Santa Elena or Monteverde Reserve?
 

We are going to CR at the end of the month, and our first stop is the Monteverde area. I'm not sure if we'll have time or desire to see both reserves, so I'm looking for info as to which would be better for us to visit.

Wildlife is not high on our list. We are more interested in the scenery: flowers, interesting views, waterfalls, plantlife...

Which should we make sure to get to?

Thanks for any help.

2bebeaus, we loved the Monteverde cloud forest preserve, and it is the one place in Costa Rica hubby and I plan to return to someday. We skipped the Santa Elena because I heard that the Monteverde is denser.

Hopefully someone else can speak for the Santa Elena. The Monteverde cloud forest preserve was the most pristine forest we saw in Costa Rica, mysterious and primeval almost...We got up very early and arrived when it opened, maybe 10 minutes before it opened. We also talked to the man at the desk and asked him which way we could start out our walk so as to avoid the majority of hikers who tend to start out going the opposite way. This worked out well for us. The cloud forest is so dense you won't see much wildlife because it is hidden in the dense forest, but if you go slowly and stop often to look around you, you'll see an amazing variety of flora. We didn't see any waterfalls. You can hear howler monkeys off in the forest somewhere and bird calls. It was clear in the morning and when the mist began to come down closer to noon it was magical. My daughter and I stopped to write poetry! It began to rain after lunch.

You need at least 3 nights in MONTEverde because the roads to get there are bad, and also because it often rains part of the afternoon. Mornings were sunny and clear for us.

In Feb our family went to the Santa Elena forest & loved it. We hired a nature guide who was wonderful. He had suggested Santa Elena over Monteverde because of the crowds. We arrived as it opened & saw only 1 or 2 other families there. The only wildlife we saw were a couple of owls & baby hummingbirds (incredible). I was very glad to have the guide because he pointed out all of the different plants, bugs & answered all of our questions. We didn't see any waterfalls & could only hear the howler monkeys. Our guide was originally from US so he spoke English. The cloud forest was the highlight of my trip. It's just amazing. It was misty & very muddy so we were glad to have on our hiking boots. Enjoy! whichever you choose.

My husband and I went to both on our last CR trip, and we liked the Monteverde reserve much better. It is denser and feels like a larger forest--also, when we were at Santa Elena, there were tour groups everywhere, and that wasn't the case at Monteverde. The woman at our hotel had recommended Santa Elena, but I think that's because the hotel had a deal with the tour company. Have a great time!

Thanks for your replies. Does anyone know if one of the reserves has a waterfall? I thought I read about it somewhere, and now I can't seem to find it.

We were in Monteverde several years ago. There was a waterfall on one of the trails, it was one of the longer hikes. Not one you would normally find yourself on with a tour group. In my limited experience the guides tend to stay fairly close to the entrance of the reserve. We enjoyed our guided hike, and did get to see a lot of birds we wouldn't have seen on our own, including the quetzal, but on the less traveled trails, we saw the waterfall and no other people at all.

Thanks, JeanH. I think from the sounds of it Monteverde might be for us. And I definitely wouldn't mind a longer hike to a waterfall, especially if it means less people. :)

My favorite activity in Monteverde is the night hikes. There are 4 of them, and I have seen more animals on these tours than during the day hikes.

I also thought that the canopy in Monteverde was better than Arenal and Guanacaste.

Wife and I did a tour in MV this June. Did not do SE. We are usually not inclined to do "guided" types of things,but we heard it suggested so many times to have a guide for a nature walk.
So, we were in a group of about 6 people total. The guide knew SO much, and had a great bird-watching "scope". His knowledge of the flora and fauna made it very interesting. So, I'd suggest a guide, at least for an intro hike.
Someone mentioned a night hike. We did that at another location, and it was fascinating. Somehow the guide knew how to find animals to see with only our flashlights. He would hear them. Most of them very small, like that famous bright green frog with the bulging eyes. That was worth it too.
EK

Someone mentioned a nice small guided tour with only 6 people. Perfect number. Whatever you do, make sure you're not signing up for a tour group of 10 to 20 people walking through the cloud forest. We saw one of these, in the rainforest in Arenal actually, and the guide literally had to shout to be heard by all of his group! We got as far away from them as possible!

We had our family of 5 so basically we had our own private small tour group with my hubby the biologist "leading" us, in both Arenal and Monteverde!

Somebody above mentioned the guides listen...Yes, they stop, look, and listen, and you can learn to do this too. I'm not as good as hubby, but I have learned a lot from him. Go early, take whichever trail in whichever direction has the least amount of people in sight, and stop often, look, listen, anyplace you see slight movements in the plants or trees or leaves, look there and you might see a bird or an insect or a frog. Bring binoculars. Hubby taught me this...first train your eye on a spot where a tree branch is moving. Without taking your eyes off it, bring the binoculars to your face so that you are looking at the same spot through your binoculars. You might see a bird or another animal this way.

Everybody else we saw on the trails was trucking on past us as fast as they could, not looking around at the rainforest or cloud forest, instead they were looking at their feet. I bet they ended their hike complaining that they didn't see anything (it's hard to see anything if you are looking at your feet!)

If you have children, I know they get excited and loud, but you can make it a fun game to "Shhhh...listen...do you hear anything? Shhh..they're hiding...let's be quiet and find them..." Even the insects in Costa Rica are beautiful and children will love them. Children age 5 and older can learn how to enjoy this "quiet" game. 2- and 3-year olds are too young, they will skip along singing, nothing you can do about it, just make sure they don't fall. The trail is slippery in spots, hold their small hands.

enjoy!