Family Adventure: River Drift in Costa Rica

Posted on September 1, 2016
by Aimee

There are so many adventures from our travels over the past year that I feel like I haven’t even been able to get to just because life moves so fast. One of them is the River Drift we did in Costa Rica right after ziplining near the Arenal volcano. Sky Adventures offers a combined package of zipline and tube rafting, and since I had visited their facilities during my 2014 Costa Rica trip, I thought it would be fun to expand our horizons.

Costa Rica River Drift at Arenal Volcano

I will warn you, this travel experience wasn’t all that easy. I wouldn’t say “extreme” by any means – because, hello, *I* did it – but the word “drift” is a bit deceiving. More like “super bumpy ride where you need to hold on like hell or you will flip into a rocky river bed full of rocks.” And I *did* flip, but our guide was right there with us to help me up and get me back on our way.

You first must zipline to the riverbank area, which of course is fun. It was a little more “old school” style in that you had to brake yourself, and while the guides gave us great training on what to do, I did end up scraping my arm. Are you noticing a trend? (I hurt myself wherever we go.)

My boys clearly had no problems with doing any of the tasks at hand.

We repelled down the river bank from a tree fort platform 130 feet in the air. I am not sure you would call it repelling exactly – more like being lowered from the sky and then splashed into the water by our guide as a joke.

Once in the water, it was a mixture of fast rapids and slow moving river. Again, not extreme, but challenging. We loved every minute of it.

The river can get quite tight at times and you bounce back and forth on the rocks like you are flowing down a pinball machine. But there is also plenty of time to marvel at the scenery.

It’s definitely an experience we won’t forget. Primarily because my son has asked to go back to Costa Rica just for this single adventure time and time again.