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Hotel Class: 
3 Stars - 16 Opinions
Santa Elena de Monteverde, , Province of Puntarenas, Costa Rica
of people enjoy staying here
16 Opinions
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outside
Not looking so calm
bridges
We plan to do a night time hike while we're in Monteverde and are wondering about your experiences with the various options. There are night hike options in the Children's Forest, at Selvatura, and in the Montana Forest (booked through a homestay organization) that we know about.
Any experiences you can share?
Thanks.
I can't recall how we found out about this, but it was by looking around Santa Elena, I think. The night hike we had was led by a Costa Rican biology graduate. We followed her flashlight, and she pointed it at sleeping birds in trees, nightcrawler insects on the ground or on leaves, and some animals. It was an inexpensive and worthwhile nature hike.
We went on the tour through "Finca Ecologica". I think we booked through our hotel in Santa Elena. Pretty good tour...saw a few night critters. Got seperated from the group...a big no no! Scared the crap out of ourselves for a few minutes! I would assume all the various night tours are much alike so price compare.
Make sure you check out the "Frog Pond" in Santa Elena (Santa Elena is right next to Monteverde, a short cab ride away) & the snake house...pretty cool. Go to the Frog Pond at night. Take a flashlight...always handy in Costa Rica!
Banks, shopping etc are based in Santa Elena.The rain forest tour in the Santa Elena Rain Forest is compareable to Monteverde. The zip lines, hanging bridges are also in Santa Elena. Keep in mind the nights are a tad cooler in this part of the country.
I know that the sloth is almost imperceptible in my pic but also for this I was so thrilled to have spotted it in spite so high and immobile and then I was still ecstatic of the animation movie Ice Age and of its charcter Sid that to have seen my first real sloth made my day... well... who knows me, also knows I'm very emotional ;-)...!!!
Rain jacket is necessary because you are in a cloud forest! The humidity is always high and it can be wet, even in the dry season. The flashlight is essential, especially if you plan to walk away from Santa Elena, which is more like a downtown area. The road out of Santa Elena doesn't have street lights and can get very dark at night.
After we had enough of the Reserve, we stopped by the Cheese Factory. Two reasons - it was FREE, and I was interested in whether the cheese making vats would be Confined Spaces (some were). I took pictures for work.
You can observe cheese making in Monteverde Costarica from a window in the sales room.
We didn't buy any locally made ice cream and cheese, but you can order it over the internet at the website below. The site is in Spanish, but you can point to an item and it will be described.
HOURS: Mon-Sat. 7:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M.
Sun. 7:30 A.M. to 12:30 P.M.
This is a serene alternative to the various zip-wire tour. Seven suspension bridges stretch high across valleys along a circular trail winding 3.5 km through a 228-hectare private reserve.
Gazing down through green layers of cloud forest from the bridges, birders can see their quarry darth beneath them.
Also check out the butterfly garden and the hummingbird gallery near the entrance..
One of the activities you can do in Monteverde is walking through the cloud Forest. There are 2 reserves in Monteverde: Monteverde and Santa Elena, the first one is more touristy and you can find more people there, the second one(shown in the picture) is on the other side of the town and it's almost empty, we walked 4 hours through it and we only see 3 humans on the trail. You can hear a lot of annimals and you need patience to see them as the forrest is very very dense. There are diferent trails where you can walk for 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours or more in to the cloud forrest. We enjoyed the walk, but it could be a little frightened as you enter by yourself, because it's only the nature and you. In this case you can pay for a guide who will help you to see birds and other animals, including tarantulas, frogs, even snakes.
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