Is a guide essential at MA Nat. Park?
 

We will be there the week/weekend before xmas. Is a guide required in order see wild life, find our way, etc? What can we expect to pay (family of four) for a guide? I assume a weekday is better than weekend? Seems I read it is closed on Mondays - true?

Thnaks in advance!

A guide is not necessary; however, I guarantee you will have a much better experience if you go in with a good guide. The animals are hiding and guides know how to find them. They have scopes and really good binoculars too, and they will make plant life sound incredibly fascinating. You'll miss a lot if you just walk through and admire the greenery. I highly recommend Marcella Morales or her husband Roberto. You can call them and make arrangements ahead of time. They'll show you all around Monteverde/St. Elena too if you want. 011-506-645-5395.

Pura Vida!
Sandy

The first time we went, we didn't get a guide. The second time, we did. It was a much fuller experience especially for the kids.

I agree that a guide is helpful the first time you visit. However, I would not arrange for a guide until I showed up (at the stroke of dawn) at the park entrance. Guides are much less expensive if you book them on the spot and not in advance or through a hotel. Only official guides are permitted to accompany guests into the park, and it is easy to get one who speaks your language - and those at the front entrance are as good as they get.

We were there with our kids (4 and 8) last month. The guide through the hotel was $40/person. Near the entrance to the park it was $20/adult, $10/kid. We decided not to do it the first day, and see how it went. It's no problem walking through the park... there aren't a lot of different ways to go. There were many groups with guides, so if we saw them looking at something, we would stop and look too. We didn't look through their scopes, but my kids weren't interested in little birds anyway. Monkeys, sloths, and coatamundis are all little kids need to find! We thought a long hike with a guide would have been too much for them, so we ended up just exploring the next day by ourselves again. I'm sure we would have seen more with a guide, but we saw enough to make everyone happy.

Thank you all for the insightful replies. One other question about timing: I have heard "get there early." Is that to avoid crowds, see the most wildlife, or both? We are driving down from the Puntaranes area for the day, so not sure how soon we will be there. Anyone know how long that drive will take?

Thanks again!

It's for the crowds , depending on time of year .... They only let a certain number of people in . You are definitely going at a busy time , so it is best to be there early . But what I understand from your post , it's just a day trip and you are leaving from further north in the Guanacaste region..? This will take a few hours for sure . ( we never used a guide and always saw tons of wildlife but we were there for an extended period so were certain to see something , if you can affoed it , get the guide )

The drive will take about 1.5 hour to 2 hours. Try to get started in the park by 9:00 or so. Most group tours are about 7:00-11:00. The later you wait, the more chance of early afternoon rain you will have.

Question--is there an official "opening time" for the park (is there a gate?) Or can we get there as early as possible? (As birders we are likely to want to start at dawn.) Not planning on hiring a guide as we'll have our own scope, although we'll leave it open as a possibility.)

Yes , there is an opening time , and a gate .... Can't recall the actual opening time though . I do not believe it's dawn though .

I think it opens up at 7 AM!

Note the park is closed on Mondays.

It's pretty hard NOT to see monkeys and cool reptiles in Manuel Antonio national park, you would have to have your eyes closed not to see them. If you truly don't see any, just stop where everyone els is looking, and you'll see them! The park doesn't have dense foliage like Monteverde does, so you can see easier.

Sloths are a little bit harder to spot, but we found them by followin a group that had a guide, and whenever the guide left a spot, we looked where they had been looking, and there was the sloth! NOw, we didn't plan t do this. It just happened. Hubby is a biologist and would have found the sloth on his own, he has a good eye, but there was more than one group ahead of us with a guide, and one person in the group kept running back to tell us where everything was!

You can always go back to the entrance if you change your mind and hire a guide. You don't have to hike very far into the park to see monkeys, reptiles, and a sloth.

When I first went to Manuel Antonio back in 1988, park admission was about 35 cents and there were no crowds or quotas. Nevertheless, the tour guide we hired recommended getting to the park at 6 or 7 a.m., because it's easier to see wildlife then. More are active then. Some animals hide out during the hottest part of the day.

Hi Marigold ! Your the Marigold of "Tobago "knowledge , correct ? It's a must on my list along with Dominica . But how will I ever pass up Costa Rica !? decisions , decisions ....

When was the last time you were there by the way ? My first time was in '91 . Still the same incredible beauty and wildlife , but a lot on construction unfortunately . ( not a deterrent yet , so no worries people )

I definitely recommend going with a guide. We saw birds through the telescope that we couldn't even locate otherwise, including the resplendent quetzel. The guides also explain a lot about ecology and whatever you're viewing. The tours start early because that's when the birds and animals are active. I'm not usually an early riser, but the sun rises so early in CR and is so bright, that it's easy for me to start a tour there at 7:00.
M.A.Park also has a night walk I highly recommend.