Ugggg

[Nikki]

Hey Jennine!

Great question! This arrangement is a bit tricky, but certainly not impossible. You have two main options here:

1. Take the Pacuare River Rafting Tour to/from La Fortuna
2. Drive yourselves to the river from La Fortuna, raft, then drive yourselves to Jaco

With the first option, you’d fly into Liberia and travel to La Fortuna first. Give yourself a full day to participate in the Pacuare River Rafting Tour to/from there, then continue on to Jaco a different day following however many days you want to spend in the La Fortuna area. From Jaco, travel back to Liberia and fly home. Here’s the rough breakdown of travel time with this option:

Liberia to La Fortuna: 2.5 hours
La Fortuna to Pacuare River (3 hours) and Pacuare River back to La Fortuna (3 hours): 6 hours
La Fortuna to Jaco: 3.5 hours
Jaco to Liberia: 3 hours
TOTAL: 15 hours

With the second option, you’d fly into Liberia and travel to La Fortuna first. Following however many days you want to spend in the La Fortuna area, on the day you want to leave, drive from La Fortuna to Siquirres, where the Pacuare River Rafting Tour takes place. After the rafting tour finishes, drive from Siquirres to Jaco. From Jaco, travel to Liberia and fly home. Here’s the rough breakdown of travel time with this option:

Liberia to La Fortuna: 2.5 hours
La Fortuna to Pacuare River (3 hours) and Pacuare River to Jaco (4-5 hours, depending on traffic): 7-8 hours
Jaco to Liberia: 3 hours
TOTAL: 12.5-13.5 hours

Although the first option requires more drive time, we’d recommend going with that option. The second option provides a few major disadvantages:

1. You’ll need to drive through downtown San Jose, and in the late afternoon, when traffic can be horrendous and add significant travel time to the route. It will also require you to drive part of the route (on the other side of San Jose and en route to Jaco) in the dark.
2. The day you raft will be incredibly long and tiring. Not only will you need to wake up early and drive yourselves from La Fortuna to the river, but you’ll spend the day rafting (people are usually tired after that), only to have to make a multihour drive on to Jaco, and through stressful downtown San Jose.

Regardless of the option you choose, we have a discount available for the experience:

Pacuare River Rafting Tour discount to/from La Fortuna: https://puravidaeh.ca/discounts/pacuare-river-rafting-tour-adult-la-fortuna-exploradores-outdoors/
Pacuare River Rafting Tour discount to/from Siquirred (self-drive option): https://puravidaeh.ca/discounts/pacuare-river-rafting-tour-adult-siquirres-exploradores-outdoors/

Pura vida! 🙂

Owner of the Costa Rica Travel Blog • CEO of Pura Vida! eh? Inc. (Costa Rica Discounts) • Creator of DIY Costa Rica, the Costa Rica Destination Tool, the Costa Rica Recommendations Map and the Costa Rica Trip Planning 101 E-Course • Author of the guidebooks Moon Costa Rica (2019, 2021, and 2023) and Moon Best of Costa Rica (2022) • “Travel Blogger of the Year 2020 – Costa Rica” (LUX Life Magazine) • Happy wife of a proud Costa Rican ❤️️
Want custom, private, one-on-one Costa Rica trip-planning help? Book an appointment with Nikki here.

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