I’ve been rafting, but I have never had an experience like this!! The Pacuare river has class 4 rapids which is awesome, but that is not the best part.
National Geographic calls the Pacuare River one of the top 5 rivers in the world for rafting class II-IV waters, and it is no surprise why!!
To make it the ultimate experience, sleep overnight on the river. I was skeptical because SO often I find tour companies add on something a little “extra” which really means the price is just doubled.
Bear with me, IT IS WORTH IT! There is a reason so many people say it is their favorite experience in Costa Rica!
There are 5 main companies that offer rafting and have accomodations along the Pacuare River.
After a ton of research we chose Pacuare River Lodge (not the same as Pacuare Lodge). They are the best budget and SERIOUSLY we could not have had a better experience!
**Edit. I ended up coming back and rafting Pacuare again as a 1 day excusion with Traviesas Naturales in Turrialba.
I also had a great experience with them, and they took even more professional photos (though they were $40 to buy).
It was 30,000 CRC for the day, including an amazing lunch. I had an amazing time the second time with Juan Carlos as my guide. The river was different. This year I also went in August but the rapids were a little different. More intense this year. We stopped at a different place for lunch and a different place to swim in the river and see a waterfall. There are a lot of cool companies that raft Pacuare (probably 15) and I am sure a lot of them are great.
Day 1
I was a little nervous about going with a cheaper company because I really just wanted to be safe and have a good experience, but apparently the rafting guides for the Pacuare River guides are freelance workers.
This means they are not tied to a certain company. They rotate around the companies in the area and Pacuare River Lodge makes sure to get the best of the best! Honestly I have been rafting several times and I have NEVER felt so safe with a rafting guide. Moises was incredible.
At 10 AM we met up with the group near the Paquare River. They kept our car keys so they could bring us our car the next day at the end of our rafting trip (24 km).
We drove 15 min to the water edge and rafted for about an hour on class II/III rapids until we reached the Pacuare River Lodge by noon.
We were a little bummed that the first day only included one hour of rafting and then hanging out at the lodge, but the lodge was the best part of the first day!!!!!
Moises (I don’t think I can say enough how awesome he was) took us to two different waterfalls. One we could jump from. He is hillarious and he climbed to the top of one of the waterfalls and blocked the flow! I was nervous to climb to the top and he helped me up and then jumped before me.
Moises is so adventurous and fun and patient with everyone. We stopped to take a bunch of pictures and he was great.
After exploring we had the best lunch ever. Moises can do everything! He is an awesome chef. Kurk (the owner) hires only the best people. All of the workers there were so helpful and friendly and we made good friends with them.
After lunch we walked around and explored some more and chatted with the other people in our group.
Day 2
By 6:30 AM we woke up to the sound of the rain on the roof. I was in heaven. I did not want to get out of bed. The jungle came alive with the sounds of the animals and everything just smelled so amazing.
Breakfast was at 8 and then we had to head out. After another one of Moises’ amazing meals and a very very sad goodbye to the lodge, we headed back out on the river!
Apparently Moises is one of the best rafting guides in Costa Rica and has done very well in competitions around the country. We felt so safe! Dan and have been rafting before and felt way less safe on smaller rapids. We joked that Moises could have done everything.
He told us hillarious stories, including one where he was rafting with a bunch of professionals and flipped the raft on purpose (as in the nose of the raft when over the back and it completely flipped haha).
Moises stopped at different points on the river to see if we wanted to cliff jump. He spotted animals and even put our GoPro on his own helmet so he could take footage of us rafting. He was so awesome.
Paquare River Lodge also provided pictures of us rafting. Such a fun perk!! A lot of them are low quality, but they captured some fun memories!
After some really fun and intense rapids we reached a breath-taking canyon. This canyon is part of the reason Pacuare River is claimed to be one of the best for rafting. It is absolutely incredible.
Moises encouraged us to jump out and swim around. We had a blast.
Greenery climbed up both sides of the canyon walls. We finished right before lunch time and we were sad to be done. It was an awesome trip. We finished up with an amazing trip and got into our car, which they had brought right to us.
I 100% recommend rafting the Pacuare River and I 100% recommend going with Pacuare River Lodge. Ask for Moises!!! He is our favorite!!!