The Hanging Bridges Guided Hike is a mixture of terrestrial trails through an old growth forest and safely constructed suspended walkways high up in the tree tops where you can experience the cloud forest canopy at every level. With a professional naturalist guide, who won’t let you miss a thing, you’ll learn more than you ever knew existed in this magical setting.
You’ll meet with your bilingual guide who will take you into the lush rain forest environment stopping all along the way to view various plants, insects and birds living in this unique ecosystem. Occasionally you may see a mammal if they are nearby and willing to be seen!
Costa Rica is famous for having one of the highest concentrations of flowering orchids in the world. Many are tiny but exquisitely elegant in detail. They thrive in wet tropical woodlands along with other varieties of epiphytes (air plants) which your guide will point out to you.
In addition you may encounter carefully camouflaged insects, a variety of birds, amphibians and possibly even a snake. You’ll want to wear hiking shoes for protection, and because it can be cooler in the cloud forest, bring along a light jacket. If you forgot your raincoat, ponchos are provided.
Crossing over 8 hanging bridges, you will get a bird’s eye view of the dense verdant canopy below. Sightings of animals in this area include tropical birds such as the toucan, coatimundis, monkeys, tarantulas, interesting lizards and snakes. Nothing is guaranteed but your knowledgeable guide, who roams this area daily, will be scouting out any available wildlife during your hike.
Near the end you will come to a massive hollowed out tree. This was formed from the roots of a vine called the strangler fig that over time surrounds another tree until it dies leaving the inside open. You can explore inside the tree as well as opt to climb up its interior using ropes to get to a suspended bridge at the top.
The 3 kilometer trail (not quite 2 miles) involves moderate uphill hiking as this is mountainous terrain. Anyone in reasonably fit condition can comfortably participate and children under 5 are free. During rainy season the well maintained trails can become muddy, another good reason to wear your hiking shoes. This is an opportunity to slow down from your other extreme sports activities and take the time to enjoy the natural beauty of the rich forest life surrounding you. You’ll be glad you did!
This half day hike includes round trip transportation, guide and entrance to the private reserve.
The Hanging Bridges Guided Hike- Aventuras is available from Monteverde
All Ages
Latitude: N 10° 20' 19.74"
Longitude: W 84° 49' 27.3"
08/05/2023
We had another great and informed guide on this tour. His name was Javier. But compared to all our other excursions during this vacation, it was not our favorite. We saw the least amount of wildlife on this tour. The guide didn't seem to be looking for birds, and may have been more of a specialist in tarantulas. And the views were not any more impressive than what we were able to see at Hotel Los Pinos. We did enjoy the surprise tree climb at the end of the excursion. My son enjoyed pulling up the backpacks by pulley for our fellow tourists.
08/01/2023
Old bridges, one actually closed. Very little wild life. So close to zip line you could her it in the tour. Not near as represented, guide was nice. Highlight was spiders!
04/23/2023
Guides very knowledgeable and took great care of us.
03/31/2023
Excellent tour - we were the only English speaking participants and our guide went out of his way to make sure we were all included.
03/24/2023
We had a wonderful guide!
02/08/2023
Was hoping to see more wildlife.
01/29/2023
Worth experience. Enjoyed despite of some rain
08/15/2021
The guide was very knowledgeable. It was fine, except that I didn't really see anything that really got me excited. I did enjoy the hummingbirds at the end, though.
08/04/2021
This is a nice tour. It moves in and out of 20-40 year old secondary growth cloud forest. The area is indeed beautiful. We did hanging bridges but not ziplines. If adventure and excitement are your thing, go for the ziplines. Our compatriots enjoyed them immensely. If you are looking for cloud forest species go to MonteVerde reserve.
02/09/2020
Yes, great tour. We didn't see many animals, but the experience was beautiful. The place is quite amazing!
02/02/2020
Very wet that day, not much wild life to look at. Guide was alright to start, but seemed to get a little dis-interested towards the end.
10/30/2019
Our guide, Roy, was great but there is just not a lot of stuff to see there. It is right next to a zipline and every couple of minutes we could hear the noise from the zipline, and the screams from the people. I think that scares the animals. I guess I didn't do enough research because I thought we were going to the preserve.
05/05/2019
The tour guide was nice but spoke mostly in Spanish, which was a problem for this native English speaker. The tour seemed rushed at times.
11/20/2017
Loved it
10/16/2017
Super fun and scary doing Superman but we loved every minute
04/19/2017
This tour was my favorite. The rest of our group also loved it. Our guide was very knowledgeable about the flora and fauna but also he talked a lot about the relationship between the forest and the people of Costa Rica and how the ecosystem of the forest works. Beautiful.
02/22/2017
This tour guide was ok, but liked telling jokes and personal tidbits more than giving us information about the park and life within it. He was personable and we enjoyed the hike. Would have liked a little more time to explore.
11/23/2016
Great guide!!! Loved the tour.
08/27/2016
Guide was very friendly and knew a lot about nature, but spoke english very poorly
07/12/2016
Tour was fine and beautiful. Would suggest staff get training on speaking louder. Their command of English is impressive, but hard to understand if volume is too low.
06/08/2016
The only mammals we saw were down in the gully below a hanging bridge and I didn't realize it would be impossible to take pictures because the bridges move. There was also a large group. I would have preferred a simple hike, but this was more interesting for my family. Guide was great and we did see a quetzal.
03/29/2016
Another wonderful day!! Our guide was very knowledgeable and the cloud forest was wonderful! Climbing the bridges was breath taking..
03/19/2016
Brilliant trip Fantadtic guide. Saw quetzals and so many other beautiful flora and fauna . Perfect
03/02/2016
Saw no wildlife! Was rather boring.
02/11/2016
Fun but weather was bad.
08/11/2015
Our tour had more than 15 people on it for 1 tour guide, which was too much and had us rushing through rather than being able to stop and enjoy the views/wildlife, etc. But the guide was very knowledgeable and the forest was breathtaking.
07/19/2015
Tour was great. Guide was a bit hard to understand and he seemed to focus on 2 people who were trainees more than the tour people. He did stop to show things a few times and that was fun. Loved the bridges.
07/18/2015
We enjoyed it. It was a good experience. We also took in the ziplines which we had not planned to do. It was great!
07/17/2015
Just a really nice tour.
04/13/2015
Maybe it's because the guide was bad, but I was expecting more from the cloud forests. Isn't that the whole reason to go to Monteverde?