SLOTHS · LA FORTUNA · COSTA RICA
Sloth Watching in La Fortuna
Sloth watching in La Fortuna is a private, two-hour guided walk on flat, maintained trail through the wet rainforest near Arenal, Costa Rica, where both two- and three-toed sloths live — and a guide who knows how to spot a grey-green shape thirty metres up makes all the difference. It is part of our Arenal Day Trip (from $450 per person, minimum 4) or the La Fortuna overnight.
The hardest thing about seeing a sloth is that it is not doing anything. It is a grey-green shape, folded into a fork of branches thirty metres up, and it will stay there for most of the day. People walk under sloths constantly and never look up. That is the entire reason this walk exists, and it is why it is worth doing with someone who has spent years learning the shape of a sleeping animal against a canopy.
Slow on purpose
This is not a hike. It is a walk of two or three kilometres on flat, maintained trail through wet forest, and it takes about two hours because we stop constantly.
Your guide walks ahead, scanning. When something is found, everyone gets time with it — the telescope goes up, the phone goes on the eyepiece, and nobody is hurried along to the next thing. On a good morning you will also pick up howler monkeys, white-faced capuchins, toucans, poison dart frogs and whatever else the forest offers.
The trails are suitable for anyone who can walk comfortably for two hours. There is no climbing and no ropes.
Which sloths live around La Fortuna?
Costa Rica has two sloths, and they share these forests.
The brown-throated three-toed sloth is the one people picture — the round face with the dark eye mask that looks permanently amused. It is active during the day, which is why it is the one you are most likely to see moving.
Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth is larger, shaggier, blonder, and mostly nocturnal. It has a longer face and no mask. Finding one awake in daylight is luck.
Both grow algae in their fur. That green tint is not dirt — it is a small ecosystem living on the animal, and it is what makes them so hard to see against the leaves. It is also why a photograph of a sloth almost never looks like what your eye saw.
They come down to the ground about once a week, always to defecate, and it is the most dangerous thing they do. Everything else happens up there.
Why go to La Fortuna for sloths?
There are sloths in Guanacaste. We find them, and we run good days without leaving the coast.
But the dry forest is a harder place to be a sloth. It loses its leaves for months, the canopy opens up, and the animals are thinner on the ground. The wet forest around Arenal does not do that. It holds its leaves and its humidity all year, the canopy is continuous, and the density of animals is simply higher.
That is the honest reason this walk happens three and a half hours from your hotel and not twenty minutes away.
You’ll see wildlife on this walk; which animals show up is up to the forest that morning. What we can promise is a guide who is genuinely good at this, a pace that gives him time to work, and the honesty to tell you when it was a quiet morning.
Included in the day trip
Sloths, hanging bridges and a cacao farm in one long day from the coast, with lunch.
From $450 per person · private tour · minimum 4
Available on the overnight
Stay a night or two in La Fortuna and build your own days around this and everything else.
From $800 per person · one night
Frequently Asked Questions
Will we definitely see a sloth?
No, and nobody honest will tell you otherwise. The odds on these trails are good and our guides are very good, but these are wild animals in a forest that is thirty metres tall. Some mornings are quiet. We would rather you knew that before you booked than after.
What time of day is best?
Morning. Three-toed sloths are active in daylight and the forest is busier before the heat settles. It is also why the day trip leaves the coast before dawn.
Do you use a telescope?
Yes. Your guide carries one, and it goes on your phone so you leave with a photograph rather than a green smudge.
Is this suitable for children or for someone who does not walk far?
Yes. The trails are flat and maintained, and the whole point of the walk is that it is slow. Tell us in advance and we will pick the easiest route.
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 feed the animals or use bait?
Never. Feeding wildlife changes its behaviour and shortens its life, and any operator who does it to guarantee you a sighting is doing the animal harm. We find them where they are.
Book direct with the operator
- We run these tours ourselves. No middleman, no reseller.
- Private from two people — no minimum group to fill, no strangers in your van.
- The price you see is the price you pay: taxes and door-to-door pickup included.
See them properly
Tell us when you are here and how many of you there are, and we will tell you which of the two versions fits your week — the long day from the coast, or two days in La Fortuna with the time to do it slowly.
More than 300 five-star reviews on Tripadvisor. Our guides’ eBird lists are public — you can read them before you write.
Part of our Nature Experiences
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By the Guanadreams team, led by Miller Contreras — naturalist guide, born and raised in Guanacaste.