La Fortuna is a fun one for sure! The town itself is extremely touristic, with travel agencies and souvenir shops everywhere. This is mainly because the town has so much to offer in terms of activities. Whether you’re an adrenaline junkie, love a good hike or just enjoy beautiful scenery, La Fortuna has got something for you.
Getting there
There are several direct buses to La Fortuna leaving from San Jose. These all leave in the morning, with the last one departing at 11:50 am.
If you, like me, are leaving from Puerto Viejo you’re in for a longer travel. The easy option would be taking a shuttle for 60 USD. As I enjoy local travel I instead opted for the public bus. It’s fairly easy, but takes a while. This is how I went:
- Bus from Puerto Viejo to San Jose departing at 7:30 am. This took five hours, which meant I missed the last direct bus from San Jose to La Fortuna.
- I then made my way from Terminal Atlantico Norte to Terminal 7-10. It’s literally two minutes of walking, no need for a taxi! I bought a ticket to Ciudad Quesada and got on a bus that left around 1 pm. I arrived around 4 pm.
- At the terminal in Ciudad Quesada I found the bus to La Fortuna. Ask around, it’s not a given which one it is. Tickets are bought from the bus driver. The bus I took stopped every other minute to pick up or let off more people and made every detour possible. It took forever and I finally arrived in La Fortuna at 7 pm.
This was quite a long and tiring one! I saved about 45 USD by doing it this way, but if I were to go again I probably would’ve opted for the shuttle.
What to do in La Fortuna
La Fortuna waterfall
I made my way to La Fortuna Waterfall by foot on a rainy morning. Most people go on a tour or by taxi, but I loved the hike. It is about 6 km from town to the main entrance, and the road is mostly flat with a few steep hills at the end. When you reach the entrance you pay 18 USD (10 400 colones) in admission and climb about 500 steps down to the waterfall.
I was there during rainy season and it was prohibited to swim underneath the waterfall. There was however a designated area for swimming a bit further down, but I was fine just dipping my toes in. I then climbed back up all the stairs and started the walk back to town.
Rainforest Chocolate Tour
On the road to the La Fortuna Waterfall you will find the Rainforest Chocolate Tour. I stopped there on my way back from the waterfall, just in time for the 1 pm tour. During the two hour long tour my group got to follow the entire process behind the making of chocolate. Very interesting and educational. The tour ended with an extensive tasting session, where we had liquid chocolate with all the toppings you could ever want. It was amazing and I stayed full for hours afterwards. This tour cost 26 USD, and for me it was well worth it.
Volcano hike
More than anything La Fortuna is known for its volcanoes. Therefore I felt that a volcano tour was almost mandatory, and I decided to go big on this one. I signed up for a double volcano tour and hoped to experience everything the volcanoes in Arenal has to offer.
By all means, the tour was very interesting. If I were to pick again, though, I would’ve went with the half day tour that only does the Arenal 1968 hike. This was by far the best part. We started the day with this hike. The Arenal volcano is now dormant, but could erupt at any time. Therefore you cannot hike the actual volcano, only admire it from afar. We were lucky enough to visit on a clear day, so after hiking for a couple of hours we were rewarded with amazing views of the volcano and its surroundings.
After the hike we went for lunch and a swim. We were then picked up and taken to the Arenal observatory, were we went for a second hike to see Chato Volcano. The tour finished with a visit to the hot springs, where we enjoyed the warm water, relaxed and got mud masks. We were then taken back to our respective hostels.
Where to stay in La Fortuna
I opted to stay at Arenal Backpackers Resort and would recommend it. It is a short walk away from the centre and may not have the most social vibe, at least not when I was there. However the pool is nice, the restaurant serves decent food and they are helpful when it comes to booking tours and shuttles for onward travel.
The only downside was that the a/c only worked from 10 pm to 10 am. I got tired extremely early after days packed with activities, but the heat made it impossible to get any sleep before the a/c went on. In my experience most people also left the hostel in the early morning to go on their daily adventures. A/C from 8 pm to 8 am definitely would’ve made more sense.
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8. June 2020
[…] I got to add it to my itinerary. From exploring beaches and dancing in the ocean in Puerto Viejo to climbing volcanoes in La Fortuna and going zip lining in Monteverde; Costa Rica reminded me, once again, of why I love travelling so […]