This Arenal Oasis Night Hike Tour is an excellent evening activity for families and nature lovers of all kinds. As remarkable as the rainforest is during the day you will have seen only half the sights the forest has to offer. Have you ever noticed that after tucking in for a nights’ sleep in Costa Rica, the forest sounds seem to get louder? Night hikes cast away the mystery of darkness and reveal some amazing nocturnal creatures.
The hike is hosted at Arenal Oasis Eco-Lodge, a hotel and nature reserve that is dedicated to preserving the surrounding ecosystem. Specializing in the conservation of frogs, they have carefully designed Arenal’s only frog sanctuary, providing the perfect environment for frogs to reproduce, thrive and be seen by enthusiasts from around the world. The frog sanctuary contains beautiful native plants and fresh spring water ponds nurturing their natural habitats.
You’ll be picked up from your hotel and driven to Arenal Oasis Eco Lodge, where the night hike tour will start around sunset. Here you will meet your certified naturalist guide who will provide you with a flashlight and tell you about what you might see in the area before setting out on the well maintained trails winding through the rainforest. Your guide will be quick to point out any glow-in-the-dark creatures like phosphorescent fungi or you may discover a few fireflies on your own.
As you pass through the frog sanctuary your guide will shine the light on a variety of colorful tropical frogs species. Have you ever seen a red-eyed tree frog? The bulging red eyes are the most distinguishing feature of this unique amphibian. Glass frogs typically are found at this site too. You’ll know a glass frog when you see one. Its body looks as transparent as glass, allowing you to see all of the veins and internal organs throughout its body.
It has been estimated approximately one third of the world’s frog population has become extinct since the 1980s. Scientists are concerned because frogs represent the health of the overall food chain that can affect the balance of nature. Genetic defects have rapidly increased since the 1990s, thought to be caused by stressors placed on the natural environment. There is a worldwide effort to protect frogs and other environmental indicators as well as preserve their natural habitats which is the goal of the Arenal Oasis Frog Sanctuary.
This interesting night hike tour includes transportation from the La Fortuna area, entrance fee, bilingual naturalist guide, flashlights and bottled water. Please wear comfortable clothes, long pants, enclosed hiking or tennis shoes, rain gear, camera and bring bug repellent. One way transportation to the Arenal Oasis Eco-Lodge can be between 15 and 45 minutes depending on the location of your hotel. Combined tour time with hike and round trip transportation can take between 2 to 3 hours.
The Arenal Oasis Night Hike Tour is available from Arenal, Arenal Zone 2, and Arenal Zone 3
All Ages
Latitude: N 10° 27' 40.43"
Longitude: W 84° 39' 42.08"
10/07/2024
Our group was too large for a night hike. It was hard to hear the tour guide.
08/27/2024
We saw a ton of wildlife - awesome tour.
07/22/2024
Excellent! Exceeded our expectations! Saw so many critters A good length tour for my attention span at that hour of the day.
07/25/2023
Always a crowd pleasure. Highly recommended for kids and adults. Not as many frogs as last time....but that's nature for you.
07/23/2023
Great guide, he spotted a lot for us!
07/17/2023
our guide directed us to plants and animals we would never have seen on our own, and took some fabulous photos thru his spotting scope.
07/13/2023
We saw tons of frogs - which was the goal. The guide was young and still learning some of the critters, but he helped us find many of them.
07/06/2023
We did three night tours and this was the best. The guide was excellent and went out of his way to help us get photos of as many species as possible. We saw 11 species of frogs, two toads, two snake, and two lizards as well as bullet ants. That is an amazing night.
07/03/2023
this was very educational, but it poured heavily which dampened the mood. nothing anyone could do about it, so the less than stellar reviews are probably less meaningful since weather is not in their control
06/20/2023
The guide pointed out so many things we would not have seen on our own. Especially poisonous snakes!
06/19/2023
Juan was very knowledgeable! They also were right on time to pick us up.
06/15/2023
Our guide a was friendly, fun, and informative. When we originally booked this tour, I was under the impression we would see a lot of different wildlife--snakes, frogs, spiders, other animals. This is definitely more of a frog tour--which was still neat, but not sure I would have done it had I known. Thankfully, the guide was pretty up front at the beginning of the tour saying that they typically just see frogs on the tour.
04/23/2023
Had a great time but this wasn’t my favorite activity. Saw a lot of animals and our guide, David, was friendly and had a great eye for finding critters.
03/26/2023
Very memorable tour. Saw many frogs, insects, bats, and a very poisonous snake. Great guide. It rained harder than I have ever been rained on in my life and it was thrilling. Next time I would bring rain pants. :)
03/04/2023
Tour was great but I did think it would be a bit more remote of a hike rather than around a rural property. Still great though and saw lots of interesting things.
02/27/2023
Another outstanding tour! Saw lots of frogs, toads, snakes and insects. Guide was very good.
02/10/2023
Our guide was very informative. Took his time explaining everything in great detail. Very knowledgeable.
02/02/2023
The guide was very knowledgeable but a little hard to hear at times. Overall a pretty cool experience.
12/19/2022
Driver was on time. Guide was very knowledgeable but went on overly long for families with young children and shorter attention spans.
12/05/2022
We learned so much from our guide. He was able to find so many creatures in the dark that we never would have noticed.
10/31/2022
Very knowledgeable guide. Very passionate about his experience. Ww enjoyed the hike
08/18/2022
Close to hotel and cool. A lot of different groups walking around
06/27/2022
Loved this tour as it gave us a chance to see more of the wildlife, especially all the cool frogs and even some deadly snakes like the ferdilance and eyelash viper which my husband was thrilled about. Guides were fantastic at explaining things as we walked along and pointing out the flora and fauna. Great from beginning to end!
01/23/2022
Amazing tour, would 100% recommend
01/14/2022
The tour was interesting, but, no fault of the guide, we did not see as much wildlife as we had hoped. But, we had fun and would recommend to others.
12/06/2021
Could have left this one out
11/10/2021
Juan was a great guide and took the time to really look for animals without rushing the group.
11/08/2021
My favorite! The guide Juan is very knowledgeable. Was very patient with everyone answered everyone’s questions. He made sure everyone was able to get all the photos they wanted. And helped with that. I enjoyed it so much I went back my last night there. It’s a must do for frog lovers!
10/29/2021
The guide was very friendly and knowledgeable. I got to hold a red eyed tree frog and he showed us a bat in a termite mound, super cool. ?.
09/29/2021
Our guide was very knowledgeable. Saw a great variety. My flashlight could have been brighter but that didn’t hinder the experience. . The guide even taught me tricks to using my phone camera and took some pics for me.
08/10/2021
We had Jason again for this tour. Half way through we had a very close encounter with a Flur De Lance snake. Pretty exciting.
07/18/2021
The tour was good. It rained hard that evening so that made seeing animals more difficult.
03/04/2020
We were in a small group with an excellent guide - we were in the 'park' looking at frogs, spiders etc longer than any of the other groups.
02/25/2020
An amazing experience!!
02/15/2020
Great tour if you like frogs. Our guide was a great cameraman and some of our pictures look just like the ones on here!
02/11/2020
Great tour, great guide. We saw so much wildlife. Especially frogs. And he found and brought out a bullet ant on a stick. Amazing! Wonderful and the guide even took great pictures for us. Guide was extremely knowledgable. Excellent!!
12/29/2019
Our guide Juan was super knowledgeable and we had a great time! I feel like we learned a ton and we’re able to see so many amazing animals/insects that we would have otherwise never seen. The trail was a bit crowded, but that was understandable given that it was such a busy time of year overall. Juan did a good job of keeping the group spacing and finding amazing things for us!
12/27/2019
this tour was my favorite. we saw so many critters. Daniel was excellent with the 4 yo in the group and a wonderful guide
12/26/2019
Oscar, our guide, was fantastic. He is a biology teacher during the school year so he was very knowledgeable. Our tour was the first one on the trail that night so we saw lots of wildlife, fer de lance, so many frogs, eye lash viper, spiders, leaf cutter ants....
12/23/2019
Saw so much wildlife, our guide was fantastic and engaging
12/22/2019
A lovely experience. The guide was very knowledgeable
09/28/2019
Unique and safe thanks to the guide.
08/18/2019
On the actual day the excursion was cancelled because of thunder and lightening however we went the following day, had a super guide and a most wonderful time. Again exceeded expectations.
07/12/2019
This was a great tour and the guide was very knowledgeable. Our kids especially liked.
07/08/2019
This was really great. We saw and heard loads of frogs, and the guide was very skilled in getting good photos through the scope. It was quite a short walk but it was excellent.
07/03/2019
Very knowledgeable guide who helped take fantastic photos of the frogs.
06/30/2019
We saw everything from venemous creatures to so many frog species and the famous red eyed tree green tree frog. AMAzing and the guide was too good to be true.
05/16/2019
The guides were very patient with the boys and very knowledgeable.
05/01/2019
The tour was great and so was our guide. Transfer was a little late but worked fine otherwise. Unfortunately, we were in Fortuna in the afternoon and could have met up with the guide there or driven to Oasis on our own. Instead, we rushed back to the hotel, just to drive back with the guide who then had to drop us off at the hotel after the tour (1/2 hour each way)
04/15/2019
I was not expecting to run into so many spiders ? the rest was wonderful! The guide was very knowledgeable we moved at a good pace and got to see wonderful nightlife frogs
04/01/2019
Best night tour of the trip.
03/29/2019
I would highly recommend this tour and the guide . He was really informative and we saw a lot of different frogs ( which is what you expect on such a tour)
03/26/2019
Guide was very willing to take pics for everyone
03/09/2019
Guide was fanatastic and excited to share his knowledge on the critters we discovered.
01/29/2019
We saw many frogs and got lots of photos. Our guide worked hard to try to find things for us.
12/24/2018
Absolutely wonderful. We say 18 different species of frog, insects, and a poisonous snake. Guide was great. We have pictures that are absolutely terrific.
12/23/2018
Guide was great. We got some great close up photos.
12/21/2018
Even in the rain this tour and the guide were excellent.
12/20/2018
The tour was the best night walk of the trip. The guide was great and the location was perfect.
12/09/2018
I was part of a small group which limited the opportunities to take good photos since by the time everyone had a chance to take photos the frogs were showing stress from the flash light. I would have preferred a more personalized tour that would have given me more time to get the right photos.
11/30/2018
I did expect to see more different types of animals, but I was still pleasantly surprised at the things we did see. The only reason why the overall experience wasn't a 10 was because I was afraid a spider would fall on me but that is not the tour's fault. Still was a very eye opening experience and I wouldn't give it up if I had the chance.
11/22/2018
Our guide even climbed a tree to try to show us some frogs. We had a great time!
11/06/2018
I thought we would see at least one animal or something besides spiders, millipede, one snake and frogs
11/02/2018
Gerald was excellent
09/19/2018
Good guide-- satisfaction will depend on what animals are out that night. We did fine.
05/03/2017
Good time very informative, great guide. Highly recommended.
12/18/2016
Our guide was extremely knowledge and made the experience interesting for the whole family
07/17/2016
It was a pretty neat tour. We saw some cool wildlife with a very knowledgeable tour guide.
08/24/2015
outstanding!
02/21/2015
Fantastic!!!
Wish we had stayed at Arenal Oaysis.