Best Ziplines in Costa Rica: Comparing 6 in Arenal and Monteverde

Hello Jerry!

Awesome! So glad to hear it. Hope to see you here one day. 🙂 Thank you for commenting!

Pura vida!

Hey Cooper!

Great question! Some zip-line operators will not allow children to run cables with a parent for liability purposes, but most will allow children (who meet their minimum age limit to participate in the tour) to run cables with one of the canopy tour guides if need be. I’d recommend going with either Sky Adventures‘s “Sky Trek Canopy Tour” run in the La Fortuna/Arenal area or Sky Adventures‘s “Sky Trek Canopy Tour” run in the Monteverde area. Both of these tours use an automatic braking system that is easier for children to operate when they opt to run a cable on their own. For more information about these two tours, don’t miss our related blog posts:

Arenal Sky Trek Canopy Ziplining Tour: Everything You Need To Know
Monteverde Sky Trek Canopy Ziplining Tour: Everything You Need To Know

Pura vida! 🙂

Hi Erin!

Across the two destinations covered in our article above (Monteverde and La Fortuna/Arenal), Monteverde would be the closest; however, it’s still a multi-hour drive from the Jaco region. To avoid traveling to and from Monteverde or La Fortuna/Arenal, especially since you mentioned that you may not have a rental car, I would recommend participating in a ziplining tour that takes place closer to Jaco, such as a canopy tour run at the Vista Los Suenos Adventure Park. Alternatively, you can head down the coast to the Manuel Antonio area where you’ll find two other great ziplining opportunities at MidWorld Costa Rica and Titi Canopy. Though the tours in Manuel Antonio are over an hour’s drive from Jaco, they’re closer than the tours in La Fortuna/Arenal and Monteverde described above.

Pura vida! 🙂

Hello showmetrips!

Thanks so much for commenting! Have you tried Selvatura‘s zip-line tour before? If so, how did you find the experience?

Pura vida! 🙂

Hello Jen!

In this case, we would recommend staying in La Fortuna/Arenal and zip-lining at an adventure park located in/around town. Selvatura is an approximate 3-hour drive from downtown La Fortuna, and since several of the zip-line tours that are provided in La Fortuna/Arenal are great, we wouldn’t recommend driving all the way to and from Monteverde just to experience one of the ziplines there. If you do decide to make the trip to Monteverde from La Fortuna/Arenal in one day, though, don’t miss the related info we provide in our blog post How To Make A Day Trip To Monteverde From La Fortuna / Arenal (Or Vice Versa).

Pura vida! 🙂

Hi Kevin!

Great question! The La Fortuna/Arenal area, as well as the Monteverde area, provides excellent zip-lining experiences, but other zip-line tours do run to and from San Jose. Most still require a long drive out of the capital city anyway, but the drive would be shorter than the drive to either La Fortuna/Arenal or Monteverde. Will you be spending your entire honeymoon in San Jose? If so, we can provide you with information about canopy tours that are the closest to the city. Both the La Fortuna/Arenal and Monteverde areas are worth visiting, though; they provide much more than ziplines, so if you’re open to visiting one or both destinations during your honeymoon, I’d recommend doing so and choosing to participate in one of the zip-line tours described in our article above. For more information about La Fortuna/Arenal and Monteverde, don’t miss our free city guides:

Must-Know Info About La Fortuna Costa Rica From Longtime Residents
Must-Know Info About Monteverde Costa Rica From Seasoned Visitors

Pura vida! 🙂

Hello Jim!

Awesome! We’re glad to hear that the tour operators you experienced were kind and encouraging. May we ask, which Monteverde park or zip-line tour did you try?

Pura vida! 🙂

Hey Eugenejake!

That’s great to hear! Which zip-line tour in Monteverde did you choose to participate in?

Pura vida! 🙂

Hey Mel!

Absolutely! Two braking systems are used in Costa Rica. The most common braking system, which is used by the majority of canopy tour operators in Costa Rica, is a hand-braking system that requires zipliners to wear a thick (usually leather) glove during the tour and reduce their speed by applying pressure to the zip-line cable. Sky Adventures, a tour operator that runs canopy tours in the La Fortuna/Arenal and Monteverde areas, uses a system that requires zipliners to reduce their speed by jostling a set of handlebars from side to side.

Pura vida! 🙂