We chose Classic and the La Fortuna Waterfall was genuinely one of the most overwhelming things I have ever seen. No photograph does it justice — 70 metres of water in full voice, and you are standing right there in the mist at the base of it, completely unable to speak. The 500 steps down are real, and the 500 steps back up are also very real, but neither matters in the slightest once you arrive. The sloths on the Bogarin Trail and the hot springs afterwards completed a day I will never forget.

We took Plus and hiked into Arenal National Park itself — walking across an actual lava field with the volcano visible through the canopy above us. Our guide knew every sound in that forest and stopped us three times to point out animals we would have walked straight past. Afterwards, sinking into a thermal pool surrounded by jungle at the end of that day was almost surreal. Wild Papagayo made the very early pickup feel completely seamless — there was breakfast on the way, coffee in the van, and I barely noticed the three-hour drive.

Our children are eight and eleven and both of them will tell anyone who asks that the sloth on the Bogarin Trail was the best thing that happened to them in Costa Rica. We were close enough to see it blink. The waterfall was extraordinary and our youngest actually counted every one of the steps on the way back up. The hot springs at the end were perfect — warm water, jungle all around, the volcano just visible in the distance. An exhausting, magnificent, completely unforgettable day.