Are there free hot springs in La Fortuna?

Yes. A thermal river runs under the road beside the Tabacon resort and the public can sit in it at no charge. You normally pay a parking attendant around $10 for the car, but there is no entrance fee for the water itself.

Where is the free hot springs river in La Fortuna?

On Route 142 between La Fortuna town and the Arenal Volcano National Park, immediately beside the Tabacon Thermal Resort. The access is a short path down to the riverbank from the roadside where cars park.

Is the free hot springs river safe?

There is no lifeguard, no staff and no lighting. The rocks are slippery, the current is real after heavy rain, and thefts from the bank do happen. Go in daylight, go with other people, and leave valuables in the car.

Is the free river as good as paying for a resort?

It is the same volcano-heated water, but with no pools, no bar, no changing rooms and no seating other than rock. Many visitors do both — an hour at the free river and one paid resort day.

La Fortuna Guide

The Free Hot Springs River

Everyone books a resort. Almost nobody mentions that the same volcano-heated water runs under the road a few metres away, in a river anyone can sit in for nothing.

El Choyín. The water is this warm and it costs nothing.

What it actually is

Arenal heats the groundwater beneath this whole area, and that water surfaces as thermal rivers rather than as neat pools. The resorts were built on top of the best of them. But one of those rivers crosses under Route 142 right beside the Tabacon resort — and downstream of the resort fence, it is simply a river in a public road reserve.

So people park on the verge, walk down the bank, and get in. It has been happening for decades. Locals call it Río Chollín; guidebooks tend to call it "the free hot springs," and taxi drivers will know exactly what you mean either way.

No gate, no ticket office — a river with people in it.

Click the video below for a look at El Choyín before you go.

El Choyín — Free Hot Springs River in La Fortuna — The river, and how warm it actually is.

What it costs

The water is free. The parking is not — there is usually an attendant collecting around $10 per car, which is worth paying rather than leaving a vehicle unattended on a blind stretch of highway. Compared with roughly $115 a head for a Tabacon day pass, a carload of six sitting in the same aquifer for ten dollars is a fairly striking piece of arithmetic.

What it is like, honestly

It is a river, not a facility. The bottom is rock and gravel, the banks are mud and tree root, the water runs somewhere between pleasantly warm and genuinely hot depending on where you sit and how much it has rained. Find a spot where the flow slows behind a boulder and it is as good as anything you will pay for.

What you do not get: changing rooms, lockers, towels, a bar, a lounger, or a floor that is not slippery. There is no staff, no lifeguard, and after dusk there is no light at all. People bring beer, and the atmosphere on a Saturday afternoon is closer to a village swimming hole than a spa — which is either the appeal or the problem, depending on what you came for.

Being sensible about it

Go in daylight. The path down is uneven and unlit.
Leave valuables in the car. Bags left on the bank do get taken; this is the most common complaint you will read about the place.
Watch the water level. After heavy rain the current gets pushy and the river runs cloudy. It is not the day for it.
Shoes you can get wet. The rocks are slick and some have edges.
Do not go alone. It is a roadside riverbank, not a supervised attraction.

When to go

Late afternoon is the best of it. The air cools, the light goes gold through the trees, and the temperature difference between the water and the evening makes the whole thing work. It is also when the local families arrive, which is worth seeing.

Avoid the middle of the day in dry season — you are sitting in hot water in tropical heat, which is less pleasant than it sounds — and avoid the hour after a heavy downpour, when the river runs brown and fast. Weekday afternoons are quieter than weekends by a wide margin.

Taking a group

It works well for a group precisely because there is nothing to book. No tickets, no timed entry, no minimum numbers, and no one waiting on you. Fifteen people can decide at breakfast to go after lunch and nothing needs arranging beyond a driver and a couple of parking fees.

That makes it a useful filler for the day nothing else is planned, or the afternoon when a tour got rained off. Guests staying with us often pair it with the volcano hike, since the trailhead is on the same road.

Getting there from the lodge

21 minutes and 12.5 kilometres from The Majestic Lodge — out of El Castillo along the lake road and around the north flank of the volcano. You will see the Tabacon resort signs first; the parking is on the roadside just past them.

Driving route from The Majestic Lodge to the free hot springs river beside Tabacon — 21 minutes, 12.5 km — The lodge to the free river, past the Tabacon resort. Tap for live directions.

Free river or paid resort?

Do both, if you have the days. They are not really competing. An hour at the river costs nothing and is the more memorable story; a resort day gives you pools at different temperatures, somewhere to change, and a drink in your hand. Most groups who stay with us end up doing exactly that split.

This is Tabacón, the paid resort — landscaped gardens, built falls, about $115 a head. The free river runs under the road just outside it: the same water, over rock, for the price of parking.

If you only have one afternoon and there are children or anyone unsteady on their feet in the group, take the resort. The river rewards people who do not mind scrambling. Our comparison of the paid springs →