My friend dropped us off at the rental car agency on the way to the San José airport. She was headed back to the United States, we were continuing onto La Fortuna. Our route took us through the city of Liberia and then southeast through the countryside, zipping past small towns. The drive became more interesting when we veered east into the hills and through farmlands. It started to feel wilder and more remote. Soon the western edge of Lake Arenal came into view and we could see the volcano, sticking out like a tiny pyramid from the distant shore.
After stopping at Café y Macadamia for lunch, a nice rest stop with lots of food options and beautiful views, we continued our drive when all of a sudden I looked up and boom, the volcano was right there in front of us! I don’t how we came upon it so quickly but from our approach angle, it looked massive! It was actually exciting to be so close to the volcano.
Because we were going to be working most of the time, we wanted a comfortable Airbnb with strong Wi-Fi and views of the volcano. We were really pleased with Roy’s place. It had a covered roof deck that looked dead on to the volcano. When we didn’t have meetings, we were up there on our laptops. In the evenings we’d make the short drive into town for dinner. The two restaurants we tried were Italianissimo (pizza, pasta, salads) and Restaurante Travesia (pasta, rice, meat and seafood). The latter was really good and my smoked chicken thigh was much better than what I had at Coyol.
By this time, we had already done so much sightseeing that we didn’t feel the need to do much in La Fortuna. We had no interest in going ziplining or doing a wildlife trek. However, we did spend a few hours one morning hiking in the Parque Ecológico Volcan Arenal. We bought our tickets and followed the trail to the lava fields. It was a really fun, but hot and sweaty, walk through the jungle but unfortunately, when we got to the lava fields, Arenal was still hidden under a blanket of clouds.
On the last day of our adventure we had a beautiful drive back to San José that took us through hilly terrain. No last glimpse of the volcano due to the overcast conditions. As we approached San José it also started to rain…a sign that it was time to go back home. We stayed in the Marriott Hotel Hacienda Belen. It’s a beautiful property built around a central courtyard. Our room was spacious and overlooked the lawn and pools. We enjoyed an afternoon wrapping up work, relaxing, and getting ready for our flight back to San Francisco the next morning. Costa Rica was nothing short of a fabulous trip, filled with wonder and exploration.
Read about the rest of our Costa Rica adventures here.
Coda
I’m sure if we had started our trip in La Fortuna we would have done a lot more. Aside from seeing Arenal, the other activity that seemed unique to the area is the thermal hot springs. Things like hiking, seeing wildlife, and ziplining were all things that we had already done and didn’t feel like we had to do again.
Additional Information
- I found that Adobe Rent a Car had the best rates.
- Driving was pretty easy and Google Maps was pretty accurate and reliable for plotting routes.
- It’s cooler in La Fortuna but there are still mosquitoes. We like Ben’s 30% DEET formulation.