ZIPLINING AND LODGING IN MONTEVERDE, COSTA RICA
Monteverde (or “Green Mountain” in English) is one of Cost Rica’s main ecotourist destinations. I always wanted to have my first ziplining experience in Costa Rica because that’s where the origins of canopy tours began. In the 1970’s, graduate students attached rock climbing harnesses to ascend the Costa Rican jungle to study the local ecology without disturbing the environment, leading to what eventually became the modern-day canopy tours via ziplines!
When it comes to ziplining around the Monteverde area, it seemed there were two main competitors at the time of this writing: Sky Adventures and Selvatura Adventure Park. Patricia mentioned going with Selvatura Adventure Park.
We bought our Canopy Tour and Sky Bridge package in advance, which I highly recommend since there are group tours that swarm the adventure park in the morning.
Because of how busy it was, we were advised to do the sky bridge walks first then come back to zipline during the afternoon session. The sky bridges were fun and a bit scary to walk across, as the bridge can sway easily as people lean more on one side of the bridge. But you can get amazing views of the beautiful forest and clouds!
After the sky bridge, we were ready to conquer the zipline! If it’s your first time (like me!), don’t be afraid! To ease any fears, they give you a short and easy lesson on how to zipline properly. After the initial lesson, you practice on a small and very manageable zipline (a zipline tutorial, if you will) before you start on the bigger ones. After going through the first short zipline, I felt more confident and ready to try out the actual lines. While walking up to get to the main zipline, I did feel my fears coming back up a bit, but that fear dissipated once I saw there was a person at the start and end of the line to help ensure you’re safely set up. Ziplining was very thrilling and would recommend it to anyone that wants to do something exciting!
Getting to Monteverde
You can read more about driving in Costa Rica on my prior post about driving to the Arenal Volcano.
The road to Monteverde was largely unpaved and only when becomes paved again when you get to the edge of town. The town itself is small and quaint. Though small, the area is somewhat spread out, but easily walkable.
Just be mindful that you are going to be walking up and down some hills, and the weather also resembles the temperate of San Francisco weather, so bring a windbreaker!
Patricia recommended the Monteverde Lodge, but it was fully booked even over six months in advance! I found out that the Monteverde Lodge works alongside a popular tour operator, so they get first access to rooms before the public does. Thus, if you’re attempting to book this specific place, book much earlier you think you would. I’ll definitely be returning as the lodge looked like a lovely place to stay!
In lieu of the Monteverde Lodge, we stayed at two hotels: Hotel de Montana Monteverde and Hotel Fonda Vela. The first hotel in Monteverde we stayed at, the Hotel de Montana, was a charming experience. Though we had an issue with the hot water our first night there, I actually found myself really enamored by this place. The room was spacious and had a balcony with beautiful views. So, if you’re unable to get a Patricia-recommended hotel, there’s always a hidden gem that will provide an equally enchanting experience.
Close to the Hotel De Montana was Sofia’s, a restaurant that Patricia recommended for dinner. I tried the ginger mango mojito, which was definitely more ginger than mango. It ended up being a bit too sour by the end that my enamel was screaming. I ordered the seafood chimichanga and it was a bit small, so I would recommend the larger beef chimichanga option, if you had to choose. We had the banana bread pudding, which I didn’t realize had raisins in it and oversoaked in a dessert sauce. Overall, while we enjoyed the atmosphere and the ambience, the food selection didn’t meet our expectations.
Some additional restaurant recommendations are Choco Cafe for delicious coffee and sweets, Tree House Restaurant for some cool ambient dining, and Don Luis for some amazing pizza.
The second and last hotel we stayed at in Monteverde was Hotel Fonda Vela, which we considered to be one of the higher-end hotels in the area. Like Hotel de Montana, the room we stayed in at the Hotel Fonda Vela was large with a nice balcony overlooking beautiful views of the area. The chalet style room had the bedroom on the second floor of the room, which offered privacy and seemingly more space. The only issue I had with the room we were in was how far the chalet rooms were to the restaurant and other hotel amenities. It was also somewhat difficult to navigate at night due to the limited lighting along the walkways. If available, I would recommend requesting a room that is closer to the restaurant to avoid walking in the darkness like I did!
The Hotel Fonda Vela is close to the Monteverde Cloud Forest National Park. In fact, it was walking distance from the Hotel Fonda Vela! I highly recommend heading to this park for a day hike as there are some amazing views of the park. You’ll see why they call it the cloud forest. Additionally, next to the park entrance is a hummingbird café where you’ll get the chance to see bunches of hummingbirds up close while eating some delicious pan de elote.
