I've been looking both at this travel forum as well as the travel forum at tripadvisor.com. On this forum, the Cano Negro tour is mentioned as the "highlight of the trip" for almost anyone who participates. On the tripadvisor forum, it's often dismissed as an option when discussing activities. I'm wondering if it's a difference in the moderator's or participant's preferences?

We are a family of four - two teen girls. We are heading to Manuel Antonio, Arenal and Peace Lodge for our 8 night trip. I'm trying to determine whether it's worth almost a full day of time in Arenal to do the Cano Negro trip.

We do enjoy nature-based activities - especially seeing animals - however, we aren't particularly into 'birding'. Other activities that we plan to do during our visit include white water rafting, zip lining, light hiking, possibly horseback riding or canyoning. We do expect to see monkeys when we hike through MA park.

So... would you recommend Cano Negro for us?

This is a very hard call. I AM into birding, and I think Cano Negro is a fabulous way to spend the day. But it's not just the birding--it's all the other wildlife (monkeys, sloths, caimans, etc) that makes it interesting. It's also the relaxation of being on the river in a boat, listening to a very knowledgeable guide sharing the delights of his country. It's stopping for a delicious lunch riverside. It's a slower paced tour.

I've only been interested in birds for about 3.5 years. Before that, I would have thought it a great tour as well!

How long will you be at Arenal? If you only have one full day, then no--do the other things the area offers. If you have a couple of days, I don't think you'd be disappointed with Cano Negro. You get back into La Fortuna around 3:00 in the p.m.--time to hike to La Fortuna falls before dark, then dinner, then hot springs. So you see, you can still work a LOT of things into the "Cano Negro day".

Another activity that I think you'd find interesting, if you opt NOT to do Cano Negro, is the Rio Celeste/Volcan Tenorio outing. Tenorio is a beautiful area, and the Rio Celeste has gorgeous brilliant blue water due to volcanic minerals. It's unique.

Don't stress over it--we visited Arenal twice before we ever did the Cano Negro tour. But it was always on our "list of things to do" and we knew we'd do it SOMETIME on a return trip.

I don't know why posters on the two forums approach things differently. I do think the Fodor's forum attracts more "die hard" Costa Rica fans. Over the years, I've learned NOT to trust hotel reviews on Tripadvisor as I've seen some wonderful places get ripped up by disgruntled tourists.


You guys have a very nice itinerary--and a lot of fun activities lined up. Have a great time!

Hi, Lynne - I agree with shillmac; it really depends upon how much time you have in Arenal. Do you guys like to be out on the water and relax? Do you think you'd enjoy floating down the river spotting caimans, howlers, capuchins, etc. and then enjoying a nice tico lunch? If so, definitely include Cano Negro. We loved it; we had spent several days in Arenal seeing the volcano, Hanging Bridges, doing the hot springs, etc. and had not see any wildlife, so Cano Negro was amazing - the first place we saw monkeys. We went to Manuel Antonio later in the trip and really preferred the Cano Negro tour because we never saw any other people there, and all the wildlife seemed much more natural than what's in the park at MA. MA was great too, but our preference was Cano Negro, and it's still a favorite vacation memory of ours. The pictures we got were amazing.

Lynne, I recently mentioned this to another poster (I can't remember whom)... but if you're short on time, since you're going to MA, I think a similar (and much shorter) tour would be the Damas Island Mangrove tour that you can do in MA. Instead of an all-day thing, it's a few hours. I'd recommend taking the late afternoon/sunset tour, and there's a dinner option after, which you can do or skip.

You might not see quite as much wildlife as in Cano Negro (I'm not sure), but you will definitely see white-faced (capuchin) monkeys, iguanas, caiman, birds, etc. I haven't done Cano Negro yet, but from the pictures, it looks like a similar ecosystem. This might be a good option for you if you don't want to do a whole day tour in Arenal (I don't blame you with such a tight schedule).

I forgot to post this link:

http://www.iguanatours.com/natural_h...as_island.html

Hi Lynne,

The Arenal area has so much to offer that I can definitely understand why you might question donating the better part of a day to Cano Negro. I think it really depends on what types of activities your family is most interested in.

My family are all big wildlife fans, and we loved Cano Negro. We had our first monkey and sloth sightings on that tour. We went with Sunset Tours (highly regarded on this forum), and they did such an excellent job. We learned so much about the area; ecosystem, animals, agriculture, culture, etc...
It was just a very enjoyable day all the way around. We got back in plenty of time that afternoon to head over to Tabacon Hot Springs for the evening.

Granted, you will see lots of wildlife in MA (I definitely recommend a guide for your first visit to the nat'l park), but the ecosystem is a bit different and part of what I loved so much about CR was seeing the terrific diversity of terrain, flora and fauna that the country offers.

We also did a Damas Mangrove tour (that CarolM mentions). Even though both Damas and Cano Negro offer mangrove environments, the two locations looked and felt quite different to me. Damas was quite enjoyable, but we definitely saw more wildlife on the Cano Negro trip (although that may just be luck of the draw...).

It's tough to narrow down those activity decisions, isn't it? When planning a vacation, you want optimize the experience as much as possible. I also check out tripadvisor from time to time, and there is undoubtedly some good information to be had there, but I tend to place more trust in the Fodors forums. There does seem to be a higher number of hard-to-please, disgruntled posters on TA. Most of the Fodors posters (on every board; not just the CR fans...) really seem to enjoy helping and sharing good information on places they love. The recommendations I've received through Fodors haven't let me down yet...

I agree with the others. We also went on the Cano Negro tour and really enjoyed it. However we didn't plan anything before we arrived, other than our destinations/hotels. We waited until we arrived at each area to determine which activites we'd end up doing. Once we were in Arenal, it seemed to really fit into our plan. Another thing that worked in our favor was the weather. The day we went to Cano Negro it was rainy in La Fortuna and it was great to head out of town. We ended up heading out of the rain and we had a great day in the sunshine for our tour. For us it was also the first wildlife spottings. Arenal was our first stop, and it's not big for wildlife, so it was really exciting to see so much on the tour! We saw so many monkeys, our first sloths, the caimens, bats, and so may birds and we are definitely not "birders" - but they were fascinating! We were the only people on our tour. We didn't use Sunset Tours - I have no idea who we went with - it was whoever Tabacon books with. But the tour was fine. We were alone with our guide and the boat driver on the river and rarely saw another boat. It was really a great day. I'd say if it fits in with your time in Arenal, it's great to do it, but if you can't fit it in, I'm sure you'll see plenty of wildlife in MA!

Thanks to all of you who replied - and so quickly!! It does sound like something we'd enjoy if we can fit it in. We will be in Arenal for three nights. (We'll be coming from Manuel Antonio - so I suspect that it will be late afternoon by the time we get there the first day.) Will we be safe to wait till we're there to decide. We'll be arriving at Arenal the day after Easter.

One last question... does anyone have some great pictures of Cano Negro to share?

We just booked our trip through our hotel the first day we got there; we were traveling during green season, so things were not that crowded. We used Sunset Tours and cannot recommend them highly enough - they did a great job. They have an office in La Fortuna if you're unable to book through your hotel.