!!

This was our first trip rafting. We loved it. The rapids are what the pictures showed. We went in June 2022 after a big rain, therefore the river was challenging. But, we enjoyed the trip and have good memories.

Rob was our guide and made the experience!! Very knowledgeable about the river, plants and animals. One of the best tours. Everyone was professional and as a whole so easy. If you want to go on an adventure this is a MUST!!!!

Fantastic exhilarating tour. Professional safe company with excellent equipment. Roberto gave us proper instructions of how to navigate the world famous Pacaure. Wear sturdy water socks and have your bathing suit and quick drying shirt under your clothes when picked up. Bring a change of clothes and towel to shower with afterwards. Typical Costarican meal was yummy. You must be able to follow instructions and have a tiny by of physical agility to do this tour. If you any tour, this one is a must. Highly recommend

The guide was super experienced and funny. The trip was such a nice adventure in many different ways. The nature was beautiful and the animals were fascinating to watch. Of course the river rafting itself was very exciting and fun.

Our guide, David, did such a great job taking us down the class 4 rapids! He knew exactly how to navigate the river and gave us some history about the area along the way. This is the best river to raft, although the traffic from road construction is aggravating, getting back to San Jose.

Best river rafting of my life. Our guide, David, was the very best. Recommend this for anyone!!! The class 4 rapids were the best experience of my life.

I bought this as a birthday gift for my son (who is an adult) whilst we was in Costa Rica. He told me he had a really good time and that the ages of participants varied from the young to old. He told me that he would definitely recommend this experience to other people.

This tour was outstanding. Amazing experience like never before. Beautiful river with spectacular views and scenery. Rapids level 3 and 4. Our guide Diego was very good and well experienced keeping us safe during the 4 hours rafting and 27 miles ride. Love Costa Rica. Pura Vida !!!!!

Rafting is nice, but transportation to and from arenal area is an absolute nightmare. Don't do it from Arenal find something closer. Well worth your sanity. Be warned!

Wonderful day. Exciting but not scary The guides are great They did everything they said Highly recommend

Tour guide Elbert was great. Company was professional. The entire tour from pickup to drop off was 12 hours so plan on all day. I’ve been recommending it to my friends since I got back

Had a really good day on this tour. Transportation was on time, guides were very friendly and concerned about the safety of everyone. It's a far drive but the scenery makes it worth it. Experience on the river was super fun and I would for sure do it again.

tis wis sooo amizing to do. i has suhc gret tim doing tis, tis supur recomended . i has sop god tim man do tis wit yur famili.

Even beginners can do it. I never fell in the river. If you want to swim, you can play on the river. A photographer will accompany you and take photos. It is a very wonderful picture. It's $ 25, but it's worth buying.

The short review: *** If you're interested in a tour, run by immature, frat boys, who might threaten to hurt you, who will humiliate you and then make fun of you both in English to your face and in thick Spanish behind your back (since you won't understand them), this is certainly the tour for you. I will recommend people to NOT take this tour, I have told everyone I know about the horrors of this experience and I've been working with my bank to have my money refunded. This experience was by far, the WORSE "adventure" I've ever been on. I was afraid the guides would steal from me ( I went down the raft with paper money and my passport- because I was so mistrusting) I was afraid for my life as they drove us for a total of 7 hours and by the end of the tour- I was afraid the guides were going to take us somewhere other than our hotel to rob /hurt us. By the time the 14 hour tour was FINNNNALLLY over, my friend and I had both shed many many tears and we were grateful to God to be alive. *** The Long Story: My friend and I were so excited to visit Costa Rica and experience the wildlife and Pura Vida lifestyle that the natives talk so much about. My friend had never been rafting before and I had been once in Australia and had a blast. It all started with our tour guide, Jefferson, coming to pick us up 45 minutes late; from this very point, I had a feeling things were headed for bad.. The bus was packed like sardines, and our only option was to sit in the front most seats of the bus. We sat on the bus for 3 hours as the bus driver raced down the side of a wet mountain, (it was raining) exceeding the speed limit, going out of his way to pass people as he aggressively turned the wheel. I swear the bus was on two wheels at some point, my friend was screaming and the bus driver almost rear ended someone! Scary- not fun. All the while, the two tour guides, laughed and joked. Next, we visited a rather large open area, for breakfast. No complaints about the restaurant. Again, the tour guides were late. We were only supposed to be at breakfast for 15-30 minutes. Instead we were there for about 90 minutes as another guide was late and a different bus had broken down? Finally, it was time to load the bus again and head on the rafting tour. Everyone climbed back into their original seats. Again, the bus was packed and our only choice was to get back into the short row of seats in the more front part of the bus. A new "tour guide" jumped on the bus, looked my friend in her eyes, told her to "Get Up" and "Move to a seat in the back." Since there were no seats any where on the bus by the time the man got on, we had already been in these seats for the last 3 hours, we didn't know this man, he was not polite, he did not say hello and he spoke to her with his hands and alot of attitude, the request came off as a demand and it seemed racially driven. She turned to me with fire in her eyes and asked why the man was being so rude. He went on to say, "If you don't move, I'm going to hit you and if that happens I won't be sorry and you'll be hurt." By this point, my friend was too angry to speak, she turned beat red and starting crying and I switched seats with her. When I was next to the "guide," he started making the same threats to me. He said things like, "Pay attention, cause if you fall out of the boat and drown, I won't be responsible." He was just so unnecessarily aggressive. Little did he know, this rafting trip, was not my first and I'm a pretty strong swimmer. He went out of his way to attempt to belittle me, embarrass and humiliate me in the front of the bus in front of everyone. I too was confused as to why he was being so rude to me. So, I asked Jeffry, using the best Spanish I knew, I asked why his friend was so mean. Jeffry laughed in my face and said his friend was just playing. I asked Jeffry to apologize and get his friend to say sorry. Jeffry kept laughing. I told Jeffry, "all was not well and we did not feel safe or happy". Jeffry kept laughing. It was at this point that I really did not feel safe and I wondered if we were going to be alright on the trip. *** I Felt so unsafe and mistrustful of the guides that my friend and I both took our phones, all our money and our passports with me down the river because I was afraid that the guides might try to steal them from us. *** The rafting experience was much of the same. The tour guides continued to make jokes all down the river. This rafting trip was a 4 hour trip, by the way. There was another tourist on the trip who's first language was Spanish. She confirmed that the tour guides were making fun of people. The short "guide" who disrespected us on the bus later made comments in English to our face about our weight, our skin color and our lacking ability to paddle with strength. The guides made fun of the other tourists in Spanish about the overweight men weighting the boat down, the "Americans" and the people who kept falling out. Every chance he got, the "short guide" continued to fling water on us (we were in a river and it was a water trip) but the flinging of water using the paddle, just became obnoxious and intentionally rude. FINALLy, the four hours were over. We want back to the open-aired restaurant for dinner. No complaints about the food, other than it really wasn't that great. When it was time to finally go home, we sat a row back because we didn't want any issues this time and we didn't want to see the horror that was the bus drivers style of almost killing his passengers. The ride took an additional hour because of traffic. The sun dropped. As we got closer and closer to town, the guides continued to drop more and more people off until we were the last two on the bus. BY this point my heart was racing. The entire experience had been so horrible, I wasn't confident that the guides were going to take us straight back to our hotel. Each guide had gone out of his way to make us feel horrible, not welcomed, ugly, fat; they really went out of their way to make us feel bad. I was concerned that they might take us somewhere and rob us or hurt us. I was so thankful that we made it back to our hotel. By far the worst experience I've ever been on. I've traveled to many countries and never experience such racism as I did on this tour. SO... Everyone. Save yourself the trouble and pick a different water rafting tour.

We really enjoyed the rapids and our tour guide was great. I know I’m the description it mentions you being able to see animals...If you really want to see animals, I don’t suggest doing this. Because it’s not a zoo or anything you can’t really predict if you’ll see animals or not. Which was fine for me but I know some might be looking forward to seeing wild monkeys and stuff. Breakfast and lunch were great. The bus used to transport us was kind of snug but I didn’t mind it. It’s $25 for all the pictures that they take which I think is a great price. They get a lot of good action shots. Overall great experience and I definitely recommend

We was there with about 15 people in our team and few from another team' the boats were just right' comfort and safe, Our boat captain was also the photographer' he was very knowledgeable about how to handle the boat in the water-streams white-water and about the birds and plants too. shortly was great fun and worth the cost and time