De San José: Monteverde Cloud Forest & Farm Local Experience

Highly recommended! Very much enjoyed Jose's tour of beautiful cloud forest. Extremely scenic drive along coast and high into mountains. Hanging Bridges naturalist walk offered bio-diverse flora and fascinating wildlife viewing. Restaurant lunch stop was superb. The farm visit was a memorable off-the-beaten-track bonus. Nicely balanced, full-day tour, further enhanced by Jose's worldly perspectives and engaging conversation during the drive. Very much enjoyed the day.

Absolutely wonderful experience. It made the day completely stress free. Our guide, Nelson was kind, help and so knowledgeable. We zip lined and did the hanging bridges

Likes: Monteverde is a very interesting area. We hiked the hanging bridges which were uncrowded due to 50+ mph winds. Although the winds prevented us from seeing any wildlife it was a great walk. Freddie was very friendly but a little unfamiliar with the area. His English was ok but communication was a challenge at times. Traffic was very heavy in both directions Dislikes The drive turned about to be 7 hours round trip. More than expected. Given the 10 hour duration this left little time for exploration out side of the hanging bridges. We attempted to hike in the reserve but while waiting in the long line we realized we were out of time and headed back. Pro Tips - be prepared for drastic changes in weather, we experienced upper 50 s and mid 90s during this tour. Wind and rain very likely.

Our driver is Manuel who is very kind and an impressive man. We enjoyed the clouded mountain much thanks to him!

Our guide was Manuel B.—very friendly and kind soul. We improvised a bit since my husband and I had come in on a red eye and were exhausted: we needed a low-key day and we’re planning to stay in Monteverde rather than returning back to San Jose. We went on backroads to avoid traffic and drove past smaller towns and hillsides as we asked him more about what it was like to live here, and learned more about Costa Rica culture. Our first stop was to Puntarenas to see the ocean and cool our feet in the water. He found us some coconuts and we had a refreshing drink before driving up to Monteverde. Here we had a wonderful leisurely meal at the Open Kitchen cafe and went to the beautiful and charming Butterfly refuge. Wanting to get back to the hotel for dinner, we made a last stop at the coffee shop at the Monteverde cloud forest preserve. We sat on the porch at the café and listened to and watched multiple hummingbirds feeding. So peaceful and thrilling for us. Bird sounds filled the air. Then back to our hotel. Lovely personalized day! Manuel is a genuine and generous person and we glad to have met him. Wonderful experience!

We had an awesome experience on this tour. We were picked up on time by a friendly driver Esteban. He guided us along the way and shared valuable tips on local attractions. Monteverde was worth visiting with 13 ziplines and 8 hanging bridges (canopy). Please remember all entrance tickets have to be purchased separately and it is not included in the price here. We highly recommend this trip.

Our guide Diana ensured that we had a wonderful and relaxing day exploring Monteverde. Everything was well organized, friendly and totally relaxing. In addition to being flexible and making sure that we saw everything on our hitlist Diana also surprised us with some stops we would never have discovered on our own. These guys live up to their name and it genuinely was like having a local friend.

He was super friendly and informative. He took us to Monteverde to do the main touristy things we wanted to do (ziplines and hanging bridges), and then had a bunch of other suggestions to fill in the time. We went and had a wonderful lunch with a fantastic view at the Hotel Belmar. It was definitely a good day!