Hacienda Guachipelin's one-day ADVENTURE PASS presents an awesome opportunity to experience the best of Costa Rica's exciting outdoor activities all in one day at one place! This working farm, located next to the Rincon de la Vieja National Park in Guanacaste, supports over 3,000 acres with three distinct rivers cutting through beautiful canyons and creating waterfalls. Only one hour from the Liberia International Airport and you'll be swinging through trees, riding horses, river tubing, and ending your day soaking in natural hot mineral springs with a volcanic mud bath.
If you are not already staying overnight at the Hacienda, you'll want to get an early start arriving between 8 and 9 in the morning at the onsite Adventure Center. From there your guides will assist you with all the of the day's activities. The order of events may vary depending on daily conditions and the weather. You’ll find changing rooms and lockers when needed to store your clothes and personal items. Let's start with the Canopy Tour!
Ziplining is hands down one of the most favorite things to do in Costa Rica. You'll be fitted with a safety harness then step up onto the first zipline platform. Your experienced guides will show you how the equipment works and help you safely zoom from one platform to the next. There are 7 cables and 12 platforms allowing you to "learn the ropes" as you experience the various lengths and speeds. You'll fly over the tree canopy and the beautiful White River Canyon. You can even zip upside down! At some point, you will have the opportunity to swing freely through the air like Tarzan. You'll also hike across a hanging bridge and go for a 65 foot controlled rappel that will take you to a rock climbing wall where you can use lateral ropes to traverse the canyon wall between climbs.
For horseback riding, you'll be taken to the corral to meet the horses. A guide will assist you onto your horse then lead you along a country road and through the tropical dry forest. The vanishing tropical dry forests are considered one of the most endangered woodland habitats in the world as they are the most easily destroyed by fire and development. Hacienda Guachipelin has an ongoing active reforestation project to restore this native ecosystem. Even if you've never ridden a horse before, these horses know the trail and will deliver you to your next exciting destination.
A five-minute bus ride will take you to the Rio Negro where you'll go tubing approximately 3 miles downstream surrounded by amazing scenery. This beautiful river ride has active rapids and on occasion, depending on the current weather conditions, might be quite challenging with Class lll and Class lV rapids. You can check ahead to find out if you have any concerns. Normally tubing through the filtered sunlight of the forest and between the canyon cliffs and boulders is a safe and rewarding family experience.
Back at the Hacienda, you'll break for lunch which is typically buffet style with options for many specialized diets including vegetarian and gluten-free. The many locally available fresh fruits and vegetables are complimented by meat choices from regional farms that also make fresh cheeses.
Last but not least, you'll cross a short hanging bridge that takes you to the Rio Negro's natural hot springs where you can dip into 6 pools of varying temperatures carved into the rocky shore. At the 7th pool, you'll find warm volcanic mineral mud where you can enjoy painting yourself or others with provided paint brushes before rinsing off in the hot springs or cool waters along the river’s edge.
If you want to do it all, this is the place!
The Hacienda Guachipelin Day Pass is available from Rincon de la Vieja
4 and up
Latitude: N 10° 45' 4.14"
Longitude: W 85° 22' 48.9"
12/27/2018
The tubing was great. I think we would skip everything else in the future. The hot springs weren't anything special. I'm never a fan of trail riding horses rather than having free roaming, but that's just my personal preference. The tubing was a ton of fun though and we did spot howler monkeys.
05/22/2017
The guides were super helpful and encouraged us to do the rappelling and rock climb up and despite a little hiccup in the rock climb for me, we found it super fun! The zipline through the Rio Colorado was quite fun! We enjoyed the horseback ride, the seemingly random bus stop in the middle of the jungle where we were picked up and taken down to the river for some rafting! So much adventure!
12/24/2016
The horse ride was lame, but the rest of it beat expectations in terms of organization, staff, fun and overall experience. The reviews going in were all good, so expectations were high and, surprisingly, they were met, if not surpassed. Very well run. Tubing and Canopy Tour among the best we have ever done.
11/23/2016
Good value and a lot of fun (especially the river tubing).
02/27/2015
We passed on this so we could go hike in Rincon de la Vieja on our own. This was the great. Our hike to Catarata La Cangreja and taking a swim in the pool and under the waterfall was the best thing we did.
02/13/2015
Fantastic guides, knowledgeable, well spoken. Adventure staff went 'above and beyond' to accommodate our wishes.
11/30/2014
It was confusing knowing what to expect and what to bring or not bring. When we asked we got numerous different answers from different staff members. But it turned out to be one of our favorite days of the trip!