LA FORTUNA OVERNIGHT · COSTA RICA
Two Days in La Fortuna, from Guanacaste
The La Fortuna Overnight is a private trip from any hotel between Papagayo and Tamarindo to La Fortuna and Arenal, Costa Rica, for one night or two — so the volcano becomes somewhere you stay instead of a fourteen-hour day. You choose the activities, from hanging bridges and sloths to hot springs, the waterfall or the volcano hike, and we build and quote it: from $800 per person for one night, $1,200 for two.
You are already on the coast, and Arenal is three and a half hours inland. That is the whole problem this trip solves. We collect you from your hotel anywhere between Papagayo and Tamarindo, take you to La Fortuna for one night or two, and bring you back — so the volcano stops being a fourteen-hour day and becomes somewhere you actually stayed.
From $800 per person for one night · From $1,200 for two
Based on four guests. Hotel in La Fortuna not included.
Why stay overnight in La Fortuna?
Arenal is not in Guanacaste. It is three and a half hours inland, in Alajuela, and every visitor on this coast eventually has to decide how to deal with that distance.
We sell a day trip that does it in one go, and we are honest about what it costs you: three and a half hours of driving out, three and a half back, and a start before dawn. It is a good day. It is also fourteen hours long, and eleven of them are not the forest.
Stay one night and that arithmetic disappears. You drive once, in each direction, with a whole day in between that belongs to you.
What opens up is not just more time. It is the things a single day physically cannot hold. Hot springs at dusk, when the air has cooled and the crowds have gone. A walk through the forest after dark, which is when most of it is awake. The waterfall, which needs five hundred steps down and the same back up, and is not something to rush before a long drive home.
You choose. We build it. We quote it.
There is no fixed itinerary here, because we have never met two groups who wanted the same two days.
One. Read through what is on offer below and tell us what pulls at you — or tell us what kind of travellers you are and let us propose.
Two. We build the days around the driving, the light and the weather. Some things are better at dawn. Some are better after rain. That sequencing is most of our job.
Three. We send you a quote with everything itemised, and you tell us what to change.
One night or two. One night is enough for two full days of activities and it is what most people choose. Two nights gives you three days and takes the pressure off entirely — it is the version we would pick ourselves.
About the hotel. We do not book accommodation and we do not take a commission on it. What we will do is tell you honestly which part of town suits you, what a volcano view is actually worth, and which places we would not send our own family to. You book it. We will help you choose.
What can you do on a La Fortuna overnight?
Everything below is private, with your own Guanadreams naturalist guide throughout — not a local rep who meets you at each gate.
Prices are not listed because the combinations are yours, not ours. Tell us what interests you and the quote comes back the same day.
In the forest
Hanging bridges
A canopy walk over primary rainforest, with the volcano behind you on a clear morning.
Sloths and monkeys
A slow walk with a guide whose whole job is spotting what you would walk straight past.
- Night walk — frogs, insects, sleeping birds. The forest at its loudest
On the water
La Fortuna waterfall
Seventy metres into a pool you can swim in. Five hundred steps down, five hundred back.
Safari float on the Peñas Blancas
No rapids, no paddling. A raft drifting past riverbank wildlife, which is the point.
- Arenal lake cruise — private boat, the volcano from the water
From the farm
- Bees and honey — including the stingless native bees most visitors never hear about
- Passion fruit plantation — how it grows, why it tastes like that
- Cooking workshop — tortillas, beans, the things a Costa Rican kitchen actually does
- Lunch at the ranch — served on a banana leaf, under a roof, with the forest right there
The hot springs
We work with two, and only two.
- Eco Termales — small, limited entry, no music, no bar shouting over the water. The one we recommend
- Baldi — larger, livelier, more pools and slides. Better with teenagers
Both are heated by the same volcano you came to see. Neither requires a hotel booking.
A little further out
- Caño Negro — a boat through wetlands on the Nicaraguan border. The best birding of the whole area
- Bajos del Toro — a waterfall in a collapsed crater, and almost nobody there
- La Fortuna town — the ordinary version: the market, the bakery, the square at six in the evening
The town is smaller than you think
La Fortuna is one main street, a church, a football pitch and a view of a volcano at the end of it. Everything is within ten minutes.
Where you stay changes the trip more than people expect. In town you can walk out for dinner. Up the road towards the volcano you get the view and the quiet, and you drive for everything. Neither is better. They are different holidays.
Tell us which one you are after and we will point you at three or four places we know. We do not earn anything from that recommendation, which is exactly why it is worth having.
What is included
Included
Not included
Frequently Asked Questions
One night or two?
One night gives you two full days and suits most people. Two nights gives you three days and a slower pace, and it is what we would choose. If you are travelling with children or with anyone who tires easily, take the second night.
Can we do this instead of the day trip, or as well as it?
Instead of. The overnight includes everything the day trip does and a great deal more. If you have already booked the day trip and want to extend it, tell us and we will convert it.
How much can you fit into one day?
Three activities plus lunch is a comfortable day. Four is a long one. Two plus the hot springs in the evening is the most enjoyable version, and it is the one we suggest most often.
Will we see sloths, or a toucan, or a red-eyed tree frog?
You’ll see wildlife around Arenal — the odds here are good. Which species is up to the forest that day. We never feed or bait animals to make a sighting happen.
Is the volcano erupting?
No. Arenal erupted continuously from 1968 until 2010 and has been resting since. There is no visible lava at night and there has not been for over fifteen years. Anyone showing you a photograph of a glowing red cone is showing you something older than most of their guests’ phones.
What if it rains?
It will, at some point. La Fortuna is rainforest — that is why it looks the way it does. We plan around it rather than against it, moving the forest walks to the wet hours and the open views to the clear ones. Only lightning stops us.
When do we have to cancel by?
Seventy-two hours before your tour begins, counted from the start time and not the day. Cancel before that and your deposit comes back in full.
Do you book the hotel?
No, and we take no commission from anyone who does. We will tell you where to stay and why. You make the booking.
Where does this start? We are flying into San José.
This trip starts on the Guanacaste coast — we collect you from your hotel between Papagayo and Tamarindo. But there is a version that runs the other way round: we meet you at San José airport, take you straight to La Fortuna for two days, and then drive you down to your hotel in Guanacaste, which turns your arrival transfer into two days of touring instead of five hours in a van. Write to us if that sounds like your trip and we will price it.
Book direct with the operator
- We run these tours ourselves. No middleman, no reseller.
- Private to your group — minimum four guests for this experience, no strangers in your van.
- The price you see is the price you pay: taxes and door-to-door pickup included.
Tell us what your two days should look like
Send us a message with roughly when you are coming, how many of you there are, and anything you already know you want to do. We will come back the same day with a plan and a price.
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By the Guanadreams team, led by Miller Contreras — naturalist guide, born and raised in Guanacaste.