Any opinions/advice on hiring a guide when visiting Manuel Antonio NP? What is the average cost and is it worth it? How long do they spend with you?
Thanks in advance.
T

Hi Tim,
I think we paid about $40 each for a 4 hour guided tour. Started about 7:00 in the a.m. and was over at 11:00. We really enjoyed the guide because he saw everything and carried a tripod and an excellent scope (or whatever you call those things)for viewing. He was even able to attach our cameras to it for good close ups. We saw a lot of people hiking without a guide (just the entrance fee of $7, I think), but we were glad to have one. He was a wealth of information!

Thanks. Did you pre-arrange this or just hire a guide at the entrance?
40.00 per person sounds a little high to me?

We stayed at Si Como No and scheduled the park tour for the next morning when we checked in the evening before. This will be offered at all of the hotels in the area since the park itself is such a big draw. It is pricey, but we saw an amazing variety of wildlife that I know we would not have seen left to our own devices! 2 snakes, squirrel monkeys, white faced monkeys, a porcupine, several birds and hummingbirds, both a two toed and three toed sloth (the two toed was on the ground doing his weekly "thing" and we got great photos of him as he slowly began his climb back up the tree), and more. We thought the $ was well spent. We were in a very small (8 people) group and the guide was excellent.

We went to the National Park the day before our tour. Our guide, Mop, told us to come back the next day at 8:00 and try to find 4 other people to tour with us. We found 2 and he found 4. We were charged $15 each for a 2 hour guided tour. I think the other 4 people paid $20 each. The tour was long enough for us. It was well worth the money. He pointed out animals we never would have found. We saw lots of white face monkeys, a couple of sloths, and a variety of birds, insects, bats. He was a great guide, lots of info plus all shillmac mentioned. Without him, we would not have seen much.