Arenal Three-Park Combo: 1968 Lava Field, 500 Steps to the Waterfall, Mistico Bridges

Three parks in one day, with early starts so the group is through each one ahead of the largest tourist groups. Numbers are kept small. It begins with a hotel pick-up and a 30-minute drive to the 1968 park, where a two and a half hour walk goes to the base of Arenal. Most of it is flat and the walking is easy, until the last part, which crosses the dry lava field left by the 1968 eruption and turns rocky. That is where the guide stops and works through what the volcano did. La Fortuna waterfall comes next: 70 to 75 metres, and about 500 steps down and back up again. There are safe places to swim at the bottom. Lunch is a casado, the standard Costa Rican plate, with a fresh fruit juice, at the eatery next to the operator's office. Mistico closes the day. Two and a half hours over 3.2 km, crossing 6 hanging bridges and 10 fixed ones, with the volcano in view along the way. This is tropical forest, so rain is likely and something waterproof is worth carrying. Monkeys, sloths, amphibians, reptiles and birds are all there to photograph if the day goes well.