Costa Rica summit
Arenal Volcano
You can see 245 km from here, looking north-west.
Calculating the panorama…
Drag to turn around. The relief is drawn 2.2 times taller so the ridges can be read; far ridges are paler, as in the real air.
The view
Up to 245 km away.
Calculated on the relief one degree at a time, up to 250 km, with the curvature of the Earth and the refraction of the air: what stands above the horizon from here.
Our own rating, from the relief and the climate only: open horizon (35 points), how far you see (25), sea and named peaks in view (20) and clear months (20).
- 245 kmFarthest ridgelooking north-west
- 100%Open horizonof the circle where the horizon is below your eyes
- 14%Seaof the circle where the horizon is the sea
- 47Peaks in viewnamed summits that rise above the relief in front
- 1,651 mAltitudeabove the sea, at the highest point of the viewpoint
The 47 peaks you can name from here
From west to east as you turn around: height, distance and direction. Each one links to its guide on Peakyas, our mountain atlas.
From the relief only: buildings, trees and haze are not in the model. On a hazy day you see much less; 250 km is the limit of our calculation.
The sun
The best sunsets are from February to March.
When the sun really disappears from this viewpoint — behind the relief or into the sea — and in which direction, on the 15th of each month, in local time.
- Janwestsets on an open horizon41%
- Febwestsets on an open horizon49%
- Marwestsets on an open horizon49%
- Aprwest-2 min before the sea-level sunset34%
- Maywestsets on an open horizon17%
- Junnorth-westsets on an open horizon14%
- Julwestsets on an open horizon13%
- Augwest-2 min before the sea-level sunset16%
- Sepwestsets on an open horizon17%
- Octwest-2 min before the sea-level sunset16%
- Novwest-2 min before the sea-level sunset21%
- Decsouth-westsets on an open horizon34%
- Time: when the sun goes behind the horizon you see from here.
- Minutes: how much earlier the relief hides the sun.
- %: share of clear sky that month (NASA, 2001–2020).
The highlighted months are the clearest. Golden hour starts about an hour before.
The place
Arenal Volcano.
Active stratovolcano in Alajuela Province, Costa Rica
Arenal Volcano is a summit in Costa Rica, 1,651 m above the sea.
On a clear day the farthest ridge you can see is 245 km away, looking north-west.
The sea fills 14% of the horizon.
47 named peaks rise above the relief in front; the most prominent is Irazú Volcano (3,432 m), 108 km away.
The horizon is open, below your eyes, over 100% of the circle.
The skies are clearest from February to March.
Get there and stay
- Camping la fortuna, San Carloscampsite · 7.3 km · 4 within 10 km
- Lumbres Arenalplace to stay · 3.8 km · 174 within 10 km
- La Fortunanearest town · 6.4 km in a straight linePlaces to stay in La FortunaBooking.com · sponsored link↗
- La Fortuna Arenal Airport (FON)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 14 km in a straight lineCar hire at SJO airport (San José)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
A guided tour, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above
The viewpoint and its surroundings.
The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the viewpoint, with what OpenStreetMap shows nearby.
Around, in OpenStreetMap
- 19other viewpoints within 5 kmMirador de Volcán Arenal, Rio Fortuna catarata, Mirador Colada and 16 more
- 74shelters and huts within 5 km
- 18car parks within 3 km
- 3visitor centres within 5 kmGreen Lagoon Tourist Information, Recepción Catarata Rio Fortuna, Go Adventure
- 3restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- 4campsites within 10 kmCamping la fortuna, San Carlos, Sunset camping y glamping and 2 more
- 174places to stay within 10 kmLumbres Arenal, Los Lagos - Hotel, Spa & Resort, Lavas Tacotal and 171 more
- named peaks within 5 km
- cable car and funicular stations within 5 km
- marked trails within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
In our other atlases
What you see from Arenal Volcano, and what is near.
Everything around this viewpoint — mountains, water, forests, birds, caves and the night sky — in the family's atlases.
Peakyas3 mountains within 25 km
Darkskyas2 dark-sky places within 30 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap, GBIF). Links open when each site is online.
Photographs
The view, as people saw it.
Other viewpoints nearby.
Arenal Volcano
Costa Rica
- 83Viewyas Score
- 245 kmFarthest ridge
- 47Peaks in view
- 1,651 mAltitude
Irazú Volcano
Costa Rica · 108 km
- 85Viewyas Score
- 249 kmFarthest ridge
- 11Peaks in view
- 3,417 mAltitude
Maderas
Nicaragua · 140 km
- 89Viewyas Score
- 249 kmFarthest ridge
- 89Peaks in view
- 1,328 mAltitude
Concepción
Nicaragua · 155 km
- 91Viewyas Score
- 249 kmFarthest ridge
- 77Peaks in view
- 1,617 mAltitude
Where these figures come from
| Name and type | Wikidata (Q641588) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Sun | J. Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms |
| Peaks in view | Peakyas (Wikidata, CC0) |
| Panorama and altitude | Copernicus DEM GLO-90 / GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Clouds | NASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2) |
| What is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Sister atlases | Peakyas, Darkskyas, Cascadyas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
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