Manuel Antonio National Park Guided Tour

Manuel Antonio National Park

Manuel Antonio National Park protects a peninsula of lowland rainforest and white-sand coves on the central Pacific coast of Costa Rica, just south of Quepos. Created in 1972, it is the smallest national park in the country by area but the most visited, because nowhere else packs so much wildlife into so small and accessible a space. Sloths, white-faced, howler and squirrel monkeys, iguanas, coatis and a huge variety of birds live within minutes of the entrance, and the trails are mostly flat and well maintained.

Manuel Antonio National Park tickets are limited each day and the park is closed one day a week, so booking a guided tour with admission included saves both the ticket office and the risk of a sold-out date. The park closes at 16:00 and the beaches at 15:00, so the morning start times give you the longest day inside. Is Manuel Antonio worth visiting? For first-time visitors to Costa Rica it is the easiest place to see the country's wildlife.

The trails and the wildlife

The guided walk follows the main trail and its side paths through the forest, with the guide stopping every few minutes to set up the scope on something you would never have noticed: a sloth curled in a cecropia tree, white-faced capuchins crossing the canopy, tiny endangered squirrel monkeys found only on this coast, a sleeping bat, a poison-dart frog or a toucan high in a fig tree. The scope makes animals thirty metres up look close enough to touch, and the guide helps you photograph and film through it with your phone.

The walk lasts about two hours at a slow pace, covering roughly two to three kilometres in warm, humid air. Our guides are certified by the Costa Rican Tourism Board and explain the relationships between the plants and animals as well as pointing them out. A Manuel Antonio wildlife tour with a naturalist typically produces far more sightings than walking alone, and the sloth tour element is the part most travellers remember.

Manuel Antonio Beach inside the park

The trail ends at Playa Manuel Antonio, a curved cove of pale sand and clear, calm water framed by forest on both sides and the Punta Catedral headland at its western end. It is regularly ranked among the best beaches in Costa Rica because the bay is sheltered, the water is usually safe for swimming and monkeys and iguanas wander the edge of the sand. The neighbouring Espadilla Sur beach, reached by a short path, is longer and quieter.

After the guided part finishes, you are free to stay on the beach or walk the other trails on your own until the beaches close at 15:00 and the park at 16:00. Bring swimwear under your clothes and a towel, and note that food is not allowed inside the park, although reusable water bottles can be refilled at the entrance. Raccoons and capuchins are experts at opening bags, so keep yours closed and never feed the animals.

Quepos, Manuel Antonio village and getting to the park

The park entrance sits at the end of the road from Quepos through Manuel Antonio village, a strip of hotels, restaurants and viewpoints along the ridge above the coast. Public buses run frequently from Quepos to the park entrance, and taxis are plentiful, so most visitors have no trouble working out how to get to Manuel Antonio National Park from their hotel; the deluxe option of this tour includes transport if you prefer to be collected.

The meeting point is near the main entrance and the exact spot is sent to you after booking. Because admission is included, we need each traveller's name and passport details in advance. Start times run from early morning to midday; the 07:30 departure is coolest and the animals are most active, while the later slots suit travellers arriving from other towns. The dry season from December to April is the most comfortable, but the green season brings fewer visitors and just as much wildlife.