Quepos/Manuel Antonio National Park

DO NOT stay at COSTALINDABACKPACKERS in Manuel Antonio! They confirmed reservation through e-mail during one of their highest seasons of the year (Christmas) and then didn’t honor that reservation when we arrived and we were left wander around Manuel Antonio for 3 hours before finally returning to Quepos.

DO stay at Wide Mouth Frog in Quepos. GREAT place with awesome facilities and staff for a great price.

Beaches in Manuel Antonio park are MUCH nicer than the public beach – definitely worth the entrance fee even just for the beaches. Great hiking trails too. We spent about 4 hours in the park. We hiked the many trails and also had time to stop and take a swim in the ocean at one of the many BEAUTIFUL beaches in the park.

We also saw a ton of wildlife! We didn’t hire a guide but were lucky enough to come up on other tour groups who had spotted things so we could see them too.

You don’t really need a guide here. Well, unless it’s the only national park type place you’re going to in Costa Rica to see wildlife.

Taxis from the hotels in Manuel Antonio hotels cost 3,500 colones (about $7) but the public buses are frequent and cost somewhere around 200-300 colones ($0.75ish). The public buses run from the station in Quepos to the beach.

The best beaches are in the national park. You can even see some wildlife, and I saw iguanas, Capuchin monkeys, and an anteater. No sloths, however.

On September 11th we made a trip to Parque Manuel Antonio.

Evidently, people were not talking too much about the wildlife but rather about what they saw on TV…

I think you must take a guided tour. If not, you will not see a lot of animals. Guides are specialized to help you seeing animals so… it worth it. We want there with Pablo from Nature Adventures . Wow, such a great guide! We had a lot of fun. Pablo provided us with a lot of info, priceless!

I plan on spending a lot of time there in the near future. I was just recently in Manuel Antonio….it was great. The beach was ultimatly relaxing, the people were one of a kind. There was not TOO many tourists the week I was there and within three days I had made amigos with some coolass locals. There are lots of activities,the weather is beautiful, the environment is the best.