This was an awesome day filled with hiking and sightseeing! We were picked up promptly at our hotel at the designated time. Pepe our guide for the day was beyond amazing! He was so knowledgeable about all the places we visited, and was entertaining as well. He is also incredibly talented at spotting different wildlife that we would never have noticed, and also awesome at taking photos!
We were picked up promptly from our hotel at the designated time. Our group was 13 people. The van was comfortable. Our first stop was only about 10-15 min to Arenal Volcano National Park - we hiked about 1- hour up to the summit of the base, there is a cafe at the top that serves coffee, pastries, and smoothies made fresh from the fruits on the farms located right there. We then hiked back down. They offered walking sticks, which I would recommend using, since the terrain is rocky and uphill/downhill.
We then loaded up in the van to the next stop, which was the Hanging Bridges park, only about 15 min away. This was about a 2-2.5 hr hike overall. There are several smaller bridges, and a handful of longer and higher bridges. This is where you get to see more wildlife - we were lucky to catch a group of spider monkeys, hummingbirds, bats, snakes, frogs, several different types of insects, all spotted by Pepe. Again, this is a moderate hike, some uphill and downhill.
We then headed to a local La Fortuna restaurant and had a typical Costa Rican meal Casada, which consists of rice/beans, plantains, vegetables, and your choice of protein. The meal and a drink are included in the excursion fee.
After lunch, we headed to our last stop, which was the La Fortuna waterfall. It's about 500 steps down to the base of the waterfall/river, so again it requires moderate exertion. The waterfall is beautiful, and the water is cool but swimmable. I recommend water shoes since you have to walk over rocks to get in the water and they are somewhat slippery. Because we took a little longer at the hanging bridges park, we had only about 45 minutes to stay at the waterfall, but it was enough. After hiking the 500 steps back up to our van, we then started the drop offs to our various hotels.
It was definitely a tiring day filled with up/downhill hiking and steps, but it was well worth it to see the sites! If you are like us and don't want to deal with renting a car and planning out the different site visits, I highly recommend this excursion, or any excursion with Green Vacations Costa Rica! And if you can, request Pepe, he is the best!