Best Things To Do In La Fortuna, Costa Rica

La Fortuna in Costa Rica sits right at the base of the stunning Arenal Volcano. The area is famous for hot springs, wildlife, outdoor adventures, and more.

We recently spent some time exploring La Fortuna and fell in love with everything this charming little town has to offer. In this guide, we’re sharing all our favorite things to do, from adrenaline-pumping excursions to the best spots to relax and recharge.

So let’s jump into the top things to do in La Fortuna.

Helpful Map Of La Fortuna

We’ve pinned all our favorite places on this map to make your La Fortuna adventure easier to plan.

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Visit A Hot Spring (or two!)

The more natural springs at Thermales Los Laureles

Because of La Fortuna’s location is so close to Arenal Volcano, the ground water is teeming with thermal activity. Therefore, there are tons of different hot springs to visit in the area. Ranging from natural and basic, to luxury relaxation resorts, to basically full blown water parks. With prices from free to over $100 per person.

First, we started with the only well-known free hot springs near La Fortuna, which is just downhill from one of the most expensive resorts, Tabacon Hot Springs. You do have to pay $10 to park on the side of the road. Or maybe you don’t have to pay, I don’t know, this is kind of one of those times where you are not sure if it’s official paid parking or just some local wearing a vest and hustling for parking money.

You then hike a short trail to the natural hot springs

Free Hot Springs Near Tabacon Hot Springs

We were surprised that basically the entire river was hot, not just some little vents along the edge. But I will say the water temperature was not super hot, probably more like a bath than a hot tub.

The free hot springs are nice if you are a little more adventurous, want a purely natural setting, and don’t mind the complete lack of amenities. (i.e, no bathrooms, changing rooms, etc)

But, if you are looking for more comforts with your hot springs experience, there are literally dozens of other paid hot springs resorts.

We also visited Thermales Los Laureles, which cost $15 per person ($10 for locals). This place is an awesome value and great if you have kids, with fun waterslides, tons of pools, and some more natural-looking hot springs to choose from. There are also tons of shaded picnic tables and a little snack bar.

Another popular one in this tier is Baldi Hot Springs, which is similarly like a waterpark.

If you are looking for the best luxury hot springs experience, Tabacon Hot Springs is consistently rated as the best around. With all the luxuries but still maintaining a very natural setting.

Visit A Local Soda

Sodas are little local restaurants where you can find authentic Costa Rican food.

There are honestly quite a few to choose from in town, but two we can highly recommend are Soda Rodriguez and Soda Sabores Lulu.

Soda Rodriguez had the coolest vibe, kinda like a treehouse. And they have all these hand written messages from locals and tourists from all over the world. There really is no menu, they just offer a few different dishes on the spot. But everything we had was delicious. And they give everyone their own little blank tile to leave your message for future visitors.

Soda Sabores Lulu felt more like you were visiting grandmas house, and she was cooking you up a home cooked meal. (Which really is traditionally what a soda was). This was our first soda experience on the trip. From the smoothie to our two local dishes, this place set the bar high.

If you are ever intimidated by the menus at Sodas you can never go wrong with Casados. It’s basically a little bit of everything, your choice of protein with rice, beans, veggies, and some other house specialties.

Check out our top restaurants in La Fortuna video for more great places to eat!

Don’t Forget Travel Medical Insurance!

Having travel medical insurance is essential when you’re exploring outside your home country. Your regular health insurance often won’t cover you abroad — and unexpected medical expenses can be costly. That’s where SafetyWing comes in. It’s one of the most affordable travel medical insurance options available, offering worldwide coverage with a $0 deductible. It’s the peace of mind you need to travel confidently, knowing you’re protected in case something goes wrong.

Use the cost calculator below to check what it would cost for your trip:

Coffee & Chocolate Tour With North Fields

Taking this tour with North Fields was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. If you like coffee and chocolate, then you will love this very interactive experience, seeing, touching, smelling, and tasting everything through the process of growing, harvesting, and making coffee and chocolate.

The tour starts off with showing you what the inside of a cacao pod looks like. The beans are actually surrounded by a pretty good tasting fruit, that nobody ever really talks about. And yet, it’s the extremely bitter beans inside that the world goes crazy for.

And we tried the beans raw and wow they are just disgusting. So it was so interesting to learn about the process of how this bitter bean turns into one of the world’s finest delicacies.

They bring you into the tasting room where you can see, smell, and taste the different processes of how an actual bar of chocolate is made. We all got to try various chocolates made right there. We got to try fresh dark chocolate, but I’ve learned, I’m still just a sucker for milk chocolate.

In the middle of the tour, there is a short section about sugarcane. We learned the process of harvesting sugarcane and got a hands on experience for how the plant is broken down and then got a little sample to try.

Lastly, you enter into the coffee part of the tour. As a coffee lover and pretty knowledgable barista, even I learned some new facts and intricacies about coffee. Learning about why coffee grows so well in Costa Rica’s mountainous interior. And learning the different processes of roasting beans, and more.

Costa Rica has their own way for brewing coffee. It’s similar to our pour over, but they use a reusable cloth as the filter.
The tour costs $46 per person, but it is a very immersive and informative experience. We can’t recommend this tour enough.

Go On The Search For Some Sloths

Everyone wants to see a sloth while they’re in Costa Rica, right?! These fuzzy little guys are just so adorable. There are a few different trails and tours you can choose to search for some sloths.

We chose Bogarin Sloth Trail, which offers a $20 self-guided tour and a $45 guided tour.

We brought our own binoculars, so we were determined to find some sloths on our own. But if we learned anything from our 2 weeks in Costa Rica, paying for a guide is worth it. Not only do they provide so much information about the plants and animals of Costa Rica, but unless you have a really fancy zoom lens, their viewing scope will allow you to see things so much better.

We were able to spot a sloth on the trail, but basically only because a tour was stopped there. Which is kind of the awkward reality of offering guided and unguided experiences. Obviously, if you see a tour all looking at something, you’re not going to not look too. But you feel a little weird about piggybacking off the tour groups.

Sloths can be kind of difficult to spot in nature, because they don’t really make noise or move too fast.

We did get to see other wildlife and not so wildlife along the trail too. We were really fascinated with the leaf cutter ants too, watching them work is just fascinating. There are also some great viewpoints as well of Arenal Volcano.

Other trails in the area are Sloth Territory and the Sloth watching trail. And there are some sneakier good deals online, like a $35 guided sloth tour with a tortilla making class. So I’ll link to these below as well.

La Fortuna Waterfall

This spectacular 70-meter (270-ft) waterfall just on the outskirts of town is a great way to cool off. You can enter between 7am and 4pm and the entry fee is $20 per person. It’s a short but steep hike with about 500 steps to reach the falls.

When you reach the falls you can just admire its beauty or take a swim in the refreshing natural pool below.

But don’t swim too close to the waterfall, because you never know when something other than water might come tumbling down.

La Fortuna Waterfall is a pretty popular spot, so if you want to enjoy it with fewer crowds, I would go right when it opens.

Arenal 1968 Volcano Trail

This property has some great hiking trails, viewpoints of the volcano, a farm-to-table restaurant, natural hot springs, and more.

There are 3 well-maintained trails that they’ve rated easy, moderate, and difficult. Labeled green, yellow, and red, respectively. The trails range from about 2km (or 1.2 miles) to 5km (3.1mi).

The medium and Hard trails climb up through the jungle and lava fields at the base of the volcano to an incredible viewpoint of the volcano and Lake Arenal.

It can be a little hit or miss to get good views of the volcano based on clouds. But if you are patient, they often clear just a suddenly as they form.

There are opportunities to see wildlife all around the property, but the most wildlife we saw was on the final leg of the hard trail. The jungle over on this side was completely different from the beginning of the trail. Much more lush, with moss and vegetation growing on nearly every surface.

All the trails converge at the end to pass by their labeled fruit and herb gardens. Which was a great place to see hummingbirds and enjoy views of the volcano.

And all trails culminate at the Lava ‘86 Restaurant. One last incredible viewpoint of the volcano.

I will say, the Arenal 1968 Park is one of the more expensive hiking options around here, costing $26 per person. But for the higher price you do get really nice bathrooms, secure parking, and the restaurant with views. They also do have a day pass for $45 that includes access to their hot springs on site.

You can do similar hikes for cheaper at the Arenal Volcano National Park or Mirador El Silencio. But people have said that they are pretty run down and the trails could use some upkeep.

El Salto Rope Swing/Swimming Area

You might notice that there are very few free things to do in Costa Rica. But hanging out at El Salto is by far one of the best free activities around La Fortuna. It’s a gorgeous swimming hole to cool off by the river.

Again, I’m pretty sure parking is free. But a local did come up to us as we were leaving and tried to get us to pay. Which we politely declined.

From the parking along the road, there is a short walk across a pedestrian bridge over the river to a hike down to the El Salto Rope Swing. You can swim, jump off the cliffs, or for the courageous, swing from the rope swing. You will likely encounter some locals, showing you the ropes, pun intended!

This place is natural, so of course you do need to use caution. Rivers are ever changing, moving debris, and sometimes currents can pick up quickly from rain many miles away. And the swimming hole can have strong swirling currents. So just be aware that it’s at your own risk. But the rope swing was my favorite free activity we did during our entire trip in Costa Rica.

Get Out On Lake Arenal

The weather in La Fortuna is generally in the upper 70s to 90s year round, so getting out onto Lake Arenal is one of the best ways to cool off! You can rent anything from kayaks, paddle boards, windsurfers, jet skis, boats, etc. And of course there are guided boat tours as well.

Cruising around the lake with the Volcano and mountain scenery is just gorgeous.

We were feeling a little adventurous one morning and decided to rent a jet ski to experience the lake with some adrenaline. We cruised around the lake, admiring the volcano, the dam, and venturing up the lake a little ways.

But it’s a massive lake and the area is known for being rather windy especially in dry season, so our advice is to just stick to the area closest to the volcano because it has the calmest water.

Renting a kayak is definitely the best budget option, but due to all the information listed above it can be a challenging workout to get very far on the lake.

Mirador El Castillo (& Camping)

This viewpoint offers one of the best views of Arenal Volcano and Lake Arenal. We actually happened upon this place because it was recommended as a great camping spot near La Fortuna. But I think you will quickly see why this is an epic spot, and there were many people up there just to enjoy the sunset.

Perched on a steep hillside above the sleepy town of El Castillo. This viewpoint has a simply stunning panoramic vista.

One huge caveat of visiting this place is that you want to be pretty sure you have decent weather. For starters, if there’s low clouds blocking all the views, then it’s definitely not worth making the trip out. And secondly, the road up here is a pretty steep and rough dirt road. High clearance and 4×4 are highly recommended, especially if there’s been any recent rain.

But with how quickly clouds form and dissipate around the volcano, it’s hard to be certain you will get the views. So you might just have to pick an evening and hope for the best!

And I must say, we got incredibly lucky. Just a beautiful sunset and sunrise that left us speechless. Watching clouds swirl around the tip of the volcano, thunderstorms passing in the distance, and beautiful birds passing by.

And if you rent an overloading rig from Nomad America, you definitely gotta camp here one night when visiting La Fortuna. This hands down was our favorite camp spot of the trip!

Farmers Market On Fridays

La Fortuna has a super local market on Friday’s where you can find local produce and goods. This can be a great spot to get fresh local produce if you plan to cook any of your own meals while in town.

We went there on the hunt for ingredients to make our own fresh guacamole. It was kinda fun going around to the different vendors having to piece together all the ingredients. At one of the vendors we found this fresh mango and passion fruit juice, which are two of our favorite fruits put together. And this juice was probably one of the best juices I’ve ever had!

They also had some offerings other than just produce. Like some medicinal teas, plants, soaps, etc. So stop by this community-based market for some organic and healthy products.

La Fortuna Park

Simply enjoy the views from the park in the center of town. The layout of the park and location of the Church are very satisfyingly aligned with the volcano. And there’s a majestic tree in the northeast corner that is very cool to see, or just to grab some shade on those hot humid days.

Grab A Craft Beer From Beerland

For our craft beer lovers, this place can’t be missed! We were greeted warmly by our server and he listed all the different beers. Definitely a fun option is to try a flight, as they offered a wide array of different beers styles.

We tried the mango pale ale, basil lager, an IPA, and a chili beer… Honestly, it was hard to choose a favorite!

And they also have some beers for take away. A bit on the pricier side for to go beers, but hops and barley are not grown in the country, so enjoying craft beer in Costa Rice is still a bit of a luxury.

Day Trip To Rio Celeste

One epic day trip from La Fortuna is the Rio Celeste waterfall. This stunning aqua blue waterfall is out of a fairytale. The hike is a relatively easy 3.2kms, and don’t forget to book your entry ticket to the Tenorio Volcano National Park ahead of time. (Parque Nacional Volcán Tenorio)

You can also book this day trip tour from La Fortuna to Rio Celeste, with transfer included.

Whitewater Rafting

If you’re looking for that adrenaline rush, then book whitewater rafting on the Balsa River. You can choose from class 2, up to class 4 rapids.

And If you’re looking for more adrenaline adventures, then there’s also ziplining, canyoneering, ATVing and more. We will link to some recommended tours if those sound fun to you!

Camping In La Fortuna, Costa Rica

We absolutely love living and traveling in our camper van back home. So for this trip, we thought we would do something a little different.

To explore Costa Rica, we rented a rooftop tent car camping rig from Nomad America. They offer rad overloading rigs that can get you to some neat spots, camping amongst some of the most incredible nature.

We chose Nomad America because all vehicles come equipped with everything you need to hit the road. If you’re interested in renting a rig for your own Costa Rica trip, check out Nomad America’s different rigs.

Here are our two favorite camping spots in La Fortuna: