Río Celeste Full-Day Tour: Is It Worth It?

Río Celeste (“sky-blue river” in English) is a person of Costa Rica’s most lovely spots and undoubtedly value a go to if you are in the La Fortuna location. Even though it is doable to go on your personal, it can be difficult to get to with no a rental motor vehicle, which I did not have.

As a substitute of having to determine out all the transportation facts, I opted to go on a entire-working day tour from La Fortuna. Stick all-around to come across out: is the Rio Celeste tour value it?

My Experience

I booked a complete-working day tour of Río Celeste and Tenorio Volcano Countrywide Park, not truly figuring out what to expect. I experienced listened to about Río Celeste and it was absolutely on my mind when I obtained to La Fortuna, but it is a 90-minute drive from exactly where I was being, and I hadn’t rented a auto. A spur-of-the-minute determination led me to book the tour, specifically just after I did the math on how significantly it would price to get there on my individual, factoring in the admission charge to the nationwide park, snacks, and meals.

The $85 cost tag seemed a tiny hefty at very first, but at the time, I was not accurately absolutely sure how to get to Río Celeste via community transportation, and paying a taxi to acquire me would have been about $50 each way, so that was a huge no for me.

Considering that the tour consists of transportation, lunch, the entrance price to the national park, and a naturalist guide, I thought it was value the value, and so I booked it the day ahead of. The van arrived all-around to decide on me up early, close to 6am, and I was greeted by my guidebook, Carlos.

The generate to Tenorio Volcano Countrywide Park, where Río Celeste lies, was about 90 minutes but took a bit longer because the information spotted a sloth in a tree on the side of the street. How he was able to see it from so considerably away is a mystery to me still, but I was grateful for the quit, for the reason that I’m normally down to see people very little men munching on leaves way up in the trees.

Once we bought to the park, the foggy ambiance was a bit overwhelming. I puzzled aloud if we would be ready to see Río Celeste’s bright blue coloration, and our guidebook reassured us that there was time to verify it out before the rains came and created the h2o murky. I took a deep breath and well prepared myself for disappointment.

As we hiked via the jungle, checking out the distinctive plants and animals alongside the way, I was having thrilled about our first stop: the Catarata Río Celeste waterfall. As we approached, I could hear the thunderous roar of the hundreds of gallons of drinking water pouring into a pool down below.

There are hundreds of steps top down to the waterfall, and the route was crowded with other readers, but the view on the way down was breathtaking the entire way. Compared with the Fortuna waterfall, you simply cannot swim at the foundation of the Río Celeste waterfall, but you can admire its magnificence and namesake blue colour from a system close to the foundation.

Following climbing back up the ways (and obtaining a very good work out in the process), we continued alongside the path and stopped at numerous factors on the river to get the scoop on how it receives its blue colour, as very well as the geothermal exercise underneath it. Two notable stops had been Los Teñideros, exactly where we observed where the river improvements color from crystal clear to blue, and Los Borbollones, the place sulfuric bubbles rise to the floor, emitting an eggy scent.

Soon after traversing by means of the countrywide park (extra on that here), our tutorial brought us to a “secret” incredibly hot river just a kilometer away. It was just beginning to rain, so I decided to go for a swift soak. It was a blast to consider a dip in a hot river when emotion the chilly, misty rain occur down.

We then experienced lunch at a community soda (a little open-air restaurant), which was filling and scrumptious. The other tour individuals and I experienced a possibility to decide on our guide’s brain, asking all sorts of inquiries about Costa Rica’s geography, wildlife, and a lot more. Aside from owning a knack for spotting wildlife and realizing the science driving Río Celeste, I observed that our guideline had a total treasure trove of expertise on the national park and further than.

Is the Río Celeste Tour Really worth It?

As a traveler who didn’t have a rental vehicle, the Río Celeste tour was worth it for me. Not only did it acquire the tension off of making an attempt to get there through public transportation, but obtaining a guidebook was great. There are so many matters you can find out about the river itself that may well normally go unnoticed if you pay a visit to on your possess. I cherished acquiring the prospect to request inquiries about it, as nicely as the wildlife and flora.

On top of that, the hot river we also frequented may have flown underneath my radar, as I hadn’t listened to about it prior to. It came as a nice surprise!

If you’re pondering if the tour will be truly worth it for you, there are a several issues to consider. To start with, transportation. Motor vehicle rentals and gas rates in Costa Rica are really costly, so it is not really worth it to lease a car or truck just for the working day, as it’ll conclude up costing all around the exact same as the tour, just for transportation by itself. If you’ve by now rented a automobile and want to insert Río Celeste to your itinerary, go for it without having the tour. You are going to just be missing out on possessing a guideline until you employ the service of 1 at the park which is an extra $30-50 on best of the $12 admission fee.

If you are touring by way of public transportation via Costa Rica, as I did, this tour is unquestionably worthy of the rate. Given that it features lunch, the entrance rate, transportation, and a guidebook, it works out to be about the identical price as if you were to go on your individual from La Fortuna by way of public transportation. I considered it was an remarkable bang for my buck and would do it yet again if specified the preference.

The only drawback of traveling to Río Celeste on a tour is that you never have the independence to select when to go. Due to the fact the waterfall and other key web sites alongside the river can get very packed in the late morning and early afternoon, I was not capable to obtain some solo time to enjoy them. By the time we reached the waterfall, there have been so quite a few people today there that it was difficult to snap a great photograph or just hold out unbothered. If you are hoping to get an epic shot of the waterfall or traverse the trails on your individual time, a tour like this just one in all probability is not for you.

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Río Celeste undoubtedly deserves a place on any Costa Rica itinerary, as it was a single of the highlights of my time there.

Are you heading to La Fortuna soon? Permit us know what else you’re energized to do there!

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