Day Trip to Caño Negro Including Río Frio Boat Experience from La Fortuna
Recommended by 95% of travelers
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La Fortuna, Costa Rica
- 8 hours (approx.)
- Pickup offered
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
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Overview
This well-rounded tour is the perfect way for nature lovers to experience the best of Costa Rica's outdoor beauty. Enjoy a scenic boated on the Rio Frio with departure near the border of Nicaragua. Cruise through the Cano Negro Wildlife Refuge and see the incredible biodiversity that makes this nation to unique. You'll have up close encounters with birds, snakes, herons and other animals, as well as various species of monkeys and sloths.
- Day Trip to Caño Negro
- Experience one of the nation's most biologically diverse wildlife reserves
- Spend a day having up close encounters with nature
- Enjoy expert commentary from a professional guide
- Round-trip hotel transport and lunch included
What's Included
- Lunch
- Local taxes
- Professional guide
- Hotel pickup and drop-off
- Coffee and/or Tea
- Gratuities
- Alcoholic Beverages
- Restroom on board
Meeting and Pickup
You can head directly to the meeting point, or request pickup
Operating hours.8:00 am
Itinerary
Nature lovers will enjoy a day traveling along the Rio Frio in the Cano Negro Wildlife Refuge--widely considered one of the most biologically diverse parts of Costa Rica. You'll see migratory birds, a variety of monkey species, lizards and more.
Your friendly driver will collect you from your hotel and transport you in air-conditioned comfort to Los Chiles, about 1.5 hours away. This dynamic village near the Nicaraguan border is the starting point for your river exploration. The 2.5-hour floating safari through topical rain forest is led by a professional bilingual guide who will point out colorful bird species, a variety of monkeys and other wildlife unique to the area. After seeing one of the nation's most biologically diverse environments, you'll settle in for a traditional lunch that includes local coffee, fresh fruit and natural juices at the Rio Frio Restaurant.
Your friendly driver will collect you from your hotel and transport you in air-conditioned comfort to Los Chiles, about 1.5 hours away. This dynamic village near the Nicaraguan border is the starting point for your river exploration. The 2.5-hour floating safari through topical rain forest is led by a professional bilingual guide who will point out colorful bird species, a variety of monkeys and other wildlife unique to the area. After seeing one of the nation's most biologically diverse environments, you'll settle in for a traditional lunch that includes local coffee, fresh fruit and natural juices at the Rio Frio Restaurant.
1
Puente de las Iguanas
20 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included
2
Muelle de Los Chiles
3 hours • Admission Ticket Included
3
Los Chiles
45 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Wheelchair accessible
- Infant seats available
- Stroller accessible
- Service animals allowed
- Transportation is wheelchair accessible
- Surfaces are wheelchair accessible
- Most travelers can participate
- Child rate applies only when sharing with 2 paying adults
- Children must be accompanied by an adult
- May be operated by a multi-lingual guide
- Please advise any specific dietary requirements at time of booking
- A current valid passport is required on the day of travel
- Operates in all weather conditions, please dress appropriately
- Comfortable walking shoes are recommended
- Binoculars and camera suggested
- Sun lotion
- Mosquito repellent
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 20 travelers
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Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Featured review
Steven_C
Nestor and Chili (I hope my memory has that correct) were great guides and knowledgeable about the flora and fauna but more importantly made the trip personable and rewarding. Definitely recommend going with them to Caño Negro if you want to see species you only get to see here.
Reviews
4.8
based on 59 reviews
Dagmar_O, Apr 2026
Great Wildlife, beautiful ladscape. Small group. Perfect Organisation. We had an absolutely great time.
Megan_M, Mar 2026
Saw many amazing birds! All three types of monkeys and so much more wildlife! It was the most wonderful day we have had in Costa Rica. Our guide was so knowledgeable! Knew every bird and animal and so much about them. Our captain had the eagle eye!! Enjoyed every minute! Got wonderful pictures!
Shaun_L, Jan 2026
Excellent Caño Negro boat tour — easily the best daytime wildlife experience I’ve had in Costa Rica so far. Caño Negro itself is an absolute must, with an incredible amount of life everywhere you look.
Our guide Daevid was friendly, knowledgeable, and fantastic at spotting wildlife. On the drive in, we saw macaws and toucans. Once on the river, he pointed out basilisk lizards, kingfishers, caimans, herons, iguanas, howler monkeys, and white-faced monkeys. He always stopped the boat so everyone had time to see and take photos, and he was very talkative and happy to share tips on where else to see wildlife.
The boat driver, Mango, was also excellent — great eyes for spotting animals and very skilled at positioning the boat perfectly for photos. The group size was just right and never felt crowded or rushed.
The pickup was slightly late, but communication was good, and it didn’t affect the day at all. Lunch was tasty and a nice change from the usual casado — a rice-based dish with chicken or vegetable options.
It’s about a 2-hour drive each way from La Fortuna, but absolutely worth it. I’d 100% recommend this tour and would happily do it again.
Sapir_M, Jan 2025
Nice trip with the boat, we saw a lot of wildlife and flora (monkeys, iguanas, cayman and birds). The scenery was beautiful. The guides were ok, but could refresh their knowledge about the wildlife.
The trip with the bus to the place was very long, although the bus itself was convenient.
I would recommend doing the tour just for the sake of seeing the animals.
James_M, Nov 2024
Xavier very knowledgeable. Eagle eye very good finding animals. Very friendly and driving well. Lunch was very good.
Iyesha_C, May 2024
The guide for this tour had a great energy, upon pick up. He is very knowledgeable of the area, giving a lot of information on the agricultural aspects of La Fortuna, and the provinces. He provided so much good information on the wildlife we were able to see, and assisted in getting great pictures, as well. Our group was small, which I think added to how good the tour was, with Martin.
Steve_L, Feb 2024
This was an amazing explorer for us. You definitely need to use a guide when you go on this type of excursion. Roy was able to find things that we would have never seen. I could not get close enough with my iPhone to take great pictures but afterwards Roy shared the pictures he took with his professional grade camera and sent them to us in WhatsApp. On the way back I mentioned that I would love to see a sloth. I don't know how he did it, but just before we got back to our hotel he stopped the driver, had him turn around and pointed out a sloth that was more than 50 meters away tucked under branches. I will never understand how he was able to find it. If you take this trip hopefully you will get Roy, he was fantastic
Beixian_X, Dec 2023
Our guide Melvein(hope I got it right!) is super knowledgeable and funny to interact with, our commute became very interesting because of him thank you so much! The lunch was amazing too I had extra scoops of bean sauce and me and my friends finished all our food and all enjoyed them very much. We identified 21 species of birds along with monkey and Carmen crocodile and a water snake, the monkeys almost hijacked our boat so that was really unique experience!
Ron_N, May 2023
Javier was the best! He was very informative. The boat driver Eagle Eye spotted so many things. Birds, Sloth, Monkeys and Caiman, even babies. Lunch was great!
Gail_B, Feb 2023
Great experience, knowledgeable guides, small group, wonderful lunch! We seen more birds than we expected and were given a list by our guide to ensure we could match our pictures with the names. Our boat captain was very knowledgeable of the Rio Frio and spotted so many things we would have missed. Many Caymans, 2 & 3 toed sloths and 3 different kinds of monkeys. Thank you Andreas and David for a wonderful day!!
Arlette_R, Jun 2022
Pickup was on time and the ride there was long but comfortable. We all saw lots of monkeys and the lunch that was provided was delicious.
Mary_K, May 2022
Our trip was absolutely amazing! Roy was a wonderful guide and helped us see all kinds of beautiful wildlife. He was very knowledgeable about the Costa Rican agriculture and pointed out sugar cane farms, cattle auctions, bull fighting arenas, and pineapple farms along the way. The tour down the river was wonderful! Roy took amazing photos and shared them with all of us after the tour. We saw sloths, three kinds of monkey, and more birds and caymans than we could count. Amazing experience!
Bill_P, Feb 2022
Knowledgeable guides, lots to see, shared his photos with us.
Did not see sugar cane/cocoa farm other trip saw.
Steven_C, Apr 2021
Nestor and Chili (I hope my memory has that correct) were great guides and knowledgeable about the flora and fauna but more importantly made the trip personable and rewarding. Definitely recommend going with them to Caño Negro if you want to see species you only get to see here.
Farina_A, Apr 2021
Lovely trip , very relaxing and our guide Javier was amazing .
Highly recommended after long hikes .
Pam_F, Mar 2021
Our guide, Roy, was so knowledgeable about all of the animals & birds, plants, trees, etc , that we saw. He also educated us about the Costa Rican people & way of life. I feel like I have been to Costa Rica now rather than just passing through.
Heather_N, Mar 2020
This was the most amazing trip we did better than Tortuguero the guild and driver were amazing we saw so much loved it
percy t, Feb 2018
Three of us booked this trip as our final day outing adventure in Costa Rica. Because we were staying at a VRBO, we asked the tour company Arenal Adventures to pick us up at the Arenal Country Inn, a 500 meter walk from our rental. They were right on time, with a large tour bus that was 75 full so, room for us to stretch out.
The tour description is pretty clear that you have a 90 minute bus ride to the los banos and coffee break stop, with that same 90 minutes back. Our tour guide was fluent in English and had a nice 20 minute talk with jokes. There's a restaurant along the way that usually has dozens of large iguanas in the trees, and he pointed them out as well.
All the Rio Frio tour boats take off from one dock area and head upstream for a few miles at a slow pace. The boats are covered with easy access though you need to be able to handle a half dozen steep and sometimes wet steps.
The amount of wildlife is fantastic, and our guide was first rate in spotting and sharing with us. Most of the animals are used to the tour boats, so we could come within a few meters of the banks and the trees and hang out watching monkeys, caimans the local alligator, herons, kingfishers, more iguanas, basilisks and sloths.
Although there were half a dozen tour boats operating, they all had a system to stay far away from each other while still getting plenty of wildlife viewing in.
After the two hour cruise, we had a nice almuerza de Tico, with arroz con pollo y frios.
Overall, one of our less aerobic outings, but a nice way to end our trip.
Kelly_H, Aug 2016
This was ok if u need a relaxed type of tour after a high intensity one. The cruise was nice and our tour guide Victor pointed out lots of birds and animals. I recommend that you take a high powered DSL camera with zoom lens to be able to take pictures of the animals, they are so far up in the trees
Catherine H, Feb 2016
Excellent tour. Our guide, Victor, as well as the bus driver and boat driver were fantastic at spotting wildlife mainly birds, but also bats, reptiles and monkeys. I would highly recommend this tour.
Diego_A, Sep 2025
I really enjoyed the tour! Recommended! Alex and Jorge were excellent guides, alongside the captain of the boat.
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