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When you think of Costa Rica you probably have a few expectations: beautiful beaches, wildlife, and misty rainforests.
Monteverde, meaning Green Mountain, checks off the “misty rainforest” box to the extreme. This mountain town teeters on edges at every turn and feels like a tropical ski town in the sky.
I loved this little town in Costa Rica. It might be my favorite spot of our 10-days trip. I felt like it was the closest thing to what I expected from Costa Rica.
We drove from La Fortuna. The distance is not very many kilometers, but the roads make it about a 2-3 hour drive. The roads are steep, windy, and not all paved. Plan for some extra time to get there.
If it’s rainy season, you must have a 4×4 car. The roads are not in the best condition and you might get stuck.
While in Monteverde, you’ll want your own car with kids. Walking is not a great idea as there are not many sidewalks and you’ll be sharing the road with cars. There are taxis avaiable as well, but with kids, I would not want to depend on these.
You’ve probably seen these iconic cloud forest photos in your Costa Rica planning and you don’t want to miss these. There are several options for hanging bridges and we used this one, which includes eight hanging bridges over 1.9 miles, a sloth park, butterfly park, and more. I read this one has the most options and since we had one day, I thought this was best.
Butterfly parks pop up all over Costa Rica and Monteverde has some great options. Learn about the life of the butterfly, from caterpillar to butterfly, and see all stages in real-time. Butterfly parks are so much work to maintain it requires full-time staff! They must pull caterpillars out each day so as to not destroy the plants.
Additionally, there are many animal parks, like this one, in Monteverde. You can see monkeys, sloths and more! We tried to spot sloths in the wild, but without a guide it’s nearly impossible. I loved seeing the rescue park and watching them eat lunch.
Take a tram across the cloud forest instead of walking over bridges at this location. They also have zip-lining options.
Zip-lining might be the most popular tourist activity in Costa Rica and literally can be done anywhere in the country. Monteverde is no different! My friend Laura posted about her experience with young kids here. Since we’ve already zip-lined with the kids in various tropical locations, we skipped this activity in Costa Rica.
Chocolate and coffee tours are popular in various parts of Costa Rica. Both crops are grown in Costa Rica and it’s magical to see the process in person.
We loved our tour at night with Don Juan Tours. Our guide was incredible with kids and we all loved seeing, smelling, tasting, and making chocolate together!
We then headed outside to find nocturnal animals in the dark (with provided flashlights). My young kids are way too loud to see much, but it was super fun. We found huge ant trails, frogs, spiders and some monkeys in the trees.
We love Airbnb for our family while we travel and have stayed at over 50 Airbnb homes in the last three years! We always will recommend it for many reasons you can find in this post. New to Airbnb? Use this link for up to $60 off your first stay!
We stayed in this Airbnb in Monteverde and it was completely magical. The host was incredibly kind and patient. The owner couple owns the sushi restaurant in town and has created a truly magical space!
If hotels are your thing, there are several boutique hotels in Monteverde. I recommend Booking.com for exploring your options.
This gem happened to be down the driveway from our Airbnb, but it is famous in Monteverde and for good reason! This bakery was so good we came back twice more. The food is amazing and delicious. You can enjoy the garden area, which often gets monkey visitors. I also recommend getting some pastries to-go!
Recommended to us by a tour guide, this is a wonderful option for authentic Costa Rican food. We loved the casados, of course, as well as the grill plates to share.
VISITING MANUEL ANTONIO NATIONAL PARK WITH KIDS IN COSTA RICA
10 THINGS YOU MUST KNOW BEFORE DRIVING IN COSTA RICA
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