1,670 m northern cordillera
The volcano decides the week
Arenal sets the weather for everything under it. Three nights here buys you hot springs, the hanging bridges, and the chance to wait out a cloudy morning instead of losing the day to it.
Small enough to cross in a day.
Complicated enough to get wrong in an afternoon.
Most trips here are assembled from a distance — a hotel from one site, a shuttle from another, a guide found the night before. It works, more or less, until the road to Monteverde closes or the boat to Drake leaves at six instead of eight.
We build the whole thing as one plan, confirm it before you fly, and stay on the other end of a phone for the two weeks you are here. We live in Manuel Antonio. When something moves, we know before you do.
1,440 m cordillera de Tilarán
Then you drive into a cloud
Monteverde is wet, cold and completely unlike the country an hour below it. Two nights, a guide who can find the quetzal, and the right jacket — which nobody packs.
90 m Pacífico central
Our coast, operator by operator
Manuel Antonio is where we work from. We know which room faces the water, which captain goes out when the swell is up, and which restaurant stops trying in September.
15 m península de Osa
And then the road runs out
Drake Bay is reached by boat, and Corcovado holds about half the species in the country. Humpbacks calve off this coast from July to October. This is the part people fly back for.
Five things we do, and the animal we think of for each
Colibrí
Travel
The itinerary itself. We decide the order of the country with you, then book every night, every transfer and every entry in one pass. One document, one invoice.
Lapa roja
Transfers
Private vehicles, domestic flights and boats. The macaw crosses the country twice a day between the Pacific slope and the interior; so do our drivers, and they know which road is open.
Tucán
Experiences
Guided days with people we have worked with for years: the birding guide who finds the quetzal, the captain who knows where the whales are in September, the cook who will teach you her kitchen.
Perezoso
Stays
Hotels and lodges we have slept in. We will tell you which room number faces the water, which one hears the generator, and which place is worth the extra night.
Ballena jorobada
Villas & Resort
Private houses with staff, and the handful of resorts that deserve the word. Humpbacks calve off this coast from July to October, which is also when these houses are worth their price.
Fourteen nights, the way we usually run it
Not a fixed product — the shape most first trips take, and the one we will argue you out of when it is wrong for you.
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01
San José
1,170 m · arrival
You land, you sleep, you do not try to drive anywhere.
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02
Arenal
530 m · 3 nights
Hot springs, bridges, and a day held in reserve for the weather.
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03
Monteverde
1,440 m · 2 nights
Cloud forest. Cold, wet, and worth every minute of the road up.
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04
Manuel Antonio
90 m · 4 nights
Our town. The park at opening, and the beach to yourselves after four.
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05
Uvita
20 m · 2 nights
The Whale's Tail at low tide, and whales offshore in season.
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06
Bahía Drake
15 m · 3 nights
Boat in, Corcovado at dawn, and no road out the way you came.
How a trip gets built
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You tell us the dates and what you cannot miss
A call or a long email. We are after the constraints more than the wishes: who is travelling, how much driving you will tolerate, what the trip is for.
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We build the plan and price it
One document with every night, every movement and the total. You change it as many times as you want before anything is booked.
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We book it and answer the phone
Everything confirmed before you fly. From the day you land until the day you leave, one number reaches someone in Manuel Antonio.