Experience the rumble of nature as you look up at a steaming volcano, from a safe distance as you eat on a verandah or soak in hot volcanic mineral waters. Watch lava flowing down the sides of the volcano glow at night, after a day watching brilliantly colored butterflies and birds in the rainforest. Hike, horseback ride, hunt for orchids, mountain bike, fish, kayak, windsurf, or canoe. Enjoy eco-tours of coffee plantations and cloud forest canopies. Rappel waterfalls and rock walls. Raft whitewaters or float easily down rivers. Or just kickback and listen to tropical bird songs and howler monkeys as you relax near tropical gardens at your Arenal Volcano National Park vacation rental.

Meditate on the changing nature of planet Earth as you sip Costa Rican coffee and contemplate Volcan Arenal (Arenal Volcano). It seemed just another conical mountain amidst pastoral farmland. Then Volcan Arenal abruptly awoke from a 400-year slumber and without warning erupted in 1968. Now there is Volcan Arenal National Park and tourism. An Arenal Volcano National Park vacation rental is about more than saving money on a romantic getaway or family outing. It is about being closer to nature and having a more personalized experience than in a hotel room.

Laguna de Arenal (Lake Arenal), a hydropower-generating manmade lake in Arenal Volcano National Park, is also easily accessible from money-saving vacation rentals in Atenas, El Castillo, La Fortuna de San Carlos, and Nuevo Arenal. Bijagua de Upala in northern Alajuela province is closer to Volcano Tenorio and the Nicaraguan border. Charter an early morning fishing boat and photograph volcano reflections in Lake Arenal while fishing for guapote (rainbow bass), shad, and tilapia. Snap shots of local fishermen with fishing lines sitting on chairs perched on balsa logs floating in the lake. Windsurfers flock to Lake Arenal when the December to March afternoon winds whip up whitecaps.

Take the whole family or a romantic special someone horseback riding through corn fields and pastures to a waterfall like Cataratas del Rio Fortuna. Hot springs and spas for soaking in volcanically-heated mineral waters, massages, and body treatments are plentiful around Arenal Volcano National Park. Kayak, canoe, whitewater raft challenging rapids, or do an easy float on the Toro, Balsa, Penas, Blancas, Arenal, or San Carlos Rivers. Then kickback and relax at your money-saving Arenal Volcano National Park vacation rental home, cabin, villa, suite, apartment, or guest room. Watch fireflies flashing at night and the volcano glowing in the moonlight.