Hello Cara!

Sure thing! To start, it’s almost always an option to drive yourselves to/from tour operators’ offices in/around La Fortuna, so this is a great fallback plan if you decide it’s not worth it to pay tour operators’ transportation fees.

For transportation to/from the Springs Resort, you’re correct! Due to its distance from La Fortuna, most tour operators do not automatically include round-trip transportation to/from the resort with their tour rates (though a few select tour operators do).

I should point out that there are two different types of tour operators in Costa Rica:

1) Tour operators who automatically include round-trip transportation to/from hotels that fall within a normal pick-up zone (extra fees are charged to travelers who stay at hotels that fall outside of the normal pick-up zone)
2) tour operators who do not automatically include round-trip transportation to/from any hotels (extra fees are charged to all travelers who want the tour operator to provide round-trip transportation; prices vary by hotel location).

To add confusion, some tour operators charge their transportation fees per group (typically 1-4 people, 1-5 people, or 1-8 people, depending on the tour operator) and others charge their transportation fees per person.

Transportation costs to/from the Springs Resort depend on which tour you’re interested in experiencing as each tour operator in Costa Rica sets their own transportation rates. To give you a rough idea of pricing, tour transportation fees could be as low as $30 for a round-trip service (i.e., pick-up and drop-off at the Springs Resort) for your entire family, or up to $20 for a round-trip service per person in your family. Below are a couple of examples to help you understand how tour transportation pricing in Costa Rica works.

Example A:
Desafio Adventure Company is a tour operator that automatically includes round-trip transportation to/from hotels that fall within a normal pick-up zone (extra fees are charged to travelers who stay at hotels that fall outside of the normal pick-up zone). They typically charge $20-25 (per group, not per person) for a one-way pick-up or drop-off service at the Springs Resort, or $40-50 (per group, not per person) for the round-trip pick-up and drop-off service. If you participated in one of Desafio Adventure Company’s tours, it would be best to budget around $40-50 per tour for your family, assuming your group size is less than 4 people.

Example B:
Sky Adventures is a tour operator that does not automatically include round-trip transportation to/from any hotels (extra fees are charged to all travelers who want them to provide round-trip transportation; prices vary by hotel location). They typically charge $17 (per person) for round-trip transportation to/from the Springs Resort. If you participated in one of Sky Adventures’ Arenal-area tours, it would be best to budget around $17 per person in your family. For other travelers reading this response who are interested in Sky Adventures’ Monteverde-area tours, the round-trip transportation cost to/from Monteverde hotels is $10 per person.

If you decide to use tour operator transportation, one way you can reduce transportation costs overall is to schedule morning activities with a drop-off in downtown La Fortuna, then afternoon activities with a pick-up also in downtown La Fortuna. Tour operators that automatically include round-trip transportation to/from hotels that fall within a normal pick-up zone (like Desafio Adventure Company and others) provide pick-ups and drop-offs in downtown La Fortuna for free. So, you can pay to get picked up at the Springs Resort for one tour in the morning, get dropped off in downtown La Fortuna after that tour wraps up, spend some time eating lunch or shopping around town in between tours, get picked up in downtown La Fortuna for a different/afternoon tour, then pay to be dropped off at the Springs Resort when that tour finishes. Opting not to return to the Springs Resort in between tours can help you save time as well as costs associated with transportation fees.

Pura vida! 🙂

Hello Rachel!

Thank you so much for your patience with us! 🙂 We’re still in the process of moving all of our tour discounts from our old website over to this new one and not all of the discounts we can offer are yet visible to the public. Thank you for specifically inquiring about the Sky Tram and Sky Walk Hanging Bridges Tour Combo because this is one of the tours we can offer a discount for! I’ve just heard back from our webmaster who confirmed that our Sky Tram and Sky Walk Hanging Bridges Tour Combo discounts should be added to our website this week. I can send you a follow-up message when they get posted to our website so you can read more about the tour and secure the discount if you’d like.

Until soon! 🙂

Hello Laura!

Congrats on your upcoming honeymoon! Great choice choosing Costa Rica for the trip–I’m sure you’ll have an amazing time! 😉

To confirm, we no longer offer honeymoon packages (or any other types of Costa Rica vacation packages) as our other Costa Rica-related projects keep us rather busy. We do process requests for Costa Rica day tours, however (and at our awesome discounted rates!), so if you’re looking to save money on any activities in Costa Rica (such as rafting, zip-lining, hiking, etc. ) we can certainly help you with those.

As a side note, if you’re considering planning your own trip to Costa Rica, our related blog post “How To Plan A Trip To Costa Rica” (https://costaricatravelblog.com/how-to-plan-a-trip-to-costa-rica/) can help. If you’d prefer to go with a preset package you find online, our related blog post “Costa Rica Vacation Package Scams And Red Flags” (https://costaricatravelblog.com/costa-rica-vacation-package-scams-and-red-flags/) will teach you what to look out for when shopping around.

Pura vida! 🙂

Hello Kevin!

Great questions! I can certainly answer them for you. 🙂

Yes! You can absolutely drive yourselves to and from the Selvatura Park if you would prefer to save yourselves some time, especially after you’ve completed participating in the on-site activities, so you can leave right away. Unfortunately there’s no difference in price if you drive yourselves to the Selvatura Park as round-trip transportation to/from Monteverde hotels is a complimentary service provided by Selvatura.

For hiking the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve, if you wish to do so, there would be an additional fee for this as it is an entirely separate activity. Though the Selvatura Park and the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve near one another (and fall along the same road), they’re separate attractions with separate entrances and are owned by separate entities. Once you leave the Selvatura Park, you can drive yourselves up the road to the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve if you like, pay the reserve’s entrance fee, and hike their on-site trails on your own (guided reserve tours are also available, however they require advance reservation). Though it’s best to have the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve confirm their exact rates (these may have recently changed for 2020), the last recorded entry fee we have on file is $16 per adult.

Pura vida! 🙂

Hello again Kim!

As promised, I just wanted to let you know that our discounts for the Mistico Arenal Hanging Bridges Park’s Night Tour (as well as their Birdwatching Tour) are now live on our website. You can find the discounts on the following pages:

Mistico Park Night Tour (adult): https://puravidaeh.ca/discounts/arenal-hanging-bridges-night-tour-adult-la-fortuna-mistico-arenal-hanging-bridges-park/
Mistico Park Night Tour (student): https://puravidaeh.ca/discounts/arenal-hanging-bridges-night-tour-student-la-fortuna-mistico-arenal-hanging-bridges-park/
Mistico Park Night Tour (child): https://puravidaeh.ca/discounts/arenal-hanging-bridges-night-tour-child-la-fortuna-mistico-arenal-hanging-bridges-park/

Mistico Park Birdwatching Tour (adult): https://puravidaeh.ca/discounts/arenal-hanging-bridges-birdwatching-tour-adult-la-fortuna-mistico-arenal-hanging-bridges-park/
Mistico Park Birdwatching Tour (student): https://puravidaeh.ca/discounts/arenal-hanging-bridges-birdwatching-tour-student-la-fortuna-mistico-arenal-hanging-bridges-park/
Mistico Park Birdwatching Tour (child): https://puravidaeh.ca/discounts/arenal-hanging-bridges-birdwatching-tour-child-la-fortuna-mistico-arenal-hanging-bridges-park/

Thank you again for your preference! 🙂

Hello Kim!

Thanks so much for your message and interest! 🙂

You can certainly request the Pacuare River Rafting Tour without transportation if you’d prefer to do so–no problem (we can also answer any questions you may have about the drive you plan to make on your own since we’ve driven the route between La Fortuna and the Pacuare River many times). In this case, this is the tour listing page on our website where you’ll find the self-drive tour discount: https://puravidaeh.ca/discounts/pacuare-river-rafting-tour-adult-siquirres-exploradores-outdoors/

The link above is for the Pacuare River Rafting Tour to/from Siquirres (Siquirres is the name of the town where Exploradores Outdoors’ Pacuare River Rafting Tour starts and ends). Compared to our regular discounted rate of $85/person for the Pacuare River Rafting Tour that includes round-trip transportation, our discounted rate for the Pacuare River Rafting Tour self-drive option (i.e., the tour linked to above, which is to/from Siquirres) is $75/person.

For a night tour, you’re in luck! We have discounts for the Mistico Arenal Hanging Bridges Park’s Night Tour (as well as their early-morning Birdwatching Tour) scheduled to be added to our website this week. I’ll send a note to our webmaster now to see if we can get the tour discount added to our website by the end of the day today or tomorrow in case you wish to book it before the week’s end. I’ll also leave a follow-up message for you on this page (below) once the night tour discount has been officially added to our site so you can read about the tour experience and see our discounted rate.

Pura vida! 🙂

Hello Miriam!

Thanks so much for your patience with us! Several of our discounts are set to publish on our website in 2020 and our discount for the Horseback Riding to the Rio Fortuna Waterfall (also known as the La Fortuna Waterfall) was one of these discounts. Fortunately, our discount for the Horseback Riding to the Rio Fortuna Waterfall just published today, so it’s now visible on our website.

You can find the adult discount for the tour here: https://puravidaeh.ca/discounts/horseback-riding-to-the-rio-fortuna-waterfall-adult-la-fortuna-arenal-mundo-aventura/

You can find the child discount for the tour here: https://puravidaeh.ca/discounts/horseback-riding-to-the-rio-fortuna-waterfall-child-la-fortuna-arenal-mundo-aventura/

Pura vida! 🙂

Hello Cece!

This is a great question and one with a somewhat convoluted answer! Let me clarify things for you and any other travelers who happen to be asking themselves the same thing. 🙂

Each tour operator in Costa Rica chooses for themselves if they want to include round-trip transportation to/from area hotels in the cost of their tours. Most do, but some do not, especially tours run by adventure parks like Sky Adventures and the Mistico Arenal Hanging Bridges Park, for example. Each tour operator in Costa Rica also chooses for themselves the boundaries of what they consider to be their normal transportation zone. By “normal transportation zone” I mean the geographical region wherein the tour operator most often provides hotel pick-up and drop-off services.

For tours operated by companies that opt to include round-trip transportation in their tour rates, round-trip transportation is only provided free of charge to/from hotels that fall inside of the tour operator’s normal transportation zone. Transportation to/from hotels that fall outside of the tour operator’s normal transportation zone requires payment of an extra fee, usually to cover the extra gas and the driver’s time to leave and return to the normal transportation zone.

For tours operated by companies that opt not to include round-trip transportation in their tour rates, round-trip transportation is never provided free of charge. Regardless of whether a particular hotel falls inside or outside of the tour operator’s normal transportation zone, round-trip transportation requires payment of an extra fee to cover the cost of gas and the driver’s time. The exact cost of the extra fee is determined by the hotel’s location. If the hotel falls within the tour operator’s normal transportation zone, the fee is a set amount (this is the amount noted on our website as the “Transportation Option” add-on). If the hotel falls outside of the tour operator’s normal transportation zone, the fee would be a custom amount that’s higher than the set amount (the custom amount would be determined by the tour operator according to how far the hotel sits outside of the normal transportation zone).

To help travelers determine which tours listed on our website automatically include round-trip transportation (to/from hotels that fall inside of the tour operator’s normal transportation zone), we confirm this under the “Tour includes” section of each tour’s listing page. You can find the “Tour includes” section just under the price of the tour, following the “Tour departure/return location”, “Tour times”, and “Tour duration” details. You’ll usually see a line that reads something like “Tour includes: [Activity name] tour, lunch, and round-trip transportation to/from [destination name] area hotels.”

If you don’t see “round-trip transportation to/from [destination name] area hotels” listed, then round-trip transportation isn’t automatically included with the tour. In these cases, if there’s an option to purchase round-trip transportation through the tour operator, you’ll see a “Transportation Option” add-on noted just above the blue “Add to cart” button. When you select “Yes” with the “Transportation Option” add-on, the fee (which represents the cost to add round-trip transportation to/from hotels that fall inside of the tour operator’s normal transportation zone) is automatically added to the total tour cost.

I should also confirm that displayed inside the “Hotel name (for pick-up/drop-off coordination, if applicable)” box visible on each tour’s listing page on our website is the text “Some hotels require payment of an extra transport fee. If a fee applies to your chosen hotel, we will email you for approval of the fee amount prior to processing the reservation.” This text appears regardless of whether the tour’s operator opts to include round-trip transportation in the cost of the tour or not because with any tour it could be the case that a traveler wants to be picked-up/dropped-off at a hotel that requires an extra charge. For example, if a traveler selects a tour that is run by a company that automatically includes round-trip transportation in its tour rates, but the traveler needs transportation to/from a hotel that falls outside of the tour operator’s normal transportation zone, then an extra fee would apply. Similarly, if a traveler selects a tour that is run by a company that does not automatically include round-trip transportation in its tour rates, then an extra fee would apply.

To sum up, if you’re looking at a particular tour listed on our website and the “Tour includes” section notes that round-trip transportation is included, there’s a good chance that a complimentary hotel pick-up/drop-off service will be provided to you because most hotels fall within the tour operator’s normal transportation zone. If you tell us the name of your hotel (when you place your order) and it doesn’t fall within the tour operator’s normal transportation zone, we’ll confirm this with you via email before the order is finalized so you can decide whether or not you want to pay the tour operator’s transportation fee. If you’re looking at a particular tour listed on our website that does not include round-trip transportation, you can opt to add this (if available) by selecting “Yes” with the “Transportation Option” add-on. When you do, there’s a good chance that you’ll only pay the set transport fee noted with the “Transportation Option” because most hotels fall within the tour operator’s normal transportation zone. If you tell us the name of your hotel (when you place your order) and it doesn’t fall within the tour operator’s normal transportation zone, we’ll confirm this with you via email before the order is finalized so you can decide whether or not you want to pay the tour operator’s extra transportation fee.

If you’d prefer us to confirm in advance whether a) your particular hotel qualifies for free round-trip transportation, b) your particular hotel qualifies for the tour operator’s set transportation fee (i.e., the cost associated with the “Transportation Option” add-on noted on our website), or c) your particular hotel requires payment of a custom/extra fee because it falls outside of the tour operator’s normal transportation zone, feel free to leave us a question/comment in our forum that describes the name of the tour(s) you’re interested in and the name of the hotel you plan to stay at. We can then confirm with you which transportation costs will apply, if any.

Pura vida! 🙂