I love a good informative guide, but would feel silly having someone drive us up to an activity we can easily get to by ourselves since we will have a car. We will be in La Fortuna for 3 nights and intend to take the guided Rio Negro Tour for one day. The kids (college age) want to do something more exciting on the 2nd and 3rd days. What activities do you think really benefit from having an organized tour?

I was there last January and we did not book any tours. We used our guidebook and did everything ourselves. The only thing we thought about booking was a guided nature walk through the hanging bridges (they do a very early a.m. walk on which you are supposed to be able to see wildlife). We ended up not even doing that (note the "early a.m." part!!) We went to the waterfall and hiked by the volcano (which was a great non strenuous hike, but wear good shoes - we saw people in flip flops trying to climb over the hardened lava flow!!). There were guided hikes, but again, we just went on our own

aparet from cano negro do it yourself. the waterfalls, springs etc are all within easy reach of La Fortuna.
I also recommend Cocodrilus Valle a short walk from the volcano end of main street.

http://costa.rica.typepad.com/photos...rocodiles.html

its a conservation project to educate local schoolkids about crocs and to rescue hurt sick or crocs in danger from poachers.
its USD2 in and i guy can show u round, u get up close: and if you want he´ll get a small one out of the pen so u can have a photo holding one, careful they maybe small but believe me their necks are strong


http://costa.rica.typepad.com/la_for...ome/index.html

We're taking our college age son to Arenal in March. My husband and I so enjoyed the canyoning last year it's at the top of the list. Pure Trek does a good job of it, very safe and anyone can do it (not physically that taxing) but definitely adventure!

I have to second the waterfall canyoneering! It was amazing and so exciting!

http://www.arenal.net/tour/pure-trek-costa-rica.htm

The waterfalls take your breath away and if you have the fortune to get Jose as a tour guide, you will be laughing so hard that you'll forget your fear of heights!

Bring a waterproof disposible camera if you can for your pictures! It gets really wet!

Have a wonderful trip!

This is the one we went on and cost $75

http://www.arenalvolcanotours.com/to...nyoneering.htm