There are 30 national parks throughout Costa Rica, all shining beauty in different parts of Costa Rica. I must say this is one of the most asthetically pleasing, beautiful countries I have seen. I spent just under 2 weeks backpacking Costa Rica, and in this time I went to two of the most well known national parks, Monteverde and Manuel Antonio, both very different but gergous in thier own rights. This is my opinions on both parks and I hope it can help those looking to travel around Costa Rica.
Monteverde
Arriving in Monteverde, its a trek by car up mountains with crazy views of the landscape, the drive is daunting but the view makes it worth it. I highly reccomend taking a larger car with more power rather than my small Sazuki I had hired, it would make the drive much easier. And when you get to Monteverde you still need to drive to the near by attractions or its quite the walk. Driving up and through the mountains of Monteverde, I assumed there wouldn’t be much of a town, only dense forest. However my expectations were wrong. At the top of Monteverde is the main town with a variety of restaurants, shops and niche hotels. We stayed in Mari’s Air B and B, the cheapest accommodation we found on booking.com. It was a basic and comfortable family run business for about $25 a night. Often people recommended I stay 2 or more nights to fully explore the sights, however we only had time for 1 night and I think I saw all I needed to!
We arrived on a Thursday at around 2pm. I had done some research about what is around to do, mostly consisting of hikes, waterfalls, adventure zip lines and exploring the National Parks. After putting down our bags, we headed to El Tigre waterfall. It was a gentle hike with amazing views surrounded by jungle, the waterfall was tranquil intimate. We relaxed there and had a little swim, that’s in fact the only place we saw other backpackers the whole time in Monteverde. It was great to spend an afternoon relaxing and listening to the water drip into the small pool below. After on our scenic route back to the B and B, we saw the perfect lookout point (opposite the petrol station for reference) and decided that instead of spending money on a meal out like most nights, we would have a picnic in the field overlooking the sunset. In ways it reminded me of home, we bought snacks, a blanket and laughed until the sun went down. We were well rested that night as we had a big day exploring the national park.
Inside Monteverde you have two options of cloud forest, which is made up of 2.5% of the worlds biodiversity, high in the clouds with immense view points. Santa Elena, where the main town is, or the Monteverde larger national park. Santa Elena is cheaper, less touristic and of course it is the same cloud forest so has the same wildlife. Santa Elena Cloud Forest was only a 10 minute drive from our accommodation, so we headed there at 9am. I spoke to a few locals and tourists, they said I should take a tour guide otherwise you are unlikely to see any animals. We bought our tickets for $33 each, which included a 3 hour tour, but it wasn’t quite what we expected. I wanted to see a sloth on this trip, it was my key goal. Instead we saw a variety of orchids, stick insects and a tarantula. Of course, all wildlife is beautiful in its own right, but my idea of watching monkeys swing from vines and sloths in trees was not in sight. We still had a nice time exploring the park, but my friend doesn’t love nature too much and was counting down the minutes, and I was in some ways disappointed for not seeing what I had hoped to see.
Within Monteverde there are also a number of adventure parks, a friend Avery recommended I do the zip-line through the jungle, but we were out of time, and with heading to Colombia in the next week, I knew it was cheaper to do these things elsewhere. With one night I think we completed enough things to explore Monteverde and see its jungle charm. Of course you believe all of Costa Rica would be in 30 degree heat, but it is very far in the mountains and its cold most of the time, especially at night so I recommend bringing some warmer clothes. We ate in a nearby soda in the town and headed to Jaco, as a base to then drive to Manuel Antonio, about an hour and a half from Jaco.
Manuel Antonio
Manuel Antonio is truly beautiful. Driving in you can see the range of biodiversity, and yet again it is quite spread out so i would reccomend a car if you are not staying in the centre nearest the beach. We stayed 2 nights in Hostel Costa Linda, it was far from a hostel with a lack of atmosphere and more of a prison cell for a bedroom, but we only used it to sleep because most of the time I was hiking or on the beach. I knew seeing a sloth was still in my reach, and it became my mission after a 3 day manhunt to find one. I asked locals and explorers where they had recently seen them and hiked far around MA, but I had no luck. However white faced monkeys were on every corner, families of them hung out in the trees and entertained the tourists and tried to attack my friend (watch out). The more you walk around and explore, the more wildlife you will see, by the end of our time there, seeing monkeys felt just about as normal as seeing dogs.
The main beach of Manuel Antonio is astounding, with jungle behind you and the ocean in front on golden sand. There are a lot of sun-beds and tourists around, but not so much that it feels like Mallorca or another large holiday destination, if you walk further down the beach it is more tranquil and quiet. Along with the golden sand, the water is clear and as warm as a bath with friendly, gentle waves, making it perfect for swimming after tanning in the radiating sun. The hostel was central so we parked the car and walked to near restaurants and bars, MA is more of a large road, so try and stay more in the centre next to the beach, if not its a bit of a hike to get anywhere. There are small beach parties every night with a guy carrying a portable speaker on his back, and often bonfires late night on the beach too.
The next day I headed to Manuel Antonio National Park alone, in search for my sloth. The entrance to the park was only a 5 minute walk from the hostel, a very convenient location, and I loved it! I paid $18 without a guide, only access to the park, and it was so worth it. The hike is more of a gentle walk, its very accessible for all people and easy to work your way around, I ended up walking around the park 3 times. The first time I was staring into the trees, looking for signs of movement, I’d ask guides along the way where the sloths were, they questioned why I didn’t have a guide and I said I’m a poor backpacker, and it worked. They told me which direction to head in or I would follow groups until the guides saw something. A really kind guide clearly saw me lurking behind his tour group, so took my phone twice and put it against his lens, giving me perfect shots of sloths sleeping in trees. I secured my venture for a sloth, along with seeing a number of iguanas and white-faced monkeys, and decided it was time to go to the beach. Its not often that within a national park you are surrounded by both jungle and beach, but all around the park was paradise beaches you would only witness in a movie. The beaches were small with white sand and monkeys walking over the sand, I swam in the abnormally warm water, read my book and headed back to the entrance of the park, it was a perfect day.
To conclude, Monteverde is mountainous, difficult to access and is purely for the nature, dont expect a big backpacker atmosphere. If you love hiking and being in a colder climate, I would go here, although its expensive, especially for entry to the park. But evidently Manuel Antonio was my favourite, and perhaps my favourite place in the whole of Costa Rica. There was just the right amount of people, things to do and a lot of nature. I got to see my sloth and monkeys and was satisfied, especially with it being cheaper to access too. So overall, if you have a lack of time, I think Manuel Antonio should be at the top of your list, because now looking back, I beleive this was my favourite place I have visited in Costa Rica!
Bevs Backpacking📍 
Loved it of course….
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