Someone recomended Cano Negro as an option since we will not have the time for Torturuero. How much time should we plan for it, what are the recommended things to do, ttrips to do? As always- thank you for your time and thoughts

Hi Boleslav, Cano Negro is usually seen as a daytrip from the Arenal area. It can be easily booked through most area hotels. I believe that most, if not all, of the trips leave early in the morning from La Fortuna, which is a small town near the volcano. From there they pick up passengers from various lodgings, continuing to the river just a few miles from the Nicaraguan border. It makes for a long, but interesting day.

The Cano Negro trip is done mostly by boat on the Rio Frio after you get there by bus or van or car if you drive yourself. From what we saw, some tours had a picnic lunch and others had lunch at a little place in town. As Molly mentioned, this is a 1 day trip not an overnighter.

Molly2, Jesse,
would you recommend the boat trip to Cano Negro? I guess I am hoping for quiet trip on a boat up the river with wildlife around, is this the right place to do it?

Hopefully you'll be stating from Arenal. It is about an 1 hr 30 min. drive. We booked our tour from here in the states and the guys picked us up right on time. It was only the guide (bilingual)driver, boat captian and our family of four. We had a very pleasant 2 or 3 hours on the river, including a picnic lunch. The guide knew the all of the species, history and also brought along a powerful pair of binoculars to see the animals up close. We saw many monkeys, sloths, caimons, and countless birds. Cano Negro isn't really a destination, bur as people are saying a nice day trip from the Arenal area.

Yes, the Cano Negro trip is wonderful for seeing wildlife. We saw a multitude of birds, monkeys, caimen, lizards, etc. We had an excellent guide, but not the small group that SrFlojo had - it may help to shop around if size of the group matters. Also, some do a picnic and some stop at a retaurant or soda for lunch. All in all, a terrific trip.

SRFLOJO:
who did you use for your trip to Cano Negro, I like the size of four on the boat very much thank you.