4 Budget-ish Days in La Fortuna, Costa Rica
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La Fortuna was our first stop in Costa Rica and at the foot of Arenal Volcano, this town is a popular place for tourists to base themself. Unfortunately, during our time there, it was too cloudy to see the volcano completely but occasionally we got small glimpses.
The town is known for its adventure-filled activities and relaxing hot springs, also with plenty of opportunities to spot and learn more about the wildlife in Costa Rica.
It’s worth noting that La Fortuna is an expensive destination and not a place to save the pennies, that being said our hostel was £8.50 per bed per night. It’s more the activities, food or transport that will hurt your bank account, our average daily spend was £77.54 for 2 people.
So in today’s post, I will share how we spent our 4 days in La Fortuna trying to stick to our backpacker's budget, in hopes of helping you out.
Note: As I was teaching English and working on this blog daily, we chose to travel a little bit slower than some, so these 4 days could easily be squished into 2 in a bid to save time and money in La Fortuna.
Day 1: El Salto Rope Swing
Now if you’re visiting La Fortuna on a budget, you going to want to know about what you can do for free right? Only a 20-minute walk from the centre of La Fortuna you will find a super fun way to spend the morning/afternoon or even a full day, El Salto Rope Swing. You can swing or jump into the waters of Rio Fortuna and just generally chill around the rocks alongside the river.
After a morning spent working, we headed down to the rope swing just after lunch it was a lovely spot to chill, soak up some sun and take a dip. Although I was too chicken to actually attempt the rope swing, I had a lot of fun scoring other people’s attempts.
We then ended up making a new friend who showed us a few hidden spots to chill by the river as the rope swing area can get quite busy in the afternoon. When you get bored of all the jumping or watching the jumping, just head up to the right of the rope swing and you will see a path, if you follow that through, you’ll pass through the trees and along to a few more spots by the river.
Our new friend was a super friendly and playful dog, who I really wanted to take home with me, he did almost follow us the whole way back to the hostel before a new human friend lured him away. Trust me you’ll know him if you spot him, he was the happiest and cleanest stray dog I have ever seen. I kept questioning whether or not he had an owner, but due to the fact we saw him wandering the streets of La Fortuna alone in different places on different days, I assume he didn’t have a permanent home.
If anyone does have any information about stray dogs in La Fortuna let me know, because I’m convinced someone was cleaning and taking care of them.
Find the location of El Salto Rope Swing here —>
Day 2: La Fortuna Waterfall
Our mission on our second day was to be massive tourists and visit the beautiful La Fortuna Waterfall, it’s not the most budget-friendly activity as entrance costs $18 per person. In my opinion, I found it to be worth the dollar, the walk down to the waterfall leads you through a dense jungle. So watch out for some cool wildlife and listen out to it, we heard some howler monkeys and singing birds.
After making your way down all the stairs, I’m sure you will hear the waterfall before you see it. There are a few different viewpoints to see this powerful waterfall and also a swimming spot round the corner from the falls, in which you can cool off in the river and walk along the edge of the river.
I think you would struggle to spend a full day at the waterfall, I would say it’s more of a half-day activity unless you’re like us and end up walking back to town from the waterfall. So story time. We decided to get to the falls by Uber as we didn’t have any transport and didn’t want to pay to join a tour. The Uber there cost us £6, which we thought wasn’t bad for Costa Rica standards, so off we zipped for the 15-minute journey. Now what we didn’t consider is not being able to find one for the way back, we just couldn’t get anyone to accept our ride.
So we walked back and it probably took us an hour and a half, so if you are really trying to save some money, it’s possible to walk to the waterfall but it’s a long trip and it’s hilly. We met someone who had successfully hitchhiked his way there, which would probably be the better option.
Day 3: Arenal Volcano Hike and Hot Springs
Another day, another morning of typing away on my laptop. We had booked a tour starting at 1:30 so after spending the morning glued to my laptop, we cooked some lunch in the hostel before getting ready for our hike within Arenal National Park.
Originally our plan was to hike around the park on our own, but once we added up the cost of entrance to the park and the transport to get there it honestly worked out just as cheap to go with the tour and the tour stopped at a hot spring resort on the way back, so win-win.
Our tour guide came to pick us up and drove us to the entrance of the national park where we started the hike. He was such a lovely man and showed and explained so much of the wildlife on the trail that we would have missed had we gone by ourselves. I’m now an expert on leaf cutter ants, howler monkeys, sloths and bushmaster snakes, the last one I could have done without if I’m being honest.
After the original hike through the jungle, we headed up to a viewpoint where we would have been able to see Volcan Arenal had it not been so cloudy, but at this point, we had seen enough volcanoes to imagine what it would look like. Again our guide filled us in on everything we needed to know and the history of eruptions from this volcano.
From there we scrambled around to see Lago Verde before jumping back onto this bus and having a quick coffee stop before the hot springs, in total we were hiking for about 3 hours. The hot springs resort they take you to is nothing fancy but after all that walking it’s lovely to relax in the pools with your free drink in hand.
I highly recommend this tour with Red Lava, for tour prices in La Fortuna, it was great value for money and very informative. I believe they offer a morning and afternoon option, book it here ->
Day 4- Coffee and Italian Food
For our final day in La Fortuna, we kept debating whether or not we wanted to do another activity, we were strongly considering doing one of the night-time nature walks, but after seeing all the creepy crawlies and nearly having our bones melted and veins burst by an encounter with a highly dangerous snake the day before, I wasn’t too sold on the idea of doing it. So we opted for a day of catching up with admin and blog writing, to save our pennies to go out for a meal in the evening.
I spent the majority of the day typing away at Arábigos Coffee House, which had fantastic wi-fi but rubbish coffee in my opinion. In the evening we went for a pre-dinner drink at Lava Lounge before heading to a fancy Italian restaurant called Anch’io. The meal was delicious, I went for fresh pesto pasta and Josh opted for a Hawaiian pizza, we even got some complimentary bruschetta (not that I ate this, but free stuff is a win). If you want a lovely Italian meal out, this restaurant won’t disappoint, it was a gem, find it on maps here —>
Honestly, as budget travel goes you really don’t need this day in your La Fortuna itinerary, but we had work to do and couldn’t face the idea of cooking another meal in our chaotic hostel kitchen. I recommend either skipping this day altogether or doing one of the activities from my list of other things to do in La Fortuna.
Top Tip- On our way back from the restaurant we got drenched. It often rains in La Fortuna, usually only a 10-minute downpour before resuming normal humid weather, but I recommend always carrying your rain jacket/umbrella so you don’t get caught out like us two.
Other Things to Do in La Fortuna
Be adventurous and try white water rafting.
Go zip-lining through the forests near La Fortuna.
Relax in the hot spring resort of Baldi Hot Springs, not budget-friendly, but was highly recommended
Go paddle boarding on Lake Arenal.
Get your binoculars and go on a sloth walking tour.
Take a night tour to spot the nocturnal wildlife of La Fortuna.
Visit the free hot spring river near La Fortuna, check out this guide from My Tan Feet on how to get there ->
Budget Tips for Costa Rica
Opt to take public transport, the tourist shuttle prices in Costa Rica made my eyes water on many occasions. And you will find public transport perfectly safe, although it can be a little chaotic. I found this website The Bus in Costa Rica to be super helpful for planning journeys, but make sure to check the most up-to-date times with your accommodation or locals.
This is a budget travel tip for wherever you stay not just Costa Rica but look for accommodation that has a kitchen so you can cook your own meals. And stay away from buying imported goods and opt for as much local produce as possible to help keep the food shop bill low.
If you really hate cooking or prefer getting a taste of local cuisine you need to be eating at local sodas over restaurants, they are a lot more budget-friendly.
A no brainer but stay in hostels, you can check out my Costa Rica hostel reviews here —>
Travel during the off-season, you can expect not as reliable weather conditions. But if you are conscious of your budget, you will find most accommodations and activities will be cheaper in the off-season. In most locations, the off-season is from May to the start of December.
Although I enjoyed our adventure in La Fortuna, it was far from my favourite destination in Costa Rica. It was hard to fully enjoy the destination with tight purse strings, but we made the most of it and had a wonderful introduction to a lot of Costa Rican wildlife and nature.
If you’ve been to La Fortuna, let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Looking for more Costa Rica travel inspiration?
Montezuma, Costa Rica Travel Guide
How To Get From San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua to La Fortuna, Costa Rica
