People always ask me how many days they should stay in Costa Rica and the first thing I ask is, “What do you want to do?”
If you’re here just to get some sun and relax, then I think 5 days is plenty but if you have an adventurous spirit and want to explore, give yourself the very minimum a full week (not counting travel days). But if you only have a few days, how can you do it all? Luckily, there are several places that offer mega combo adventure tours which combine multiple adventures into one day.
One such tour is Buena Vista combo tour located in the Rincon de la Vieja area and it includes a canopy tour, horseback riding, hot springs, mud baths, and a water slide. Buena Vista is about a 30 minute drive from Liberia and a 1.5 hour drive from the Gulf of Papagayo.
As soon as you arrive, get ready for an exciting day!
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Buena Vista Adventure Park Combination Tour
The tour is operated by Buena Vista Lodge and Adventure Center. They have their own hot springs, ziplining tour, horseback riding trails and water slide on the property. The tour is open to the public so anyone can go and experience adventure in the dry tropical forests of Costa Rica. It’s one of the best things to do in Guanacaste!
Location and Directions
Buena Vista is in Guanacaste, Costa Rica.
How to get there from Liberia: From Liberia coming from the airport, turn left to go north on the Interamicanca highway (gas station on your right, Mcdonalds up ahead). Drive about 13 kilometers until you get to the Canas dulce intersection and turn right. You will see signs for Rincon de la Vieja National Park. Continue on this road for 17 kilometers and you will plenty of signs pointing to the Buena Vista Lodge. The last 11 kilometers are on an unpaved road.
Buena Vista Zipline
The first activity is the canopy tour with 11 platforms and 10 lines total. For first time zipliners it looks pretty scary but once you go on the first one, you’ll be hooked, trust me!
Even if you have a fear of heights, just don’t look down and enjoy the view and fresh wind in your face. By the time you get to your 10th line, you’ll be a professional zip liner! And what else do pros do but crazy stunts like no hands, backwards and upside down?
If you choose the adrenaline tour, they have an extra tarzan swing at the end of the canopy tour which is super fun!
Buena Vista Waterslide
What comes next you definitely don’t want to miss: the water slide!
When you get to the top, you see another canal behind the water slide, a gate and a man holding the handle to the gate.When you sit down in the chute, the man closes the gate and waits for the tank to fill up with water behind you. As soon as he deems that there’s enough, he pulls the handle to open the gate and there you go! The water shoots you down.
The boys went for a third time but I had to sit that one out. I was too winded by my second go around, so I was happy to take the camera and be paparazzi.
This water slide is about 420 meters long, has some twists and turns, a tunnel and then you land in the pool. The first time was really fun but it wasn’t as fast as I thought it would be so we went up again (you’re allowed a max of 3 rides).
The second time, the guy knew we wanted to go faster so he waited a long time for the water to fill up and holy crap! It must’ve been twice as fast, I almost fell out of my tube once flying around the corners!
I highly recommend using the tube as it’ll help you secure yourself in the slide. It can get really fast so hold on!
You can watch our video below of the Costa Rica waterslide!
Lunch and Horseback Riding
All that water sliding and zip lining made us super hungry so we went to get lunch (included in price). They served typical Costa Rican food: vegetable cream soup, rice, beans, platanos, pico de gallo, salad, meat, and fried fish with natural cas fruit juice. Good thing we all filled up with good food because horseback riding was next.
After about a 30 minute ride, the horses took us to our next stop, the waterfall. Tip: bring good closed toed shoes (hiking sandals are the best) for horseback riding because you’ll be hiking about a mile to get to the waterfall and the hot spring.
The guides will bring your bags for you on a truck and your things will meet you at the springs. But do not skip the waterfall! I don’t know the name of it but it is gorgeous and it is fairly easy to climb right underneath and feel the water pounding on your shoulders.
***Update for 2018. The last time we did the tour in June 2017, we didn’t go to the waterfall. You will need to go to it on your own if you want to see the waterfall.***
The hot springs are about another .5 mile hike from the waterfall and there are a couple hanging bridges to walk across.
Mud Baths and Hot Springs
All that hard work hiking pays off because at last you reach the spa. First you go into the natural sauna to wash away all the toxins and then to the fun part, mud baths. Two pots are available, full of hot volcanic mud that you can slather all over yourself, exfoliating, cleansing and rejuvenating the skin.
Let dry and then wash it all off to reveal soft, smooth and refreshed skin.
And lastly, the natural hot springs.
There are several different pools you can choose from, the hottest pool is by the bar. Below that one is a warm pool, and below that one is the coldest pool. The hottest pool is around the temperature of a Jacuzzi I would guess and it’s perfect for soothing aching muscles, steaming away worries and calming the mind.
Phew, what a day! It almost seems like too much but actually, all the activities played out very nicely with each other and we didn’t spend a minute being bored. I had a blast the whole day and I would definitely go back again!
As you can probably see, the Buena Vista Combo Tour is an entire day of fun, adventure and excitement. There’s no way you won’t leave without a smile on your face!
Tips for Buena Vista Combo Tour
- Bring a GoPro or waterproof camera. You can put the GoPro on the helmets and you need a waterproof camera for the water slide. Make sure to bring the correct helmet mount.
- Wear hiking sandals or closed toed shoes for the horseback riding. No flip flops allowed!
- Horseback riding is optional – there is a truck that can take you to the hot spring if you don’t want to ride.
- Lockers are available for free at the zipline area so you can bring a small backpack.
- Bring plenty of sunscreen, mosquito repellent and a change of clothes.
- This is a full day tour so eat a good breakfast!
- If you have a car and are driving yourself, we recommend booking beforehand in high season (December – April) to guarantee your spot. Make sure to arrive around 8:30 AM. If you don’t pre-book, make sure to arrive early so you have plenty of time to check in and
This combo tour is offered by Buena Vista Lodge. If you want to do this tour and need transportation, please contact us for tour company recommendations. Please include the date of tour, how many adults and children and pick up location.
yeison says
Hello Jennifer, thank you for reading your blog, there is only one road to get to Buena Vista lodge you just have to follow the rincon de la vieja national park road and unfortunately we do not have any discounts for the Extreme Combo. The lodge is in the national park in Guanacaste, if you Google Buena Vista lodge Rincon de la vieja you willfind it.
Jennifer says
Hello, thank you for your review! We are looking forward to doing this for our visit in late August 🙂
A few questions for you:
(1) Do you happen to have the address for the adventure park? When I look up Buena Vista Lodge, I only get the location that is near San Jose (and not in the Guanacaste area).
(2) Do you currently have any discounts for the Extreme Combo Tour and/or rental cars for the visit?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Jennifer
Sammi says
Hi, the adrenaline extreme tour has longer cables and a tarzan swing, the regular ziplining tour doesn’t.
I recommend booking it at least a few days before your possible tour date or at least a few days before you land in Costa Rica. They run this tour every day but there are only so many people they can fit so you’d want to guarantee a spot.
We don’t have discounts for this tour, but if you need recommendations for a tour company if you don’t have your own transportation, we can help you with that.
Christina says
Hi.. traveling to CR next week and your article has me interested in a tour! I’m having trouble telling the difference between the Buena Vista End Combo and the Buena Vista Mega Combo. The price difference is $5.
Also, would you recommend we book beforehand or could we do it while we are in the country. The reason being we aren’t sure what day we want to schedule the tour. Would there be a price difference if we waited until last minute?
ALSO, do you have any discounts available right now? (:
Christine says
Hola. I am booked to stay at Buena Vista in early February. I am traveling alone. They tell me that to get there I need to hire a taxi for $60 US which translates to almost $100 canadian which is a HUGE amount that I’d rather not spend on transportation. My thought is to take a public bus to Canas Dulces and taxi from there. Any thoughts?? If any other readers are looking to share a shuttle on February 1, would you be willing to connect us?? Thanks and keep on tanning those feet!
Sammi says
Hi Christine, I’m not sure where you are staying but there are buses from Liberia that go to Canas Dulces every day from 5:30AM, 7AM, 9AM, 1030AM, 12PM and it takes about 45 minutes. Unless you’re staying there, you’ll have to take another bus from where you are staying to Liberia which can be about 1 hour from Coco and a little more from Tamarindo area. The last buses from Canas Dulces to Liberia are 14:45, 16:15, 18:15 and 21:00 daily so at least there are routes in the evening you can take. I am not sure how much a taxi will be from Canas Dulces to Buena Vista, but the road is not good to Buena Vista Lodge so it may not be very cheap and it’s still about 15 kilometers (but it could be less than $60). Just make sure they use a meter.
I was going to suggest just going with a tour company, but they charge $140 which is the same price if you took the $60 transportation because the tour itself costs $80.
I’d suggest posting in the Expats in Guanacaste, Expats in Costa Rica and Backpacking in Central America Facebook groups to see if you can connect with other travelers.
Sammi says
Hi Nicole!
Your best option is to travel to Liberia and stay a night there and do the tour the next day. You can easily get to Liberia by bus from San Jose for cheap, I wrote a post on taking the bus from SJ to Coco but it is the same station and I listed the route times for Liberia in this post: Bus from San Jose to Playas del Coco
If you don’t want to take the bus, you can book a shuttle which will cost around $180 (you can email Randall he does these transfers). If you need recommendations for hotels in Liberia, we recommend some decent budget/cheap ones here: Best hotels near LIR airport.
Nicole Greb says
I would like to do this tour when I am visiting in December this year. Where can I book this? Also I will be in san Jose so where can I arrange travel to the place?
Thanks
Sammi says
Hey Emily! We are currently running a tour promotion right now, one of them is book 1 tour, get the 2nd half off and this applies to Buena Vista Combo Tour. You have to redeem the tour by February 29th however, so in case you are coming after that, let us know and we can contact them to see what we can do. Here is the promotion page if you want to check it out:Costa Rica car rental discount
Sonya says
Hello,
We are headed to Costa Rica in November. Do you recommend just renting a car and doing our own thing or just doing tours? We can’t decide. Is it confusing getting around on your own? Or safe?
Sammi says
Hi Sonya,
You can certainly do both. If you are planning on moving around the country, you can drive, take the bus or hire a shuttle. Driving is a bit confusing but you can rent a GPS. Most people we know who are first timers to CR like to do more tours since it’s less hassle than figuring it all out yourself.
It is very safe in CR, just use your common sense like any other country.
If you’re not planning on going to different places, you can do both. REnt a car for a couple days and explore on your own. And then do a couple tours for ziplining or whatever activity you want to do. It really is up to you depending on what kind of vacation you want.
Michelle says
Thanks, Sammi! I want to do this tour next month. Would you suggest the mega combo or the extreme combo? It looks like the difference is the regular canopy tour vs the extreme canopy tour.
Sammi says
Hi Michelle! Hmm well I think we did the regular canopy tour and it was really fun. I’m not sure what the extreme canopy tour is like but it may have more lines to go upside or do superman or things like that. If you’re not afraid of heights and/or already have ziplined before, the extreme one would be more fun.
Michelle says
Awesome, thanks for the reply. It looks like the only difference is a Tarzan swing, which looks pretty scary!
We’ll be renting a car, but I’ve read that the lodge is hard to find. Would you suggest driving ourselves or opting for the shuttle service?
Sammi says
Ohhh haha yes usually extreme ones have a Tarzan swing. Should be fun! I’ve done a couple and it’s scary at first but it’s really fun.
The lodge isn’t too hard to find but it is on a gravely road so it’s pretty bumpy. There are signs everywhere once you turn into the national park for the lodge so it’s hard to miss. We drove ourselves which was fine and if you guys are renting a car, it’s worth driving yourself because a shuttle can cost something like $50 dollars.