Memorable Experience at Arenal Volcano - We had a perfect experience on this hiking tour. The weather was perfect with semi-clear skies and comfortable temperatures. Our guide, Heimie, was experienced and shared both historical and current detail about the Arenal Volcano. We enjoyed up-close sightings of sloths and monkeys along with numerous opportunities to see the peak of Arenal. We highly recommend this tour.

Arenal Volcano Guided Walk and Hot Springs - Had an amazing experience on our Arenal Volcano guided walk. Our guide, Crystal ,was so lovely and very well informed on all the local flora and fauna - even spotting Toucans at our hotel at the pickup - and we managed to view some sloths on the busride to the volcano park, TShe showed us so much wildlife and was very knowledgeable on the histiory of the volcano and made it very interesting - our 3 teenagers were fully engaged for the entire trip! Everything ran like clockwork - and we really enjoyed our visit to the Hot Springs after the Volcano tour.So relaxing - and so easy as our transport included the drop off at the resort and return journey back to our hotel again.

Arenal Volcano Hike with Kristel - We had the absolute pleasure of being guided by Kristel L. She was incredibly knowledgeable, funny and personable. She was also just super chill, which was also super great. It made for a fantastic morning. We saw many animals, lots of flora and faun and heard all about history, both local and geological. If you sign up for this tour, be sure to ask for Kristel.

Amazing Hike! - An amazing hike! Our guide, Samantha, and our driver were very knowledgeable about the area and stopped within the park multiple times to help us spot animals. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to see any sloths due to the weather but we saw monkeys, lots of beautiful birds, and an armadillo! The hike up to the viewpoint was almost entirely uphill and pretty steep. If you have a hiking pole, this would be the place to use it. But the view was gorgeous and Samantha made it enjoyable and easy with her commentary on the plants, rocks, and history of the area.

Arenal Hike and Hot Springs make for a wonderful afternoon - We had a wonderful short hike up the volcano, with a lot of great information from our guide. Rosa was a pure delight! We loved talking with her and learning about the area. Absolutely gorgeous views, and delicious fresh fruit at the end. Then it was dinner and hot springs. Frankly the walking tour was the best part! Thank you, Rosa and Desafio.

Family friendly - Bernie is a really passionate and friendly guide. We really enjoy this family walk with our 11 years daughter. It's an easy walk with a delicious snack at the end.

Great way to start our Costa Rican tour! - We did the Arenal Volcano walk/hike with Marcus (Marcos?). It was our first day in Costa Rica and a great way to start. He gave us a ton of background on the geography, geology, and political history of Costa Rica (a little long for the kids, but fascinating for the adults) in an engaging way. Then we went on a hike around the volcano. It was the rainy season, so we didn't end up even seeing the volcano (too many clouds) but he described everything around us in such great detail I didn't feel like we missed much. Easy hike. Learned a lot, and everything went smoothly. Recommend this company and this guide!

Volcán Arenal - Desafio is an inspiration, if you want to have a company that works with tourism probably you would like to look like Desafio, their equipment is great as their guides and drivers as well, personally after so many visits they always do a great job, congratulations !

Pleasant short hike leaving you wanting for more - We did the 1968 lava trail. Guide was friendly and knowledgeable. But the hike was rather short, though steep. Alltogether we expected to do/see/go some place more

Disappointed with Desafio - With so many tour operators in La Fortuna, you should pick one who cares about their customers. Desafio doesn’t. We booked the volcano hike for our last day in La Fortuna. We knew it was supposed to rain and we were disappointed that we wouldn’t see the volcano, but we decided to do a guided tour so that we would at least learn about the history of the area, as well as the flora and fauna. Unfortunately our guide, Pablo, obviously did not want to be there. He didn’t even try. He clearly wanted to get out of the rain as soon as possible. He was rushing way ahead of us on the trails and only spoke to us to give very brief answers to our questions. It was worse than visiting without a guide, since we felt so rushed and didn’t get to enjoy the forest at all. The only wildlife we saw was spotted by me (then reluctantly identified by Pablo, who had to backtrack to find us since he had gone so far ahead). The tour ended more than an hour before it was supposed to. It was a really disappointing end to our time in La Fortuna. We of course knew the guide couldn’t control the weather, but he could control his attitude and effort. He chose to mail it in. Bad went to worse when we told Desafio about our experience. We went to the office immediately after the tour to tell them about what had happened. After talking to the manager (who never actually did us the courtesy of speaking to us themselves), one of the employees told us that we would get a 50% refund. We accepted this offer since we figured it was the best we were going to get. We waited for quite a while in the lobby for them to complete the refund. Finally we asked what was going on, as we had to catch our transfer to Monteverde. Once they knew we were leaving La Fortuna, they went back on their promise and told us there would be no refund. The employee said the manager had spoken to Pablo, who said he did explain things, so they were reneging. We were shocked by this. I still don’t know whether Pablo lied to his manager or if he merely bent the truth (since, as noted here and as we told them at the time, he did answer direct questioning). But either way, we were shocked that after being promised a refund for the unacceptable experience caused by the guide, the company would just go back on their word like that. There are a lot of companies in La Fortuna. And most are less expensive than Desafio. Pick a different one. PS - Desafio is now doing the volcano hike at Mirador El Silencio, which is very inexpensive to visit yourself. Despite Desafio’s claim that there is better wildlife viewing here, an insider told us that the lower entry cost is the real reason why Desafio switched locations — they can make more profit this way. Skip the guided tour altogether and just go solo. If you do want a guide, don’t pick Desafio.