Arenal Hanging Bridges
 

Our family will soon be visiting Costa Rica for the first time. We will be going to the Arenal area, but only have two days there, so want to carefully choose our activities. We will have a 1 1/2 year old and 7 year old with us. Since they are too young to zip-line, we want to take them on the suspended bridges. I am interested in finding out the differences/similarities between the Arenal Hanging Bridges and the Sky Walk hanging bridges. Has anyone done both of these activities and could explain which might be a better choice? Thank you.

Just my opinion, but I would go with Arenal Hanging Bridges; the price is right, the drive there is much easier, and we saw more animals there (monkeys, sloth, lots of birds). Lots of hotels offer discounts, too. (A guided tour will spot more wildlife than on your own.)
NOte that we were at the Sky Walk at a different time of day (the hummingbird/orchid garden there is a nice bonus), so maybe the animal difference was due to that?
Be ready to help the younger one, though, regardless of which one you choose; it's more walking than you might think.

I'd go with the Hanging Bridges too. To me it's more natural, and you're more likely to see wildlife there. You'll probably have to carry the younger child for a good portion of the hike. Desafio and Sunset Tours both offer good guides. We saw howlers and a toucan on our last trip there. When we did it on our own, we only saw ants!

I've been looking into this kind of information myself. The Arenal Hanging Bridges entrance is free for 7 and younger. The Sky Walk would be $21 for your 7 yr old. At this point we are probably going to do the whole combo including ziplining with Sky Trek/Tram/Walk with our 8 yr old.

plata, you must have a brave 8-year old!

Thanks everyone for the responses. Arenal Hanging Bridges sounds like the way to go with the kids, and the adults can go zip-lining at Sky Trek later.

We just returned from our CR trip, and I wanted to come back to this thread to give a little feedback. We did the guided Sky Walk (along with the Sky Tram/Sky Trek) with our DD8. It truly is at least a 3 hour walk with hills, and although we saw a little wildlife we didn't see as much as we hoped even with the guide. DD8 gave it 1 star out of 5.

[She did really enjoy Sky Trek, and even did the granddaddy line (1/2 mile long, up to 55 MPH) solo. But she liked going tandem with a guide better because she would go faster due to increased mass.]