bodhijack

i keep hearing about the "horrible" road from fortuna. can't decide what to do! can anyone say anything to help? "don't miss monteverde",or, "road sucks, i will never do it again"....... help!!! whatever we will see in monteverde, can it also be seen in fortuna &/or MA?

JeanH

I loved Monteverde. The road from La Fortuna was awful. But, it was so bad, it was fun. Had a four wheel drive and never got out of second gear. It's really only the last 20km or so that are terrible. Huge holes and giant rocks. An adverture in itself. Just take your time, realize you aren't going to drive more than 10 miles an hour and enjoy the views.

I know there are other cloud forests in Costa Rica, but I haven't been to any of them. The forest/jungle is a completely different ecosystem from Monteverde to Manual Antonio.

Personally, I wouldn't want to miss Monteverde, but plants are my passion, so my views of the place are skewed.

Suzie2

Santa Elena/Monteverde to me are more than just cloud forests. It is a sweet little community of people, shops, etc. The reserves are great and there are now 5 official places to hike. The childrens rainforest, Finca Ecologica, Selvatura (zip lines and walking tours), Santa Elena Reserve, and of course Monteverde. It is truly a special place.

dncee11

I don't know about the "horrible" road, we made it in Oct several years ago with a regular sedan. It is unpaved most of the way but if its not raining, you should have no problem. Monteverde may be overdone a bit but it was well worth seeing, IMHO. The roads right around MV are dirt (mud) so we picked a central location and parked the car while we were there. Don't miss the cheese factory, its great stuff! The variety of hummingbirds interested me also.

Shanah

Im having the same problem- well trying to decide b/w Arenal or Monteverde or to do both. It seems its easier to get to Arenal from Monteverde than Arenal to Monteverde so maybe that will help your decision.

JKP

We booked a tour from our hotel in Arenal that took us right where we wanted to go in Monteverde. We stayed at Tabacon (OK, but my least favorite place just because you felt like you were staying at the Marriott. The hot springs were fun in the morning and at night. Stayed away from the bus loads of tourists during the day).

We booked the package right at the Tabacon desk. We chose the Sky Trek/Sky Walk tour. There was a very short van ride to a water taxi. The water taxi ride was probably 45 minutes? (My memory is failing me on how long). Then a driver took us on the road to Monteverde. Breathtaking scenery. We saw dozens of rainbows. I was very nervous about the roads and to be honest, my imagination was far worse than the real thing. Of course, we were not driving When we arrived, there was plenty of time for us to do the Sky Walk in the morning, a fantastic tour through the canopies. Saw tons of birds with an excellent naturalist guide, Bernardo. He really knows his stuff. Another couple had heard to ask for him and I was glad to be on his tour. Then we had lunch in their cafe. After lunch we headed out to the Sky Trek. It was very cloudy that day, so we didn't see much. My husband and I decided that maybe that wasn't such a bad thing considering how high we were off the ground I loved the zip line - what a blast! Then we headed back in our van able to enjoy the scenery instead of worrying about the bumps in the road! I would highly recommend this option if you are considering only staying in one place. To us it seems as close to "the best of both worlds" as we could get.

Suzie2

Recently heard from someone who owns a home up in Monteverde that the road to Tilaran has been graded and is very easy to drive on. Still not paved but he can do it in about 1 1/2hr.
The road on the other side is about the same except that they have paved part of it down at the bottom.

RufusTFirefly

We took the taxi-boat-taxi route from Monteverde to Arenal earlier this week. Most of the road from Santa Elena to Tiliran is in pretty good shape. The roads in and around Monteverde are a disaster--large rocks sticking as much as a foot sticking out above the road bed.

The dirt road from Guacimal to Monteverde is a disaster--don't anyone try to drive it in the dark or in anything other than a real 4WD--not a RAV4. Our driver said that he has seen it even worse than it is now. Hopefully they will be fixing it up soon.