Puntarenas - Rivers of Joy Hot Springs

Anyone ever do this excursion? I'm wondering if the Hot Springs are natural or if the resort has just diverts the water into man made swimming pools?

I've never been to that hot spring but there are many of them in Costa Rica. Since hot springs are so plentiful and energy is relatively expensive I've never seen a place that artificially heats the water.

Check the tour length and time spent on the bus. All the hot springs I know of are at least a couple hours away from Puntarenas. A Google search turned up Rivers of Joy to be Rio Perdido in which case it could be 3 hours from Puntarenas.

As a general warning for any hot spring always test the temperature of the water before getting in. Never just jump into any hot spring.

Thank you for the info - testing the water is always good advice!

I also managed to acquire some more info on the resort. Seems you can visit the hot springs in their natural state - and you can visit their man made pools (where they divert the hot spring water into a pool).

The three hour bus ride needs some consideration though ... not sure I want to spend 6 hours of the day on a bus!

Yea, not many people know that most hot springs can be accessed by simply going up or down stream of the resort. Tabacon on the north side of Arenal probably has easiest and best known "free" access. In most cases they are just hot rivers. Resorts and hotels tap into them to feed their pools and spas and some build their pools right in the river bed with varying degrees of fancy.

Even though I love the hot springs I would seriously look for something closer to the ship for a day excursion. Hot springs can be visited when you come back for a land trip and spend a week.

We love visiting hot springs so we did this tour. The bus ride is a long one, but we were glad we went. Many on our tour did not realize they could walk past the swimming pools and down the trail to natural hot springs in the river. There were many spots in the river to soak, of different depths. We had several spots to ourselves on and off. Take a water bottle as it is a bit of a walk back up to the resort. Lunch was pretty good too, buffet style.