Starting at $89 per adult

Overview

Looking for some thrills, spills and all around good time on the river? If so, you will love whitewater rafting on the Rio Balsa!

The day starts off when you are picked up from your Arenal Volcano area hotel. After picking up fellow adventurers you will be brought to the river. The drive from La Fortuna takes about 50 minutes, passing through small rural villages, mountains, and forest. When you arrive at the river, you will be provided with a helmet and paddle. Your guide will explain the basics of rafting and safety techniques. Then you will be on your way to adventure!

The Rio Balsa is a class II and III river that is regulated by daily dam releases. It is one of the most reliable and popular whitewater rafting rivers in Costa Rica. The total river run is ten kilometers, which usually lasts between 1.5 to 2 hours depending on the time of the year.

As your guide navigates you down the river you will pass by well-known rapids such as the Dredges and Magnetic Rock. You will have the opportunity to take a swim in the river and enjoy all around wet and wild fun. Remember to ask your guide if you can ride the bull. This is always a thrill! Of course, it is not an actual bull. You will be riding the front of the rafting boat.

After the rafting tour a typical Costa Rican style lunch will be provided. It is currently offered at a local family owned farm that grows traditional coffee and sugarcane. It must be noted that the location of lunch is subject to change.

Including round trip transfer the tour is expected to last around 5.5 to 6 hours, though again this is subject to change. This fun filled adventure includes transportation, safety kayaker, guides, lunch, and equipment.

Highlights

  • Whitewater rafting one of the most popular rivers in Costa Rica
  • Enjoy an authentic Costa Rican style lunch

What to Bring

  • Clothes That Can Get Wet
  • Secure Shoes
  • Sun Block
  • Dry Clothes To Change Into

Location and Availability

The Whitewater Rafting Rio Balsa is available from Arenal, Arenal Zone 2, Arenal Zone 3, and Chachagua Rainforest Hotel

Tour Time

  • 10:30am

Tour Type

  • Rafting

Cancellation Policy

Cancellation Policy

Recommended Ages

Age 8 - 65

Location

Latitude: N 10° 18' 27.72"
Longitude: W 84° 31' 21"

Reviews

  • Overall 96.2% (1207 Guest Ratings)
  • Experience: 96.1%
  • Expectations: 96.1%
  • Guides: 96.7%
  • Logistics: 95.9%
  • Value: 97.5%

09/11/2024

Great guides, excellent service. Felt safe and confident in the guides

11/02/2023

Carlos was a wonderful tour guide. He kept us safe, and gave us tons of excitement and fun. My favorite tour of the trip.

09/14/2023

This was the best! If you go to Costa Rica, you have got to do this. Enzo was fantastic!

08/22/2023

This was the most fun we had on any excursion, it was awesome!

08/14/2023

The only remark is the infrastructure for change to dry clothes: very precarious, plus was raining so we were changing to dry clothes under rain, making us all wet again!

08/12/2023

Superb

08/07/2023

Seriously good rafting

08/03/2023

This was the perfect level of rafting (class 1-3) for my 13 year old son during his first time. We loved our guide - Alonzo - and the other tourists in our boat. Alonzo got us working well together and did a good job pulling in my son and another teenager when they fell out. The lunch stop was delicious and the sugar cane demonstration and tasting was a nice surprise.

07/24/2023

Great trip. The guide was fun and entertaining. Really nice people that helped answer local questions.

07/16/2023

One of the best parts of the trip. Highly recommended

07/07/2023

Good tour. Enjoyed the experience

07/02/2023

One of the best meals we ate on our trip was included in this adventure. Our guide was amazing and the rafting was perfect!

06/30/2023

Super fun tour, great choice for those who want to do something adventurous without getting too dangerous. Lunch was delicious!

06/25/2023

Best excursion my family has ever been on. We LOVED it!!

06/24/2023

Very well organised and quite fun. Good lunch as well.

06/19/2023

Thrilling and exciting tour. Big thanks for rescheduling this tour.

06/18/2023

Our guides were great and made us feel safe. He lunch afterwards was amazing

05/14/2023

Lots of fun and the guides were outstanding!

03/15/2023

So much fun! Great guides! Awesome!

03/08/2023

Had a blast with good whitewater and our guide was top notch.

02/11/2023

So much fun for first timer!!

02/07/2023

This was probably our favorite part of our trip. Our entire group had a blast.

02/01/2023

Extremely fun and exciting. Could have done this all day.

01/28/2023

The guides ran this tour like a factory -- perfectly. They all were so much fun and outgoing. They knew their stuff and really made sure everyone felt comfortable and had fun. The lunch afterwards was so sweet and made us feel like family. The pictures from the rafting were even better! We loved the entire tour and everyone involved!

01/19/2023

It was way more intense than we expected. Hahaha. But the guides were great and I think we just didn’t have realistic expectations.

01/13/2023

Loved the tour! Our guide was very good. We saw more animals than I expected - a sloth, birds, and lizards too. It had just enough excitement (I fell in!) while still being doable for families. The buffet meal afterwards was good as well.

01/09/2023

All around fantastic!!! Enzo was great on the bus with expectations and rules, "Super"Mario was our guide and he was terrific!!! We were surprised and delighted by the lunch and sugar cane demo and tasting. It was beautiful.

12/31/2022

It was a highlight of our trip! Kids loved it! And our guide Axel was awesome. We also enjoyed delicious lunch at the farm after.

12/29/2022

My children really enjoyed the white water rafting. We wished it was longer.

12/19/2022

Amazing! Super fun! We were energized and excited and the guides (especially our guide Brian) really made the tour informative. The river was so beautiful, the day so exciting, and the company so good that we'll never forget it!

12/17/2022

Loved the guides

12/14/2022

Very well informed, enthusiastic and charismatic guides. Would like to thank guide Diego, again.

12/12/2022

Augusto our guide was so INCREDIBLE! This was our favorite excursion out of everything we did. It was an absolute thrilling experience that we highly recommend.

12/08/2022

Thrilling ride!

12/05/2022

Our guide Diego was amazing. The Class II/III rapids were a lot of fun. They also took great pictures of our rafr.

11/18/2022

It was so great. learned more on the drive and the bonus visit to a local farm was unexpected and loved it

08/17/2022

Loved the guide and our group! A long drive there and waiting. But a great day

08/15/2022

Best tour of the trip by far. Very well organized and a great experience making it easy for first timers.

07/24/2022

This was our favorite excursion. Excellent and fun with a great lunch

07/16/2022

Excellent day for us and our teenage kids! We had booked the Rio Balsa but were told on the bus that we were going to Rio Sarapiqui because the dam on the Balsa wasn't letting through enough water. Turned out just fine. Just the right level of excitement for the kids who had never been rafting before. Our guide Yudde was so fun and pointed out a lot of types of birds along the way. The fruit snack mid way and the lunch were delicious. And the photos were reasonably priced at $35 for our family of 5. The bus ride was about an hour each way but the scenery was nice along the way.

07/14/2022

This was our FAVORITE activity! So glad we did this. The rafting was great! Felt scary and safe at the same time. Our guide was great! We loved everything about it. The pictures they offered for sale afterwards were actually worth it.
The lunch afterwards felt a bit rushed as well as the sugar cane production presentation. But overall I enjoyed this part as well.

06/30/2022

This was one of the best experiences we have ever done, we loved MOMO (our guide)!!!! He made the trip SO much fun, special and memorable.

06/23/2022

This tour was a blast. Almost all of us in our party took a turn "riding the bull" and are so glad we did because it was so fun. Jumping off the ledge into the river, and floating down the river on our own, was super fun as well. Our guide was perfect, giving us chances for the adventure and thrills we wanted while also taking amazing care of my 80 year old mother (not your ordinary 80 year old mother :)

06/12/2022

A highlight of the trip. Koki was the best guide. My son said it was one the best days ever!

05/27/2022

Omg what can I say besides how freaking crazy awesome the rafting trip was! This beat rafting in Colorado! I couldn’t believe it. Gustavo was superb! I love to be around people who enjoy life and have a great sense of humor and this man had it all. He narrated for us during the short bus trip and we were lucky enough to have him as our guide in the water! So fun! I will miss him.

04/16/2022

Great fun!

04/04/2022

Super recomendado.

03/25/2022

This was a great tour. Stopping along the way, the lunch, the attention to detail was amazing. The guides went to the extreme to make sure we had a great time.

02/21/2022

This was a 40 minute drive from our hotel near Arenal Springs, which was a bit long. The guides were funny and knowledgeable. My ten and fourteen year old children enjoyed it. Ages ranged from kids to seniors on this trip. There are rapids and you will get very wet, but we did not tip or fall out. It was not buggy at all (February 2022). We saw our first sloth and the views from the river were lovely. We enjoyed the "typical food" lunch provided. The tour provided photo packages for $35 for a group of 3 at the end, which we bought because you do not want to take your phone or camera on this trip because of the risk of losing or breaking it. Bring water shoes and dry clothes to change into after. They provided towels.

02/12/2022

This was our favorite activity of the trip.

01/17/2022

This was by far my favorite excursion. Didn’t think I was going to enjoy it as much as I did. Our guide, Jorge (Koki) made our experience so fun and exciting. I hadn’t laughed (and screamed) so much in a while. The lunch we were provided after the whitewater rafting was so delicious and the sugar cane and gusta demonstration and tasting was an added bonus.

01/13/2022

Great tour. We had alot of fun and our guide was great.

01/04/2022

Best tour of the holiday

12/30/2021

Awesome day all around, perfect difficulty level for my family and the meal/live music at the end was very entertaining for my whole family.

12/28/2021

This was a great excursion. Gerald was a funny guide who went the extra mile to make our trip outstanding

12/25/2021

The very best activity we did our entire trip! Everything from the guides to the rafting was such a blast!

12/19/2021

Carlos did an amazing job -talking to all of us on the bus, teaching us about Costa Rica, safety tips for the river, etc. we LOVED that we got to have a delicioso lunch at a local farm and learn about sugar cane…would’ve been fun to have an opportunity to purchase Guarro or coffee here too! It was such a wonderful day and we loved making friends with others in our group.

12/14/2021

The guides and driver were very friendly, and spoke English well. I fell in the water, and Gusy was there to grab me right away. He was very quick and some of the guides spotted sloths for us. The lunch they took us to was delicious and felt private. This was a great experience! Would do again.

12/03/2021

This was the funniest activity we did on our whole vacation! We wish we would have also done the class 4 rapids!

11/25/2021

Best experience, guides were amazing.

11/10/2021

Our guide Momo, was one of the best. the raft and following tour were unforgettable.

11/06/2021

It exceeded our expectations in that it was more water than I had ever experienced and I have done a bunch of these. Wow is all I can say.

11/05/2021

Fabulous guides and experience. Exciting, thrilling adventure!

11/04/2021

There was a stop to eat some fruit. But after the stop we all expect we were in the middle of the trip, but we continued rafting for maybe 5 minutes and we were at the end. Very strange.
A surprise that the lunch was in a biological farm with an extra some explanation of cane sugar

10/19/2021

Guides were excellent.

10/07/2021

Guides were just as wonderful as the experience

09/28/2021

Enzo was our raft guide the tour lead. Awesome adventure and very nice lunch experience afterwards.

09/20/2021

White water rafting was awesome! The tour pointed out all different wild life and it was very safe and fun experience. They also gave us beer after the ride was done, a free lunch and coffee and a little bit of sugarcane tasting!

09/02/2021

Amazing tour. Guides were funny and experienced. We saw lots of wildlife and had a great time. Post rafting wr got lunch at a local farm and the food / experience were equally great.

08/22/2021

This excursion exceeded my (high) expectations. The rafting itself was high-octane fun, the scenery was second to none, and the post-adventure meal/sugar-water tasting was the icing on the cake. Extra big shout-out to our tour guide Enzo, who did a fantastic job from start to finish.

08/04/2021

This was my first time rafting, ever, and it was nerve wrecking, but honestly, amazing. I am so grateful for the guides, specifically ours, Roger, who had 13 years experience, and kept us in sync and safe the entire trek. He was informative the entire trek and we really enjoyed ourselves. The Wave Expeditions is a stellar company and I highly recommend them. Plus, the lunch afterward and demonstration with sugar cane was cool!

07/30/2021

fun!. tour feels a bit rushed.

07/26/2021

Such a great guide! The river was up because of the rain so was a exciting ride. Yet our guide was so good I felt safe and confident. So much fun!!! Loved the sugar plantation and yummy lunch. Was an unexpected treat at the end

07/20/2021

Loved it! Professional fun slightly scary but so fun!

07/05/2021

Best white water rafting experience. wish I could come back and do Level 4-5

06/14/2021

Our guide was extremely professional and had complete control of the situation when a couple of members of our party fell out of the raft (!). One member even lost a shoe and our guide retrieved it as it came floating down the river.

06/05/2021

Enzo was a great guide to work with. We felt safe but still had adventure elements. Would do again

05/28/2021

Another excellent tour. Highly recommend. Rafting guides were friendly & knowledgeable. Managed to see anteater, monkeys & other interesting wildlife.

04/25/2021

River was not as deep or fast as we expected. However, it was a fun and exciting day.

03/22/2021

Best experience, incredible value, and awesome guides!

03/03/2021

This was exciting. Not for the meek, a little scary which I enjoyed. Our guide, Carlos Alfaro, was fantastic. He was the best part of our Costa Rican trip. Thank you

01/25/2021

Incredibly fun and exhilarating without feeling dangerous. beautiful rapids and jungle and fun/enthusiastic guides. The lunch at the end was one of if not the best of my entire Costa Rica trip.

12/10/2020

amazing guides and tour

12/07/2020

The private lunch at the organic cafe and sugar cane extraction activity was amazing!!!

03/06/2020

Our guide was very entertaining and knowledgeable . It was our first whitewater rafting ever and we enjoyed this experience so much. Definitely felt safe with our guide.

03/04/2020

Best part of the whole vacation!!!

02/24/2020

Top notch!

02/16/2020

Awesome time

02/09/2020

SO MUCH FUN

02/08/2020

Had great fun and loved it

01/31/2020

Had a blast. Loved the guides and food provided was authentic and great.

01/29/2020

Great river, great guides; we had a blast. Lots of big rapids and a calm area we rode in the water. Nice fresh fruit break! And the casado lunch after was a nice add-on. Not to be missed!

01/17/2020

The lunch was not very exciting but authentic resulting in a decrease in rating the experience and tour meeting my expectations.

01/09/2020

This trip was fun and an adventure. Our raft guide "goosy" or Agusto was great at his job. Our raft with a family and little kids hit a rock and the raft got stuck in the rapids. With the help of other guides they got the raft loose and everyone was good. Meal at the end was great!

01/08/2020

Fantastic fun with enthusiastic, experienced guides. The rafting route offered both exciting a calm stretches, and the tour featured added extras we weren't expecting, such as a demonstration of how to extract sugar from sugarcane.

01/07/2020

Best adventure on this trip, it was really a great experience, small groups great guides, not begging for tips. On top of the great water rafting experience we got great lunch at a wonderfull farm and even got to learn about sugar canes and could taste the drink and coffee from the farm. Really a fantastic experience!

12/30/2019

This excursion was way more intense than the description describes, it would be helpful to let people know they will be getting completely wet and there is possibility of falling out

12/29/2019

Exceptional! The guides were absolutely great...safe and entertaining. Halfway through the rafting we stopped on the beach and had fresh pineapple and watermelon. What a great surprise! Good lunch afterwards, too!

12/28/2019

This was fantastic! Loved every minute! Our guide Jairo was fantastic and is to be complimented. Will never forget this amazing experience.

12/27/2019

Awesome all around.

12/25/2019

SO MUCH FUN! Our bus tour guide was amazing, our raft guide could not have been more fun, saw so much wildlife, felt that the company took safety seriously

12/23/2019

Great experience from start to finish. love the rafting. They were great with our 9 and 11 year old kids. I felt totally safe. The changing room and cold beer after was so nice. We really enjoyed the lunch and visit to the farm after. Just a perfect day.

12/22/2019

This was our favorite day of the whole trip! Antonio again was our driver - and he continued to provide the best service! Super Mario was our tour guide - and he was amazing! The white water rafting and floating down the Balsa were thrilling. The tour guides stopped along the rafting trip to view a sloth family and howler monkeys. We had so many unexpected events - including a snack of fresh pineapple and watermelon atop a turned over raft, a traditional Costa Rican meal (where we had our best pinto gallo!), and a coffee making and sugarcane processing demonstration. We absolutely loved this day!

12/09/2019

WOW! That was so much fun. Something I never thought we would do, but we did it! The guide, "Super Mario" was outstanding. It was hard for Ruben to get up and down in the raft, but he was so patient and helpful. Also, the pictures were AMAZING!

12/01/2019

Mo Mo is the best!

11/28/2019

Loved!!! This was a highlight

11/10/2019

They showed us some wildlife along the way and were playful while still keeping everybody safe. Also dropped us off at La Fortuna and gave us an excellent restaurant recommendation.

10/12/2019

Had a great experience, safety first, team leader was a great guide very
Knowledgeable of area, fun and extremely friendly!!! Tour and lunch was great.

09/11/2019

Everything was awesome. The entire crew, food, tours! Everything was awesome

08/30/2019

This was a fantastic adventure. Our guide was very experienced and also fun. He aimed our raft directly toward the deepest holes and roughest rapids, which for our family with 3 teens, was perfect. He also knew all the trees and plants along the way which was informative. The lunch at the farm was delicious. Great trip!

08/20/2019

Great trip and guides made us feel safe despite difficulty of rapids

08/19/2019

LOVED this day! Not only was rafting so fun and beautiful, but the lunch (& coffee & moonshine!) afterward was absolutely delicious. I highly, highly recommend this experience.

08/04/2019

My favorite of all the activities we participated in!

07/25/2019

Great fun and really enjoyed the lunch in the finca.

07/24/2019

This was an incredibly well done tour. I was surprised to find out that it included lunch at an organic farm where they also included a coffee and sugar cane demonstration. I wish more of the trips included these more local restaurants.

07/22/2019

This went above and beyond our expectations. Our tour guide Pita was very knowledgeable and made sure we were safe, had fun and were able to take pictures.

07/20/2019

The rafting was great, right on the edge of exciting and safe. Staff gave us good training ahead of time. Expert guides who spoke good English; ours (Yorjani) was particularly enjoyable. The snack on the river was a nice surprise. The lunch meal was very nice. I could have done without the sugar cane demonstration, but that is a minor quibble.

07/11/2019

The lunch at the organic farm was a bonus!

07/08/2019

Loved our guide, Super Mario. I told him I was a little nervous and he looked out for me. He had lots of information about the area and wildlife and made the trip so much fun with his humor and with instilling a sense of teamwork. Please tell his company that he is the best!

07/02/2019

Amazing experience and our guide Joseph was AMAZING! He was very knowledgeable about rafting and was very funny as well.

06/11/2019

Everything was great except having to return to their office to purchase photos.

06/10/2019

Jairo was a great guide, we felt safe and had an amazing rafting experience

06/04/2019

Our guide Marcos was excellent! He was in tune with our family and interests and took the time to point out different birds, monkeys and lizards and sloths. He was a blast to be around and made us all laugh and really get into the experience. He was just great!!!!

05/26/2019

My husband actually said that this was one of the best days of his life!

05/17/2019

This actually exceeded my expectations. Wow, what an experience. Carlos who was in charge of our boat was great and obviously knew what he was doing. We had such a fantastic time doing this. The lunch was wonderful.

05/09/2019

Our guide Mario was amazing

05/07/2019

Would have liked a more challenging and longer raft

04/22/2019

the water level was low so was a little too tame

04/15/2019

Favorite thing i did in Costa Rica

03/31/2019

Great guides, great equipment, wonderful lunch and sugar cane presentation afterwards and our pictures came out super! We had a gal in our raft that was screaming the first ten minutes of the ride then she got washed out of the boat (gently). Our guide, Koki, got her out very quickly and after that she was able to relax and enjoy the ride...she realized she was in good hands. We all had a good laugh at the transformation.

03/24/2019

A great first day of activities

03/10/2019

One of the best part of the trip. Guide was Carlos (I think) and he was fun and shared with the enthusiasm of our group. He was our guide in the van as well as rafting. The meal was the best for the entire trip! Absolutely loved this adventure.

03/07/2019

The rapids were quite small. We were told that they are bigger during the rainy season.

02/06/2019

The guides and equipment were excellent. The river and surrounding scenery was beautiful. We had a great time. It was exactly as I had hoped it would be. Plus we got lunch which I did not expect.

02/04/2019

There were only 1 and 2 rated “rapids” so it was pretty mild and lame. It was more like a float trip than white water rafting. If I had known that this time of year the rapids are not really rapids I would have done something more adventitious.

02/02/2019

We had such a great time on this river rafting trip. The only thing I could have asked for is that we could have done the whole thing again. Great staff, we had FUN.

01/23/2019

This was our favorite activity- was so much fun! Javier, our driver, and Jairo, our guide, could not have been better. Pictures turned out great. Having an opportunity to change into dry clothes before lunch was an added bonus. The lunch itself was very good- the restaurant staff was so friendly and we enjoyed learning about the sugar cane process.

01/21/2019

Lunch was excellent. Sugar cane/coffee demonstration was a nice touch to the tour.

01/17/2019

The whitewater rafting on the Rio Balsa was also excellent. Really, really good.
My wife Becky said it was "wonderful". Would recommend it to anyone.

01/16/2019

Excellent!!! this was the highlight of our trip along with the beautiful gardens at Los Lagos.

01/12/2019

More than expected! Friendly staff and enjoyable experience.

01/09/2019

Wave Expeditions staff were all very informative and concerned for our safety on the river. We had a great time !!

01/07/2019

Perfect afternoon on the river. Guides were personable and knowledgeable. And just plain fun! Gerald was AWESOME

01/05/2019

This tour exceeded expectations. The guides were professional and safety conscious but were also fun loving and happy. The fresh fruit stop halfway through the river ride was welcome, the ice cold beer at the end a wonderful treat. We were not expecting such a lovely cultural experience at the organic farm. The food was excellent and the coffe demonstration, the sugar cane extraction and the sampling of sugar cane products tasty and informative. Overall, an excellent tour.

01/02/2019

Exceeded our expectations. Our guide Horacio was amazing and the organic farm was incredible!

01/01/2019

it was not the balsa river we went to as it was dry; we went an hour away; it was amazing; so fun; we had a great guide and my girls had so much fun; the lunch and snack were delicious; it was the best

12/31/2018

It was fun but not as fast paced as I expected, especially the second half.

12/29/2018

Kids were delighted by the waves. Fresh fruit was served. Guide gave some history as we traveled.

12/27/2018

Overall great experience.

12/25/2018

Terrific guide, fun day. We loved it! Highly recommend.
Extra special was the delicious lunch at Arenal Vida Campesina. All the food was organic. Fantastic meal!

12/23/2018

This was a ton of fun. My family loved it!! However, it's important to note that this was described as a half day tour, but it really took the whole day.

12/21/2018

guide - Gerald - was wonderful

12/18/2018

The rafting was pretty tame compared to other trips I have done. Other than that, the experience was a lot of fun, and we saw a sloth only a few metres above the water at one point - lots of excitement.

12/16/2018

Super fun, great day ... VERY WET from the start I wish I would have brought extra shoes too. Loved the lunch after and sugar cane demonstration along with the coffee pour.

12/13/2018

We had a blast from beginning to end.

12/08/2018

My first whitewater rafting experience here was fantastic, fun and exciting. The farmhouse meal was unexpected and super. Great fruit break halfway through the voyage

12/02/2018

Best day of the trip. Guide Carlos was amazing loved it

11/26/2018

Very nice day. The guides and lunch were very good.

11/24/2018

We could not go on the Rio Balsa as there has been a bridge collapse but we went to a different river which was further away, but was still so much fun and worth the extra time in the minibus!

11/16/2018

My husbands first time rafting and he can’t stop talking about it!!

11/14/2018

We loved the whitewater rafting on Rio Balsa. Our guides were great. They made sure we were safe and could enjoy ourselves. The lunch after the adventure was more than we expected. I think this may have been my favorite tour.

11/05/2018

Food afterwards was great, would have been better with more people in the raft, the other guides were great but the specific one I had in my raft was creepy and made me feel uncomfortable.

11/03/2018

Guide and Transfer were great. This was a safe fun time. We both loved it. The after raft Lunch was awesome as well as the fresh fruit mid raft break. Best time. Great Day

10/09/2018

SO MUCH FUN and the trip to the Sugarcane farm and tasting the sugarcane and sugarcane moonshine was a great surprise for us.

10/02/2018

Great trip. Perfect fit for our family. The lunch and tour of organic farm were a nice surprise.

10/01/2018

Great crew.Tato, our guide was very knowledgeable and caring for our family. I also loved the lunch that was provided. Great setting to eat and the property was nice.

08/24/2018

Best part of the trip hands down.

08/19/2018

Awesome tour with delicious local luncheon and cultural experience. Best tour in costa rica

08/16/2018

We had a blast! The rafting guides were great. The lunch after was delicious and we really enjoyed ourselves.

08/13/2018

My favorite part of our trip! Our guide Carlos was amazing! We felt safe and had some laughs as well. The rafting itself would have made for perfect day, but when we stopped for lunch at the local farm, wow! That was probably the best meal that we experienced our entire trip!

12/03/2017

This was one of the highlights of a trip that was amazing on so many levels. The white water rafting was an incredible experience and more challenging than I was originally expecting. The guides were all friendly and helpful and they made the experience very fun. My only "complaint" would be that the trip ended too quickly. It was definitely an experience that we both would repeat.

11/11/2017

One of our best experiences. Staff was fabulous.

08/26/2017

We were taken to a different river as the water levels were apparently unsatisfactory. No problem. Guides were fantastic. Fun day. Bit squeezy on the bus though.

08/25/2017

Wow, such a great day! Rafting was amazing! Saw some wildlife along the way; stopped for fresh pineapple and watermelon; drinks provided; lunch was included and was delicious; learned about sugar caning; toasted at the end of lunch; stopped at a cafe for snacks and saw some 5 to 7 ft. iguanas! Guides were so knowledgeable about the area.

08/15/2017

Diego was an excellent tour guide and the meal afterwards with some cultural information was really great.

08/09/2017

Best whitewater rafting trip ever!! Marcos was our guide and he was so knowledgeable and interesting. Great team leader!

08/08/2017

The fruit was so refreshing and delicious. It was a nice break!

08/04/2017

one of the highlights of a fantastic trip

07/30/2017

GREAT experience, great guide -- we've rafted a few times before, and this was probably our best experience yet!

07/25/2017

Best rafting ever! Prolonged suite of just right whitewater; thrillers, not killers.

07/23/2017

Best part of the trip.

07/09/2017

Good equipment - great rapids (given our ability level) and the guides were good fun. A great day out.

07/08/2017

Excellent!

07/06/2017

Great fun for everyone, lovely staff

07/04/2017

Our guide was very informative about Costa Rican vegetation, produce, and culture on the drive to the Rio. He gave excellent safety protocol instructions and made the trip extremely fun. We had one person in our tour group who was extremely nervous and he went above and beyond to make her feel very comfortable.

06/29/2017

Best value for the cost. Oso was our guide and he is a fun loving guy. The fruit snacks were at a perfect stop and the river rafting was exactly the adventure we wanted. The meal after at the finca was delicious!

06/13/2017

Great tour guides and epic rapidS!!!

06/12/2017

A must do experience. My favorite excursion on this trip. This company was amazing and they take pictures and videos for you during the experience. Had a blast and would highly recommend!!

06/01/2017

The lovely lady who fed us after the trip gave us some of the best food on the entire vacation and we are still talking about it. Really good guides - we had Jairo.

05/22/2017

The rapids were stronger than what I would consider fun

05/03/2017

My favorite tour of the whole trip! Our guides we're very knowledgeable, energetic, and a lot of fun! The fruit served while rafting with some of the freshest and most delicious I've ever eaten. The lunch at the sugarcane farm was very delicious and the tour that we received there was a lot of fun as well.

04/15/2017

This was one of the best trips for WW Rafting. Really well organized and well run. Guide was great. Totally enjoyable! Lunch was great, demo was fun, everything was well planned.

03/26/2017

Wicked fun!

03/24/2017

The BEST tour on our vacation. They did an excellent job as guides and made it really fun.

02/28/2017

Same as Big 11 AMA comments. Was a great day and overall experience!

02/27/2017

This tour exceeded my expectations. Jose was a fabulous guide! He had a great sense of humor, and was very skilled with his raft. He was safety conscious...and we practiced reacting to his commands before we got on the river. The fruit that was served halfway through the trip was delicious. Then the dinner at the farm was excellent, and the demonstration of crushing the sugar cane stock and drinking the juice, and then the fermented juice, just topped off the entire experience! I would do this again in a heartbeat!!

02/26/2017

Great first time experience! Loved it

02/24/2017

Great guide, helpful to a woman with a bad knee!

02/22/2017

This was the highlight of the tour. The rafting was fantastic. The meal after rafting on the small coffee farm was a really nice touch. Top noche!

02/21/2017

Fun and exciting white water adventure. Went with two of our grand children, 10 and 11 years old. We loved the guides, the white water, and the delicious lunch and tour of coffee and sugar cane after. Great day!

02/18/2017

This was our first white water rafting, and I was scared. But Our Guide/boat pilot was very experienced and careful with us. I expected fewer, gentler rapids.

02/16/2017

Great tour great guides loved the organic farm

02/15/2017

By far best company! Felt safe, fun guides! The lunch was a treat and delicious. Amazing culture experience.

02/14/2017

Great tour, food, tour and experience.

02/13/2017

another fun day in Costa Rica This was a fun day

02/11/2017

Exceeded expectations. Lots of fun. Nice fresh fruit snack break. Great lunch and sugar cane demonstration.

02/04/2017

Our guide was wonderful and saved a couple of us from falling into the river. We really enjoyed Carlos and all the information he gave us regarding the wildlife, trees, etc.

02/02/2017

Dionis is the best!

01/24/2017

Really fun! Good rapids, not too hardcore (would have loved a difficulty 4 or 5), the guide was so skilled we were never off course or in any danger. The fruit stop was fun and delicious and the coffee plantation after was fun and tasty (nice intro to Guaro). The bus could have a little better seats (other buses were newer or had better cushioning) but it wasn't' too bad.

01/23/2017

This was suppose to be beginner Cat 2-3 and it was more 3-4. I was fine but my 2 friends had no previous experience and it was not as enjoyable as it could have been.

01/15/2017

First time rafting - wonderful experience! Rio Balsa scenery was beautiful. Enjoyed the fresh fruit during the break. Delicious lunch (and coffee!) on the return trip to the resort!

01/14/2017

Best tour in the LaFortuna area. Great fun and the lunch afterwards was very good too!

01/12/2017

Way beyond my expectations. I did not, however, realize how hard we would have to paddle. A few times I ran out of steam and did not feel I was carrying my weight with the work. I would highly, highly recommend this to anyone who wants an adventure, and never did this before.

01/03/2017

We had to change buses a couple of times and had too many hotel stops before the trip. It seemed confusing to the staff too. Wasn't expecting that. Jairo was an amazing guide.

12/31/2016

We loved the thrill and also the organic farm lunch

12/21/2016

Loved the tour, but the pick up on the way there, they had to wait for others at the location in town and we sat for about 1/2 hr -45mins. Then it was a long drive to the start. Should be noted, that you are going to be sitting in a van for 2 hrs before you even start.

12/20/2016

Next time would take the tour with more rapids.

12/03/2016

Wild wonderful magical exciting! 10

11/26/2016

The tour we originally booked had to be cancelled due to debris in the river from the hurricane. We were very happy with how easily rebooked we were on a different tour and really enjoyed the entire experience.

11/21/2016

It was a lot crazier than we expected, but Jairo was so great and he kept us safe. Lunch was really good at the sugar plantation and the owner gave a wonderful explanation of sugar cane and guaro.

11/11/2016

My favorite excursion of the entire trip. What an experience. The expertise of our raft guide, Carlos was amazing. Fantastic photographs of the experience available for a very nominal fee.

11/03/2016

Carlos was amazing! The top half is level 3 and a real rush, the bottom half less challenging but a relaxing ride. The refreshments on the rating trip were delicious, and the lunch at the local farm was wonderful.

10/01/2016

I felt safe and had a great time.

08/28/2016

This was our favorite tour- the guides were great and the lunch at the Costa Rican farm was wonderful.

08/25/2016

One of the best experiences on this trip. Was intense and fun.

08/10/2016

Awesome tour and guides! Pura Vida!

07/27/2016

Such a fun experience!!! We loved the local pineapple and watermelon at the snack stop and lunch afterwards was at a very local place so we got traditional Costa Rica food which was simple and delicious. We felt safe with our guides and rafting was SO fun!! Class 2 and Class 3 rapids meant it wasn't too scary and was perfect for our first time rafting, We just wish the whole thing was Class 3, as we found the Class 2 section to be more about taking in the scenery than the thrills on the water. Would do this tour again in flash, it was one of our trip highlights!!

07/21/2016

This day was very good - the guides on the rafts were fantastic and the guide on the bus was really good also. It felt very safe because they gave us a lot of verbal instruction about what to do and what not to do once we were on the rafts. The rafts/life jackets/paddles, etc. were all in very good condition. The lunch that they took us to afterward was really delicious and the location was beautiful too. I would highly recommend this tour!

07/17/2016

Awesome. Once again we had incredible guides who went out of their way to help our disabled son participate fully. Wonderful family fun day and the meal that was included was absolutely delicious!

07/10/2016

Fantastic day overall.

07/08/2016

The rafting was amazing and the staff was exceptional at this company. They all made sure we had fun!

07/03/2016

The guides were the best part of this trip. They were really fun people and I had a great time with everyone. The rafting was also awesome. The rapids were small enough to feel safe but big enough to have fun.

06/30/2016

Really loved this tour. Guides were amazing and the stop at the organic farm for lunch at the end was a great feature of the trip.

06/21/2016

we had a great time do this, it was great the guides were great. but expecting to be taken back to La Fortuna we were taken to a sugar cane/ coffee plantation for 3 hrs!!! that was not what we signed up for.

06/15/2016

Excellent guide and fun. Recommend it for any family.

06/12/2016

Very fun! Excellent experience and knowledgable guides. Great!

06/10/2016

One of the highlights of the trip. Great company and so much fun. Highly recommend for others!

06/01/2016

food very good

05/23/2016

Very awesome adventure. As very experienced white water adventurers, we will take the 3-4 class trip next time. Great day... Great Staff and very professional and experienced.

05/20/2016

Was one of our favorite activities. The fruit in the middle was a nice surprise and the food was nice at the restaurant so overall was a great day.

05/04/2016

EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!!!!

04/18/2016

Not only were the rapids and guides great, but the stop at the local farm for lunch was awesome!

04/12/2016

fantastic day, the guides were awesome and the lunch at the farm was charming and delicious

04/09/2016

This was one of the highlights of our tour. Our guide Didier was absolutely brilliant and great fun - I'm confident our raft was the most fun out of the whole group and he went a long way to making it so. The place we went for lunch afterwards had some of the best food we ate in Costa Rica during our entire stay - just incredible.

03/23/2016

Great tour! Very fun and felt safe. Enjoyed the lunch.

03/20/2016

Our guide Pablo was awesome. This was a great experience, and accurately described as moderately adventurous.

03/18/2016

One of the most fun times of the entire trip. It was great!

03/17/2016

Guides were great and the lunch on the farm at the end was awesome!!

03/13/2016

A very exciting time, guides were knowledgeable and helpful, would definitely do it again.

03/08/2016

Another fabulous tour with amazing guides. Highly recommend this tour company.

03/07/2016

enjoyed the tour. It was a big group so felt it lost a little due to the number of buses and the length of the last stop before hitting the river. Our guide made the ride a little rough as I don't think he was as experienced and hit rocks pretty hard along the way. The lunch event was fun and the sugar cane was cool. Enjoyed it but also thought it was pretty tame for what it was ranked. Probably would have done a smaller group and more exciting rapid.

03/03/2016

Terrific guide and raft company. Really enjoyed the additional indigenous farm/coffee/hooch tour, lunch was delicious-Outstanding!

02/29/2016

Loved it. Water is so warm compared to our whitewater in North America .

02/27/2016

Easily the best activity we did. An all time great.

02/24/2016

Brilliant! Guides were smart, funny, knowleagble and enthusiastic. Lunch was spectacularly tasty. Beer on the bus afterwards was brilliant. A great day.

02/20/2016

Rafting was much shorter than I thought it would be. Lunch was very good and the guides were very nice.

02/14/2016

Loved the lunch and coffee plantation tour!!

02/13/2016

Our tour guide was AWESOME!! He made a great trip even better. Our favorite excursion on our trip!

02/10/2016

Amazing experience, would do it again. Great guides, well prepared and so much fun.

02/09/2016

Guides were fantastic. This was a highlight of our trip. Wonderful experience.

02/05/2016

Fabio was a lot of fun and rafting was great. The lunch and sugar cane presentation was a nice plus.

02/02/2016

Great trip - grows rapids great guide, great food! We were in the same raft with friends we made the day before in the zip line tour!! Made even more friends rafting. Loved it!

02/01/2016

best activity in our stay at Arenal

01/29/2016

Excellent rafting company. Guides were extremely qualified. The luncheon at the farm was excellent. Everything exceeded expectations.

01/25/2016

want to do it again

01/20/2016

Great adventure didn't get whole white water rafting experience river low for ride but awesome scenic views

01/18/2016

This tour was our favorite and the guide, Fabio was awesome! We loved it! Plus there was lunch at a local coffee farm that we didn't know we'd be going to.

01/08/2016

Didier, our guide, was the best!

01/06/2016

amazing staff and awesome planning of the whole activity!

01/05/2016

Superb. Great guides and variety of white water. Wonderful lunch afterwards at an organic farm. Only logistical issue was horrible changing rooms. It would have been better if we all just changed under out towels at the landing site as the facility was very dirty and crowded. This outing was one of the highlights of the trip.

12/30/2015

Our guide was amazing, the fruit break was much needed. The one thing that wasn't as awesome- it came with lunch... at 2:30pm... would have been nice to know have a big snack right before so you don't stave

12/24/2015

Wonderful trip. Our guide, Jerald, was great! He made sure everyone, including our 8 yr old, had an awesome time. Lunch at the farm was also a great bonus!

12/20/2015

The best outing, great team, the lunch and farm tour after rafting was so unexpected. We enjoyed wave Expedition . So much energy and give you great history of the balsa River from the crew team.

12/02/2015

Tour guide, Fabio, did a superb job. He was a great team leader.

11/26/2015

It was exciting, safe, organized and a lot of fun!

11/18/2015

soooo fun! even for someone as non-athletic like me. i fell in and felt safe the whole time. i also LOVED our lunch and cultural learning stopover. and the fruits and beer after rafting. definitely my favourite excursion.

11/09/2015

Best Activity of the whole trip!!!!

11/06/2015

Fantastic experience.

10/16/2015

This was another activity to remember. The tour guides, one in particular, were wonderful and we had a ball. The rafting was exciting! It was nice that lunch was provided and we had a bit of time to learn about Costa Rican culture at the coffee/sugar cane farm. This was another great day!

10/07/2015

My second favorite tour of the trip! Guides were knowledgeable and awesome!

10/05/2015

Great tour guide, he made the trip better!

09/10/2015

CARLOS WAS THE BOMB!!
GREAT JOB

09/04/2015

Really had a good time. great guides. They had a lunch break for us. and then a real lunch that was fantastic.

08/20/2015

Fabio was a great guide!

08/14/2015

Again, guides and travel were great. We just wish that we had more options in terms of choosing the difficulty. We have both done Class III-V rapids in parts of the US so this was a little disappointing. Additionally, because it was Class III, some parents thought it was appropriate to bring their young children, which negatively impacted our experience. Overall, it was still fun, but I would maybe do things differently, perhaps the Class IV river.

08/04/2015

Fantastic rafting.

07/31/2015

Pickup from hotel timely. Guides were friendly and informative. the visit to the fruit stand/rest stop before the trip was perfectly timed. The visit to the organic farm/restaurant and sugar cane demonstration were an unexpected and welcome bonus. Jairo was the BEST river guide!

07/27/2015

We really enjoyed ride and guide. Lunch at the organic plantation was nice.

07/16/2015

Carlos was great. Loved everything about the tour

07/05/2015

Fabio did a great job as our guide

07/03/2015

EXCELLENT experience

06/28/2015

This tour was a real hi light. The guide Favio was excellent. So much fun.

06/24/2015

Scared the crap out of me; but it was good.

06/21/2015

Carlos was a great tour and raft guide. everyone made it a fun experience.

06/20/2015

That activity was the best and I had the most fun on that day!

06/18/2015

Shuold rent GoPro cameras.

06/17/2015

This whole experience was outstanding ---although I did get bruised from an over-zealous non-English speaking tourist who accidentally hit me with his paddle. Our boat guide took such good care to see to my safety and the whole day was great fun.

06/14/2015

We have been on lots of whitewater adventures, so we have some experience to compare with this group. Our guides were excellent in their water and safety skills. They "read the river" really well to make the most of every wave! We enjoyed the fresh fruit snacks along the river side. The lunch at the end of our trip was absolutely delicious and was served on banana leaves. Local special brewed coffee and the sugar cane liquor toast really made for a complete local experience. Everyone was friendly and engaging! We had the time of our lives!

06/13/2015

Very nice and fun experience, friendly guides!

06/11/2015

Our guide Tom was great! We had a blast on the rafting trip!

06/10/2015

Great tour and guides. Great treat and surprise at the lunch spot they stopped at afterwards.

06/07/2015

The tour went above my expectations. I expected rating and some kind of minimal box lunch. A fun experience, fresh fruit, good lunch, sugar cane demo--- awesome day!

06/04/2015

Totally fun trip and probably our best activity on the whole trip.

06/02/2015

Over met expectations.. Love it. guides were great.. nice ending with sugarcane demo.. etc .. highly recommend.

05/25/2015

This was by far our favorite excursion on the trip. The shuttle guide was fantastic and funny and so much fun. Our boat guy Mauricio was very experienced and trained us well on how to navigate our boat down the river. They were all soo much fun and made the experience a joy for all the rafters. They were quick to lend assistance when anyone fell out of the boats. The meal was AMAZING. The coffee demonstration very interesting. The sugar cane demonstration was a treat as well. We got 3 adventures in one. Everything was perfect.

05/18/2015

Fun and wild, more so than expected!

05/13/2015

The farm/restaurant where we had lunch had the best food we had the entire trip! We were very impressed. We would have liked more time to eat as we were rushed to leave to see a sugar cane demonstration.

05/12/2015

The rapids were pretty lame, not class 3 rapids.

05/07/2015

Awesome!!!! The river was so much fun. The lunch after was excellent and all the guides were extermely nice and helpful.

05/05/2015

Excellent!

05/04/2015

Want to do this over and over again. Great time. Guides were fantastic and knowledgeable. Did I say I want to do this over and over again. Best thing I did while in Costa Rica.

04/28/2015

Again, the guides were top notch. Helpful, friendly, and very professional. The fresh fruit at the break was a special treat also! An amazing time was had by all of us.

04/27/2015

Freaking awesome and super fun fun! Highly recommended! SO MUCH FUN! Loved the staff!

04/12/2015

Mauricio was our guide and all the guys working the river were friendly and fun. Definitely felt safe and taken care of. An amazing experience! Lunch afterwards was delicious.

04/07/2015

Overall very good rafting, very appropriate given my younger daughter's age (10). The group was very large but we had fun. the food and sugar cane experience afterward was a nice touch, but food quality was just okay.

03/30/2015

too many people, it was really crowded

03/29/2015

Absolutely fantastic! Gerald (Flaco) was the BEST instructor ever. Fabio on the bus was hilarious and really set the tone of the day. Not only were the rapids beyond fun, but I loved the fruit break midway through. Lunch afterwards was one of the best meals we had in Costa Rica...and the sugar cane demonstration were incredible as well!

03/27/2015

Favorite!

03/24/2015

Tour guides were super awesome

03/21/2015

The rapids were claimed to be level 2-3. The first section of the adventure the water was extremely rough (more comparable to level 4-5 from my experience). Enjoyed the adventure overall especially the lunch break.

03/20/2015

Only issue was that we had to wait for about 1.5 hours for the dam to release water - most of the time was spent sitting uncomfortably in our raft for the ride to begin due to low water.

03/18/2015

Great tour, great staff, great time!

03/09/2015

This was an amazing experience. Our guide was so much fun and took such good care of us. We saw a lot of wildlife on the river including sloths. The rapids were challenging without being terrifying. This was our favorite activity as a family on our trip.

02/26/2015

guides made it a lot of fun!!

02/24/2015

Loved the whole tour!

02/18/2015

Above and beyond meeting expectations. All guides were great. Lunch was delicious and the added coffee treat and sugarcane exhibit was phenomenal! Also the beers at the end of the rafting was a delightful touch!

02/09/2015

The guide didn't like our group, it was obvious.

01/14/2015

Our guide was awesome. Wish I remembered his name. I think this was our best excursion and I would encourage everyone to do it. (Gave it a great review on Tripadvisor). The organic lunch was the best meal we had while we were in Costa Rica. Wonderful tour!!!!

12/31/2014

our guides were excellent. wonderful experience.

12/18/2014

This was the second-highest highlight of the vacation, only to zip-lining. Lots of fun, great guides. The only downside is that they offered to sell us photos of ourselves, but I never found the photos on their website and they never returned my emails. I would have bought at least one.

12/13/2014

Had a wonderful time on the river and the added lunch and talk about coffee and sugar cane was a plus