What You Need to Know Before Traveling to La Fortuna, Costa Rica
This travel guide to La Fortuna gives essential tips on what you need to know before traveling to the region. In order to discover the best number of days to spend there, the most convenient mode of transportation, and the cheapest place to stay in La Fortuna, you’ll need an all-encompassing blog like this one to answer your most pressing questions.
Looking for additional La Fortuna resources? Check out my other blog posts on the area!
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La Fortuna, Costa Rica, is a destination I came to love immediately. Despite what my blog may lead you to believe, I usually encounter a minor case of traveler anxiety during my first day in a new place. Between the culture shock, language barriers, and new surroundings, it is normal for me to feel a little unsettled on my first day in a new destination.
In La Fortuna, however, this was almost nonexistent. It is a place that felt like home to me, making it all the more difficult to leave at the end of our week-long stay. If you’d like to discover the best way to spend one week in La Fortuna, visit my blog post highlighting the best tours and activities to do in this small town. Listed below, however, are some of my best tips for the essentials of traveling to this area, answering some vital questions regarding how long to stay in La Fortuna, whether a rental car is needed, and the hospitable resort we stayed at that I would recommend to all visitors looking for affordable accommodations in La Fortuna.
How Many Days Do You Need in La Fortuna?
I have no doubt that there are many who would tell you that you can shorten your time in La Fortuna to two or three days, but this short duration didn’t cut it for me. If you’re road-tripping around Costa Rica and don’t have time to spare, then two or three days will have to suffice. It’s more than possible to fit the most recommended tourist attractions into this period, filling your schedule with back-to-back activities.
And while this would typically appeal to me when visiting a foreign city, I wanted to ease into what the locals call “Pura Vida” and give myself the appropriate time to appreciate my surroundings and learn more about the culture, leading to us spending one week in La Fortuna.
After our week in La Fortuna came to a close, I thanked my past self for deciding to stay put in one town for the duration of our stay. While there are other tourist hotspots throughout the country, spending a week in La Fortuna was the perfect introduction to Costa Rica and a suitable amount of time to enjoy the region without feeling rushed. If you are looking into forgoing a road trip and selecting a single town to reside in during your trip to Costa Rica, I hope you’ll consider spending one week in La Fortuna!
Do You Need a Car for La Fortuna, Costa Rica?
Unless you’re visiting with a tour group that includes transportation, I highly suggest renting a car in La Fortuna. If you fly into San José as we did, your rental car company will escort you to their lot, where you will fill out the daunting paperwork, provide your driver’s license, and put down a deposit. I had never driven in a foreign country before and grew quite nervous that we’d run into an issue after reading over the papers I provided my signature for, wondering if I’d just signed my life away. However, we got through the week with no issues, allowing me to cross driving and parallel parking in Costa Rica off my bucket list.
La Fortuna is around 2.5-3 hours from San José, depending on traffic. Our tank was half full at the beginning of our drive, which we decided to fill up early on since we didn’t know what the gas availability would be like further into the drive. Returning from La Fortuna, we only had to pay a small toll of ₡600, equivalent to about $1 USD, as we got closer to the city’s perimeters. These tolls were easy to pay and set up just like those in the United States.
Prior to our trip, many individuals warned us about the roads in Costa Rica, to which I paid no mind, as none of them had ever been to the country. There was a widely held belief that this country’s roads were unpaved and treacherous. However, this wasn’t the case at all. We were on paved roads the entire length of our drive, the only bothers being an alarming amount of potholes and camouflaged speed bumps that I may have driven too fast over almost every time.
My best advice for driving in Costa Rica? Keep those eyes on the pavement rather than getting distracted by the beautiful surroundings, or else you might just drive into a pothole or fly over a speed bump. Other than these two cautionary tales, you’ll find that driving in Costa Rica is not as intimidating as it might appear!
Begin your search for a car rental below to compare prices!
Although La Fortuna is a small town, the activities and restaurants are a bit too spaced out to walk to. Renting a car allowed us to get to the majority of restaurants and tours in less than 10 minutes, with the exception of the zipline excursion. Because of this, we lasted the whole week on just half a tank of gas, which made our wallets sing with joy.
One thing to keep in mind when renting a car in Costa Rica is that the price you see online from rental car companies will not be your final price. In recent years, the government has put a mandatory tax on rental cars, which will likely increase the price by a few hundred dollars when you arrive to pick up the rental. This was the only downside of renting a car, but it was worth it for the convenience of having one for transportation.
Bonus tip: If you’re looking for some restaurant recommendations in La Fortuna, head to my blog post to discover a mixture of trendy eateries and hidden gems!
Affordable Resort in La Fortuna
After stumbling upon Hotel Magic Mountain on my Hotels.com app, I called my mom up and booked the hotel within the next few minutes. I was speechless after discovering that this beautiful property could be booked for a little over $600 USD for a whole week. *Disclaimer: I did have one free reward night in my account that brought the price down to this amount, but even without the reward night, the stay still would have only been a little over $700 for the entire week!
It can be difficult to predict whether a hotel will live up to your expectations until you arrive, but I’m glad to report that Hotel Magic Mountain surpassed any premonition I had and turned out to be an unparalleled resort. Many times, we felt like we were some of the only guests at the resort, and we received exemplary service from the pool bartender, Fernando, who went above and beyond to create an unforgettable experience for us!
At the end of the week, Fernando became a dear friend, always making friendly conversation with us, recommending restaurants and bars in the area, and tending to our every need. He always went out of his way to ensure that we were enjoying our stay - a true model of the resort’s values! He also gets extra brownie points for never growing tired of serving us piña coladas, our go-to tropical cocktail, and coconut-crusted chicken tenders by the pool.
The room itself was a promising indicator of how much we would grow to love the area. We were placed on the top floor and given an elevated balcony with unobstructed views of the Arenal Volcano. Waking up to the daylight shining upon this peak outside our transparent patio doors each morning, I quickly turned into an early bird during our stay.
The free breakfast buffet gave an additional reason to rise early. This traditional Costa Rican breakfast is far superior to the continental breakfasts served at chain hotels in the States. Every morning, we had the opportunity to indulge in ripe, locally-grown fruits, traditional rice and beans, sweet plantains, sausage, potatoes, and pancakes. The buffet was also enhanced by an omelet station, a DIY granola bar with various nuts and seeds, and a bread table for those looking to add some carbs to their plate. We were also offered coffee, tea, and hot chocolate at our seats. There is no motivator quite like a Costa Rican breakfast to encourage you to wake up early each day!
The property itself had a large pool with a direct view of the volcano, a pool bar, three hot tubs, and two smaller pool areas that only seemed to be heated a few days out of our stay. Spread throughout the grounds are also countless seating areas, a select tanning area, and a covered lounging area. Other highlights of the property include its free parking and on-site spa, where my mom and I giggled our way through a mud wrap - you had to be there, LOL.
My mom and I also became friends with a kitten that happened to be roaming the property that week. We quickly grew attached to this animal and vice versa, even naming it Beanie at the end of our stay, a toast to the daily rice and beans we enjoyed. I wish I could have brought him home with me, but that wouldn’t have been fun to explain to customs.
La Fortuna does have a mixture of budget hotels, hostels, and luxurious resorts to choose from. However, if you want the perks of an upscale resort at an economical price, you won’t be disappointed by Hotel Magic Mountain. If you book your stay here, send my warm wishes to Fernando!
Now that you’ve discovered what you need to know before traveling to La Fortuna, I hope that you will consider adding some of my recommendations for the area to your itinerary in order to learn more about the culture and wildlife. Pura Vida!
