Red Lava TSC — Attraction in La Fortuna

Very disappointed with the company. The tour I did was an “all-day tour” (7am- 4pm) including The Hanging Bridges Park, Lava Fields, Lunch and Hot Springs for $95.

First of all, you spend so much of that time sitting on the bus picking people up from their hotels, which is annoying when it goes for over an hour, and then dropping them off.

At the Hanging Bridges I felt like the tour was very rushed. Every time they pointed out an animal or whatever, we didn’t really have a chance to look at it for a bit and enjoy. You would just hear ‘let’s go let’s go’, ‘keep moving’, and a lot of times you couldn’t even hear what the guide was saying cause he was too far to hear him, and then they would just keep moving instead of showing and explaining to the further part of the group of what he just spotted.

The Lava Rocks was just a disaster for me. Because I specifically asked the agent at the office how it would look like . He said it would be a hike of around 2h, which I actually wanted. But in fact it was just a trail of like a km at most and we had around 15min to spend at the view point instead of the walk of 2h like I was told.

Then we went to the lunch spot, which was at a basic road side cafe. The food was very plain. Lunch could be served at a quiet spot where people could enjoy at least some view but not next to the main road 10feet away.

Hot Springs are not worth visiting at all, at least for the money you need to pay. Very basic simple pools that you can find anywhere else in the world. If it at least were like a place with the view of arenal or something, then maybe yes but it’s just a park with a few pools where you will have an hour before the journey of dropping people off at their hotels starts all over again.

And my favorite one. I told the agent that I would love to pay with the card. When I got to the office after the tour to pay I was told that there would be an additional $5 card fee. I totally understand that but unfortunately no one had told me about that and I think it’s something you have to inform your customers about in advance even if it’s as little as $5. So, I was just taking a few seconds there to think what to do since my bank reimburses me for all atm fees, either running to an atm or just paying it. Then out of the blue the owner/manager was so rude to me for that raising his voice and being frustrated with me. I felt very disrespected and confused why he treated me like that. I was very nice and polite to them . All I did was thinking of what financially would be okay for me. He eventually didn’t charge me but he did it with a lot of attitude.

I know other people in our group said that they had ‘mixed feelings’ about the company.

I don’t know. Overall, I just feel like the tours are extremely overpriced and overhyped by the company agents for what they actually are. And they give you misleading info just so you...

We had the best day! My friend and traveled to Costa Rica and wanted to find a tour that would show us a lot of the La Fortuna sights. We picked this tour for the value and the number of activities. This was a 10-hour day visiting the La Fortuna Waterfall, Arenal Volcano, Hot Springs, Lunch, Fresh Fruit, Drinks, Water, a Maleku Village, and so many animals! The guides were amazing! They had a spotter scope which allowed us to see animals and they even helped get photos through the scope. We met some of the best people from around the world. We had a group of around 25 or 30 people, but we never felt crowded. They broke us up into smaller groups while hiking. We were able to spend a long-time swimming and exploring the waterfall and the volcano. We never felt rushed. I have a new knee and went slowly in the more challenging areas. I felt bad, but the guides and others on the tour members offered assistance. I was very grateful as many of the areas were quite challenging. We began the day at the waterfall and were given fresh pineapple as a snack. They also had large water jugs so we could all refill our water bottles. Next up was a visit to the Maleku village where we were welcomed by members of this indigenous tribe. We were given a drink that tasted a bit like apple cider vinegar and a demonstration of the language and a lesson of the history of the people. After exploring and a chance to purchase items, we were taken to lunch. The lunch was an option of pork or fish, salad, beans and rice, juice, water, coffee, plantains, and vegetables. We then got on a bus and drove around 20 mins to the volcano. We stopped on the way because the driver noticed a sloth in the tree! We all got off the bus and walked down the road behind the bus so we could see the sloth! After a few mins, we all got back on the bus and finished the drive to the Volcano. We were split into groups again to begin our hike. We were told about the history of the Volcano as well as the rainforest we were walking in. Many more animals were seen. We had time at the top to explore a bit and take all of the photos and videos we wanted. Lastly, we headed down and were taken to a Hot Springs resort where we got to spend around 2 hrs. We explored all of the pools of different temps, explore the caves, and were given drinks of Rum and Soda. It was such a great day, and I hope I made some new lifelong friends from other parts of the world. The single downside to the whole day was at the La Fortuna Waterfall. At the base there is a bridge to cross to have easy access to the pool at the base of the waterfall. Our tour company did not have access to this bridge. There is another tour company that offers this. Our group had to go around and climb through the rocks- which I was unable to do. I recommend this tour company and this tour. It was a...

An unforgettable experience!!

This is a review of an all day 4-in-1 itinerary with lunch: Volcano Hike, Fortuna Waterfall, Hanging Bridges and Hot Springs

This was my family's first trip to Costa Rica - so naturally there were some anxiety about the various activities and coordination. After reviewing options and recommendations, we decided to book this tour from Red Lava via Viator. Before I go in details, I would like to recognize ⭐ Rasta (our tour guide), ⭐ Piola (driver) and the office staff who was extremely responsive via Whatsapp chat and answered every question. Rasta (our guide) made the entire trip fun. ✅ The trip was in a mini-bus (~12-14 passengers) so it felt like a private tour. After first one hour, all the 12-14 passengers became very friendly and enjoyed each other's company throughout the tour. ✅ My kids wanted to spend extra time at the waterfall and Rasta was very cool about it. ✅ The tour is well coordinated, and Rasta explains everything along the way. ✅ Rasta also carried a telescope with him to show the various creatures at the Mistico park ✅ The last stop for our tour was hotsprings. There are several pools and some pools even offering slides. The drinks at the bar are reasonably priced. Red Lava even arranged their own drinks for adults and soda for kids.

ℹ️ Mistico park does not allow plastic water bottles. While the tour stops at a "gift shop" with tourist mark-ups, the cheapest non-plastic water bottle is ~$24 USD. The cheapest disposable poncho is $10 USD. You can save few bucks if you have these pre-purchased. ℹ️ Bring a towel from hotel so you don't have to purchase or rent the towel at a high markup.

Thank you, Red Lava and Rasta, for a memorable La...