Transfer from San José to Manuel Antonio National Park

You depart San José for Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, (an 80-mile drive) bringing you to the Manuel Antonio National Park. Costa Rica’s smallest national park is also one of its most diverse and picturesque, as tropical rainforest meets inviting sandy beach, coral reef, and offshore islands, providing habitat for a tremendous variety of both land and ocean flora and fauna. En route to the region, you stop at the Tarcoles Bridge over the river of the same name to look for the endangered American crocodiles in the wild, a spot where more than 20 crocodiles can be seen in one morning. It’s also a good place to look for protected scarlet macaws, parrots, shorebirds, and egrets.

The lush Manuel Antonio rainforest is home to a variety of wildlife, including monkeys, armadillos, green and black iguanas, and coatis, as well as a number of colorful birds—parrots, parakeets, and toucans, which can often be viewed from your private deck. And the marine side of the park, its pristine beaches, 12 islands, reefs, and mangrove swamp offer an ocean water temperature always around a comfortable 80 degrees, inviting for swimming and snorkeling—yellowtail damsels, parrot fish, angel fish, and puffer fish can often be spotted.

Walk in Manuel Antonio National Park: 3–4 hours, easy to moderate. After lunch free afternoon for optional activities

This morning you join a naturalist guide for a walk through the Manuel Antonio National Park. Frequently seen on the trail are white-faced capuchin and squirrel monkeys, sluggish sloths, raccoons, agoutis, colorful black and scarlet land crabs, and black iguanas. Some of the bird species that may be spotted on the trail include gray-necked wood-rail, trogon, golden-naped woodpecker, white hawk, king vulture, chestnut-backed antbird, black-hooded antshrike, fiery-billed aracari, and chestnutmandibled toucan, to name just a few!

After lunch in your hotel’s restaurant or beachside bar, you may wish to continue relaxing on one of the hotel’s two beaches or ocean-side pool, perhaps taking advantage of one of the perfectly placed hammocks hanging in the trees. A Tico sour cocktail before dinner completes the day.

Half-day options of a forest canopy tour or kayaking along mangrove swamp or ocean; free afternoon for optional activities

This morning, awakening to the ocean breezes on your deck, you may choose to embark on a rainforest canopy tour along a series of 21 platforms, 9 zip lines, and rappelling lines. Start out by an hour’s drive through the countryside to a welcoming ranch house at the base of a mountain. Welcomed for an authentic Costa Rican breakfast or lunch (depending on the time of day you choose), you then head out along a network of forest trails, inhabited by toucans, squirrel monkeys, and frogs, to the starting point where, with full safety equipment and instructions, you ascend to the treetops for the amazing perspective over the luxuriant foliage. A thrilling experience, you “fly” from platform to platform via zip and rappel lines, walk a suspension bridge, and try a “Tarzan swing.”

Alternatively, you may choose to join a half-day guided kayaking excursion through the shaded mangrove estuary, home also to capuchin monkeys and a variety of birdlife, a vital and otherwise inaccessible ecosystem. A 30-minute drive brings you to the starting point.

Later, after your half day choice, you return to your resort to enjoy the Jacuzzi, the beach, the hammocks, or perhaps indulge in a massage or other treatment at your hotel’s spa.

Transfer to San José

After breakfast, you depart Manuel Antonio for the return drive to San José and your flight home or your next destination.