Peñas Blancas Safari Float- Easy Wildlife Watching in La Fortuna

One of the best tours in La Fortuna to see wildlife is a river safari float ride.

From La Fortuna, the most popular wildlife river safaris the Peñas Blancas safari float tour, only a 30 minute drive from downtown.

The Peñas Blancas River is an incredible place to see monkeys, caimans, reptiles and birds and the tour is fantastic for the whole family.

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Peñas Blancas Safari Float Tour Information

Half day tour. Pick up is ~730-8 AM. Return is around 11 – 11:15 AM.

Difficulty level: easy. Little walking required. Must be able to sit upright on an inflatable raft for ~2 hours.

Minimum age for this tour is 4 years.

What to bring: mosquito repellent, hat, sunscreen, camera, waterproof backpack and wear comfortable clothing. Closed toed shoes not mandatory, can wear sandals.

What’s included: roundtrip transportation from La Fortuna, bilingual English/Spanish guide, equipment, snacks and bottled water.

Peñas Blancas Safari Float

We got picked up at 8 AM and not long after, we were floating down a river as the drive to Rio Penas Blancas takes just around 30 minutes from La Fortuna downtown.

The beauty about this tour is that you are in a raft, not a boat with an engine so you can get closer to the animals without disturbing them.

You won’t hear the constant roaring of an engine down the river!

Photo of a river surrounded by green forest, there is a yellow raft with people sitting in it, in the background is a blue raft with people — Floating down the Peñas Blancas River

And without the loud sound of a motor, you feel like you’re miles deep into the jungle as you only hear birds chirping, monkeys howling and the river running all around you.

Here are some photos of the river and animals we saw on the Peñas Blancas safari float tour

As we glided down the river, Hugo, our guide pointed out the first animal of the day: a heron.

Juvenile Bare Throated Heron — Juvenile Bare throated heron

We were able to get super close to the heron with spooking him because we were on a raft.

We weren’t more than 6 feet away from this guy!

And that was how it was for the entire boat trip.

We got so close to some White Faced Monkeys that I thought they were going to jump into our raft!

Photo of a white face capuchin monkey on a tree looking at the camera with a baby on its back — White face monkey mom and baby

It was a perfect day out on the river.

Sunny but a little cloudy so the sun wasn’t shining on our faces the whole time. Not very windy so the river was very calm.

The water glowed green from the reflection of the trees towering over us, providing incredible scenery the whole way.

RIo-Penas-Blancas-Safari-Float — Peñas Blancas river

We were also lucky to see a caiman sunbathing, bats, Jesus Christ lizards, howler monkeys, and a 2-fingered sloth.

Rio Penas Blancas Safari Float bats — Bat (one of them has a baby)

Rio Penas Blancas Safari Float Jesus-Christ-lizard — Jesus Christ Lizard

We also saw my favorite little guy – a sleeping porcupine our guide somehow saw in a hole.

Rio Penas Blancas Safari Float -Porcupine — Porcupine sleeping in a hole

Rio Penas Blancas Safari Float -sloth — 2 fingered sloth

When we reached the end of the tour, we got out and walked to a nearby local house to have some juice and snacks.

The family who lives there made us natural fruit juice (starfruit that day), fried plantains and yuca bread – all homemade.

Delicious and super refreshing way to end a lovely day out on a river surrounded by exotic wildlife!

More Details About the Peñas Blancas Safari Float Tour

They have two tours: morning and afternoon. Pick up time in morning is around 730 AM, afternoon is around noon (depends on your hotel, times may vary).
You can wear shorts and a shirt, you don’t need to wear long pants if you don’t want to. This area is hot.
You won’t be paddling, only the guide paddles.
The river is shallow and they give you life jackets.
The boat ride is 2 hours.
Since it’s only a 20 minute drive, this is an excellent half day morning tour and you will have the rest of the day to do another tour if you want.

Watch a Video of the Rio Penas Blancas safari float!

The Pure Nature Safari float is a longer drive from Fortuna, (~1 hour).

However, the biggest difference is that our tour operator partner is the only one who operates a safari float on this specific section of the river.

They operate with no more than 3-5 boats at a time.

That means this tour will feel more private and exclusive.

Sometimes in the high season, the Peñas Blancas river gets very crowded since many tour operators run the same tour and there are local houses along the river banks.

Book the Pure Nature safari float tour with our dicount here!

If You Don’t Want/Can’t Sit on a Raft

If you do not want to be on a raft or have very young kids (younger than 5 years) or seniors, then we recommend the Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge at Los Chiles tour.

It’s a longer day trip, but it is on a covered, motorized river boat down the Rio Frio river in Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge to see wildlife, with lunch included.

Book the Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge at L o s Chiles boat tour!