All guides

The guides hub is a library of practical, essential-reading articles organised by the same categories as the rest of the site, built around the questions that trip up first-time visitors to La Fortuna. Volcano guides work through Arenal's history in detail — the 29 July 1968 eruption that destroyed the villages of Tabacón and Pueblo Nuevo and killed around 87 people, the 42 years of strombolian activity that followed, and why the 1,670-metre cone has shown no visible lava since it fell quiet in October 2010 — alongside the practical point that Cerro Chato, the older cone beside it, has been closed to hikers since 2018.

Hot springs guides compare the free, unsupervised pools of the Río Chollín, where bag theft is a recurring problem, against the roughly 40-to-115-US-dollar resort complexes, and explain what each price tier actually includes. Transport guides cover the rental-car versus shuttle decision, how the jeep-boat-jeep route to Monteverde compares with the 3-hour-30-minute to 4-hour paved road around Lake Arenal, and which of the one-lane bridges and unpaved stretches of road catch visiting drivers off guard.

Planning guides cover entry requirements — no visa for up to 180 days for EU, UK, US and Canadian passport holders, but an onward ticket checked at boarding — realistic daily budgets in US dollars rather than invented figures, and how to weigh a Monteverde day trip against an overnight. Río Celeste and Tenorio guides explain the optical phenomenon behind the river's turquoise colour, why it disappears after heavy rain, and why the trail closes to new entries in the mid-afternoon with a cap on daily numbers.

Wildlife and birdwatching guides point toward Caño Negro's Ramsar-listed wetland, at its best by boat in the wet season and considerably drier by April, and toward Monteverde's cloud forest, where resplendent quetzals are most reliably seen between February and July. Seasonal guides cover the dry season from December to April, the green season from May to November, the drier veranillo weeks in June and July, and September and October as the wettest months in the north.

There are also comparison and logistics guides that answer head-to-head questions directly: Juan Santamaría or Daniel Oduber as the arrival airport, the free Río Chollín pools against a resort day pass, and how a rental car and organized shuttles actually compare on a real itinerary rather than in the abstract. Family-focused guides cover what works with children — the hanging bridges and a gentle float safari tend to, canyoning and the longer hikes tend not to — and safety and etiquette guides cover the practical basics: fer-de-lance sightings on forest trails, dengue precautions in the lowlands during the green season, and the one-lane bridges and unpaved sections of road around town.

The unifying idea across all of them is that they're written to be read before you book, with enough concrete detail — a trail closing time, a seasonal forecast, a price in US dollars — to actually change a decision, not just repeat what a general guidebook already says.