Hello,
We'll be in Arenal at the end of June for 4 nights with our two kids ages 7 and 12. I think I've narrowed our tour choices down to Hanging Bridges, Cano Negro, volcano hike and a zip line (hopefully one that my 7 year old can go on). I just talked to Sunset Tours and they were very helpful. They do an Arneal Canapy Tour that is horseback riding to zip lines for $55/person, also Sky Tram zip line ($66/person), and also a volcano hike combined with Eco Thermales with dinner for $95/person. I know that the Lost Iguana (where we're staying) offers tours as well, does anyone know if there is any advantage to going with the hotel tours vs Sunset Tours? Also, has anyone done the volcano hike with Sunset and/or the Hanging Bridges with guide from Sunset?
Thanks for any suggestions. This board is SO helpful!!
Laura

I think the only advantage to booking everything through your hotel is convenience, but they will most likely charge you a little bit more than booking with the tour company. If you know who you'd like to use, I would just book with the tour companies themselves. Sunset Tours is a great outfit.

We did the Hanging Bridges tour on our own; the Lost Iguana sells half price tickets at their front desk since they're located right next door - that's the one thing I might book through the hotel so you can get the discount. I don't know if you can book a guided hike there though. We did a combo volcano hike and dinner at Eco Termales with Sunset Tours and enjoyed it. They have great guides; we had a huge downpour during our volcano hike though, so we had pretty limited visibility. I think we would have enjoyed it more in good weather. We really loved Eco Termales, and their chicken dinner was great. The Lost Iguana is one of our favorite hotels; I think that's a great choice.

Eco-Thermales is great. Definitely recommend going there. We did the canopy tour that Sunset books with the horseback ride. (Some of these companies like Sunset sort of subcontract with the actual tour operators.) We thought that was a great canopy tour. You start from a platform overlooking the falls (a tractor takes you up that far) and then you also do a little hiking to get to the zips but it's pretty thrilling!

We did the volcano hike and Tabacon with Sunset and they were wonderful. Our guide, Zander, was a walking encyclopedia and it was a treat to hike with a guide who was clearly interested in the volcano, its history and the fauna in the area around it. We saw a lot of birds. We then came upon a troop (or possibly two) of howler monkeys in the middle of some territorial dispute - I recorded the sounds with my camera - and watched various members move through the canopy or sit there and groom themselves. We also lucked out with the volcano as it was sunny and clear the entire time we were there.

Oh, forgot to mention: after our hike and before they dropped us off at Tabacon, we decided to wait for nightfall and parked to watch the lava show. We saw red hot boulders tumbling down the sides and thin (at least they were thin from where we were parked) trails of lava follow behind them.

We hired Zander to be our private birding guide for a day and thought he was a doll. We saw tons of birds, an anteater, howlers, and even a peccary. I had no idea Arenal had that kind of wildlife because we pretty much see zilch on our own.

Just got back from our trip. Here's how we worked it . . . (day 1) used Sunset Tours for Cano Negro, (day 2) drove to hanging bridges early, bought tickets there and did it on our own and then did zip line (SkyTrek) and Eco Termales with dinner combo (booked through Sunset). We orginally planned a volcano hike/ET combo but since we were staying at the Arenal Observatory Lodge we saw lots of volcano action on our own (hate to sound like I'm bragging but it was FABULOUS) so we called Sunset and had them switch us to a zip/ET combo. They were very accomodating. In addition, we had our own car so they gave us a break on price since we drove to ziplines and ET. Had we thought about it we could have done it the same way for Cano Negro since they offered to let us park our car in their lot at the office in La Fortuna but we ended up just being picked up at the lodge. Looking at the rate sheet from the lodge, it was cheaper for us to go through Sunset. They do a wonderful job working with you to arrange your tours.