This is a long trip from San Jose. We left around 8 and didn't arrive at the hot springs until after 2. We had lunch en route and a stop at Arenal to take some pgo ictures.
I'd advise you to check which Springs you are going to ... I saw the photo of Tabacon Springs and assumed that to be the destination (I'd been to Tabacon and wanted to return) ... but no... I was told I'd only paid to go to Baldi Springs. It cost me another $48 USD to go Tabacon. Tabacon is beaautiful and the buffet superb.

NICE RIDE TO THE TWO PLACES. AVERAGE SIGHTSEEING SETTINGS. VERY VERY LONG 14 HOUR DAY.

Drive was too long and was disappointed we did not get a closer look at the Volcano after driving for 3 hours. Hot springs was very nice though and the dinner was very good.

The tour was OK. The drive was LONG (3 hours) and the vehicle was very small and completely full. There was no restroom in the van. The van was old and it rattled--made a lot of noise. Seats were uncomfortable. The volcano (which didn't do anything but smoke---and hasn't done in 2 1/2 years according to the tour guide) wasn't anything spectacular. The landscape where we stopped to take pictures was beautiful, but at the end of the day, the volcano was just a mountain. The visit to the hot springs resort was well worth it. Very relaxing. Beautiful resort. Definitely the highlight of the trip. My one draw back was that the water wasn't very hot. The day wasn't very hot, so the waters were pretty luke warm. The food (lunch and dinner) was very good. Tour guide was knowledgeable.

Lunch was poor

It was a nice day trip. Although, I wish that the group didn't have to split up to go to 2 different hot springs and restaurant locations. Also, we were the first picked up and the last dropped off. It was a lot of time just sitting in the bus....kind of a drag

Viator was great but the local tour operator was terrible. They forgot to pick us up and told us it was our fault. We had to re-organize our trip to reschedule the tour and when they were suppose to pick us up a second time, they went to the wrong hostel and told us to take a taxi to another hotel.

Extremely disappointing for time spent and price. Over a three hour drive from San Jose. We did not get to see or hear anything about the Arenal, the excuse being cloud cover. If we had known that all we would do was go to hot springs for several hours we would not have booked the trip and wasted six plus hours on a horrible van ride. By the time the driver picked us up the van was full. I sat on a seat over the wheel well with my legs cramped up for the whole day! The whole day was spoiled because of the discomfort of that van.

This tour is not marketed well at all. If your goal is to sit on a bus for 7-8 hours and see the hot springs for 2-3, you'll be pleased. But if you are going to see a volcano, skip over this one.

Unfortunately they were going to take us to Baldi and not Tabacon who is the most beautiful one to visit and a must. Deal 93.99 is no deal it is just the rate charged by every tour company. You have to pay 116.00 to see the Tabacon and Viator makes it look like you are going there for 93.99. Luckily we upgraded with an additional fee.

I booked this tour anticipating that at least part of our day would be spent touring the Arenal volcano itself, and National Park (the day trip was misleadingly advertised as 'Arenal Volcano and Hot Springs'). Instead, we were taken directly to a thermal spa, after an unnecessarily long (2-hour!) buffet lunch stop at a nearby restaurant. The spa itself was nice, if a little too touristy. After spending more than 3 hours there (it was well after sunset when we departed), we were driven around the Arenal lake reservoir, completely pointlessly, as by then it was dark and we could not see any of the surrounding area. Equally pointless was a later stop at a viewing point, which supposedly provided an optimal view of the Arenal volcano (perhaps it would have, if our visit there had been scheduled to take place when there was still daylight!). The tour concluded with another long stop for dinner, at the same restaurant where we had lunch. The service was hopelessly slow this second time, and the food mediocre quality.
To make matters worse, throughout the trip the tour guide's commentary was frustratingly dumbed-down, providing no useful, or substantial information on local history, or the volcano itself. He also kept addressing our group as if it consisted of schoolchildren on an excursion.
In conclusion, I found this tour to be a huge disappointment. It was certainly not worth its price (over £50 per person). I would discourage any tourist interested in seeing and learning about Arenal itself and the National Park from booking it.