La Fortuna

Trip Date: Jan 2026. £1= 623 Costa Rica Colon (₡) & $1.33 USD May 2026

Despite La Fortuna being one of the most visited tourist hotspots in Costa Rica, it wasn't the most convenient to get to - at least not from Liberia. We had three buses we would need to take and any missteps would result in hours of waiting boredom at rural transport hubs. For this to work, we first needed to board the 9am bus from Liberia to Canas (₡1800 colones each). Luckily the bus station in Liberia was well marked, with each bus route having a designated bay which made things easy. When we tried to get off the bus in what we thought was the correct place, our driver let us know that the final stop would work better for our connection.

We got off the bus at the small Canas bus station, the driver helpfully pointing out the next door coach as the one we'd need to take us to Tileran. It left only a few minutes after we boarded and was the cheapest of the day at ₡550. The journey zoomed by and soon we found ourselves in Tileran, and here we'd have to wait till 12.15pm for the next bus.

While Tileran was a small town, it was obviously a popular transport hub as the hard rows of plastic chairs in the station were filled with backpackers. The single slightly grubby toilet was manned costing ₡200 each, an option, but not a good one. While we had over an hour to kill, Ben wandered off, passport in hand, to obtain a sim card from a shop we'd passed on the bus ride in. Although there were a couple of food stalls around the station, we stuck to the prepackaged snacks we'd brought along with us.

As we waited, we anxiously watched as more and more passengers joined us. When a bus pulled in, I hopped up, dragging my bags keenly into the queue determined to get a space onboard. Typically, it wasn't the bus we needed, and I sheepishly made my way back to our chosen seats. Despite the amount of travellers waiting, our bus to La Fortuna wasn't as packed as I'd dreaded and everyone fit inside, backpacks and luggage stored beneath the bus. We paid our driver the oddly specific amount of ₡3130 and settled in for the two hour ride.

We wound our way slowly around the edge of Lake Arenal, out of the right hand window of the bus stunning views out over of the water could be glimpsed between breaks in the trees. As we got closer to La Fortuna the iconic Arenal Volcano could be seen, if we'd known then that this was the only day of our visit it would be visible, we might have spent longer admiring it. Although I didn't personally see any sloths as we zoomed our way into town, I did spy a couple of tour groups pulled over to the side of the road pointing up into the trees.

By the time we arrived and checked in most of the day had already passed. We normally prefer exploring an area solo rather than on tour, but after looking up the activities we wanted to do and the distance between them, we realised an organised tour would make the most sense. We visited four different agencies, finally settling on Red Lava Tours. At their office near the bus station, we shrewdly negotiated an18% discount off of their online price down to $85 USD each (then paid +13% tax and 5% card fee bringing it right back up to the original quote) for their 7 hour day trip that included the Hanging Bridges, Arenal Volcano, lunch and entrance to the hot springs - all of this of course accompanied by a tour guide.

Just for comparison here's the breakdown of the costs going solo per person:

• Mistico Hanging bridges & tour guide $44 (+13% tax and card fee)

• La Silenco Mirador - Arenal Volcano viewpoint walk $10 (without a guide)

• Hotel Relax Terminales - hot springs $10

Thats already $64 without the transport in between locations, a guide at Arenal or Lunch. So while the tour wasn't cheap, it was reasonable taking into account the attraction prices.

At 6.50 am we were the first to be picked up. It took another hour to pick up the other 17 passengers and arrive at Mistico Hanging Bridges. Unlike the day before with its bright blue cloudless sky, today's sky was solid grey and as we walked into the park it began to drizzle. Our group was split into two and we headed off to explore.

While the famous canopy views from Misticos suspension bridges were somewhat underwhelming due to the poor visibility, our guide kept the moral of the group up and concentrated on explaining to the local flora, fauna and ecosystems. While she was amazingly knowledgable, she was also great at finding animals to show up through the large scope she carried. We saw lizards, an eyelash viper, tarantula, sacked bats and a motmot. Although the view through the scope was great, our scope based photography definitely needs some work as our results were questionable. The drizzle turned steady rain had unfortunately hidden away the monkeys and sloths that sometimes frequent the park.

So the views from the bridges were rubbish, but that didn't stop us from enjoying the park anyway. A suspension bridge will always be fun to cross, the footsteps of multiple people walking out of sync throwing us from one side of the bridge to another, like pirates on land after months at sea. The walk around the forest paths was also nice, climbing steadily up and down the curving mountainside, the high canopy of trees shielding us from the worst of the weather. Sure there was a small amount of queueing for the bridges, but better that than them being overloaded with impatient visitors.

Once we'd thoroughly explored Mistico we made our way back to the bus, heading for Arenal Volcano and the El Silenco walk. We set off again in the same groups as before. Our guide shared facts about the volcano, specifically about its 1968 eruption and how it wiped out all nearby towns except one: La Fortuna (the fortunate one). Strangely, the town was named this 20 years prior to the catastrophic eruption due to its fertile lands... a bit prophetic if you ask me! As we walked up the lower slope of the volcano we saw the hardened lava flows left from that eruption, and that, along with some very nearby plants, was all we were able to see. When we first left the bus it seemed like the weather was starting to change but by the top we were in a full on downpour.

While we couldn't actually get the photo we wanted of Arenal Volcano in all its glory, we posed for the photo anyway so we could bring you this completely accurate and lifelike representation. Although you may be doubtful, I can assure you that no AI was used to generate this image.

Things weren't exactly going to plan, but we'd paid our money and we were determined to have fun. Did it slightly suck that we didn't get good views from the bridges or of the Volcano? Yes 100% it did suck. Was it slightly comical? Also yes. It was one of the most expensive things we'd done on the trip so far, and it happened to be on the worst weather day we'd had so far too. Ignoring the weather we were still having a good day, the guide was brilliant and our group were a good laugh.

Next stop: Lunch. This was better than I'd expected. Without going into detail, I always assume an included lunches are going to be small and badly cooked. This meal was quite large in portion size and the food was cooked fine, so I counted it as a win.

Our last stop of the day was the hot springs. Others in our bus had opted for the more expensive day tour which included a waterfall, so we were given the option of staying 2 hours at the springs with a taxi back, or staying for 4 hours and leaving with the rest of the group. We stayed for the two, checking out multiple of their pools, spending most of our time in the one that wasn't too too hot but was far from the coolest. The hot spring pools in general were better than i'd imaged them, with more natural landscaping and trees around the area so they didn't feel too swimming-pool-esque.

We didn't really get up to all that much more during the rest of our time in La Fortuna. The next day we did head back to the hot springs area, walking the hour out of town along the main road. The facility we chose, Termalitas was only ₡4000 each, with ₡2000 extra for the hire of a locker. The pools were even hotter here although they definitely had more of a swimming pool aesthetic. Saying that, the landscaping was even greener and as we relaxed we could see tons of small birds flitting from tree to tree in the canopy above us.

We had flirted with the idea of heading to one of the sloth walks just outside of town, but the hefty entrance fees of $30 were putting us off. Sure it would be cool to see a sloth, but others we talked to said they were everywhere down near Puerto Viejo and as we were heading that way eventually anyway, we thought we'd save our pennies... after all, Costa Rica was living up to its more expensive reputation so far.