Your Daily Transportation Service from Monteverde to Arenal

Jeep Boat Jeep Tour from Monteverde to Arenal

The Jeep Boat Jeep Tour is a door-to-door transportation service that takes you from your lodge in Monteverde to your lodging in Arenal. 

A shuttle will pick you up at your lodge in Monteverde and will take you to the lake. Then, you will jump on a medium-sized boat to cross Arenal’s lake from Monteverde’s side to Arenal’s. And then, you will hop on another shuttle that will finally take you from Arenal’s lake to your destination in Arenal. 

Jeep Boat Jeep Tour Duration

The Jeep Boat Jeep Tour takes approximately 4 hours. 

Your first shuttle ride from Monteverde to the lake will take about 1.5 hours. Your boat ride to cross the lake will take about 45 minutes. And then, your final shuttle ride from Arenal’s lake to your lodge in Arenal will take another 1.5-hours. 

Jeep Boat Jeep Tour Departure Times

The Jeep Boat Jeep Tour departs Monteverde twice a day during the high season, from December through April, and once a day during the offseason, from May through November. 

The first Jeep Boat Jeep Tour departs from Monteverde between 7:00 am, and 8:35 am. The second Jeep Boat Jeep Tour, available only during the high season, departs Monteverde between 1:00 pm and 2:35 pm. 

The service is door-to-door, so you will be picked up directly at your hotel or AirB&B, as long as they are within a reasonable distance inside’s Monteverde perimeter.

When you’re ready to book, click on the “BOOK NOW” button below, enter the number of people in your party and choose your pickup place to get a good idea of the approximate pickup time at your location. 

Jeep Boat Jeep Tour Arrival Times

The Jeep Boat Jeep Tour arrives at Arenal twice a day during the high season, from December through April, and once a day during the offseason, from May through November. 

The first Jeep Boat Jeep Tour arrives at Arenal at around 11 am, and the second Jeep Boat Jeep Tour, available only during the high season, comes at Arenal at around 6 pm. 

Jeep Boat Jeep Tour Prices

The Jeep Boat Jeep Tour offers an affordable transportation solution for travelers going from Monteverde to Arenal. 

The regular price for the Jeep Boat Jeep Tour is $27 per person, which includes the complete door-to-door transportation service from Monteverde to Arenal, along with a piece of luggage and a carry on: 

• The shuttle ride from Monteverde to the lake;
• The boat trip to cross Arenal’s lake;
• The shuttle ride Arenal’s lake to Arenal

Restrictions: The Jeep Boat Jeep Tour’s regular price applies to the pickup and dropoff places en route. Depending on where you are staying and where you are heading, additional charges might apply because we need the extra fee to cover the additional time and resources to deviate from our conventional route.

When you’re ready to book, click on the “BOOK NOW” button below, enter the number of people in your party and choose your pickup and dropoff places, and the system will show you on the screen if your pickup or dropoff places are due for an extra fee or not.

If your lodge is not listed there, please get in touch with us to get a quote. 

Extra items: As mentioned above, the regular price for the Jeep Boat Jeep Tour includes a piece of luggage and a carry-on. For additional luggage, a bicycle, or a surfboard, the extra charge is $10 apiece. If you have to carry one of these items, you will need to pay the additional cost to the driver in cash at the pickup time. 

Jeep Boat Jeep Tour Capacity

The Jeep Boat Jeep Tour requires a minimum quota of participants to run. Without the required minimum number of people, the tour is economically feasible, so it cannot operate. 

The minimum number of people required to operate the Jeep Boat Jeep Tour is 4. If less than four people book the service, they will need to pay an extra fee in cash to the driver at the pickup time to cover the minimum of 4 seats. 

The good thing is that many people travel from Monteverde to Arenal, so it is usually easy to fill in the tour with four travelers. 

In any case, paying the extra fee to reach the minimum quota is still the best option compared to the alternatives; taking a bumpy 4-hour taxi ride that will cost between $140 and $160, or a bumpier 136-km bus journey, with a change-over in Tilaran that will take you 8 hours. 

On the other hand, the maximum capacity is up to 22 passengers, in which case a big shuttle will pick you up, and a big boat will take you to cross the lake. There can also be multiple boats and shuttles, depending on the demand for this tour. For example, during the high season of tourism, it is common to see up to four shuttles operating daily between December and April, so it is vitally important to book in advance during those times to reserve your seats. 

Jeep Boat Jeep Tour’s Story

Back in the 1,990s, when Monteverde became worldwide famous for its cloud forest, an unprecedented number of tourists started to travel from Arenal to Monteverde, but the road was extremely rough. It was common to see between one and three tourists get stuck in the middle of the road due to mechanical, almost every day, especially during the rainy season. After all, these roads were only for local farmers, and the government had no funds and no solid business case to improve them. 

Locals used their good old Jeep to “rescue” tourists who got stuck crossing Rio Chiquito’s creek almost daily. Tourists were terrified by how rough the road was, especially at this point where they needed to cross the river, but they were just as thankful when locals helped them. Costa Rican people have a big heart, and helping each other is part of Tico’s DNA. 

Often, tourists would leave their rental car at a local house for the car rental company to pick it up, and they would reach Monteverde with the help of these locals who would give them a ride on their Jeep for a reasonable fee. But the road was still rough, and it was a long way to get to Monteverde going around the lake. 

So, this is when we implemented the Jeep Boat Jeep Tour service, where a family in Arenal would pick up tourists from their lodge to take them to the lake, and then we would take them across the lake on a boat, to then take them to Monteverde on another Jeep. Using Jeeps and boats cut the travel time from an average of six hours to around four, and it also made the trip much more enjoyable. 

Later, in the early 2,000s, with the growth of tourism, the government started improving the road, and there was no longer a need to use strong Jeeps to move tourists from the lake to Monteverde, so instead, we subcontracted taxis. A taxi from Arenal to the lake, and another one from the other side of the lake to Monteverde. When we replaced Jeeps with Taxis, we also changed the service name from “Jeep Boat Jeep” to “Taxi Boat Taxi,” which is why people use these two terms interchangeably. 

Over the last decade, the number of tourists that travel from Arenal to Monteverde and vice versa has more than tripled, which is why we ultimately changed taxis for shuttles, which can take groups between 12 and 22 passengers at a time. And now we pride ourselves on helping these tourists get to their destination efficiently, safely, and timely.