Favorite hotels and tours in Manuel antonio please?

We hired a guide to take us through the park; he spotted a lot of wildlife we wouldn't have seen on our own. We also took a sailing and snorkeling tour. The sailing was really nice, a little rough. The snorkeling was pretty bad, probably wouldn't do that one again because the water had low visibility. I would have liked to have done the mangrove tour, but we ran out of time; it gets rave reviews though.

Forgot to mention, we stayed at Mango Moon; other popular spots are Si Como No, Costa Verde, Villas Nicolas, and Makanda by the Sea.

We hired a guide for our walk through the park. We really saw so many animals. I have done this walk twice before without a guide and the difference was amazing. We liked our guide so much that we asked if he could take us out and about to some of his favorite spots. It turned out to be a great day. He took us to waterfalls and swimming holes and some nice hikes.
We also did the night kayak tour. It was a lot of fun but really buggy before the sunset.

Do you know your guides name? That would be awesome! How do you find a private guide? Can I arrange it ahead of time? Did you like Mango Moon? What is most convenient and pretty nice? Thanks you all for your help.
jk

We just hired our guide through the hotel. If your hotel doesn't offer that, there were guides lined up outside the park waiting to be hired. You shouldn't have a problem finding one. Ours brought drinks and fresh pineapple along, which was a nice touch. A lot of them carry telescopes and let you take pictures through their lenses. The wildlife in the park is abundant - we saw monkeys, bats, racoons, sloths, iguanas, Jesus Christ lizards, crabs, all kinds of insects - the park can get crowded though, so go early in the day if you can. Also I believe it's closed on Mondays.

When we got to Mango Moon, we weren't crazy about our room, but they upgraded us for free to a fabulous room. The hotel is nice - kind of a boutique feel to it. Several of the rooms share a balcony. We had a private balcony on the first room, but to get to it we had to walk through another couple's balcony, and we always felt bad like we were disturbing them. The king upper balcony suite we were upgraded to had its own private entrance and balcony and was gorgeous. I guess I would say it depends upon which room you get. They serve a nice breakfast and the eating area has a gorgeous view of the ocean. One thing that was strange was that their toilets didn't accept paper, so they have a little trash can in there - I didn't think that part was terribly romantic, but it's common in some parts of CR apparently. Sorry if that's TMI...

Our guide's name was Henry. Our driver recommended him and our outing with him was one of our highlights of our trip. I had his cell phone number but I'm not sure if I still have it. Volcanogirl is right, it's very easy to get a guide.
I had stayed at Villa Nicholas on my two previous trips to Costa Rica. This time we stayed at a very small bed and breakfast which we also enjoyed. There are a lot of great hotels and all different price ranges. When are you going?

I found Henry's number, it was on a previous post. It's 506-777-1555. He's a great friendly guy and lot's of fun.

You are all awesome. we are going october 16. I know rainy season but our daughter is there studying for 3 months so...... Is it a far ride from the airport in Quepos to Mango moon to manuel antonio park? Thanks again!

You know, we had a driver, so I didn't do the drive from the airport, but Quepos is pretty close to Manuel Antonio - there's a major road that runs between Quepos and MA National Park, and most of the hotels are clustered along that road or on small roads running directly off of it. Should not take you long at all. We were able to walk just about everywhere in MA. Taxis were easy to get and really cheap. Our hotel called for us whenever we needed it. The most expensive ride was only 5 dollars.

ttraveler
I just talked to Henry. He wanted to know who reccommended him! He was very nice and very excited to be remembered that way! thanks! Jaci

Our guide's name was Henry as well - maybe the same guy. Is Henry a popular Costa Rican name?!

Ingmdw2
So glad that you got in touch with Henry. You can tell him that it was the three girls and the teenager and that we stayed at Didi's. We liked him so much that we took him to dinner that night. He's a lot of fun. Enjoy your trip.

Jaci,
If you have Henry take you to some of his favorite spots ask him to stop to get you a local treat. Can't remember what it was called but it's warm, sweet cheese bread. Delicious. He bought it from a boy along the road. He really bought it for himself but we ended up eating almost all of it..

We thoroughly enjoyed the week we spent at Si Como No this past Aug. It was our first time to CR so I can't compare with other hotels, but would highly recommend it.

The hotel arranged our tours and didn't have a problem with any of them. One of our favorites was the mangrove swamp tour with Iguana Tours - Barbara was fantastic guide.

As to your question re Quepos airport, the impression I got from talking with people is that it's about 20 min to the MA hotels. We rented a car in San Jose so I don't have personal knowlege.