🇨🇷 Costa Rica · Central Valley
Turrialba is a byword for adventure. In this quiet city at the eastern end of the Central Valley, far from the beaches and the big tourist circuits, beats the heart of Costa Rican rafting. This is where expeditions down the Río Pacuare start, a river repeatedly picked by specialist magazines and operators as one of the best in the world to raft: a canyon of untouched jungle, green walls dropping to the water, waterfalls plunging in mid-route and a run of rapids that mixes adrenaline with pure beauty.
But Turrialba is much more than the river. It's a rural, authentic area of coffee farms, dairy farms and the famous Turrialba cheese (with protected designation of origin), dominated by the outline of Turrialba Volcano. A few kilometers away hides Monumento Nacional Guayabo, the most important archaeological site in the country, and CATIE, a prestigious agricultural research center with one of the richest botanical gardens in the tropics. This is deep Costa Rica: green and unhurried.
This guide runs through the essentials of Turrialba and the Río Pacuare with a practical eye: what the rafting experience is like, what level of difficulty to expect, how to choose between the day trip and a stay at a canyon lodge, how to get there and what else to do in the area. For anyone who loves adventure and nature, Turrialba is an essential stop on any trip through Costa Rica.
In pre-Columbian times the Turrialba region was inhabited by chiefdom societies linked to the great center of Guayabo, whose ancient city stands a few kilometers away on the slopes of the volcano. After the Spanish conquest and through the colonial period, the area remained a corridor between the Central Valley and the Caribbean side. Turrialba's big push came in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the Atlantic Railway, which connected San José with the port of Limón and crossed the area, turning it into a key point for moving coffee and bananas. The city grew around the railway and around farming — coffee, sugar cane, dairy cattle and the distinctive Turrialba cheese. In 1942 CATIE (the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) was founded there, giving Turrialba international scientific standing. From the last decades of the 20th century, the discovery of the Río Pacuare and the Río Reventazón as world-class rafting destinations turned Turrialba into Costa Rica's adventure capital. Today the Pacuare canyon is also a symbol of the country's environmental struggle: for years there was debate over building hydroelectric dams that would have flooded the canyon, and defending the river became a banner of the conservation movement. The full story is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The first capital of Costa Rica, founded in 1563: the country's colonial cradle and the heart of its faith, home to the Basilica of the Virgin of Los Ángeles —the 'Negrita'—, a land of giant volcanoes, coffee valleys and of the pre-Columbian monument of Guayabo, the oldest stone city in the country.
Read the history of Cartago →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Long before the city of Turrialba existed or the Río Pacuare became famous for rafting, this region at the eastern end of the Central Valley was inhabited by highly complex pre-Columbian societies. The most impressive testimony to that past is Monumento Nacional Guayabo, the most important archaeological site in Costa Rica, on the slopes of Turrialba Volcano a few kilometers from today's city.
Guayabo was a chiefdom city occupied for centuries — roughly between 1000 BC and AD 1400 — that came to hold thousands of inhabitants and developed remarkable hydraulic engineering, with stone aqueducts that still work. This shows that in pre-Columbian times the Turrialba area was fertile, well connected and densely populated, thanks to abundant water, volcanic soils and the resources of the forest.
The region was inhabited by Chibchan-speaking peoples, the forerunners of the Indigenous communities that still live in the nearby mountains today, such as the Cabécar, whose communities are found in the Pacuare basin and other rivers on the Caribbean side. That Indigenous presence, ancient and ongoing, is part of the deep identity of the area.
After the Spanish conquest, the Turrialba region remained for centuries a corridor between the Central Valley, where the colonial population was concentrated, and the Caribbean side, emptier and more heavily forested. It was an area of farms, cattle and early agriculture, far from the centers of power in Cartago, the old colonial capital nearby.
The great change came at the end of the 19th century with the construction of the Atlantic Railway, the project that connected San José with the port of Limón on the Caribbean in order to move coffee and, later, bananas to international markets. The railway route crossed the Turrialba region, turning it into a strategic point for transit and services. The city grew around the station and the tracks and established itself as a farming and commercial center.
The arrival of the train boosted the local economy: coffee in the highlands, sugar cane, dairy cattle — the home of the famous Turrialba cheese — and, in the lowlands towards the Caribbean, the banana plantations. For much of the 20th century Turrialba lived to the rhythm of the railway, until the decline of rail transport forced the area to reinvent itself, first with farming and then with adventure tourism.
A singular chapter in Turrialba's history is its transformation into an agricultural science center of international standing. In 1942 the Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences was founded on its outskirts, and in time it would give rise to CATIE (the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center), one of the most recognized research and postgraduate institutions in tropical agriculture and natural resource management in Latin America.
CATIE chose Turrialba for its ideal conditions: humid tropical climate, fertile soils, a variety of environments and a good location. Over the decades the institution gathered extraordinary living collections — among them one of the largest coffee and cacao germplasm banks in the world — and trained generations of scientists and professionals from across the region. Its campus, with botanical gardens and experimental plantations, also became an attraction for visitors.
CATIE's presence gave Turrialba a double identity: that of a rural, farming area, but also that of a hub of scientific knowledge tied to coffee, cacao and conservation. That calling fits well with the environmental profile the region gradually developed, first through science and later through ecotourism and adventure tourism.
The Río Pacuare rises in the Talamanca range and runs down through a canyon of primary rainforest towards the Caribbean side. For centuries it was a remote river, known to the Indigenous and rural communities along its banks but unknown to the wider public. That changed in the last decades of the 20th century, when the growth of adventure tourism in Costa Rica turned its eyes to these waters.
The first rafting and kayaking descents revealed what is now a consensus among enthusiasts worldwide: the Pacuare combines, like few rivers, the intensity of its rapids (class III-IV) with exceptional scenic beauty, with waterfalls dropping into the canyon, walls of untouched jungle and abundant wildlife. Specialist magazines and guides began listing it among the best rafting rivers on the planet, and Turrialba established itself as Costa Rica's whitewater capital.
The rafting boom transformed the economy of Turrialba: operators, lodges inside the canyon, professional guides and a whole adventure tourism industry appeared, giving the region new life after the decline of the railway. The Pacuare and the nearby Río Reventazón turned this quiet farming city into an internationally recognized adventure destination, drawing travelers from all over the world.
The Río Pacuare isn't only famous for rafting: it also became a symbol of environmental struggle in Costa Rica. For years the river's hydroelectric potential attracted dam projects that would have flooded much of the canyon, destroying its scenic value, its ecosystem and the tourism that sustains the region, as well as affecting the Cabécar Indigenous communities along its banks.
The defense of the Pacuare brought together tour operators, environmentalists, local communities and Indigenous peoples in a common cause. Social mobilization and environmental awareness meant that, at various points, dam projects on the Pacuare were halted or rejected, in a country that takes pride in its renewable energy mix but has also learned to value the conservation of its wild rivers. The canton of Turrialba went as far as declaring itself opposed to dams on the Pacuare through local consultations and statements.
The contrast is provided by the neighboring Río Reventazón, where the large Reventazón hydroelectric project was indeed built, altering the river's course and some of its rafting sections. The story of the two rivers neatly sums up the Costa Rican dilemma between energy development and conservation, and makes the free-flowing Pacuare an emblem of the country's conservation movement.
Today's Turrialba is a synthesis of its whole history: a rural, authentic city surrounded by coffee and dairy farms, dominated by its active volcano and embraced by two world-famous rivers. Far from the bustle of the beaches and the big tourist circuits, it keeps a calm pace and a strong local character, which makes it appealing to anyone looking for a deeper, less crowded Costa Rica.
Adventure tourism is now one of its engines: rafting on the Pacuare and the Reventazón, ziplines, hiking and the canyon lodges draw travelers from all over the world. Added to that are the archaeological heritage of Guayabo, the science and gardens of CATIE, the coffee and cacao tours, and the tradition of Turrialba cheese with its protected designation of origin. Turrialba Volcano, active in recent years, is a reminder of the living nature of the region and calls for attention to safety instructions.
From pre-Columbian settlement to railway station, from scientific center to rafting capital, Turrialba has reinvented itself again and again without losing its rural essence. For travelers it offers an uncommon combination of adrenaline, wild nature, heritage and country identity, all less than two hours from San José.