Alajuela Province

Night Tours

You will be picked up from the lobby of your hotel in La Fortuna, and after 25 minutes of driving you will arrive to the Peñas Blancas River. Before you begin your tour, your guide will provide you with an orientation talk about how to conduct yourself while you are seating in the boat. Following this, your tour will begin. You will ride in your raft at dusk, as the sun is just starting to fall, and enjoy the mystical way the light disappears from the sky, leaving you in the peaceful darkness of the jungle. Your bilingual river guide who are trained as naturalists will do the rowing, while you relax and enjoy the abundant nocturnal wildlife of the Peñas Blancas River. With the boat's specially designed lighting system, you will then embark on a magical journey, discovering that most mammals are in fact nocturnal. Upon exiting the river you'll visit the "Hidalgo Family Home”, where you will have the opportunity to experience and appreciate a piece of Costa Rican culture, and get a taste of a traditional Costa Rican snack.

After beginning your tour at 5:45PM, you will be able to live the experience of the only natural frog sanctuary in La Fortuna by night. This is your opportunity to view colorful frogs and other wild animals of the rainforest when they are more active and more easily observed. At least 28-species of frogs have decided to make the Arenal Oasis ponds their home. The native plants of Arenal are carefully maintained, in order to create the perfect habitat for these amphibious creatures. This unique private wildlife reserve sits inside a rainforest refuge that connects the tropical areas of the Arenal Volcano and the Burio River. Your local guide will prepare you with a flashlight to assist you in finding these unique creatures, and at the conclusion of your tour you will be returned back to your La Fortuna accommodation.

Once you have been collected from your accommodation, you will make your way to the Arenal Forest where your tour will begin. Whilst there you will learn that 60% of the fauna in this forest is awake when it is dark. This results in increased sightings of many animals, insects, amphibians, and more, that usually can't be seen throughout the day. The trail you will take is located in the Arenal area near the Arenal Lake. It lies in the middle of 56 hectares of tropical primary and secondary rainforest, which offer fantastic biodiversity. The trail was built from a holistic and responsible approach regarding its impact on the environment, allowing you to enjoy the marvelous world of the night without feeling guilty about your environmental footprint. This nocturnal rainforest walk will give you a different perspective of the ecological interactions that Costa Rican rainforests offer. This will prove a great opportunity to see, feel, and hear the pura vida life at night time. At the conclusion of your experience, you will be returned back to your tour starting point.

This tour is ideal for those who want to take advantage of their nights in Costa Rica to discover some of the country’s nocturnal wonders. You will begin your tour in the small town of La Tigra, located just 30 minutes from La Fortuna. Here you will meet a local family who has devoted part of their land to the natural regeneration of plants and animals.  Once you arrive, you will take the trail into a small patch of rainforest with some mirrored lakes, which facilitate wildlife observation. You can expect to see a variety of nocturnal birds and mammals, insects, amphibians, bats, and more. The trail will take you around the mirrored lakes to the frog sanctuary, which is an area dedicated to the regeneration and natural reproduction of frog species. Here you will discover countless species such as the dart frog and the bullfrog, the smallest and largest species in Costa Rica, as well as the spectacular Red-Eyed Tree Frog, and the beautiful Glass Frog. After the tour, a delicious Costa Rican dinner prepared on a wood burning stove will await You. You will enjoy your dinner viewing the lights of the valleys of San Carlos, before returning to your hotel in La Fortuna.

The best way to learn about a new culture is to learn about what the locals eat. Costa Rica has an amazing cuisine that is healthy, natural, and actually very easy to learn how to cook. Take some of the best local recipes back home with you after this cooking experience. These cooking classes are a great way to get to know other travelers and hang out with a knowledgeable local chef. As soon as you finish cooking, you will be able to sit down to the delicious meal you helped cook up and chat about the "Pura Vida" of Costa Rica. Make sure you have brought your dancing shoes to Costa Rica, because next up you will head to the dance floor to learn how to dance to latin beats. There is no better way to spend an evening in La Fortuna than cooking, eating, and dancing like a local.