Exploring The Arenal Hanging Bridges

So our epic adventure in La Fortuna continues!

Here’s a quick recap… We were exploring the jungles around La Fortuna with Eco Terra Costa Rica, a local tour guide company who had planned out our whole trip. Our day had started with an early pick up at around 5am, and by lunch time we had already visited Rio Celeste and La Fortuna Waterfall (both were so amazing).

You can check out part one of our adventure here. But on to part two. The second half of our day included a beautiful lunch overlooking at infamous volcano, before a hike through the forest and across the Arenal Hanging Bridges.

Lunch at Casa Luna

After our visit to La Fortuna Waterfall we stopped for lunch at the Luna Grill Restaurant in Casa Luna Hotel, just around the corner. Included in our trip was a delicious lunch, where it felt like the courses just kept coming.

We we served traditional Costa Rican homemade food, overlooking the beautiful Arenal Volcano looming large right in front of us. It was the perfect place for us to relax for a minute after a crazy morning, and re-energise before another full on afternoon.

An Essential Guide To La Fortuna

Make sure you try the fresh juices at Luna Grill, they’re so unique and tasty!

Explore all of the adventures you can have around Arenal

Mistico Arenal Hanging Bridges Park

The Hanging Bridges were our last stop of the day. It had been a long day, we had already succumbed to severe blisters, so many mosquito bites, and more sweat then I had ever experienced. But we were excited that we made it to the bridges, especially after so many companies had told us that we wouldn’t make it! Big shout out to our tour guide Julio who really made it happen.

So what are the Arenal Hanging Bridges? Found in the rainforest surrounding the Arenal Volcano are 15 suspension bridges, looping all around the forest and offering visitors up close wildlife encounters and great leg burning hike! You can choose to either complete the Hanging Bridges walk with a guide or at your own pace, but since there was only the two of us we stuck with Julio and headed into the rainforest.

Check out all of the day trips you can take to Arenal Hanging Bridges.

Exploring the park with a guide is definitely the best way to do it. Not only are the equipped with interesting facts about the rainforest and it’s inhabitants, but they also pick up on so many things that we probably would have otherwise missed.

Julio showed us tiny birds nests, miniature snakes curled up and camouflaged into leaves, all the best places to spot monkeys, and even managed to lure a few tarantulas out of their holes – I have to admit, that was a little bit scary!! Those furry spiders are just MASSIVE and come out of some of the smallest holes, it’s incredible. And a little bit worrying, don’t touch or lean up against any of the poles or handrails in the park!

Finding the beautiful Río Celeste

During our walk we crossed over all of the suspension bridges which was just crazy. I don’t know if it was just me but I could not walk straight on those things! I would try my best, starting in the centre, but always ended up on the side of the bridge walking against the handrail.

Has anyone ever managed to cross those bridges without jumping everywhere??

By the end of our walk we were absolutely exhausted. I think we might have slept the whole way back to our accommodation. We can totally understand why some companies were reluctant to fit all that into one day, but we had the most amazing experience with Eco Terra Costa Rica and ticked so many experiences off our Costa Rican bucket list.

I would absolutely recommend contacting them to work out your travel arrangements in the La Fortuna and Arenal area!

Thank you to Eco Terra Costa Rica and Julio Mendez for our epic adventure and showing us around Costa Rica. Check out their website to find a full list of all their tours, as well as to contact them about putting your own perfect Costa Rican adventure together!

Mistico Arenal Hanging Bridges Park || Open from 7:30am – 4:30pm Monday – Sunday

2.5 kilometres East of the dam of Lake Arenal on the pave road, La Fortuna de San Carlos, Alajuela

Staying in a Costa Rican Treehouse