They all draw from the same volcano and they all sit between 35 and 40 degrees. The difference is not the water: it is whether you will be among two hundred people with music playing, or in a garden where you can hear the river.
For a quiet evening
Tabacon is the best known and the closest thing to a botanical garden with hot water running through it. It is expensive and worth it if that is what you came for.
Paradise Hot Springs is smaller and quieter. Far fewer people.
If you are bringing kids
Baldi has water slides and is the liveliest of the lot. For a couple looking for silence it is exactly the wrong choice; for a family with small children it is the right one.
Los Lagos sits in between: slides, but quiet pools too, plus a frog and butterfly house on the same grounds.
For the volcano view
The Springs has the best Arenal view of any of them on a clear day. It is large, with many pools at different levels.
What nobody tells you
- Go at night. Hot water under midday sun is unpleasant. After five everything changes.
- Several tickets include dinner. It works out cheaper than paying separately, and they do not always lead with it.
- If your hotel has its own springs, you are done. No second entry fee. That is why it is worth picking your hotel with that in mind.
- Bring grippy sandals. The floor around the pools is slippery everywhere.
What about the free river pool?
It exists. It is the Tabacon river where it runs under the bridge, and it is free. It is also loose rock, unsupervised, with nowhere to change. Plenty of people do it; just know what you are walking into.
All of them with their details are under hot springs. And if you would rather have the trip put together for you, see our ready-made trips.