Blogs from Arenal, Alajuela, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 5

We are safely at the Arenal volcano observatory where the food is excellent. The volcano is making a fair bit of noise but no lava visible, just rocks tumbling down and big puffs of smoke. In the mornings we can hear the howler monkeys in the jungle. Today we hiked down a gorge to the foot of a 70 metre waterfall and swam in the river, which was very cold. The rain was quite heavy but warmed us back up again. We went out to lunch in La Fortuna, then in the afternoon hiked through the cloud forest up to the old lava flow, Saw lots of birds and some very pretty orchids, also some very large golden orb spiders. Mrs P and Charlotte claimed the sight of the day however, as they saw a rare ... read more

La Fortuna and the invisible volcano… After two wonderful nights in Monteverde we set of around 8 in the morning heading for a small town nestled at the base of Arenal volcano called La Fortuna. I have to mention the fantastic drive down the mountains as we approached Lake Arenal; possibly one of the most impressive drives I’ve ever been on. Unfortunately, due to excessive alcohol intake the night before, many of the other people on the tour didn’t appreciate the winding decent from Monteverde and were more concerned with not vomiting on each other in the back of the mii-bus, much to my amusement! Once we arrived at the western shore of the lake we boarded a small boat to take us across the lake, saving us about 3 hours of road time. Crossing the ... read more

We left Monteverde for Arenal and the city of La Fortuna. We did the jeep-boat-jeep transfer which takes about 2 1/2 hours. It is about hour on a gravel road, 30 minutes on Lake Arenal, which was very pleasant, and then by a relatively good road to La Fortuna. This was much better than the alternative which is 4 hours on a bumpy gravel road. After Santa Elena, we feel like we are in the big city with a population of 8,000. It is also much warmer than Monteverde with pineapple and orange orchards and a lot of agriculture. However, its primary industry is tourism due to Arenal Volcano, hot springs and adventure. Arenal Volcano is the most active volcano in Costa Rica and on clear day you can see the lava and smoke. Of course, ... read more

Arenal volcano was part of the 8 world's woNder selections, together the coco island. Arenal is beautiful place, mountain region, excellent to relax ,. breath fresh air and the most atractive, SPRING WATERS AND SPA!!!! I can say this is one of my favorite places, after conchal beach , arenal is the second best in my list of places to visit every year. You can find lot of hotels and boungalows to stay , with the beautiful Arenal volcano landscape.I dont use to make differences or suggest places to be , but if you want to spend a magical wonderful staying,. pls check the next hotels: Arenal resort and spa (5 stars) and Arenal kioro hotel (5 stars). Both of them have very beautiful spaces with natural spring waters from the river,as i said before, the ... read more

For the last several years, my family has kicked around the idea of traveling over Thanksgiving week instead of converging in Chicago, particularly since we'll be doing so a month later for Christmas. This year we finally pulled the trigger back in February, and for 30,000 miles on American Airlines we booked tickets to Costa Rica for the week. We pretty much followed the Frommers suggested one week itinerary, starting in San Jose, and heading to Arenal, Monteverde and Manuel Antonio. The consensus advice that I received from others who visited the country was to get out of San Jose as soon as possible. We had to stay there the first night since we got in late, and after walking around in the center of town, we decided that we preferred to wake up before the ... read more