The lake road
Lookouts and villages.
Grez — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Beate Schröder-Wettwer — CC BY-SA 4.0 · BNP-CR506 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rhododendrites — CC BY-SA 4.0
Costa Rica's largest lake, a vast reservoir created in the 1970s when a hydroelectric dam flooded the valley west of Arenal volcano, stretching about thirty kilometres between green hills, forest and farms, with the volcano at its eastern end. The road looping around its northern shore is one of the country's most scenic, winding above the water with lookouts over lake and volcano, past small villages, cafés and German-style bakeries, and wind farms on the hills at the western end, where the wind is very strong. The lake offers boat trips, fishing and kayaking, and the wind at its western end makes it one of the world's best windsurfing spots. Some visitors cross the lake by boat on the way between La Fortuna and Monteverde, a shorter and lovelier trip than the road. The finest time is a clear morning when the volcano is mirrored in the water.
Lookouts and villages.
At the west end.
To Monteverde.
West of Arenal volcano, from the dam near La Fortuna to Nuevo Arenal and Tilarán
Yes, on a jeep-boat-jeep transfer across the lake, shorter and lovelier than the long road.