My wife, daughter and I will be staying in the Arenal area for four nights. We will not be driving. What would you recommend for a hotel? Is the Arenal Lodge too far remote? We will be doing the Cano Negro tour, hanging bridge, hiking... Do we need a driver every day or can we get a taxi easily from place to place?
Also, does anyone have an opinion on the restaurant at the Arenal Lodge? I guess our concern is that we will be marooned at the hotel without a car.

Just a suggestion: Getting around in the Arenal area is extremely easy. Why don't you rent a car to have while you are there? You can probably get something for $45 per day.

Taxis are, of course, an option. They'll charge you $8 per transfer because they all come out of La Fortuna, which is a short distance from the volcano area and some of the other attractions. The entire area is strung out, and you can EASILY need a taxi 5-6 times per day. If not more. No matter where your hotel is located.

For example, I opted not to rent a car while there for a weekend this past summer (usually am with husband and we have a car, but this time I was alone). I stayed in a very central location (Arenal Paraiso), but it was $8 to Tabacon Hot Springs. $8 back to Arenal Paraiso. $8 to La Fortuna. $8 back to Arenal Paraiso. $8 to El Novillo for dinner. $8 back to Arenal Paraiso.

Fortunately, I'd seen and done most of what there is to do on previous visits, so was content to hang around the hotel pool a good part of the time. But if I'd wanted to do the Hanging Bridges, go to La Fortuna Falls, etc, then it would have been another $16 round trip for each destination.

A vehicle will allow you the freedom to take yourselves all over the place in that area--at your convenience, without having to call or wait. I believe it would make your Arenal stay MUCH simpler. You could even drive over toward the lake and look around, you know, just exploring a bit with any spare time.

We stayed at the Lost Iguana and used their free shuttle to get into town each night for dinner and then took a cab back. We just had the restaurant or hot springs call a cab for us - the hotel is set on the outskirts of town, so it cost us $12-17 per taxi ride. My husband did not want to drive on our trip, so this worked for us, but in retrospect, it seems like driving in this area would have been pretty easy. If you stay at LI, the Hanging Bridges are right next door, so you can walk there. A lot of the tours will pick you up at your hotel.

We stayed at Los Lagos without a car. We took taxis when we wanted, we never had a problem getting a taxi and they were very reasonable.

There was also a variety of things to do on the grounds. Some hiking, the pools, the animals. There was a variety of food. (2 places for the buffet breakfast, a sit down restaraunt, and a grill by the pool) We also picked up some snacks, and sandwich makings in town which we kept in the dorm fridge in our room. (For feeding a growing boy!)

Formal tours will pick you up from there. If you get too far out of town you will have to pay extra for pick ups.

Renting a car for a day might be a good idea. Do you know if the $45/day includes insurance? We rented in Hawaii years ago and were surprised by the insurance charges.

As none of us speak Spanish as yet (I started yesterday www. bbc.co.uk), we were considering an English speaking guide. More expensive than renting a car for sure, however it might help us avoid the tourist traps. I guess it will depend on how much progress I make learning Spanish before we leave (Feb/Mar)

We figure a full day for Cano Negro, a full day for the hanging bridge and hot springs, a full day with a driver for volcano and area. What else would you recommend as we are planning to stay four nights?

How about ziplining at SkyTrek or going to the waterfall?

The horseback ride into the foothills of Arenal sure was fun. Went into rain forest area, saw monkeys, birds and even a sloth. Great view of the valley once you get up there a ways.

Cano Negro was very impressive! I was happy we upgraded our digital camera and bought a nice zoom lense. We can see what the monkeys were eating. Try to get on a bigger boat. Some boats only had two people and it didn't look like they even had a guide to tell them about the wildlife.

Hi All,

Hope you had pleasant holidays. We now have hotel reservations for every night. I'd love to go horseback riding but I am very allergic to horse. I think we will try the waterfall rappelling. Looks like fun.

JAS

The rappelling does look like fun. We didn't have a chance to do it when we were there. It is my understanding that there are two primary companies in the Arenal area and the experience is quite different. You might want to do some research to determine which you'd enjoy most. I believe if you are under 100 lbs, you need to go down strapped to a guide. Kinda made me want to go on a crash.

We paid $6 to get to town from Aernal Springs and were told it would cost about $20-$25 (each way) to go to the observatory. Your resort will call a cab any time you want one. It just takes a few minutes for someone to show up. Driving yourself in the Arenal area seems like a reasonable idea in that it is a laid back area and the roads appear to be well marked.

Have you looked at Arenal.net?

We are definitely going to do the waterfall rappeling. My wife finally agreed (funny, she was OK for zipline but not rappel). I will look into the various tours companies: Pure Trek Canyoning; Desafio Adventure Company; Costa Nica Tours; Adventure Center Arenal...

So far I have read good stuff about Desafio and Pure Trek. Hard to decide. It's all so confusing. Either way I am sure we will still have fun.

Thanks all.