Costa Rica Sky to Sea Multisport Adventure
Develop your paddling skills in a supportive and fun environment.
Paddle, cycle, and hike from Costa Rica’s tallest volcano to the Caribbean coast. Experience the tropical Pacuare River and the Costa Rican backcountry on this specially designed experiential adventure perfect for students and youth!
Your group will switch it up daily with a variety of activities, explore the jungle, and experience Costa Rica on this fully customized trip!
What to expect
Surround your group with nature. This trip takes you from the cloud forest to the thick jungle, all the way to the coastal plains and to sandy Caribbean beaches.
This is a great way to bond during an active, outdoor adventure.
On the river, we’ll outfit you with your own kayaraft, a stable inflatable kayak. These boats are great for practicing because they’re stable and easy to steer. The guides will also bring a river raft, which you can hop into at any time if you prefer a guided boat.
All activities are “challenge by choice,” so there is always a way to opt out. On the river, you can choose to walk around certain rapids, jump in the raft instead of your kayaraft, or skip a day by going with the support vehicle.
Costa Rica experiential expedition details
Sample Itinerary & Description
Welcome to Costa Rica! Your Boreal River guides and driver will meet you at Juan Santamaría International Airport. From the airport, we’ll drive through San Jose to our hotel in a trendy neighborhood beside the University of Costa Rica.
This evening, we’ll have a kickoff meeting with the group to go over how to pack your bags for the following days of adventure. Dinner will be on your own. Within walking distance, you can find typical Costa Rican meals, microbreweries and pub food, and high-end restaurants.
Standing at 400m above sea level, the Irazu Volcano is Costa Rica’s tallest volcano. In the morning, we’ll drive to the top of the volcano, where we’ll have time to explore the national park’s moon-like dormant crater and its rich ecology. We will then ride 35km (22mi) downhill on mountain bikes.
The route takes us through the small-scale agricultural countryside of the volcano’s nutrient-rich slopes and across the saddle to the Turrialba volcano before descending a mix of trails, dirt roads, and smooth pavement (all with very little to no vehicle traffic).
We will stop for a typical lunch at a soda (local restaurant) along the way and have plenty of time to enjoy the views. Tonight we will camp in Turrialba.
Today we meet the great Pacuare river, a world-renown whitewater river that flows deep within the Costa Rican jungle all the way to the Caribbean Sea. This river will be our conveyor belt to the sea. Today’s section is called the Upper Upper. This section, rarely used by commercial raft operators, provides a beautiful playground of class II, III and IV rapids.
We will run through some basic safety concepts and you can choose if you want to paddle your own inflatable kayaraft or if you would like to raft with a small group. Tonight, our 4X4 support vehicle meets us, and we set up camp beside the remote village of San Joaquin.
The next section of the river has class V expert-only canyons. We avoid this section, breaking away from the river for a beautiful hike up to Mollejones, a small Costa Rican village overlooking the Pacuare river valley.
Today’s hike will take approximately 5 to 6 hours. We walk through pastures, cross streams, and hike along small trails, gaining elevation throughout the day. In Mollejones, you will stay with a host family (you may sleep indoors or set up your camp in their backyard if you prefer) and have dinner with them.
This community has developed a sustainable rural tourism initiative to welcome visitors like yourself and they are proud and excited to share their culture and lifestyle with you!
After breakfast with your host family, we will hike back down to the Pacuare River and paddle towards our next camp. Today’s hike will take us approximately 6 hours (downhill, including breaks) through the deep jungle, hiking on a single-path trail through deep forest undergrowth and ferns.
Your local guides will clear the jungle ahead of you, and we will take our time in this dense forest to do some birdwatching, butterfly watching, and look out for sloths.
Once we get to the river, we will then hop onto our boats or rafts and paddle for approximately 2-3 hours to make our way to our next riverside camp; El Nido del Tigre. That night, we will celebrate our long day and have some well-deserved rest!
Alternate itinerary: for those who would prefer to spend more time in Mollejones, to take more time to rest, or to engage in more cultural activities like a traditional cooking class or a local farm tour, you may skip the hike and join us by vehicle when we begin paddling on the river again.
After biking, paddling, and hiking through the Costa Rican jungle, you deserve a restful day around camp. El Nido del Tigre camp is the perfect spot to spend the day lounging on hammocks, reading by the river, and sleeping in late. This camp is 7km from the nearest paved road and can only be accessed by 4×4.
It’s the perfect spot to relax and enjoy some time off! If you’re looking for activities, you can walk to a local waterfall, swim in the rapids, practice your kayarafting skills, go on one of the many jungle trails, hike 7km up the valley to a small town, go trail running, do some yoga, practice your photography, go birdwatching… To each their own.
The Lower Pacuare ranks amongst the top 5 rafting sections in the world. Towering canyons border the canyon river, blue butterflies appear from lush and drooping ferns, and waterfalls spring out of the bedrock high above.
It’s the perfect spot to relax and enjoy some time off! If you’re looking for activities, you can walk to a local waterfall, swim in the rapids, practice your kayarafting skills, go on one of the many jungle trails, hike 7km up the valley to a small town, go trail running, do some yoga, practice your photography, go birdwatching… To each their own.
Truly out of a movie, this section also has some of the most fun rapids. We’ll take our time scouting rapids and enjoying the river, hiking to a waterfall, and looking for sloths and toucans that hang out in the canopy’s branches.
The day ends with a lazy-river paddle through the flatter section of the river, marking our transition from the rainforest to the coastal plains and agricultural (banana and pineapple) plantations.
Our camp for the night is nested in an oasis of tall palm trees and green ferns on the coastal plane, welcoming us to the last part of our journey to the coast.
Early in the morning, we will beat the tropical heat and bike as far as roads will take us! Where the road ends, we will use hard-shelled sea kayaks to paddle the last mile to the Caribbean sea. Our 26km bike ride will take us on a mix of dirt and paved roads, through agricultural communities and right in the heart of banana and pineapple plantations.
When we swap the bikes for boats, we will paddle a canal with a shady canopy of branches, roots and vines. This canal is an ideal place to spot monkeys, sloths, canal birds, and perhaps even a crocodile!
At the end of the 3hr leisurely paddle, the canal brings us back to the Pacuare River. We then round the corner and come face-to-face with crashing ocean waves and white-sand beaches where leatherback turtles nest. Here we will celebrate our journey from sky to sea!
After a small celebration by the sea, we will return to the road by motorboat. Our drive back to San José will take approximately 3hrs, passing through the cloud forests of Braulio Carrillo National Park.
Our trip ends in San José, where we will celebrate our journey with a group dinner in the Barrio Escalante neighborhood. We encourage you to book your own accommodations nearby if you are staying in San José. If you wish to extend your trip in Costa Rica, we can help you plan transportation along the Caribbean coast or recommend places to visit elsewhere in the country.
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