It seems everyone loves Monteverde yet it is nick named Crowd Forest. I'd like to visit a cloud forest without the crowds and with solitude. Is there an alternative? Thank you.

Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve is near Monteverde with less people.

The Los Angeles Cloud Forest [which I have not visited] is northwest of San Jose and has received good comments. Certainly, as noted above, Santa Elena is a better alternative to the "Monteverde Zoo".
Another wonderful choice is the area around San Gerardo de Dota in the Talamanca Mountains south of San Jose.

Savegre Lodge [my favourite] and Trogon Lodge are both there. It is a pocket of agricultural land in a beautiful river valley in the midst of cloud forest.

Quetzals are quite common here and plenty of other highland birds are around.

A local guide here can take you to another fascinating habitat -even higher in the mountains. This is the paramo at about 11,000 feet elevation about 3000 feet above the lodge. Vegetation here is stunted and the flora and fauna are nothing at all like you find in the lower altitude forests.

This area is one of my favourite places anywhere.

cheers

Jerry

I, too, had read that Monteverde was crowded. It's been a couple years since we were there, but it certainly wasn't crowded. We went early in the morning, took a guided tour, saw some quetzals. There were some other hikers around. After our guided tour, we hiked one of the outer loop trails. We didn't see another person the entire time. This was during 'high' season, maybe it's more crowded now???

Monteverde Cloud Forest wasn't at all crowded when we were there in January last year. Perhaps tourism has just taken off over the past year.

I haven't been to Monteverde, so can't compare the conditions, but I also had a wonderful experience at Savegre Lodge. The area is serene and beautiful beyond description. The lodge has excellent guides, and is very friendly and laid-back.

Agree with Jerry and Molly2--Savegre was delightful!