Calling all Arenal Experts! Leaving in 9 days!
 

One last bit of business to wrap up before we start packing (except of course that my 9yr old just broke his collar bone, ugh..playing that one by ear). Traveling with hubby, 9 and 11 yr old. Have two days in Arenal staying at Tabacon. Arrive noon first day doing Skytram/trek in afternoon then hotsprings and dinner. Day two 7am-12:30 Puretrek canyoning. Here's the question....hanging bridges or volcano tour hiking lava fields? And also is a night volcano tour better and what is it like. I don't think we can squeeze in bridges and volcano tour. Kids will freak to see lava! I'm thinking night tour and dinner in town. Love to hear your thoughts! Thank you!!!!!

I vote for hanging bridges. The lava flow at night is not guaranteed and often happens in the wee hours. If you have a volcano view from your hotel, keep the curtains open so you can watch. If you hear a loud noise sort of like thunder rolling down a mountain, get up and look!

The volcano had a large eruption yesterday and spewed a little stuff, so it's pretty active right now.

Sandy

Why not the Hanging Bridges AND a night tour of the volcano? The bridges are a self-guided thing anyway...they give you the map and you can go at your own pace, so you could time it appropriately. It's not too far from Tabacon anyway.

However, if you can only do one (and the weather is nice), I'd vote for the volcano tour with the kids. The bridges are pretty neat, but how many chances are you going to get to hike around an active volcano with the kids? They'll remember it forever.

Actually, what I like better than either of those is a walk through the rainforest w/ a naturalist guide. They make things very interesting. Going through the bridges by yourself is OK, but a lot of people don't know what they're looking at or looking for and don't get so much out of it. The volcano is huge, and just about wherever you go in Arenal it's right there in front of your face, so you won't miss it (unless it's hidden by clouds).

Sandy

thanks sandyc and airwayvz, good points on both. Something about walking on old lava fields really does appeal to me. And airwayvz, you're right I didn't realize how close hanging bridges are to Tabacon so doing both is a possibility. I guess I was hoping someone would weigh-in heavily one way or the other to help me with my indecisiveness! Hopefully more people will contribute. Thanks to both of you!

We just returned from the Tobacon resort on Monday 8th, we did the morning hanging Bridges making arrangements at the tour desk in the Tobacon lobby, it was an excellent idea, not only did our guide speak excellent english but his knowledge of the area was outstanding. They were on time took us there had all the arrangements made it was great. If you have the opportunity to switch the Canyoning to afternoon the morning is the best time to see the wildlife in the rain forest. We found 2 sloths, monkeys and our guide even dug out a Blue Jean Dart Frog for me to photograph. As we learned earlier in the Osa region you need really good jungle eyes to see things sometimes, we had one group race by us and when asked they never even saw the sloth hanging from the tree 100 yds back. The lava is currently flowing out on the Tobacon side and if you find the building with the rooms numbered 100 there is a nice large yard in front of them and I took my best night time lava pictures right from there, it was a great view provided the clouds are cooperating. A good camera lens or pair of binoculars will make a great view from there.
Enjoy your stay Tobacon is wonderful and worth every penny.

great info ptdarling! thks