La Fortuna Coffee Tours

North Fields Cafe: Craft Specialty Coffee and Chocolate Tour

Hotel pickup sits inside the fare and reaches anywhere within about ten minutes of La Fortuna, which makes this the easiest of these farms to reach without a car. Two of the two and a half hours are spent on a family farm growing coffee, cacao and sugar cane in the same few acres. You follow coffee from cherry to roast to cup, prepare chocolate by hand, and finish on juice pressed from the cane in front of you. A professional guide, local taxes, water and every tasting are covered; gratuities and pickups from more than twenty minutes out are not.

1. Hotel pickup, or meet at the farm
2. Walk the family farm with a guide
3. Coffee from seed to roast to cup
4. Prepare and taste chocolate
5. Taste pressed sugar cane
6. Finish back at the farm

From $46 per person

Don Olivo Chocolate Tour

Thirty dollars is the floor price for a guided farm morning here, and it buys two hours on a plantation of 1,600 cacao trees producing around 150 pounds a week. Departures are set at eight, ten, one and three, so you can slot it around a waterfall or a volcano trail. The guide walks you from the flower and the pod through fermentation and drying to the stone grinder, with fruit, spices, coffee and chocolate to taste along the way. Admission is included, wheelchairs and strollers are catered for, and infant seats are available.

1. Meet at the farm on Route 142
2. Walk the cacao plantation
3. See the pods opened and the beans dried
4. Taste chocolate, coffee, fruit and cane
5. Finish back at the farm gate

From $30 per person

Sloth Observation, Coffee, Chocolate & Sugar Cane Experience

Guides here carry spotting scopes and use them, which is the difference between knowing a sloth is up there and actually seeing one. The meeting point is 600 metres east of La Fortuna's central park, and the three hours split between the sloth trail and the small farm beside it. On the farm you taste coffee, chocolate and sugar cane, and the guides fold in the medicinal plants growing between them. Beverages are included, lunch and transport are not, and the trail is not suitable for wheelchairs.

1. Meet east of La Fortuna's central park
2. Walk the sloth trail with a scope
3. Cross to the farm beside it
4. Coffee, cacao and medicinal plants
5. Taste each of the three crops

From $100 per person

Coffee and Chocolate Tour in La Fortuna

Two hours split evenly, one on the coffee trail and one on the chocolate trail, both on the paved and covered walkways 1.5 km north-east of the La Fortuna Banco Nacional. The coffee half runs bean to cup and the chocolate half runs bean to bar, with a hands-on grinding session in the middle. You finish on a tasting of dark, milk and white chocolate, and the trail stays walkable in heavy rain because none of it is open to the sky. The guide and the tastings are covered; hotel pickup is not, and the booking needs two travellers to run.

From $61 per person

La Fortuna Eden Chocolate Tour

No coffee on this one; it is organic cacao from the first flower to the bonbons you box up at the end. An hour and a half on the farm at San Jorge covers the trees, the pods, the fermentation boxes and the sun-drying beds. In the ranch you roast and grind the beans yourself, then make chocolates with the spices and toppings you choose. Food tasting and a local guide are included, private transport is not, and the grounds run down to a river with a restaurant above it.

From $39 per person

La Fortuna: Don Juan Arenal Coffee and Chocolate Tour

Covered trails are the headline here, and in a town whose wettest month averages 331 millimetres that is a practical feature rather than a marketing one. Two guided hours 1.3 kilometres north of the Banco Nacional take coffee from seed to cup and cacao from seed to drink, with tasting sessions built into both. The paths are cement and level throughout, and the whole thing is built to run whatever the sky is doing. You get the guide, both tours and every tasting; transport to the farm is on you.

From $61 per person

La Fortuna: Coffee, Honey & Chocolate Tour

Native stingless bees open this one, and their honey comes in more varieties than most people know exist. From the hives the walk goes out to the cacao, where you taste the fruit around the bean before anything is roasted, and then to the coffee growing beside it. A tasting station at the end pours coffee, chocolate and honey with no limit on how much you try. A bilingual guide and access to the whole organic farm are included, and an umbrella is the one thing worth bringing.

From $56 per person

Costa Rica: Sloth Tour & Coffee, Chocolate and Sugarcane

Transport from downtown La Fortuna and the streets around it comes with the booking, so the day starts wherever you are staying in town. Three hours cover a guided search for sloths in their own habitat and then the traditional processing of coffee, chocolate and sugarcane. A bilingual guide works in Spanish and English throughout, and the tastings run to freshly brewed coffee, artisanal chocolate and cane juice. Meals and photographs are not included, and comfortable shoes matter more than anything else you pack.

From $99 per person

La Fortuna: Local Coffee Tour Experience

Coffee and nothing else, for two hours, with the Villegas family on a farm they have worked for more than forty years. You pick, roast and grind by hand, the old way, and then brew and drink what you made. A snack cooked over an open flame closes it, paired with your own coffee, and a small bag of beans goes home with you. Entry, the guided walk around the property and the history of Costa Rican coffee are all inside the fare.

From $40 per person

San José: Arenal Volcano, Waterfalls, Coffee and Hot Springs

Fourteen hours out of San José, not La Fortuna, with hotel pickup and a scenic route that avoids the main highway. The coffee stop is one of six, alongside the La Paz and San Fernando waterfalls, an iguana centre, lunch under Arenal, a Malekú presentation and an afternoon in the thermal pools. Transport, a bilingual guide, every entrance fee, lunch and dinner are all inside the fare. Treat it as a whole day of Costa Rica with coffee in it rather than a farm morning, and pack your swimwear.

From $165 per person

Not in La Fortuna — this one leaves San José and gives coffee one stop of six.