Travel with Kids

Best Ways to Enjoy Monteverde, Costa Rica With Kids

Monteverde With Kids: Our Cloud-Forest Bridges and Chocolate Tour

Last updated: October 18, 2026. Updated hanging-bridge and tram ticket and access guidance, road and vehicle planning, motion-sickness precautions, expired-offer qualifications, and context from our Monteverde family film. Date information added October 30, 2026.

Our family crossing the cloud-forest hanging bridges · Scene from our film (20 sec)

▶Watch scene from our film 20 sec

Monteverde was one of my favorite stops on our ten-day Costa Rica trip. Here is how we spent our time in the cloud forest, what we chose for our family, and the practical details I would check before planning another visit.

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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.

Our Monteverde family film: bridges and chocolate · Full film (7 min 43 sec)

▶Watch full film 7 min 43 sec

Our full family film includes the hanging-bridge walk and nighttime cacao/chocolate experience. The excerpts below show those activities in their article sections; current ticket options, access rules and road conditions are separate planning checks.

Watch our full family video ↗

Getting To Monteverde

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.

Check the route and road conditions before choosing your vehicle, especially in the rainy season. Ask your accommodation and rental company whether your planned approach needs four-wheel drive or extra clearance. Do not treat a 4×4 as a guarantee that a damaged or flooded road is passable.

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.

What To Do in Monteverde With Kids

If you are choosing what to fit into a short stay, our own itinerary may help: we picked the hanging bridges for the cloud-forest walk, added an animal-rescue visit and a nighttime chocolate tour, and skipped zip-lining because we had already done it with the kids in other tropical destinations. The tram is another way to cross the forest, while the animal and butterfly parks offer a different kind of visit. Those are our family’s choices and preferences, not a ranking; check each operator’s current activities, hours, age guidance, and access before planning your day.

Hanging Bridges in The Cloud Forest

Our family film gives a closer look at why the hanging bridges became such a memorable part of our Monteverde visit. Chris felt nervous on the suspension bridges, and the kids encouraged him as we crossed above the rainforest. The walk combines forest trails with suspension bridges, so it was more than a quick stop for a photo. I had chosen this stop because it let us combine the bridge walk with other activities in the same place during our one day in town.

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, where we chose the hanging bridges. The operator currently describes eight bridges linked by a roughly 3-kilometer trail. Sloth and butterfly experiences are also offered, but a bridge ticket does not automatically include every activity; check the selected package. Follow the marked paths: do not jump, rock the bridges, or climb structures, and check weather-related closures. I read this one has the most options and since we had one day, I thought this was best.

Animal Parks and Butterfly Parks

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.

Sky Tram

For a cableway option, check Treetopia Park, formerly Sky Adventures Monteverde. Its Tree Tram is a separate experience from the hanging-bridge walk; check the chosen activity or package, access requirements, and weather arrangements before booking. This was an alternative we suggested, not an activity we did on this visit.

Zip-Lining

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 Animal Night Tour

Looking inside a cacao pod on our nighttime chocolate tour · Scene from our film (19 sec)

▶Watch scene from our film 19 sec

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!

Chocolate was a lovely way to end the day with our kids. Grace’s love of chocolate comes through in our family film, which also shows us learning how cacao becomes chocolate. That fits the hands-on part we loved at Don Juan Tours: seeing, smelling, tasting, and making chocolate together before heading outside with flashlights to look for nighttime wildlife. Our kids were noisy, so we did not spot everything, but we still enjoyed the ant trails, frogs, spiders, and monkeys we found.

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.

Where to Stay in Monteverde with Kids

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. Our original post included an Airbnb referral link; do not assume the old first-stay discount is still available. Check any current offer and its terms before booking.

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.

Our Favorite Eats in Monteverde With Kids

Stella’s Bakery

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!

Tico Y Rico’s

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.

Other Things To Know About Monteverde

• Toilet paper shouldn’t be flushed here. It’s gross and reminds us of Thailand, but it’s expected that you will throw away your used toilet paper in the trash can instead of in the toilet. This is probably due to sensitive septic systems.

• The winding drive can be uncomfortable if your family is prone to motion sickness. If you are considering medicine, ask a pharmacist or clinician about an appropriate option for each traveller and follow its directions, including any driving warnings. I would plan the drive for daylight, although we did it at night.

• This area is quite touristy and I found it to be the most built out for tourism. This was comforting for us, in a way.

• It can be quite a bit cooler here! We needed our pants and jackets.

• Wildlife is plentiful and you’ll want bug spray.

Additional Reading

VISITING MANUEL ANTONIO NATIONAL PARK WITH KIDS IN COSTA RICA

10 THINGS YOU MUST KNOW BEFORE DRIVING IN COSTA RICA

Family Fun and Freshwater Escapes: Northern Portugal’s Best River Beaches

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