Canopy Tours From: $45.00 p/p

The 12 platforms, cables over 350 meters long and 80 meters heights make this adventure, unforgettable. This ride will let you admire the beautiful surroundings and observe monkeys, birds and sloths.

Our canopy is located at the canyon of the Arenal River for a perfect combination of nature and adventure. From the higher platform and cable you will be able to observe two beautiful waterfalls. This tour is for everyone, no matter what age; all you need is adventurous spirit.

Just fill out your lungs with fresh air while sliding between the trees and admire the wonderful views of the tropical rain forest of Costa Rica.

Towards the end of the ride you will fly over the Arenal River to the last platform. There our truck will be waiting for you with some snacks before you leave back to the hotel on a very fun ride. So, dare to have fun with this canopy tour

Arenal has a handful of well-run, professional canopy tours. Spread throughout the forested region at the base of the Arenal Volcano, these tours offer travelers a unique chance to experience the rainforest as never before. Ranging between 40 and 1,400 ft. in length, sturdy steel cables connect platforms and trees. It is along these cables that tour takers will soar. While riding, visitors will be able to enjoy excellent views of the Arenal Volcano and surrounding area, including rainforests, pastures, hillsides and streams.

All tours begin with an introduction to the equipment and an explanation of how to ride the cables. Bilingual guides accompany the entire tour and are available to ride individually with younger or more timid travelers.

Canopy tours can be enjoyed by anyone in moderate shape over the age of 8. No steep hiking is required and guides will help anyone needing assistance. These tours generally last between 2-3 hours and are covered with full insurance.

Origins & History of Canopy Tours

Modern canopy tours were invented in the 1970\’s when the rain and cloud forest canopies were the last remaining frontiers of botany, zoology, entomology and ecology.  Ph.D. students Donald Perry and John Williams first strapped on their rock climbing harnesses, clicked their carabineers on to a belay line, and grabbed onto their jumars to ascend a tree instead of a granite face.

Many early canopy tourers were graduate students.  They were lithe, strong, youthful and perhaps most importantly driven by the dictum that they must make a completely novel and unique contribution to science in order to earn their degrees.  I’ve known graduate students who would have climbed burning trees in the middle of a lightning storm if they believed there was a novel contribution at the top.

It wasn’t long before the techniques began to improve and specialize.  Someone introduced the Tyrolean traverse (sliding along a horizontal rope) so the researchers could move between trees without returning to the ground.  The inclined Tyrolean made it much faster and more fun to get back to the ground at the end of the day.

Soon entrepreneurs saw the entertainment value and the commercial canopy tour was born. The development of new methods has continued as well, and today there are a number of different ways to explore or exhilarate in the tree-tops.

Types

At first all canopy tours were cobbled together with climbing gear and ropes with small platforms nailed to the trunk where one could wait their turn. Now there are at least half a dozen techniques for exploration and entertainment in the tree tops.  To a certain degree equipment for commercial tours and scientific explorations diverge.

Commercial: Not all Canopy Tours are Created Equal Zip-Lines

Far and away the most popular type of tourist canopy tour is a series of traverses and slides that has little to do with exploration and everything to do with exhilaration. Steel cables, some measured in kilometers descend entire mountainsides and riders fly along at hair-raising speeds and heights where the trees look like tiny dots.  The chances of spotting any canopy residents are nil.

Some of these courses are pure adrenaline rides, but others mix in some bridges, trails, platforms and quieter traverses along with guides trained in natural history so you can do some exploration and observation of the unique treetop ecosystems in between sixty second rushes.

For the most part these tours are very safe, but you should be aware that the equipment required to put together this kind of course only costs a few hundred dollars and small ones have sprouted up everywhere.  There is no licensing or safety inspection required, but you can be certain the course you’ve chosen is safe by looking for design standards by the American Challenge Course Technologies ( ACCT), and/or or voluntary certification by the ICT.

Bridges

Originally the bridges used in canopy exploration were simply a pair of parallel ropes one above the other so investigators could clip their harness onto and hold one as a railing while “tight-roping” along the other.  Now they range from teetering wood slat rope bridges looking like something out of an adventure movie to steel and aluminum marvels that rival the Golden Gate in engineering if not size.

Bridges are an excellent choice for extended treks through the treetops.  If you’re a birder or simply fascinated by nature you can easily while away an entire day watching and relaxing.

Most bridge based tours include nature trails along the ground to give you another perspective while you walk from bridge to bridge.  Some require ladders, ropes and platforms to move from bridge to bridge, but others can be navigated by simply walking.

Gondolas

The most accessible way to explore the treetops is suitable for small children and people with limited mobility or athletic ability. The cars are more open than ski gondolas, but it’s the same basic system.  You’re accompanied by a guide who uses radio communication to get updates on what interesting wildlife is hanging out near tower seven or is headed up the trail under tower eleven.

The Gondola based operations in Costa Rica have extensive trails, educational displays and even theaters on the ground.  This is an excellent way to get an introduction to all levels of the tropical rainforest.

Tree Climbing, Traverses and Rappels

Still my favorite method of exploration, perhaps because in my younger days I was a climber.  Some of the more unique challenges are located on the smaller canopy tours where you can climb up the hollow inside of a strangler fig, rappel waterfalls, or soar on a Tarzan swing between times of quiet observation on platforms or horizontal traverses.

Scientific

Cranes and Booms

Essentially identical to the construction cranes that dot the skyline of any growing modern city they are an odd site indeed perched in the rainforest.  Instead of a load of girders, a cage filled with graduate students and instruments can be slid in and out, raised and lowered, and rotated around the central tower to give essentially unfettered access to all the volume in a cylinder of rainforest.  The ability to thoroughly cover all levels and areas makes this one of the best techniques for long term investigations.

Cables, bridges and walkways, and platforms are also still common in long term scientific research in a fixed location, but many of the other techniques developed for exploration are more suited to temporary investigations in a number of trees.

Balloons and Blimps

If there is a next type of canopy exploration to move into the tourist realm this has to be it.  The appeal is undeniable.  A helium filled dirigible is used to lower an inflated wagon wheel shaped platform onto a section of the canopy.  The wheel can be a hundred feet or more in diameter and the “spokes” are joined with lightweight netting that spreads the load over such a large area of treetops that the twigs barely bend.  Investigators can walk across the treetops gathering samples and data.

Booms and Bosun Chairs

Economical and effective, this is just a chair suspended on the end of a long aluminum pole mounted on a fulcrum and balanced by a counterweight.  In a way it’s the poor investigators version of the construction crane, but it has the distinct advantage that it can be easily disassembled and moved to a new location in a relatively short time and by hand if necessary.

Ladders and Scaffolds

With a few tie-ins to a trunk regular old aluminum extension ladders can be stacked one on top of the other to dizzying heights.  This technique can be somewhat destructive though.  The ladders, and hands and feet on them, often dislodge bark and epiphytes along the trunk.

Ropes and Ascenders

Usually a bow and arrow launches a lightweight monofilament line over a sturdy branch then a more substantial climbing rope can be hauled up.  This is a low impact technique because nothing is permanently attached and the epiphytes along the trunk need not be disturbed.