Please advise the general condition of the road to Monteverde from San Jose, and also separately from Tilaran to Monteverde? The travel books make it sound risky, what is the reality.
Thank you

they rattly and potholed with dropoffs

not bad going slow

easily made it both ways in a 2WD Sentra last July

get up early do not drive at night or in lots of rain

Road to MV from Tilaran was shorter better...

It's just long and bumpy, kind of like a country road with rocks and potholes in it, steep in some places. We didn't want to drive it, so we used the Jeep Boat Jeep from Arenal with Desafio, only about $25 per person and shaves about an hour off the trip.

Get an early start and allow yourslef plenty of time to be at your destination before dark. The sun sets about 5:30 p.m. all year.

VG, did you go to Monteverde for the day or longer? I have not factored this into our trip and now I am rethinking adding it.

It's totally not worth going for a day, millie; it's long and bumpy. I'd stay at least two nights to make it worth your while if you add it. We hiked in the reserve, did a zipline, and did the night hike at Hidden Valley which was great. We actually stayed three nights, but we could have done it in two if we didn't have downtime. The cloud forest is pretty. The climate was very rainy when we were there though. So cool in the evenings that we wore sweatshirts, and our hotel had the fireplace going.

I agree, don't drive at night and not worth just going for a day. I did it with my 20 something son and we (I am the mom)were fine because it did not rain much. We left early in the day for all of our drives. The road is bumpy with rocks and holes to MV. If it rains a lot, you could have some difficulty, a lot of difficulty. We drove all over CR but I had been there before on a tour and knew where I wanted to go. Just leave early and drive slowly. You will be fine. A friend of mine did it a month later and part of the road washed away; if not for a tour bus in front of her that actually stopped and helped her, she would have had to turn around.She was drenched and covered with mud. She did not leave early either. Her email was quite funny but the rain there can be excessive and you don't want to be in a bad spot and especially at night. Have fun and go for it.

Thanks for all the good advice. Please advise hotel recommendations while visiting MV?

We stayed at Fonda Vela - liked it for its proximity to the reserve. The new junior suites have a lot of room, a small frig, bathtub, and nice views of the garden. There are some trails on the property and a good restaurant on site. We'd definitely stay there again. We saw some pretty birds there, including toucans.

We loved Arco Iris's honeymoon cabin--same price as a standard room at the Monteverde Lodge, and it had three stories, private balcony, private garden, a kitchen, jacuzzi, and four-poster bed. It's got a great locatin--feels isolated but is a 3 minute walk from downtown Santa Elena, and the standard cabins are very nice while also very reasonably priced--<$100.

RAC, I was just reading about the honeymoon cabin at Arco Iris in the new Fodor's guide. It sounds really special and reasonable!

I also like the look of Hidden Canopy Treehouses - haven't had the chance to stay there yet but have read great reviews on it.

Shillmac: review and pictures of the cabin from our stay there:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR...untarenas.html