Visiting Monteverde from San Jose in just one day can be challenging on your own, but this guided tour streamlines transportation to make the trip a cinch. Arrive at Monteverde in the morning and head straight to a canopy tour: hike on hanging bridges and learn about the rich cloud forest environment before heading back to San Jose.

Monteverde Cloud Forest tour from San Jose
Hanging bridges tour included for a chance to see wildlife
Stop for an included lunch along the way
All transportation with hotel pickup and drop-off included

What's Included

Transport by air-conditioned vehicle
Hotel pickup and drop-off (most San Jose area hotels)
Professional bilingual guide
Lunch
Visits to the Monkeys’ observation place, the largest fruit stand of the country and a look-out point to take pictures
Entrance Fees

Gratuities
Services not specified

Meeting And Pickup

You can head directly to the meeting point, or request pickup

Meeting point

Quality Hotel Real San Jose
Pozos, San José, Santa Ana, Costa Rica
Centrally located San Jose hotels. Hotel pickups commence at 6:30 a.m. approximately; the exact pickup time for your tour will be advised on a reconfirmation message.

Pickup points

Select a pickup point

Start time

06:30 am

End point

This activity ends back at the meeting point.

What To Expect

Orotina

15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Puerto Caldera

20 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Coyolar

15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Selvatura

3 hours • Admission Ticket Free

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Not recommended for travellers with back problems
No heart problems or other serious medical conditions
Not recommended for pregnant travellers
Not wheelchair accessible
May be operated by a multi-lingual guide
Vegetarian option is available, please advise at time of booking if required

A minimum of 2 people per booking is required
Walking is involved
Operates in all weather conditions, please dress appropriately
Drop off in the Monteverde - Santa Elena centrally located hotels is available. If you wish to take this option, you must let us know at the time of booking
Most travellers can participate
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 20 travellers

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.

Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.
Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.

Traveller Photos

Featured review

Glynnis_P

This was an amazing tour! It had a lot of information about Costa Rica and many sights to see. It was so cool interacting with the wild monkeys! The hanging bridges were also beautiful, our guide on the hike was so knowledgeable about the ecosystem. Make sure you ask for Juan for this tour, he’s awesome!!

Reviews

5.0

160 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travellers.

Showing 1-10 of 160 reviews

Rainforest Hanging Bridges magic

Elena_M, May 2023

The tour was fantastic Juan Carlos is amazing as a tour guid and bird whisperer. He was able to mimic bird sounds and attract them to the view sights. Unforgettable experience!! Highly recommended!

Beautiful park, bad and awfull driver!

MihaelaRuxandra_M, May 2023

The park deserves 5 stars, but i rated overall experience with the driver. We had the trip on April 28, just me and my mother, there was no other turists as it was already end of dry season. Although we were only us in the trip, the driver was not flexible at all: we started the trip at 6.20 and at 11:30 we were already at lunch, although I mentioned several times that it’s too early and we would prefer to have it after we visit the park. Lunch was ok, food was fresh, but location is poor, so lame - he said we are on a coffee plantation, but it looked like abandon bushes, low quality, felt like a joke. We saw a REAL coffee plantation on the trip to Arenal, there is no comparison between the 2. The one we visited in this trip was awfull, the guide barely found 2 green beans to show us!!!! Remove it from your trips, it’s not worth it, people should see real coffee plantations, not dry bushes!!! The trip ended at 15:30 (very early, although we still wanted to see some more). The guide drove back to San Jose thinking maybe that he was in formula 1 competition, like a mad man. He wanted to get back in San Jose as fast as possible and he abandon the main road, instead he drive on a mountain ( he called it Avocado mountain, don’t know if it’s true), with many serpentines and the mini bus felt like flying! I was really convinced that we will fly off the mountain to earch curve he took with maximum speed! And it was foggy!!!!!! Who hired him??? I should have reported him to the police, but it was our last day! I think his name was Fernando, but not sure, but this can be easily checked with the provider!!!! Awfull experience, hate it every minute of the trip and could’t wait to finish it! Fire that mad driver, you put turists lives in his hands!

Not worth it, read all the reviews before you book

Vivek_M, Apr 2023

As advertised but not worth it for the price, you are only essentially paying for a private shuttle to Monte Verde. You are sitting in the van for nearly 10-12 hours so be prepared. We got to Monteverde by about 11am and for some reason we kept driving to a place 2 towns over (45 mins) for lunch, instead of just eating in Monteverde. This was a 1.5hr round trip waste of time. You only get 2 hours in the cloud forest on a guided tour. Also the roads back down from the mountain are extremely bumpy, not good for anyone with a bad back. Really not worth the price as they only pay for an average lunch, a guided tour of the cloud forest and your transport there.

Monte Verde is amazing

Robert_S, Feb 2023

Our guide Fernando was simply amazing and made this excursion even more enjoyable. A trip to Costa Rica would not be complete without walking through the rain forest at Monte Verde.

Misleading

Taly_G, Apr 2022

The tour guide Juan was amazing! Al thought the trip was not in monteverde. Out of the 13h, we spend only 2h in MV! I would had liked to see that on the description as I’m not coming back any time soon to go again to MV. I wouldn’t do it again, the timings where off and we had to wait 2h in the bus for other people to finish their trip instead of enjoying the place.

The tour to do. Thanks to Oscar!

Victor_H, Jan 2022

Good and sympathic guide (oscar)and very rich excursion. The first stop (fruits) is not the better stop to do (even for bathroom!) but then, all was good and interesting : the lunch, good, near a coffe plantation that we visited with Oscar and his explainations. The cloud foret, with a long hike with alocal guide very concerned.

Immersive

Jimmy_D, Dec 2021

The most relaxing tour I have taken. Oscar was our driver and he lots of experiences and culture to share at every stop. Food was great and each stop has activities. This was a full immersion into the Costa Rican forest and mountains along with an understanding of life from those who live there. Plenty of nature, culture and wildlife.

Great tour!

Beverly_E, Dec 2021

Good tour! Oscar was careful to see that we all had a great time! We saw two different kinds of monkeys! And had a great 2 hour walk through the Monteverde rain Forrest well worth the long drive from San Jose. I would recommend this tour!

Costa Rica must see

Glynnis_P, June 2021

Monteverde, a must see!

Georgia_L, June 2021

Our guide/driver Kenneth was amazing and caring, we enjoyed our day with him very much! The best part of the trip is definitely the Selvatura experience, walking through the forest and crossing hanging bridges while enjoying the beautiful nature and changing weather! The only downside is that we found it too expensive for what it's included. (Only lunch and no other entries except for Selvatura, so we feel it's overpriced.)

Once in a lifetime experience

Christy_S, Mar 2020

The hanging bridges day trip was absolutely beautiful! Our driver, Carlos, picked us up in San José and did an excellent job entertaining us along the way. He was able to point out interesting little parts of Costa Rica that we didn't get in any of our other tours. He really made this trip absolutely perfect.

excellent experience

Valeriya, Feb 2020

It was an exciting tour with an excellent guide. We were only 4 persons for this tour, almost a private one. Tour over the bridges was interesting and informative, we also saw some sloths, spiders and birds. Our guide, Augustin, told us many interesting things about Costa Rica on the way. He was very kind, disponible and he knows a lot about the Costa rica and is an expert in humming birds :)! We recommend you at 100% this tour (particularly this guide:))

long bumpy ride

stefwithaf, Oct 2019

the bridges were nice but it was a very long and bumpy ride, not worth it in my opinion. was in the van for 8 hours and at the bridges for 1-2 hours. it also rained so we were soaking wet the whole ride back to SJ. great driver/tour guide, but I wouldn't recommend this excursion.

Beautiful views

Christie_F, Sept 2019

The views are worth the bumpy ride up. Lunch was great and in a beautiful restaurant. I love their style of Aguas Naturales. This was an easy walk through the reserve.

Llenarse de vida, naturaleza

Cecilia_S, Feb 2023

Excelente tour sobre todo mis felicitaciones al guía Harlem y chofer. Hermoso paisaje de Monteverde. L

Monteverde

Giselle_G, Feb 2022

La experiencia totalmente recomendada. Aunque es un viaje largo y distante de San José, se van haciendo paradas durante el camino en distintos puntos. Además, Francisco (guía), estuvo en todo momento al pendiente del grupo y sus necesidades, es una persona muy amable. Ya en el Parque Monteverde, todo hermoso y los guías del parque te ayudan a identificar los animales que a simple vista no podrías reconocer. También, explican la flora y clima distintivos de este lugar.

Selva, puentes y nubes

Ana_I, Jan 2022

Preciosa caminata por la selva entre puentes con un estupendo guía. Muchas gracias a la agencia Go tours que nos arregló la excursion la noche anterior ya q otras nos dejaron tirados. Qué suerte tuvimos porque el tour es espectacular

Tour voller Erlebnissen und anschaulichen Informationen

Anita_J, Oct 2019

Da wir unseren Aufenthalt in der Nebensaison (Regenzeit) in San José verbrachten, waren wir nur zu zweit mit dem Führer unterwegs. Wir hatten riesiges Wetterglück. Hermann, der Führer und Chauffeur, ging ausgezeichnet auf unsere Interessen ein und wir hatten gute Gespräche. So erlebten wir einen sehr persönlichen, prallvollen Tag. Über das Land Costa Rica mit seinen Einwohnern und der Natur sahen und erfuhren wir weit mehr als erwartet. Wir waren am Meer, sahen dampfende Vulkane aus der Ferne und waren in den Bergen. Auf der sehr gemütlich geführten Tour im Nebelwald des Naturreservats staunten wir über die Vielfalt und Schönheit der Pflanzen und Tieren. Weil eine solche Tour, wie wir gehört haben, oft zwei Tage dauert, war die Fahrt von etwa 300 km, mit einem ansehnlichen Teil von Naturstrassen wohl interessant, aber sehr weit. Der Führer fuhr uns sicher durch den Tag. Abends kamen wir sehr zufrieden, aber auch müde, jedoch voll mit neuem Wissen und fabelhaften Eindrücken zurück nach San José. Diesen Ausflug mit Hermann können wir allen sehr empfehlen, die in kurzer Zeit möglichst viel erleben und erfahren wollen. Jacqueline, Schweiz