The 7 Best Budget-friendly Things to do in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Province of Puntarenas

Reviewed By Travels-with-Claire

Without doubt the most popular of the Nature Reserves in the Monteverde area, this park boasts a variety of user friendly trails that can be hiked within 4 or 5 hours at best. Of course you can hike fewer trails for a shorter visit. Unlike the Santa Elena park, I found the trails here to be much easier. They tend to fall into three general categories (photos attached for all three): the popular Sendero Camino trail is wide, almost as though it were designed for an all terrain vehicle, and easy to negotiate with only minor elevation gain, albeit somewhat rocky and muddy in areas. The trails that traverse the interior of the park all tend to be laid out with concrete stones. They are undoubtedly placed for purposes of traction, although I found them to be more annoying than helpful. The third type is very sanitized and well maintained paths. There is some elevation to contend with in the interior trails but for the most part, all of the trails in this park are easily negotiated by people of any age or fitness level. Most of the trails cut through the beautiful cloud forest. Off to the right and accessible via both the Sendero Camino and Sendero Nuboso trails is a cut off about 340 meters away, the La Ventana, leading to a gorgeous view and vista over both sides of the Continental Divide. Reputedly gorgeous that is, if you can actually see it! The Monteverde Cloud Forest is called a Cloud Forest for a reason. When we reached the viewpoint, is was totally and completely enshrouded in cloud and we could see absolutely nothing except for the cloud. We spend another couple of hours hiking the other trails in the park, during which time my optimistic side observed that the weather had cleared and there was even some blue sky emerging. As such, we decided to hike it back to the viewpoint, hoping to finally be able to see the view. No such luck. As we approached the lookout, that corner of the park seemed to be similarly encased in cloud. Strike two. Hard to say what percentage of the time the viewpoint is clear but the views are supposed to be incredible and based on our experience, do consider yourselves lucky if you catch it on a clear day! Other features of the park include a lovely hanging bridge and a path to a waterfall. The waterfall is pretty but not exactly spectacular compared to others we’ve seen elsewhere. We did manage to spot the rare and elusive Resplendant Quetzel, albeit unfortunately quite far off in the distance. No question that the park is crowded but less so than we had expected it to be. Apparently some locals are starting to refer to the park as the ‘Monteverde Crowd Forest.’ Certainly there is some thinning out of people once you start out on the trails. As you approach the park, the official parking lot is actually about three kilometres away from the entrance. The attendant will guide you in and give you a ticket. A shuttle will then ferry you up to the park entrance itself. Be sure to keep the parking ticket as you will pay for it at the ticket booth and the parking attendant will ask for its when you return to your car.