Hi all-

I'm re-posting because I realized I forgot to put this under the Costa Rica heading. Sorry!

We will be staying in the Central Valley and have one day to tour. We have read about Braulio Carrillo park and it sounds like a place we would love to hike. (Waterfalls, bit of a cloud forest, etc.) Has anyone ever hiked this park and if so, could you please recommend a starting point to hike from and any hikes? There seems to be 3 ranger stations, but I am having a difficult time finding any information on hikes.
Thanks in advance for any information you can provide!

Melissa

Someone with more knowledge than I may be able to give you better advice, but I recall being told as we were driving through the park on a tour bus that there really aren't any hiking trails in it. It's so incredibly beautiful that that's hard to believe, but you sure don't see anything written about hiking there.

Hopefully, someone who may have first hand experience can give you some help.

jean

I have driven through the park, but haven't hiked it. It's spectacularly beautiful, but I've avoided it because of the many warnings I've read about hikers being robbed on the trails - most likely due to its proximity to San Jose.

As a follow-up to my previous post, Beatrice Blake, author of New Key to Costa Rica, recommends the hike on the trail near the visitors center (1.8 km after the tollbooth if you're heading east from San Jose). Beatrice recommends that you ask at the visitors center which trails are currently being patrolled by park rangers.

Thanks to you both. The books I read warned about being robbed on the trails, but I guess I was hoping that since those books were 5 or 6 years old, it wasn't a problem anymore!
We'll be staying at Xandari, and hopefully they will be able to help us coordinate with a guide, which it sounds like might be a good idea if we are going to hike.
TAGriffin- I don't have the book you mentioned, so thanks for including the author's recommendations.