Visiting Manuel Antonio National Park
Summary
The location is beautiful and there is an abundance of wildlife, but be prepared for hoards of other tourists, prices far far in excess of other areas nearby, and the kind of tacky industries that naturally spring up around such venues, which, in my opinion, is not really what the rainforests of Costa Rica are about
If you have kids / are elderly / don’t mind theme-park style crowds, then Manuel Antonio is a must – as I say, it is a beautiful location with idyllic white sand beaches easily accessible by the trails and with a practically guaranteed chance of seeing Capuchin monkeys, Pelicans and a whole host of tropical birds . But if not, then there are other spots in Costa Rica you should put firmly in front of Manuel Antonio. My recommendation in particular would be Corcovado National Park (Costa Rica’s premier wildlife experience, and see more details in this entry – Camping in Corcovado National Park)
If you are set on visiting the park, my 2 top tips would be:
- Not to stay near the park itself. The hotels and restaurants there are extremely expensive for what you get and, again, you feel like you’re in a theme park. Instead, consider staying about an hour further down the coast around the Uvita area that avoids these problems and still gives you the jungle / beach / wildlife vibe. In particular, I would recommend the El Castillo Hotel, which, in a 6 month trip travelling around Latin America, was the favourite place we stayed
- Make sure you also visit the Rainmaker canopy walk – it’s around a 30min drive to the north of Manuel Antonio. It’s far quieter (we arrived at 8am and had the place largely to ourselves); gives you a different view of the animals (ie from high up in the canopy); and has a series of spots to swim in the river
highlights
#1 The park's wonderful abundance of tropical birds that allow you to see a different set just about everytime you look up
#2 The nearby Rainmaker canopy walk, which is far quieter and gives a super view from high up in the jungle canopy
#3 The gorgeous Manuel Antonio beach, hidden in a small cove and bursting with animals
#3 The Capuchin Monkeys up to mischief all around you. Just watch out for you bags
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Other wildlife encounter experiences
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone