A guided hike through Manuel Antonio National Park promises an immersive journey into the heart of one of Costa Rica's most celebrated natural gems. Led by knowledgeable local guides, this experience unveils the park's rich biodiversity, captivating landscapes, and fascinating ecosystem dynamics.
As you embark on the hike, your guide will take you along well-maintained trails that wind through lush rainforests, leading you to hidden beaches, breathtaking viewpoints, and serene lagoons. Along the way, they'll offer insights into the intricate relationships between the park's flora and fauna, sharing stories about the various species that call this tropical paradise home.
Keep your eyes peeled for the park's resident wildlife, which often includes playful white-faced capuchin monkeys, mischievous howler monkeys, sloths lounging in the trees, and an array of vibrant tropical birds. Your guide's expertise in spotting these elusive creatures ensures you won't miss out on any of the natural wonders that the park has to offer.
Manuel Antonio National Park is renowned for its stunning coastline as well. Your guide will lead you to pristine beaches, where you can take a refreshing dip in the warm Pacific waters or simply relax on the soft sands. These idyllic beach spots offer an opportunity to unwind and take in the breathtaking coastal views.
Throughout the hike, your guide will share ecological insights, cultural anecdotes, and historical facts about the park and the region. They'll also be eager to answer any questions you have, enhancing your understanding and appreciation of the intricate balance of life within the park.
Choosing a guided hike in Manuel Antonio National Park not only enriches your experience with valuable knowledge but also contributes to the park's conservation efforts. The entrance fees support the park's maintenance and preservation, ensuring that this natural paradise remains intact for future generations to enjoy.
Whether you're an avid nature enthusiast, a wildlife lover, or simply seeking to connect with Costa Rica's natural beauty, a guided hike through Manuel Antonio National Park promises an unforgettable encounter with the wonders of the rainforest and the coastline, all under the insightful guidance of a local expert.
This energizing half-day safari includes the park entrance fee, bilingual guide, and transportation from Manuel Antonio area hotels. A surcharge is applied for transportation from other zones and is not included in online rates. Note: This tour operator has improved wait conditions at the start of the tour during peak season, although it cannot regulate park-administrated delays. Depending on the distance from Manuel Antonio to your lodging, shuttle transportation may take from 15 minutes to an hour and a half.
According to Manuel Antonio National Park's internal regulations, it is mandatory to provide the following information: full name, date of birth, nationality, and valid passport number. Please be sure to provide this information when requesting this service.
Unfortunately, Manuel Antonio National Park has different cancellation policies than most other activities. You may not cancel or change a reservation within 15 days of the planned service, or it will be penalized in full. This is a park policy and all tour operators must work with the same policy.
The Manuel Antonio National Park is available from Dominical, Herradura, Jaco, Manuel Antonio, and Uvita
All Family
Latitude: N 9° 23' 25.3"
Longitude: W 84° 8' 37.26"
08/28/2024
The tour met our expectation because we finally saw the monkeys!
08/05/2024
It was great that we could walk from our hotel. We saw a lot and the guide was very knowledgeable and even did Air Drop for the pictures afterwards.
09/11/2023
Amazing tour and guide, Andreas was fantastic. Weather was perfect, would highly recommend with a great tour guide.
08/28/2023
The hike through the park was beautiful. Its so awesome that the guides have the scope that they can put the phone too to capture amazing pictures.
08/23/2023
Andrey was an excellent tour guide with a great sense of humour. He took the time to explain natural phenomena thoroughly and fielded questions as well.
08/07/2023
Guide was awesome. Saw many animals
08/04/2023
Amazing beach!
08/02/2023
The guide was very good. I was impressed with his knowledge. It was very crowded at the park, which took away from the experience, maneuvering around all the tourists. The animal viewing was also less impressive, perhaps because we had already been on the sloth tour and seen many birds? The beach was beautiful in Manuel Antonio and we spent a couple hours there at the end of our tour, which was great.
07/31/2023
Expected to see much more wild life, but overall a beautiful park.
07/27/2023
My favorite day!
07/24/2023
Just the best beach I've ever seen. And the guide was amazing. Want to go back.
07/23/2023
Need longer amount of time at the beach. 20 minutes is not enough.
07/20/2023
This was our third time to the national park. The guided tour seemed shorter than before and we didn’t see much. We did get fruit and ice tea which we didn’t get last time. We stayed at the beach afterward which was nice and got a taxi back which was easy.
07/06/2023
great and informative tour, lovely beach. sad the on-site restaurant was closed but otherwise an enjoyable excursion
07/05/2023
Our guide Andrej was great.
07/03/2023
We had an amazing guide here. They made animals appear out of nowhere. Great experience
07/01/2023
Rooster was a great guide - funny and informative. On time pick up and drop-off. Was a great tour.
06/26/2023
The tour was good but it was very touristy. We got to the park pretty early but it was still full and a lot of people everywhere. The guides were amazing and so knowledable though. They are walking encyclopedias!
06/25/2023
Superior guide!
06/23/2023
Again, you exceeded my expectations. I saw a lot of animals. And the beach was absolutely beautiful!
06/21/2023
Beautiful beach and tour and local crafts. We were afraid after being sick we would miss it, but the air did us good:) Would love to go again.
06/19/2023
Knowing how hard it is to get tickets on-line so far in advance and just the hassle with parking/guides, it was nice to have this tour prebooked through a reliable company. We enjoyed seeing different wildlife, but the best part of our experience was once we were on our own and just enjoyed the beach and other trails on our own time. Such a beautiful park! However, not being to bring in food was a bit of a let down. We wanted to spend the majority of our day at the park, but it was hard to do as we couldn't bring in food. I was also disappointed that two of the major trails were closed. The beaches and trails that were open were absolutely beautiful and breath-taking!
06/16/2023
The park was great, and the guide (Andrey) was super. The park was quite a bit more crowded than I expected.
06/04/2023
The tour guides were so great!
06/01/2023
Very crowded in the park, which was loud and limited wildlife viewing. Park is beautiful and guide was knowledgeable. Overall good experience.
05/29/2023
Andres was amazing! So happy we had him for our guide and we were very lucky in what we were able to see. My only (very small) feedback for improvement was that the bus was late for pickup and the backside of the tour got a little chaotic - I think because we were running late from seeing so much wildlife. The group only had about 5 minutes at the beach before it was time to return to the bus. We stayed behind so we could explore more of the park on our own which suited us just fine - especially since we could walk right back to our hotel. :)
05/25/2023
Great day! Saw lots! loved it
05/11/2023
Andres was extremely knowledgeable and had a fun personality.
05/10/2023
OUR TOUR GUIDE WAS THE ABOLUTE BEST Andrey Obando he even got us to go on a nite tour in the Mangrove which was pretty exciting.
05/08/2023
Andre was knowledgeable and friendly. All the guides helped each other find animals.
04/28/2023
Really glad we did the 7:15 pickup. We would have been too hot and uncomfortable any later in the day. The guide (ours was rooster) were great but the park was very packed and kinda claustrophobic in some spots. Did see a lot of animals and monkeys though.
04/27/2023
Our guide from Iguana Courts was Andrey. He was amazing and so informative. Great sense of humor and knowledge. A+.
04/26/2023
Manual Antonio National Park was amazing, just a very, very humid day. The guide, Andrey, was very knowledgeable and pointed out a variety of species. We learned a lot about the Costa Rican jungle this day and its habitants. We FINALLY got to see a Sloth!! And not only did we get to see one Sloth, but a mother sloth with its baby hanging onto her tummy. Absolutely fantastic! The beach at Manuel Antonio National Park was gorgeous! We loved seeing the crabs with the shells on their backs.
04/24/2023
This was a great tour. Our guide was wonderful. We all got good picture. So many sloths I quit taking pictures. I know you don’t always get to see wildlife on these tours but we all saw lots this day. The little beach in the park was very pleasant. Best beach ever!
04/22/2023
Very nice
04/08/2023
We did not see much wildlife. We saw more wildlife in Costa Verde than in the park. the beach was outstanding I wish we had more time dedicated to the beach as the guided tour was much underwhelming
04/05/2023
beautiful park wildlife and vegetation. Unfortunately we were there during the busiest week of the year
03/31/2023
This park is very impressive. Our guide Andrey was great. We saw 8 sloths, monkeys, iguanas, many insects, bats, and an agouti. The beach is pristine and just what you think of when you picture the tropics: crystal bright blue water and white sand with palm trees. We just wished we could have brought or bought food there so we could have stayed longer. They don't allow you to exit and come back in without paying admission again.
03/29/2023
Didn’t see any birds. Mostly iguanas and far off sloth and monkeys. Very crowded and hot and humid. As I’d seen lots of other tours with animals it was a bit of a letdown for me. The beaches there are beautiful but as the concession stand was closed there’s no way to stay for a while at the beach because they took away my plastic water bottle and no food was allowed in our bag. I told them I use that bottle over and over and I wouldn’t throw it away but no water. I used the water fountains around the path but they were full of little spiders.
03/15/2023
Exceeded
03/09/2023
Without the guide, we would have missed most of the things the guide pointed out to us
03/05/2023
Great guide but just another forest walk similar to the others we had done.
02/27/2023
Amazing guide! Even though the park was busy, we had a great experience and saw lots of wildlife!
02/26/2023
Our guide, Andrey, was very enthusiastic and entertaining. We saw everything we had hoped to see.
02/19/2023
The national park was very busy but the tour guide was excellent
02/17/2023
Loved this park and the monkeys!!
02/11/2023
I was so glad Jaden was off school and there with Mauricio that day!! The whole tour was amazing, especially that it started out with Jaden pointing out two toucans in the trees. Actually, Jaden pointed out a large majority of the animals, actually! I was so glad to have him and Mauricio as our guides. They were professional and fun and friendly and kind! They made sure our questions were answered, and that we each got a chance to see each of the plants and animals that were pointed out to us.
02/01/2023
In love with this beach! I need to come back and enjoy this beach…
01/27/2023
The guide was very knowledgable and saw things I would never have noticed on my own. It was a beautiful place.
01/25/2023
Very enjoyable
01/16/2023
This was a great tour. Our guides divided the groups thoughtfully and we had a great guide assigned to us and our kids. He went at our pace and made sure the kids got to see in the telescope at every stop we made.
01/12/2023
Exceptional tour guide (Andres)
01/05/2023
Our guide was fantastic and so knowledgable!! Andres, I believe.
01/04/2023
Superb though we could not see Toucans. Beach was fantastic
01/02/2023
This was a wonderful tour. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable and had a great eye for finding wildlife big and small. The only complaint was that it was so crowded.
12/29/2022
The path to the beach was extremely busy, but the guide made it better. We saw a ton of animals and really enjoyed the experience, but the park was very busy.
12/28/2022
Iguana Tours' Andrey was our guide and he was so good - finding all sorts of animals/insects all throughout the walk - and so knowledgable about any question we had. We saw a sloth with a baby, Jesus Christ Lizard, Morpho butterfly, mangrove crab monkeys, but no birds. Please note that the path is basically paved, so hiking boots are not needed (keens would be best, flip flops work); don't need to wear long pants as its hot and there weren't many insects (dry season visit), and bring/wear your swimsuit, towels, and anything you need for the beach as the best beach in Costa Rica is at the end of this tour. We spent an hour there in the water - it was amazing. Soft sand, blue water, gentle waves if any. We only left to get lunch since the food shack in the park had limited gluten free options.
12/25/2022
excellent experience
12/24/2022
This may have been my favorite. Our guide Andre was wonderful. We loved the white sand beach! Great!
12/14/2022
Wonderful National Park with wildlife trails, nice beaches. Efficient entry with guided tour. not crowded. Saw many animals. Relaxed on quiet beaches.
12/11/2022
Super guide, lots of birds and sloths!
12/10/2022
Brilliant!
12/08/2022
This really was a wonderful park, and the tour guide was fabulous and made the trip fun. The hike itself had many, many people on the trails and were literally bumping into one another at times.
12/07/2022
Hoped to see more animals in park but seasonal! Spectacular beach, and trail above cliffs was filled w monkeys and great ocean views!
12/04/2022
Loved our guide and hide 7 year old son. All kinds of monkeys and sloths. Spent extra time at beach then walked back to hotel.
11/28/2022
We were expecting to see more animals, but not something anyone could control
11/23/2022
Our guide was amazing and did such an awesome job. This was one of the highlights of the vacation.
11/16/2022
My dream came true that day to see sloths! Our guide was incredible! Carried a telescope and took photos with my iPhone through the telescope! So we have some really up close photos of all the critters we saw! Absolutely awesome! Mauricio was our very experienced and awesome guide.
11/10/2022
The tour guide we had here was exceptional - all the other guides just followed him and then showed their customers what our guide found.
08/19/2022
Andres was a fantastic guide. Very knowledgeable
08/10/2022
Awesome park! The guide was great, caring and attentive to everyone's need. The monkeys, sloth's and the beaches in the park were amazing. Great experience overall.
07/24/2022
Our guide was friendly and knowledgable (and his 9 year old son had a great eye for birds and insects!). Our group was small (9 people) but there were so many groups and all on the main trail which made things feel congested. We saw way more wildlife at our hotel/beach but it was still enjoyable and we learned many facts about insects and reptiles! The beaches within the park were lovely, we said goodbye to our guide after the tour, spent time at the beach, and made our own way home.
07/17/2022
Thank you for recommending a guide. He was great and we saw a lot of animals with his equipment he brought.
07/07/2022
We were so excited to have the same tour guide as 4 years ago, Mauricio Salazar! He’s the best! He has a great eye and is such a great teacher. We appreciate that he takes time to describe things and allows us to take pictures. It was nice to have the snack part way through. It would’ve been nice to know that we couldn’t bring food in for the children.
06/25/2022
Fantastic tour. Animals and wildlife everywhere. Very knowledgeable, lovely guide. He, like all the other guides on our trip, are well educated and genuinely love what they do and are proud of their country. The guide's passion and excitement were contagious and contributed to making this activity so memorable. The beaches at the end were so fun. We only went to the second, less popular beach and it was fantastic. We had the whole beach and ocean to ourselves for over an hour. The water was so warm we could have stayed in it all day. The walk from the beach to the exit of the park, with clean restrooms, showers and so many monkeys along the way, was enjoyable as well.
06/22/2022
Superb tour guide and we saw sooo many amazing animals. The beach inside the park is breathtakingly beautiful!
06/20/2022
Rooster our guide worked hard to accommodate us as well as a very loud (obnoxious) family from Florida. He was able to capture photos for us with this telescope
06/15/2022
I’d have preferred a smaller group and a bit more time to walk in the national park. Guide was very knowledgeable.
06/06/2022
Andres was fantastic! We saw a ton of wildlife and learned a lot about the park, the flora and fauna that we saw, and about the methods he was using to spot them. Great experience!
06/04/2022
This park is beautiful all around. El gallo our tour guide was amazing and very knowledgeable. We got to see many types of animals that without his expertise we probably would have not seen. The park is very clean.
05/29/2022
Andrey is probably the smartest man when it comes to nature! He was excited and passionate about every bird, big, mammal and reptile that we saw! And I feel we saw it all! He talked to everyone in a way that made you want to know more and see more. Couldn’t have had a better guide! Amazing!
05/22/2022
Our guide Andre was phenomenal. It’s an easy, wide path, that accommodates a lot of people without crowding. Traveling one mile took two hours because he was spotting wildlife right and left. We got a beautiful sunny day so it was better for animal sightings. We saw both types of sloths, two-toed, and three-toed. We saw monkeys, a Toucan, an array of lizards, insects, crabs, and the most dangerous viper in Costa Rica, the Fur-de-lance. Then we stayed to enjoy the beach. They have facilities to change and rinse off. Well worth it! Then we walked out and grabbed lunch nearby before hopping into one of the many taxis available in the area.
04/24/2022
The wild life at and around the hotel was a treat. Toucans, monkeys and even a sloth by the beach up in a tree.
04/17/2022
Great tour- fantastic guide who found so many animals for us to see with his spotting scope.
04/14/2022
Extra bonus was the guide's son who accompanied us. He was all IN with the park and the animals.
04/13/2022
AWESOME GUIDE - ANDRES! SO knowledgeable and friendly!
04/06/2022
Great guide, beautiful park, saw tons of wildlife. Walked back to hotel
02/26/2022
Incredible! The guide was very informative and we saw tons of wildlife. Up close and personal monkey encounters and the beaches were phenomenal! Absolutely recommend!
02/25/2022
Honestly this did not meet my expectations given its hype. The only animals we saw here that we did not see anywhere else were a howler monkey and a certain bird. There were hoards of tourists, making it very crowded. The guide was amazing at spotting things and the telescope was fun, but with kids it was a bit boring. We stayed after the tour ended and enjoyed the beach. Be aware that the monkeys will get into your bags if you leave them unattended, even if you have no food! They have thumbs! Also, I know we got taken advantage of with the taxi fare on the way back to the hotel, but if you want to enjoy the beach after the tour, a taxi is the only way to get back to your hotel.
02/24/2022
I loved our guide Andrey. Humorous and entertaining, and especially so knowledgeable.
02/21/2022
We had an excellent tour guide. His name was Andres. He was very passionate about what he did and his knowledge was amazing. It was very crowded but otherwise a great experience.
02/19/2022
Professional guide was excellent, very professoinal, prompt and enjoyed the tour. Only minor negative is Manual Antonio park is very popular and beaches crowded. Still quite nice but be prepared for alot of people and line to get in. Would recommend but overall enjoyed other less crowded experiences.
02/18/2022
Our guide was super knowledgeable and we saw a ton of wildlife!
02/11/2022
The group experience was fun. The guide was excellent.
01/19/2022
This was wonderful park. The tour guide was great and best of all we got to see a sloth that was awake and moving! The perfect ending to our trip.
01/13/2022
This was our favorite tour. Do not miss it! So much to see and it is all gorgeous. Our guide was fantastic and so informative (18 years of experience). You are not told this in advance but take beach attire with you and plan to stay for the day. There is a beautiful beach inside the park and you can spend the afternoon there. There is a restaurant as well. Do the morning tour, have a bite to eat then spend time at the beach. It is worth it. The guides will tell you how to get transportation back to your hotel (and arrange it for you). So many animals and so much fun.
01/10/2022
Great place to visit
01/08/2022
Fantastic tour. Amazing guide.
12/31/2021
If we wanted a ride back to the hotel, we had to leave at the end of the tour. Of course, we wanted to swim and explore the park a bit more, so we ended up walking back. Not bad, but more walking than we would have wanted.
12/27/2021
The departure was late due to an accident, but then the stay was cut short allowing only 10-15 mins on the beach.
12/23/2021
Amazing tour guide. He took great pictures and showed us a lot of animals.
12/22/2021
Our guide was very knowledgeable, friendly, easy to understand.
12/20/2021
Awesome guide!
12/17/2021
Rooster is not just educational, but also very funny. We would have missed so many exciting things if it were not for his guidance. There is nothing like experiencing nature and animals in their own habitat. The beach was amazing too!
12/11/2021
The tour guide was knowledgeable and had a great time. One of the best beaches in the area is in the park and we got to spend some time there.
12/08/2021
My other want besides seeing monkeys was to see Sloths. Although we did see them way up, with our guide Rooster's expertise, they we way to tired to even show their face. We thoroughly enjoyed our trip through this beautiful National Park. Thank you Rooster for your willingness to make this special!
12/06/2021
One of the best of our excursions! Our guide was fantastic and we saw almost every animal we were hoping to see! A must see for anyone visiting Manuel Antonio.
12/01/2021
Highly recommend having a guide with their tools/scopes. We definitely would not have seen anything other than the white faced monkeys walking around. Most of the animals are far away, so you wouldn't even spot them with a naked eye!
11/26/2021
VERY crowded with people for the entire walk. Not much peace and quiet. Would be helpful to stagger the guides starting times as everyone started at once and it was hard to hear. Lots of wildlife and guide's knowledge!
11/25/2021
We could have walked. Didn’t need transportation to and from our hotel.
11/22/2021
Andre and the rest of the guides were great! They helped us see so many animals that we wouldn't have seen otherwise.
10/13/2021
Wonderful.
08/09/2021
Loved this tour and our guide Andres. We got some beautiful photos and video of the wildlife because of him. Seriously, should ask for him! The beach was nice too, would have been nice to spend a little more time there.
07/24/2021
Very nice! Guide was super nice but seemed to cut our tour a little short…
07/23/2021
Our guide was fantastic!!! He knew so much I thought he might be a biologist but he told us that he wasn't. He also spoke better English than many native speakers.
07/18/2021
Good experience for a first visit to the park. Guide helped us spot some wildlife that we probably wouldn't be able to find ourselves (small insects, snake, sloths).
07/15/2021
Saw so many animals on our tour. Beach was beautiful
07/11/2021
This was a great experience for everyone.
06/02/2021
It was fantastic! So beautiful! Even in the pouring rain, I so enjoyed this tour. Our guide, Andre was so knowledgeable and passionate about the forest. He made the tour so incredible by sharing his passion for the forest and it’s inhabitants.
04/30/2021
One of the most amazing parts of the trip by far. Loved it!
04/29/2021
Wish that it did not rain so hard. It was hard to enjoy the park with the constant heavy rain. Not the guides fault, just the weather. Wished that there were lockers or other storage available so that we didn't have to carry everything during the tour.
03/25/2021
Fabian and his team of Iquana Tours was excellent, knowledgeable, kind, he really made our tour of this beautiful park lots of fun! We saw monkeys, spiders, bats, butterflies...many cool animals and the beach is gorgeous! Highly recommend a visit and tour with Fabian at Iquana Tours!!
03/20/2021
Our guide did a wonderful job showing us the natural wonders of this exceptional national park. We were thrilled with the variety of wildlife and the fantastic landscape.
03/05/2021
Beautiful beaches and saw lots of wildlife. Our guide was very informative and passionate about nature. Definitely would recommend staying on the beach here instead of the main tourist beach in town.
03/02/2021
Another home run! great animal experiences and a guide very motivated to ensure a fine experience! Don't miss this one.
03/12/2020
I was expecting a lot more from Manuel Antonio National Park since it was highly ranked as one of the top. But after going to Monteverde and Arenal areas, this was a bit of a disappointment. The paths were very wide with a lot of tourists. The beach was magnificent - one of the most beautiful scenes I have seen. I enjoyed the monkeys on the beach. But this area was too crowded for me. I prefer the less traveled paths.
03/11/2020
Very crowded, but our guide was good about keeping away from other groups. We saw all of the animals we expected and lots of lizards and birds too.
03/04/2020
Great tour, but very crowded (not much anyone can do about that). Loved the tour guide - attentive to detail and patient with all of our picture-taking needs :)
03/01/2020
This was our most crowded tour and event. At times it felt like we were on an assembly line, and although our guide tried hard to make sure we saw birds and animals in the park, it almost felt like they were trying too hard.
02/29/2020
our guide was fantastic! We loved this tour!!!
02/27/2020
Great tour! Loved having afternoon to explore manuel antonio on our own.
02/25/2020
Excellent!
02/20/2020
Tour guide Andry was amazing!
02/16/2020
Very crowded, more people than animals, worth visit as early at the morning as possible
02/06/2020
The guide was amazing and able to find so much wildlife that we could not see. He also helped us to take pictures through his telescope of small wildlife or animals that were further away. However, after the experience at the Arenal Hanging Bridges, we were a little spoiled. The large, wide path was full of tourists and did not give one the feel of being in the wildlife's natural habitat. It was a good experience and I did not regret going, especially since I enjoyed having time to hang out on the beach there, but it felt too touristy, if that makes sense. Definitely a LOT of people around us. (So much so that the wildlife is used to people and not really even afraid or timid around people.)
01/26/2020
Unfirtunately very crowdy tour - honestly there is no value to go.
01/25/2020
Excellent tour! The guide (Andrey) was very passionate about the Park and wildlife, extremely knowledgeable and eager to share that with us. And he was funny to boot! Total rave!
01/19/2020
the park was very crowded I had expected to see more birds but mostly the tour was about the monkeys and beaches the tour guides were excellent and I think some of the group enjoyed the tour
01/17/2020
It was kind of crowded at the Park and on the hike. It was still thrilling to see capuchin monkeys so close up!
01/16/2020
The guides were amazing, and helped us see wildlife that we would have missed on our own.
01/15/2020
If we didn't have the guide we would not have been able to see all the different animals. It was nice to have a local share all the knowledge! The park is beautiful.
01/12/2020
Beautiful spot again.
01/05/2020
Definitely worth the tour guide! We would've of missed so much on our own.
01/04/2020
It was crowded and difficult to move through through the crowds to hear with tour guide and see where he was pointing at things.
01/03/2020
Awesome guide who had great attention to detail
01/02/2020
Saw lots of wildlife on this tour and enjoyed seeing the beaches in the park. Our tour guide Mauricio was fantastic.
12/31/2019
wow I was not prepared for how many people would be there. it was a little unbearable. we did take some hikes later that were quieter. our guide did very well under the circumstances and was very knowledgeable
12/28/2019
Andre with iguana tours was great.
12/27/2019
We thought that we would see more animals. We saw a couple of spiders, some sloths very high in the trees and some monkeys around the beach. A long day without a lot of excitement. Could have skipped this one.
12/24/2019
wow----difficult circumstances with thousands and thousands walking through at the same time. The system they set up is efficient and the experience with our guide was exceptional!!!!
12/22/2019
We did not see much animals in this tour
12/17/2019
We enjoyed this tour especially when we got down to the private beaches -so beautiful and blue!! We stayed at the beach after our tour and enjoyed the clear waters and sun. My husband loves hot weather so this was his cup of tea.
12/07/2019
I was initially worried by the size of our group and by how busy the park was. However, the guides co-operated with one another to pass on information about where special animals/birds could be found - so it exceeded my initial expectations.
12/01/2019
Our tour was quite large, so we didn't get as much time looking at things and the guide had to repeat himself a bit. The fruit and tea was a nice touch.
11/17/2019
unfortunately we were caught in a rain storm. guide was very nice.
11/14/2019
Very knowledgeable guide but at times, the area was too crowded. We were elbow to elbow with our groups all trying to get a look at the same thing. The park itself is beautiful but it would have been nice if we skipped seeing a few things just to have a little more space.
08/22/2019
Amazing
08/18/2019
It was very crowded in the parc. Further a good guide and a nice walk.
08/09/2019
Crowded and boring in comparison to the other tours we went on. The beach was beautiful. Our guide was very nice.
08/06/2019
Saw sloths and loads of monkeys. Beach was beautiful but the whole place is packed with thousands of other people. It was a bit like disneyland with buggies and screaming kids. Guide was great and identified some unusual animals.
08/03/2019
Manu was a terrific guide
07/30/2019
Very experienced guide and very friendly with good knowledge of English language
07/28/2019
Enjoyed wandering around hiking trails and swimming at beach after the tour.
07/23/2019
I thought we would see a bit more wildlife than we did, and the park was packed with lots of other groups in our way. However, we enjoyed seeing the sloths, the guide was great and very knowledgeable, and we really enjoyed our time at the beach there. We stayed late and caught a hotel transfer back.
07/20/2019
Beautiful park. Our guide Fabian was extremely knowledgeable and polite. Saw many amazing animals. Stopped halfway at gift shop and snack booth, Fabian served us all fruit and a drink. Beach was unbelievable.
07/18/2019
Tour guide and the logistics was excellent. Put the park was very crowded and noise which made observation of the wildlife a challenge.
07/16/2019
A bit crowded as expected but still very fun to see. We were able to see lots of animals as well as hang at the beach for awhile. Our guide was very informative and went out of his way to provide loads of information and history. Great trip.
07/14/2019
Exceeded our expectations. All logistics were seamless, but what made the excursion was the expertise of our fantastic guide, Andrés. Extremely knowledgeable. Great command of English. Very good teacher.
07/13/2019
This tourguide was the best we encountered. Mau had a good line in witty banter and was excellent at spotting wildlife. In spite of the business of the park, we managed to see a lot and enjoyed the tour. We opted to stay on and do an extra walk. The 'no non-biodegradable items' allowed in the park seemed at odds with the way food and drinks were served in plastic containers at the cafe. Also, there were clearly not enough facilities (changing rooms, toilets) to support the throughput of visitors. We did, overall, enjoy the park though which is beautiful and has lots of different habitats.
07/12/2019
Andres from Iguana Tours taught us lots of things about the animals we saw. Loved his jokes! Excellent snack provided.
07/11/2019
We saw a sloth crossing the road which everyone was so excited about since this doesn't happen often. Fabian was our guide and pointed our much wildlife we wouldn't have found on our own.
07/09/2019
All the animals were beautiful. Macaws everywhere, birds and lizards and people, and the ocean and everything was wonderful. Transfers and guides all were too good to be true. Thank you to all of Costa Rica.
07/07/2019
Beautiful park with AMAZING views and wildlife. Our guide Fabian was very knowledgeable about the wildlife and the history of Costa Rica. He was also kind enough to take amazing pictures and videos of the wildlife for us.
07/02/2019
Our tour guide, Fabian, was fantastic! He was eager to show us everything and really took his time to search for special wildlife. He was very enthusiastic! The park was gorgeous and the beach was amazing!
06/18/2019
Our guide Andres was extremely funny and knowledgeable. He also guided us to the hidden cove area which we would not have known of if he didn’t recommend it.
06/13/2019
We loved our guide Andrey, he was informative and personable.
06/09/2019
Once again the tour was very slow with the people asking too many questions and the guide stopping whenever he was talking. Very knowledgable but he should keep it moving as he answers some questions
06/01/2019
great sightseeing, especially sloughs, monkeys, deer, etc. Andrey was very knowledgeable, passionate, and fun. Did the extra stuff to make it enjoyable. We stayed all day in the park-great. You should do a little better job in write-up of explaining what's available in park for future travelers=especially the snack shop and locker facilities. we found confusion even with local hotel staff about what rules and available services were in park.
05/21/2019
Our guide was amazing. His knowledge of the ecosystem and his sense of humor, made the tour quite fun. He explained everything, and answered all questions with a smile. Although we know he makes his living giving tours, we agreed with his philosophy that using a guide to tour the park is worth more than the fees associated with paying that guide. He showed us things that were right before our eyes, but pretty much invisible due to our lack of knowledge.
05/19/2019
The park was beautiful!!! Would definitely recommend getting a tour guide as you can’t spot all the animals without a scope.
05/15/2019
The only downside was not having any extra time in the park and have a ride provided back to the hotel. All the other tours provided the ride back but this tour had the choice of staying at the park or riding back in just 30 min after the tour ended. ☹️
05/14/2019
This excursion was great. A very knowledgeable guide with a lot of passion.
05/11/2019
Tour guide was very professional
05/05/2019
Another great day!! We had the best tour guide ( I tibk his name was Mo?) he was so knowledgeable on all the animals and had a great telescope that allowed us to see everything up close. And fruit and ice tea to top it all off - delicious!!
05/03/2019
Wonderful wildlife!
04/28/2019
Fabulous Our tour guide was so excited about his "office" We had an awesome time.
04/17/2019
Since I researched before hand I was prepared to comply with park food carry-in rules (strict) no-exit-and-re-entry rule, had wetbag & bike-lock to prevent monkey theft of stuff while we were swimming, and expected massive crowds. The main tour road does indeed have massive crowds but this park is so gorgeous and full of incredible and easy to view wildlife that everyone has to do it, of course : ). Our tour guide here was the absolute best!! He was the most knowledgeable of all the tour guides. I would do this again and again (yes, even with the crowds that will inevitably always be there).
04/16/2019
Our guide was excellent and made the tour.
04/14/2019
It was very hot during our stay and visit. Next time around we would not pick this destination. (It was our choice to visit this park but the other parks that we visited later on in the trip were much better with respect to weather and animal viewing)
04/13/2019
Guide did an awesome job.
04/07/2019
Andrey was our guide and we were so impressed by his knowledge of the animals.
04/04/2019
Crowded park, again being rushed only to have to wait for transportation back.
04/02/2019
Tour and guide were great! Just would have liked to see more birds!
03/30/2019
Lots of animals - loved the tour
03/29/2019
It was very busy and touristy so not ideal; certainly no issue with your company though. It is just the nature of the place.
03/26/2019
Everything turned out great in the end, but was made to feel a little nervous standing in line, wondering if we were going to get in.
03/23/2019
Excellent guide. We appreciate the opportunity to minimize the long lines and wait time that others were experiencing. We got lucky and saw several sloths. Really enjoyed the beaches at the end of the hike. Perfect ending excursion.
03/20/2019
Manual Antonio NP itself is lovely - amazing animals, amazing setting. The entrance process is horrendous - 2.5 hours of lines for no reason - they could have easily sold timed entrance tickets.
03/17/2019
The lines were huge. Had to wait over an hour. Tour was fine. Didn’t know about staying at the beach so we went back.
03/12/2019
very long wait to get into park. otherwise fantastic
03/08/2019
Great guide - excellent knowledge and interaction with us
03/06/2019
The park was very crowded and the entry to the park was hectic. The guides did a great job getting us in. The park could logistically do things differently for prearranged tours to get them in without being in line with general public trying to get in. They should know how many tickets have been pre-sold and get those people in before other tickets are sold.
03/03/2019
Another great tour! Only issue was getting into the park with the restrictions, but we got in because the tour folks had people waint in line early for us! Guide was fantastic as always finding us lots of great animals and birds.
02/12/2019
What a beautiful National Park!! The guided tour was most interesting and informative.
02/10/2019
Guide was great, transit was fine. Park was so crowded, and there were few animals / wildlife / birds / butterflies. Then guide
02/09/2019
Wonderful adventure and the ocean was great.
02/08/2019
It was great to see the animals and having the guides to point things out but my gosh this was so slow!
02/06/2019
Guide (maricio) was excellent, very enthusiastic and tried to get us to see as much as was there. Not as much wildlife as I thought would be there, except lots of Monkeys. VERY hot and humid day, which was uncomfortable for us, especially walking on the trails in the hot sun. Staying at the beach was great after the tour except for Monkeys and Raccoons trying to get your food. Thank you Maricio...We appreciate you..
02/05/2019
Very crowded
02/03/2019
Very good tour. Knowledgeable guides who was able to spot lots of wild life on the tour. We really liked the tour company, so we booked an additional catamaran tour with them as well. (Iguana Tours)
02/01/2019
We did not enjoy this park at all. It’s crowded with tourists and very touristy. We saw more animals at our hotel, Los Altos. We thought we would be hiking, not walking on a crowded path,
01/31/2019
Little on expensive side but we knew that
01/30/2019
Andre was the best guide of our trip.
01/29/2019
Great tour, Andre was an excellent (and funny) guide. Hotel was close to the park so that was a plus logistically
01/27/2019
This park was more crowded than New York City on New Years Eve. This was a terrible experience. The crowds detracted from any park like setting, and the guides mission was to control the traffic. Never again!!
01/25/2019
Our guide was fantastic. He was knowledgaeable and able to spot many creatures that we would not have been able to find, and then he took photos for us. He also was very friendly and personable.
01/22/2019
Andras (SP) from Iguana Tours was absolutely amazing. He took the time to explain things, show us several different animals, and had a great personality. The only downside is that we had to stand in line just over an hour to get into the park & it was a 7:30AM pick up at the hotel.
01/20/2019
Very crowded. We had seen most of the animals in Monte verde. If this was the only place to have seen them it might be different. But way too crowded for me.
01/19/2019
Lots of visitors. Walked on gravel walkways. Crowded vs. Hanging Bridges. Guide was very interested in selling a trip into the mangroves.
01/17/2019
Wonderfully knowledgeable and informative guide - he was a wealth of information and we saw so many animals, birds and reptiles! Pretty crowded, but we still had a wonderful experience.
01/16/2019
the information for the tour should be specific about what food can be taken to the park...NO NUTS!?!
01/12/2019
Transportation was well organized and punctual. The guides were superb...enthusiastic and knowledgeable. The park itself is very crowded which does detract from the overall experience but we 7nderstand that this is the reality and we didn’t let it bother us unduly. The park is beautiful and the beach is the epitome of a tropical paradise.
01/11/2019
We had the best guide ever-Andre!
01/09/2019
The guide was amazing, he was funny, informative and very excited to be doing the tour. However, all of the wildlife we saw was basically through his scope. The park gets super crowded and there are people literally everywhere! ALso, the tour ends at the beach, but if you choose to stay and enjoy the beach, you must find your own ride home, which was a little annoying but we made it work. I just wish we had known that before booking the tour. ALso, it says you can bring a snack but the park rules are only fruit or sandwiches so we were told to leave our granola bars behind...that also was annoying since the guidelines mentioned we should bring a snack. The beach at the end of the tour was beautiful though and worth the other tiny annoyances.
01/04/2019
The park is amazing but it was rushed due to the long lines at the entrance and the hordes gathering around guides to see the wildlife. We had no time at the beach with the planned return to the hotel. There were several groups that bypassed the line, possibly with a park guide.
01/03/2019
Great guide and a great visit. Logistically, a little complicated as we were not told to meet the guide at 8 and not 7:30, which was in the paper, so spent 30 minutes trying to find the guide. Could have been sleeping instead.
12/30/2018
With the help of our knowledgeable guide we were able to see and photograph many animals as we had hoped. It was an extremely crowded park, which should not have surprised me during the high season but I wasn’t expecting that. PTW voucher advised that we pack a snack but we had to dispose of it (crackers a granola bars) because it is against park rules to take certain foods into the park.
12/28/2018
Beautiful grounds and beach but very crowded. Guide was good but not as personable as others
12/27/2018
The tour was packed. This should be expected around Christmas. In general I would not encourage those with a focus on nature from visiting this location in peak season.
12/26/2018
The guide was particularly great. His name was Andrei and he clearly loved what he was doing. We saw sloths, monkeys, birds. We had a great time at the beach and interacted with the monkeys there.
12/25/2018
The guide use his camera and share with us for the picture even we can take a picture from this camera. Nothing found wild animals without a guide.
12/23/2018
This trip was great. We saw lots of animals, but by this time in our time in Costa Rica we had seen pretty much all the animals already, many on hotel grounds, so it was a bit anticlimactic. No fault of the guide or the Park, I would recommend the experience. The beaches here were beautiful, unfortunately, I had a leg injury which prevented me from enjoying the beaches here.
12/21/2018
Mauriso was great and nature was very good to us that day.
12/18/2018
Broke us into two smaller groups which was helpful. Tour was quite short and stayed on main trail but it was nice to have the option to stay. Felt like a little waste of money as we decided to stay in the park and not take the transport back to our hotel but we asked about the local bus and that was easy.
12/16/2018
Andre was extremely entertaining as a guide!
12/13/2018
Pleasant hike.
12/11/2018
It was most worthwhile the only drawback was the heat and crowdedness at the beginning; however there is no control over these factors. It is truly a lovely protected area very popular with tourists and uncomfortably hot at times.
12/08/2018
Great tour. Guide was not seeing as many animals as his partner, but it did not matter since they communicated well and together they pointed out many many animals. The time after the tour was equally great, since we stayed and wandered around the trails and saw even more animals after we were no longer with the guide. No one on our tour left after the guide was finished, so although they offer a post-tour snack, it is outside the park, so was not eaten by anyone in the tour. It would be best to just skip that part entirely.
12/01/2018
Amazing guide!! Saw so much wildlife!!
11/29/2018
Another fantastic guide, so good at spotting the wildlife and telling us lots of information, so friendly and knowledgeable.
11/28/2018
Simply amazing we had the best time and best guide
10/07/2018
Our guide Man, was awesome, and the spotting scope he used was so cool!
08/30/2018
We loved this experience, we did see a handful of wildlife. Our guide Andres was wonderful. He was very knowledgeable and his eyes for wildlife was incredible. We loved the beach. We ended up staying for a couple of hours which was worth it.
08/19/2018
Great guide, but this is definitely the most crowded place. Too many tourists, and by the time we got here, we had seen pretty much all the animals. The beach was wonderful, though.
08/15/2018
This was an excellent tour; interesting park and lots of sightings. Again, no prior information about the length of the tour.
12/13/2017
Outstanding!
12/08/2017
Once again we had a fantastic guide who was very informative and helpful. The group was a little larger than we had with our previous excursions but that did not greatly impact the overall experience.
12/07/2017
Not anyones fault, but there were too many people on tours in the park. Not as I remembered it from 17 years ago
11/22/2017
Loved it, loved seeing all the wildlife in one place
11/21/2017
Our tour guide was super knowledgeable and he took amazing pictures for us using his scope! The private Beach where the tour ended was incredible and breathtaking!!
08/13/2017
excellent guide
08/02/2017
VERY knowledgable guide, passionate about what he does -- and entertaining while educational!! Beautiful forest, beautiful beach!!
07/29/2017
This one was a bit rushed. We ran out of time and had to hurry.
07/16/2017
Beautiful park! Saw tons of animals!!!
07/12/2017
Great guide and a really fun afternoon on the beach
06/29/2017
I had a lot of fun and hanging out at the beach afterwards was perfect.
06/20/2017
Our guide was amazing at finding animals for us to see - and so much fun! We only wish we had known to bring a lunch so we could stay and enjoy the beach there. What a beautiful place.
06/11/2017
Wonderful place, a bit crowded. The guide was essential as he pointed out a myriad small and large animals that we would otherwise have missed. We learned a lot from him, and ended up using the same company (Iguana Tours) for a kayak trip in the Mangroves the following day.
05/31/2017
We had a wonderful guide Andrés, very knowledgeable
05/23/2017
The Iguana Tours people were great! Got to see lots of animals through the spotting telescope. The beach was beautiful too.
05/17/2017
Amazing, beautiful park with guides that were very knowledgable and enthusiastic about the park. No other place on earth like Manuel Antonio! Loved it!
05/13/2017
We loved the National Park, it was very beautiful and wished we could have spent more time there. We were led to believe we we would have time swim during tour, but found out if we wanted to swim we would have to find alternate transportation back to hotel. It was a rainy day, guide was in a rush and did not wait for the slower individuals in the group. I would like to go back to the Park in the future to explore more and enjoy their beaches!
04/22/2017
Lots of things to see!
04/19/2017
The tour company that provided this tour provided that best experience that we had on our trip. All of the staff that we interacted with were professional and polite. Our guide, Andres, was knowledgeable about the wildlife and the ecosystem. I would highly recommend this tour to others coming to this area.
04/09/2017
The guide was amazing. He showed us all kinds of animals we would have missed without him.
04/08/2017
The guide had loads of info, could spot wildlife we would have no hope of seeing otherwise, showed us through his spotting scope and used it to take amazing pictures on my smart phone! Saw both kinds of sloths, all three types of monkeys, interesting and beautiful birds, insects and reptiles!
04/05/2017
I found the park somewhat ordinary but the guide was awesome
03/30/2017
So very exciting to see sloths, howler monkeys, white faced monkeys, lizards, snakes, etc. Such a great time. The beach was wonderful. We stayed behind so that we could enjoy more of the ocean.
03/29/2017
This was too long, not very exciting. It was difficult to see the wildlife and could only see them through the guide's telescope. The kids got bored and went to the beach, the guide talked too much. He was obviously very passionate about the wildlife but it was a little long of a tour for us. The beach was fun, although we would have gone to the other side had we known they had surfing rentals available. We found this out when we left and were waiting for our hotel transportation. Also, Hotel Parador has so much wildlife (we saw macaws, monkeys, sloths) that there's no reason to go to the park. We saw more animals out in the open at the hotel than we did at the national park!
03/28/2017
This was great- the guides are very dedicated to making sure we see animals and have a good time. They helped us all get great photos and were very knowledgeable. We saw many delightful animals.
03/25/2017
It was great to see the animals and be able to take good picture of them through the guide's telescope! The beach is simply amazing.
03/24/2017
Beach was beautiful. Hoped to see squirrel monkeys but didn't, but that's no one's fault. Hoped to see more birds.
03/19/2017
There were huge crowds of people. Harder to find the animals, but it was still a wonderful experience.
03/17/2017
SO many people on the guided walks to the beach, and so many people and vehicles going past as we were viewing wildlife. That said, there was lots to see, and the guide was great at pointing out creatures we would have walked right past. The beaches were lovely and amenities were more than I had assumed would be there.
03/15/2017
Hugely overrated. Did not enjoy having to look through telescope. Saw few animals. Spiders and monkeys and sloths from a very big distance. We saw more animals from our hotel. The guide wasn't very informative or passionate like the other guides we had. He was talking on the phone on the walk back.
03/14/2017
The crowds lined up for the Manuel Antonio Park when we were scheduled to go there were huge. We missed the tour pick up and went on our own to the park. There were so many people in the park that day so that we were amongst crowds most of the time during our visit to Manuel Antonio Park.
03/10/2017
Another one of our favorite tours! Andres was a great guide--knew all about sloths.
03/04/2017
Fun time, we opted to stay in the park after the tour so we missed out on the snack afterwards which was fine.
03/01/2017
The tour guide tried to show us the same thing too often, the beach inside was great however if we were not in a local hotel I would of been disappointed as tour guide did not leave enough room to visit beach so people had to make their own way back to hotel if they wished to stay a bit. We did as were only a 2 min walk & had a lovely afternoon on a spectacular beach.
02/28/2017
This was a little more strenuous than I had expected, but that was due to my personal stamina at the time. The guide & telescopes made this trip. The stop at the Marlin after for fruit & drink was welcome.
02/26/2017
Being on Sunday, many tours were happening at the same time making hearing the guide difficult.
02/25/2017
This was the best activity we did. We love walking in woods, and seek our parks wherever we go. Our guide was AAA+++. Loved all the birds, animals and insects he showed us.
02/23/2017
Saw many animals, guides have incredible ability to spot creatures that are invisible to the untrained eye!
02/21/2017
It's not the fault of anyone, but I was hoping to see exotic birds.
02/19/2017
Our guide was great. The park itself is very crowded. It was not what I pictured when I thought of hiking through a jungle. We were under the impression that we would have time to spend at the beach, but we were told that we had to leave with the guide within 15 minutes of getting to the beach, or find our own ride back to the hotel.
02/17/2017
The guide was nice and very knowledgeable. However, I had the feeling that we spent too much time watching the sloths (the first 2-3, it was OK) and we ended up surrounded by people from other groups. We might have missed other animals because of that...
02/16/2017
Great info from the guide and he helped everyone find the animals and take pictures.
02/15/2017
We enjoyed our stay on the beach and our own hikes much more. There were too many competing groups on the main road
02/14/2017
Our guide was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic we were thankful that he brought Monoscope and he even took pictures with it on our cell phones. We were excited to see three lost two of which were moving which is amazing and made our day!
02/10/2017
Wish we could have seen more animals, but that can't be controlled. The guide was great with what we could see.
02/09/2017
Loved the park, saw much wildlife & the guide was so knowledgeable telling us & showing us close ups thru the viewfinder. He was a great naturalist.
02/08/2017
Lots of people and guides, was hoping for more. The beach was lovely.
02/07/2017
Excellent
02/04/2017
Tour was quite short. Could not see that many animals.
01/31/2017
Andre's & Mauricio were on time and so nice. They did there best to make sure we saw EVERY animal, plant, and insect there. Very patient, very kind.
01/29/2017
sort of short time to see all that was available,, would have liked to stay on the beach longer, limited to 20 minutes by the guide
01/27/2017
Fabian (guide) was pointing out several animals we would have missed. Was able to take pictures for us thought his scope. Definitely recommend going with a guide.
01/22/2017
Love this national park. Stayed all day and hiked every trail. It's a must see on any trip to Costa Rica.
01/19/2017
I felt like the guide was a little put out and in a hurry
01/13/2017
You really don't get any closer to the wildlife here. a don't miss for sure.
01/11/2017
The tour was not too big, but there were a lot of people in the park. Our guide was really great at pointing things out and letting us see the binoculars. He was very nice and you could tell enjoyed what he did. We loved being able to stay at the beach after!
01/08/2017
This was our favorite; our guide once again knew so much and we loved hearing and seeing all about the ecosystem. The park needs more bathrooms, but aside from that it's quite amazing.
01/01/2017
The guide was excellent. Since there are a lot of people walking through the park the animals are a little shy, but we did see a variety due to the keen eye of our knowledgeable and skilled guide. The trail around the peninsula was well maintained and the beach experience was beautiful and refreshing. A lot of monkeys over there!
12/23/2016
Very knowledgeable tour guide. Fun to see the monkeys and raccoons on the beach. Only issue was that the bathrooms were closed on our way out
12/17/2016
Great tour. Guide was excellent. Park was quite crowded, but that is to be expected.
12/11/2016
What an awesome place!
11/27/2016
The continual rain and lack of wildlife was disappointing. Saw beautiful blue morph butterflies and some frogs. Might be better on a sunny day.
11/22/2016
Would be nice to have the option to stay longer at the beach and still have transportation back to the hotel.
11/15/2016
Group size was great (6 - 8), very knowledgeable guide. Glad we were given an opportunity to stay in the park and arrange our own transportation back to the resort. Loved the beach. Had nice views of sloth on our way out of the park.
11/09/2016
Our tour guide was amazing. We learned a great deal of information.
09/01/2016
This far exceeded our expectations. We had heard that this national Park was well known and a must see, but I had no idea everything we would actually see. Definitely in list and pay for a guide rather than just doing the walk on your own. The guy knows exactly what to look for and spotted an amazing number of animals and insects that we would have never seen. Bats, spiders, snakes, crickets, birds, all kinds of things. We were also fortunate enough to see multiple two toed sloth's and also three toed sloth's. We also were able to see a troop of monkeys. I do not know if we were lucky or if all of those animals are seen all of the time but we certainly loved it. Our guide was incredible. He has a camera set up such that anyone with an iPhone can attach your phone to his camera and get close up pictures of all of the animals and plants he pointed out. Also, I highly recommend staying down at the beach rather than walking back immediately after the tour. You can stay as long as you like and enjoy the incredible surf. The waves were perfect size for kids mine are 10 years and 14 years of age. After staying as long as you like you have to walk back to town yourself it took about half an hour on our own. Then you have to catch the shuttle to the hotel you are staying at, but that is easy and not expensive. Again I highly recommended this
08/25/2016
Beautiful park and beach which was not too busy at that time of year.
08/10/2016
Disappointing tour, very slow, long and drawn out. The guide was well-informed but slow overall.
08/05/2016
Good tour but a lot of waiting around and the trip back to the hotel was not provided.
08/03/2016
Beautiful park and very knowledgeable guides. The guides have a passion for their environment and very friendly. It was nice they have the telescope so we can see the animals and creatures up close. The beach and rainforest/jungle was amazing and very clean.
07/31/2016
Our guide demonstrated remarkable skills at locating wildlife and he was knowledgeable.
07/29/2016
Loved this a lot. Our guide was very knowledgeable and we wouldn't have seen a lot with out him.
07/22/2016
Our guide was great, funny and informative. I can't remember his name, helped us with some local info too.
07/19/2016
The tour was really just walking up the same trail that everyone is walking on to go to Manuel Antonio Beach.
The guide was knowledgeable but we expected to go on more of a tour into the selva.
07/15/2016
Very amazing place. Great knowledgeable guide. Worthwhile.
07/14/2016
Closeness to park was great/tour was amazing/Guide (Andrey) was fabulous!
This was one of the top experiences of the trip!
07/13/2016
Tour guide was amazing and the beach was beautiful!! We did have the expectation was to see a little more wildlife -- but know it is nature.
07/09/2016
Rooster was our tour guide and he made sure we all had a great experience and that we saw lots of wildlife
07/08/2016
the guide was very helpful we would have never seen the animals he was able to point out
07/06/2016
Sadly, underwhelmed - as were had been looking forward to this tour our entire trip. Perhaps it was because we had seen so much wildlife already, it didn't seem like there was much to see. Also, completely out of control of the guide and National Park, we were unable to use the main beach due to crocodiles in the water, which was disappointing after hearing so many wonderful things from other travelers. Overall, we enjoyed our day but felt like we paid a guide to walk us to the beach.
07/03/2016
Our guide was so educated and polite. The park is so neat!! I only wish we understood what could and could not bring into the park sooner. We would have brought lunch and left the my pop up sunshade at the hotel. I wish we had been better prepared so we could have stayed longer. Maybe something good to tell future guests?
06/30/2016
We really enjoyed the tour! We saw so many great animals. I wish I had known the beach was near the park; I would have dressed appropriately.
06/26/2016
Lots of animals but boring for kids
06/21/2016
way to crowded and from what we understand we were there at the best time. although we did enjoy the walk and wildlife viewing.
06/19/2016
Saw some animals; no where near what any of my family members had expected. Felt like guide was rushing and didn't stop to see or look for any animals on our way out after the 20 minute break at the beach. Was disappointing.
06/17/2016
Wonderful part of the trip - our guide was great! Amazing to see such great animals in nature.
06/09/2016
Saw lots of wildlife, and enjoyed the beach. The monkeys at the beach were cool.
05/26/2016
Our guide was excellent in searching out cool things from crabs, to birds nest, spiders and of course monkeys. The beach was cool at the end of the trail. We were not aware that we would have opportunity to swim and did not prepare to stay and swim. I wish we would have. It would have been nice. The beach area had an array of monkeys hanging around to make great picture opportunities and we spied some tricky racoons trying to raid a swimmers backpack.
05/24/2016
Only downside was we didn't know about the beach and not being able to reenter so we forgot our bathing suits and came back two days later for the beach.
05/19/2016
Guide was great and spotting wildlife and taking pictures. Very beautiful park
05/18/2016
The guide was very knowledgeable, fun, and was able to point out many things that we just would have never seen without him. The park was very full of life and the beach was amazing. A-1 all the way. Nothing at all to complain about. We were very happy.
04/29/2016
Nice!
04/26/2016
Very knowledgeable tour guide; saw lots of animals including three different types of monkeys and a sloth so I was super happy!
04/21/2016
Seeing a baby sloth moving in the trees made my day. Great beach too. But too many tourists.
04/17/2016
The guide was very patient to be sure we all saw animals. The walk out at the end of the day was amazing and easy to find our way around.
04/15/2016
Our other tours you arranged in Costa Rica for us were simply better than this one, with smaller groups and more wildlife. The guides were great but we were judging against the other experiences so it just wasn't quite as good. I'm sure if we had done this first, however, it would have been wonderful!
04/14/2016
expert guide! Very hot day, but everyone made the best of it and we saw many animals. The beach was fabulous and the monkeys hilarious
04/13/2016
This wasn't much of a hike.....more like a stroll down a busy road with lots of people and the occasional vehicle. We loved the park and explored more of it on our own after, but we felt the tour was a waste of money.
04/10/2016
Our guide was amazing at spotting the monkeys, sloths and lizards
04/08/2016
We got some great pictures of the animals on this tour.
04/06/2016
The guide was excellent. Very knowledgeable! He made the experience great.
04/05/2016
Very crowded, very few animals and birds without spotting scope would have seen nothing. Very overated
04/03/2016
was not aware that transportation back from the beach was not included unless you left immediately. we stayed. trying to find a taxi took some time
03/31/2016
Very nice park, nice beaches, great guides who are very interested in showing you the sights.
03/29/2016
This tour was way too crowded and not nearly as fun as some of our other tours. We were glad we brought our stuff to stay the day at the beautiful beach as it would have been very disappointing. We still saw some great animals, just way too many people!
03/27/2016
I was sick so I skipped this but the family members that went thought it was ok. It was not a highlight and they likely would not go again. But it was fine.
03/22/2016
Park and guide were amazing. Gave the logistics a slightly lower mark simply because we ended up waiting45 mins at the end of the tour for another party to finish / have refreshments
03/16/2016
some one prior to the tour should have told us about certain food stuffs which cannot be taken into the park.
03/11/2016
Excellent...... Great to experience the park and then spend the rest of the day on a delightful beach.
03/10/2016
Thank you to PTW for organizing this tour with one day notice!
The Driver picked us up right at the front door, dropped us off near the park, told us where to meet for return trip. Also, talked about the area during the drive. Lunch provided was very nice!
03/05/2016
We saw more animals during this walk than we did the rest of the week in Costa Rica! We saw a ton of sloths and monkeys, and the guide was excellent at spotting them. Loved the beach at the end, definitely bring your bathing suit!
03/04/2016
I rate this a little lower only because the park was so very crowded.
03/03/2016
Wonderful tour. Thoroughly enjoyed this experience and our guide took amazing pictures with our cameras. Very professional.
03/02/2016
Nice guide.
03/01/2016
Wow, this is one overwhelmed little park. The guide, once again, was exceptional. I know they control numbers, but the sheer volume of people in there is hard to take. Nevertheless, it was a positive experience.
02/26/2016
loved the monkeys
02/23/2016
We had read that the park was crowded, so that was not a surprise to us. The guides did their best to find interesting wildlife in their scopes and share it with us. It was a very hot day, and a tough 2-hour walk for me, but I enjoyed the wildlife and the Capuchin monkeys at the beach.
02/20/2016
Great Group!
02/18/2016
Loved the beach! The guide spoke for too long a time. The walk was just so-so. Had it not been for the binoculars, we probably would not have seen too much. It was way too hot to be standing around in the hot sun. I
02/17/2016
The guides have an eagle eye to spot the wildlife. Most were at a distance, but we did get close to a few animals. The beach was beautiful.
02/14/2016
The tour was a bit slow for my taste and the guide had to spend too much time answering other people's questions. It would have been better if it were just our group. Too many people for my taste, but the scenery was breathtaking to say the least. Gorgeous.
02/13/2016
GREAT! We saw a lot of wildlife. Our guide was great and had a wonderful sense of humor. It was very crowded, but the guide told us that Saturday's and Sunday's usually are.
02/11/2016
Way too crowded !!
02/09/2016
Outstanding guide and amazing scenery at the beach.
02/05/2016
Even though it is a busy park, the guides did and excellant job of showing us the plants and birds. Great experience. Only problem was the beach swiming part. The information you gave us indicated there would be time for a swim, but what it actually was, is that if you wanted to swim you would leave the tour at that point and find you own way back to the hotel. perhaps you should put in your information that this is an option after the walk is finished. We would highly recommend this company and its guides for any nature related tours.
02/04/2016
Our guide was very knowledgeable and took pictures of the animals and other creatures for everyone in the group through the spotting scope. We made more friends we others in our group and spent the entire day with them at the phenomenal beach in the park. Monkeys everywhere! So cool!
02/03/2016
The park and your guide were great. It was very crowded and slow moving though.
01/28/2016
I think going is a "must do", but the nature of the layout of the park, leads it to feel much too crowded. The guide was very knowledgable, and it was necessary to have a guide point out the wildlife. It was difficult to see anything that wasn't focused in by the guides monocular(?), and you might suggest that future guests bring their cell phones for photographs. (Our guide would take a picture with the guests phone off his monocular, and we missed out on that. ) The beach stay seemed unnecessary to us, but in retrospect I think we should have 'lost' the guide on the way back and explored the quieter trails in the park. Maybe next time!
01/27/2016
wish to see a little more animals, but not guides fault
01/26/2016
Perhaps to have been able to spend more time at the beach with a way to return to the hotel.
01/24/2016
Didn't see as many wildlife as we thought we would
01/23/2016
Wonderful excursion!!! Saw lots of wildlife! Swam in the ocean and hiked the Cathedral hike. Wish the sign for refilling water bottles was more evident, but that is a beautiful spot!
01/22/2016
The guide/naturalist was outstanding
01/12/2016
also wish we could have seen more animals, but the guides were well organized and great with questions and information
01/08/2016
Future travelers should know that the hiking part of this adventure is outstanding and you're sure to see animals. A guide is nice with their telescopes. The beach is highly over-rated (rocky) and the amenities in the park are dismal. Would recommend to future travelers to hike the park with a guide; then head back to the public beach for much better experience and access to food/water.
01/07/2016
Very crowded and except for monkeys most wildlife was distant and only discernable with a spotter scope. Guide was entertaining. Trails are well-marked and there is a nice beach, but there wasn't really any place to hike away from the crowds.
01/05/2016
Very good tour, although I would have liked it to last longer and to see more.
01/03/2016
Wonderful place.Very crowded though! We went back on another day with the intro the tour provided and spent the day and hiked the beautiful trail to Catedral lookout!. Janan was great! I should have read the details of the preparation, and brought swim suit and SNORKEL gear! My fault it's not all tens.
01/02/2016
A bit crowded but it was New Years weekend.
12/29/2015
park is okay, nothing to do with the park or logistics but manuel Antonio was very hot and humid, and because we went to arenal first which was awesome MA was a bit of let down. Liked the town of MA but not so much the park, mainly because we had seen a lot of wildlife at arenal already and it was just too hot.
12/27/2015
Way too crowded. The guide was excellent, but the park was wall to wall people.
12/25/2015
This guide was amazing! I'd recommend that visitors always go with a guide. We saw SO MUCH more than we would have without a guide. And he was charming and fun!
12/18/2015
Good experience and learned quite a bit of wildlife and culture.
12/13/2015
Awesome tour, excellent guide who was really entertaining but also really knew his facts about wildlife. The pictures we got through their telescopes on our phones are amazing!
12/09/2015
I think that is the tour included time to be spend at the beach and a ride back to the hotel, that this would make this tour better. We felt obligated to stay at the beach and find our own way back to the hotel which ended up be very difficult! The National park and beach we amazing, transport back would of made this tour better.
12/08/2015
Andre was a very experienced and good guide. The park is very very crowded early in the morning. The beach is so spectacular. More emphasis should be put on bringing a swimsuit & towel and spending time on the beach at the end of the tour. We did. We were glad.
12/05/2015
I'm glad we did this, but it was not what I expected. It's not so much of a hike as it is a walk down a 2-lane dirt road. Being with a guide made all the difference. Otherwise, we wouldn't have seen any of the wild life. The national park was great. Definitely worth the $16 admission.
11/27/2015
Super guide Mauricio...very instructive.had a great day....but HOT and HUMID...
11/12/2015
Loved the monkeys!
10/31/2015
This place was amazing. We had an outstanding guide and a young intern who was also great. While most people were blasting through seeing next to nothing, our guide was spotting all sorts of wonderful things and shooting great pictures for us as well. He was such a knowledgeable young man. This was a fantastic experience for us.
08/28/2015
Just too hot that day to finish with a little child. But, the guide was very good .
08/26/2015
It was amazing how the Guides would locate tiny lizards, Grass Hopper and various species of Monkeys, and helped us take close up pictures.
08/08/2015
pleasantly surprised we saw so many animals in such a crowded park - beach was wonderful!
08/06/2015
Although we did not see too many animals, our tour guide, Andres, was fantastic and knowledgable. Once we were through the national park, we stayed at the gorgeous beach for the remainder of the day and loved every minute of the beautiful sand and water.
08/04/2015
Our guide showed us animals along the way that we would not have seen doing the walk our selves. I did not know what to expect. We were picked up at our hotel, guided on the nature walk to the beach and then left at the beach to make our own way back -- last part our choice. I had hoped to get over to some of the other beaches, but after all the time on the walk and with the heat, only was able to enjoy MA beach with the crowds. Also, I would have prepared and brought some more snacks and water. None were available inside the park and you were not allowed to bring food with you according to the park entrance person and yet there were people picnicking at the beach. We were parched and hungry at the end. We made our way back easily to the restaurant on the corner and by bus to the hotel. We enjoyed the flexibility at the end, not complaining.
08/01/2015
It would have been nice to be able to leave the park, get the refreshment etc and then go back.
07/30/2015
It was interesting but really crowded.
07/23/2015
Unbelievable. It was beyond expectations. Loved seeing things through the scopes. Information given made it all come alive.
07/19/2015
A great guided tour through the National Forest onwards to a beautiful beach. Strange thing, we thought we would enjoy the beach the most, but we actually enjoyed Monte Verde and La Fortuna more. Especially, La Fortuna. For us, I think there was just more things to do and explore.
07/18/2015
Thought i would have seen colorful birds, saw plenty of monkeys!!
07/16/2015
We recommended this specific tour, with Iguana Tours, to everyone we could. Our experience would have been so different without our fun, knowledgeable guide. We were so grateful to have him!
07/14/2015
Miguel was wonderful & spotted SO many things that we never would have seen if we didn't have a guide. He was great at getting thing spotted in his telescope & taking pictures of the zoomed in image. Amazing!
07/09/2015
Our tour guide Andre was AMAZING!!!!! I cant say enough great things about him. I would recommend anyone to get on one of his tours. He has a sharp eye and is full of interesting knowledge.
06/30/2015
Our guide was good!!! Funny and informative. We stayed at the beach for awhile so we arranged for our transportation back to the hotel.
06/26/2015
Had hoped to see more animals, but our guide was terrific, and very informative.
06/25/2015
This was a beautiful park. It's hard to explain. It is definitely worth getting a tour guide, at least the first time to see things you would never see on your own and with a scope that makes things so much more accessible. The beach clean, safe and absolutely gorgeous. Plan to bring food, water, towels, suits etc if you plan to stay a while. You have to watch your things carefully. Most people had one person in their group watching all the time while the others were in the water because the local monkeys and racoons will definitely take things if you don't keep someone on watch.
06/24/2015
The guide was great- he even took pics with my phone using his telescope!
06/21/2015
Awesome beach with iguanas a few feet away. Super informed guide. He got so exited when he spotted a rare bat.
06/09/2015
Beautiful park with monkeys! What more could you want?
06/07/2015
I LOVED the park! Our guide, Andreas, was phenomenal and you could tell how much he loved the park and animals. It wouldn’t have been the same without him since we would have missed so much and he was a wealth of knowledge with any questions we had.
06/02/2015
Should make it explicit that we can go to the beach after the tour.
05/28/2015
The guides using their digital scopes was very cool. That made seeing the animals very easy and safe. The trip is nice and easy for a leisurely stroll through the park. The snack was good and overall it was a very pleasant day. It seemed a little short compared to the excursions of the previous location though.
05/20/2015
This was spectacular. I was so glad we had a guide. I know we would have missed so much on our own. We saw so many animals and birds, and then we stayed at the beach for a couple of hours. Probably my favorite beach ever!
05/10/2015
Very long tour - saw a lot of birds and lizards, very few monkeys and other mammals unfortunately. Beach was lovely.
05/06/2015
Great guide - we were very tired by now and he was very thoughtful and concerned.
05/05/2015
Hubby did not like that they segregated Americans and not Americans. Even though the non Americans were also English speakers.
05/04/2015
Try to go on a guided tour if possible - guides are very knowledgeable and their spotting scopes make it easy to see the animals. Guide can take a picture with a cell phone thru the scope and can yield a very nice photo. Pace of tour was leisurely and never felt rushed. Pick up was on time and stop for refreshment after tour was very refreshing.
05/03/2015
Tour guide made this such a great experience. The tour was cut a bit short due to high tides (not sure if that's really why?) because we were allowed to stay at the beach and explore on our own, which we did. Overall a great experience.
04/23/2015
Our tour guide Antonio gets an A+ !!
04/20/2015
Andres was a fantastic guide! We saw so many cool things, and learned so much!
04/19/2015
Our guide was amazing!! So knowledgable, really was a great learning experience.
04/15/2015
Loved every bit of it. Our guide was Mau and he was very knowledgeable and spotted a lot of wildlife. After being on that tour we went on the mangrove swamp tour with the same company - very worthwhile.
04/12/2015
Very cool place to bring the kids to see wildlife.
04/10/2015
unforgettable beaches at the end of a nice walk seeing a lot of animals including of course the monkeys. Putting aside the sunburns, we could have stayed longer in this paradise.
04/02/2015
Our tour was great - we saw many amazing animals including several sloths. The only drawback was all the crowds of people, both walking on the tour and especially at the beach. Based on the reviews, I was expecting the beach to be less crowded than the public beach, but it was actually more so! We were thrilled to see the monkeys up close at the beach. We wish we would have better understood (before we left our hotel) that if we wanted to stay at the beach, we would have to find our own way home. Overall, we loved it!
03/31/2015
Amazing! The beach was beautiful
03/28/2015
the tour was so-so but the beauty of the beach and all of the wildlife made up for it.
03/27/2015
This tour was very wildlife oriented with not much else in the way of flora and fauna. We did not do much walking and the trail was very flat with nothing much to see but the wildlife. It was not for me.
03/19/2015
There was nothing interesting in this park. Compared to Negro river boat ride this park had nothing to offer. We should have been given another option in place of this park.
03/18/2015
Very competent tour guides. We stayed at the park after the tour and swam. I would recommend others do the same. It was a hike back to the Babaloo, and we considered hailing a cab, but glad we did not as we enjoyed examining all the plants along the way.
03/12/2015
EXPERT GUIDE AND ENJOYABLE TIME.
03/10/2015
I am a stickler for being on time. We ended up waiting quite a long time at the entrance for guides to figure out logistics and to get going. That should not have been necessary. As a result, even though we were there before the main crowds, we ended up finally getting going in a MASS of people. We saw a lot, the guide was good and knowledgable. Great trip all around.
03/08/2015
Terrific!!
03/07/2015
Our tour group was too big. We found this particular tour guide a bit "showy". Again, I would have preferred a longer walk.
03/02/2015
Tour guide knowledgeable. Tour very interesting. I thought there would be water and a snack, but it wasn't offered. I would have brought food with me.
03/01/2015
If it wasn't for our amazing guide, we would not have seen the animals we did! Awesome experience!
02/24/2015
the guide was extremely knowledgeable about the wildlife and fauna. Was very good at spotting a variety of animals.
02/23/2015
great tour guide....Without him you would not have seen anything....Beaches were beautiful....
02/18/2015
Great tour - saw lots.
02/17/2015
The park is not very big and would it have been worth $16 USD to get in if you weren't on a tour?? I'm thinking not. Although now I can say been there, done that! Without a guide you probably wouldn't see very much for wildlife in the park.
02/12/2015
We expected hiking, not a 2 hour, 1.4 mile stroll through the rainforest. We enjoyed the wildlife, but would have preferred something a big more rugged.
02/11/2015
We saw a lot of animals, which we expected, but the atmosphere of the park is lacking and there were so many people pushing, running and shoving from one animal to the next with their individual parties, it all felt totally claustrophobic and we almost had to leave, but ultimately were glad we didn't because the crowds eventually thinned a little. The guide was excellent.
02/08/2015
Guide was extremely enthusiastic! Spotted very well camouflaged wildlife. His years of experience really showed.
02/05/2015
This was extremely crowded and slow. It was nice to see the animals, but it was our last full day and seemed to drag on a bit. Our guide was very knowledgable.
02/04/2015
Another way to learn about wildlife.
01/28/2015
Guides were amazing
01/26/2015
Disappointed there were so many people in the park at the same time. If there was wildlife, they had headed for the hills by the time we got around to looking at them. I would like to be first in line the next time I do this.
01/24/2015
Our guide got us into the park early before the holiday crowds. So we were able to get a fresh look at the animals, without waiting behind other groups. Again I was impressed by his knowledge of and enthusiasm for the plants and animals.
01/21/2015
too bad there was a crocodile in the first beach area..didn't see it but we did go to the other one...no big deal....guide was great...monkeys were the best...scenery was fantastic ..unfortunately again my daughter was sting a couple of times by jellyfish and the next couple of days for her was not altogether pleasant
01/20/2015
We loved this tour. The guide was knowledgeable and did his part to protect the park from people outside our group who were not following park rules. The beach is beautiful!
01/17/2015
expected more given the other guided tours but likely not possible due to the number of people in the group.
01/04/2015
Great tour and the beach afterward was very nice
12/31/2014
Way too crowded. This was the only part of the trip that I would not do again.
12/30/2014
park is overated. Too many people at one time made it difficult to see the wildlife .It was similar to standing in line at Disney . We saw more wildlife at Cano Negro
12/28/2014
The beach was nice and we saw a lot of animals.
12/27/2014
Definitely a must see. The tour guide was fantastic - it was unbelievable how much wildlife we saw in a short stroll down a busy path. Beaches were beautiful. Only downside was that we had to choose between the snack and remaining in the park. We noticed other groups were served a snack at the beach area.
12/26/2014
The guide was great I loved seeing the monkeys. The best ones were probably outside of the park though. It was fun and the guide was really engaged and good at finding animals for us--it just wasn't my favorite part of the trip. We stayed and swam--enjoyed the beach but I had expected a bit more somehow than the park delivered.
12/25/2014
This was a very expensive tour for the experience. It was incredibly beautiful there, but too slow going for my three sons (ages 15, 23, 25 and even too slow for me). The minute we left the actual tour and walked on our own to the beach, we saw far more monkeys than were sighted in the park and had I known that, I would have skipped the tour and just spent the day at the beach.