Hold on tight and brace yourself for adventure! Whitewater rafting on the Rio Sarapiqui is sure to provide plenty of thrills, spills and all around awesome experience.
The day starts off as you are picked up from your Arenal Volcano area hotel. After picking up your fellow adventurers, you will be driven through the scenic north central country side. The drive takes about an hour to reach the river. Along the way you will pass papaya, pineapple and yucca plantations as well as rural villages.
When you reach the river your guide will provide you with a paddle and helmet. You will also receive instructions for both operation and safety. Then you will be on your way down river.
The Rio Sarapiqui offers adventurers a thrilling run of class III and IV rapids. The river run is 13 kilometers and takes about 2 to 2.5 hours to navigate depending on the flow that day. Half way down the run, we will stop for a riverside snack. Your guides will flip a boat for a make shift picnic table and serve freshly sliced fruits and water. Then you will be back on your way bumping, buckling, and bouncing down the river.
At the end of the run a dry towel will be waiting for you. Then we will drive to a place where you can change your clothes and eat a typical Costa Rican style lunch.
This river is physically demanding and should only be reserved by those that are experienced rafters and-or in good physical condition. Please inform us if you weigh over 200 pounds as restrictions may apply.
After lunch a transfer will be provided back to your hotel. Including round trip transfers, this tour is expected to last 6 – 7 hours, though this is subject to change. It includes transportation, guides, safety kayaker, lunch and equipment.
The Whitewater Rafting Rio Sarapiqui is available from Arenal, Arenal Zone 2, and Arenal Zone 3
Age 7 - 55
Latitude: N 10° 20' 45.27"
Longitude: W 84° 14' 43.74"
07/09/2023
mo mo was amazing! He had us doing swirls in the rapids and floating through the current. This was the perfect size rapids with 3s and 4s. It was enough to be exciting but not so much you felt scared
05/12/2023
Possibly our favorite part of the trip. The difficulty was perfect---just scary enough to be fun but feel safe. The split the boats up with 5 guests each, which was just right. Great dinner afterwards.
05/07/2022
One of the best excursions of our vacation. Superb rafting trip, great guides, good transport options, absolutely great photographer and resulting pictures. The only slightly negative thing I can think of is the lead guide made a little speech asking for tips which we didn't eperience anywhere else. We do of course tip but it's irritating to be asked.
11/24/2021
All great but the one of the guides spoke mostly in Spanish in the boat with other Spanish speaking guests so I was excluded from most of the conversations which made the experience less comfortable
12/29/2019
Mariano was most excellent.
11/10/2019
Guide could have been a bit louder but was well versed in the river lines
11/01/2019
Great tour and guides.
07/30/2019
We had so much fun! The guides were fun and friendly - we laughed and smiled the entire trip!
07/22/2019
Fantastic day.
Excellent guides.
Best adventure of our trip.
07/08/2019
We had a blast! Our guide MoMo was fantastic. He was very interactive, fun and kept us safe which I appreciate. We enjoyed the lunch along with the coffee and sugar cane demonstration. The photographer did a great job capturing our trip.
06/23/2019
Highlight of our trip for everyone in our family. The guides were outstanding!
06/18/2019
beyond our expectations, Gerald was great fun and the lunch served was so impressive and tasty!
12/27/2018
We had lots of fun and felt safe! We loved the pictures they took!
11/12/2018
Great employee offer great customer service!
09/25/2018
Highlight of the trip! Yuud was the best!
08/12/2018
Our tour guide Jorge “Momo” was the best guide! So much fun and full of energy and made the difference in our rafting experience!
08/28/2017
Wave expeditions was great. The only problem was that one person in our group didn't bring toe-covering shoes. We had to stop and buy some. So, perhaps your instructions could be more strongly worded such as, "Toe-covering shoes REQUIRED" as opposed to recommended.
08/19/2017
Wonderful guides. We asked if we would see any sloths on the way and they found some for us. The rafting was a lot of fun and our guide Jorge was great.
02/20/2017
Water levels were shallow in some spots, hanging us up on the rocks in a few places, but not much could be done about that. Enjoyed the day.
12/05/2016
Guides were amazing. Super informative
09/22/2016
The guides and river were great. The equipment was starting to wear a bit. We went with two older men who couldn't paddle all that well, it would have been better if we could've gone in different boats or been more closely matched. The lunch stop afterwards also took quite awhile and though the food was good did not have any options that fit our normal healthy diet.
08/01/2016
Another must do...
03/24/2016
So much fun!! The guides were so much fun and the trip was a blast!
03/06/2016
Awesome experience - would recommend to everyone. So much fun!
03/01/2016
Jorge was awesome!!!!
12/29/2015
Great guides! More time rafting would have been nice.
11/25/2015
This was an amazing time, we had a blast.
06/14/2015
Awesome!
03/05/2015
PERFECTAMUNDO (OR, PERFECT, ONCE AGAIN)
03/04/2015
Important: I chose not to bring my wallet on the trip, only a few bucks for incidentals. At the lunch site (great) we were presented with a video of the entire trip, including the other boat and several nature pictures. I could buy that for 30 dollars, which I did not have. Nor did I want volcano pictures of pictures of another boat with a strange family. I would be more inclined to buy a couple of pictures if I were offered, let's say 10 pictures for 10 dollars, just of MY boating experience. -- However, Please let customers know that there is this purchase option after the trip, whether it is a full on video or select pictures, so they are prepared. LIke I said, I would prefer select pictures, which could even be picked out by the photographer if that is the easiest. Tourists generally are suckers to a degree, myself included, but I am not dumb. No film for me. The trip and the guide: absolutely fantastic. Technical rafting, great guiding, not a minute to dilly dally. Loved it.
01/05/2015
Great experience