Manuel Antonio National Park from San José

Uncomfortable

I nearly always leave five-star reviews as you can see from my many reviews. In this case, although I loved the visit to the beach, I really need to leave a review to warn others about this tour company. They promise to drop you off at the same location you were picked up at. For me, they didn't do this and didn't tell me about it in advance. I was asked "Where are you staying?" and then was dropped off at some alternate location near a bus stop, which was great for people riding the bus, but for me it was very challenging using Uber. I had only been in town for a couple days so I hadn't learned the bus system. The drop off was on a dark street at night somewhere near the airport (didn't know which way), so I couldn't pull out my phone. I had to hustle to find the airport and the places I had to walk were not meant for pedestrians, only cars. At the airport, Uber is not the usual method of transport, so the Uber driver couldn't find me. It was so loud there, I couldn't have a conversation over the phone. I had to call the driver and speak Spanish as quickly and loudly as possible to help him find me. I made it back to my hotel, but very late. Trying to call the tour guide during your trip is impossible. The number associated with the tour company is not manned with a 48 hour promise to return calls. If you had an emergency while on the tour, they would never know. It was nerve-racking. The tour company hasn't been in business long, so I think they are inexperienced.

Stunning wild world

We had a great time enjoying the nature here, this is one of my favorite national Park in Costa Rica You can enjoy watching so many animals in their habitat

We went on this tour with...

We went on this tour with Arthuro. He is very funny and knowledgeable. We were laughing all the way to the destination and back to hotel. He has more than 35 years of experience in this business which is very valuable. He is fluent in both spanish and english. I hope we would get more chance with different tours guided by arthuro.

Awesome Manuel Antonio tour experience!

We are family of 4 with 2 teenage kids. Pickup at our hotel was on time. Guide Arthur was very friendly and interactive. Process was seamless. Food stops were neat and clean. We didn’t feel rushed at the stops. Overall had a best experience and would recommend to anyone!

Dont choose this tour operator for Manuel Antonio!

Our tour is cancelled due to an accident happened on our route. We only had breakfast and had 2.5 hours more to on our way and the tour operator suggested us two options either to go Tortuga island or get paid 50% of the tour. The options were not equitably selectable, ofc everyone selected to go Tortuga island and the tour operator charges us for the park fee of Manuel Antonio and the breakfast we had in our way. Accident was not our fault either but we had to pay the price and the tour operator had not done anything for customer satisfaction. In Tortuga island the experience was not good either, there were no free sunbeds even and the breakfast we had on our way to Manuel Antonio was bad. I dont recommend this tour at all.

Rainforest and beach

I loved the experience m, I would go again. The tour guide was kind and knowledgeable. I love Costa Rica, will go again. ☺️☺️

Terrible tour company. Beware.

Let me start out by saying the tour itself was fine. Our driver and our guide did a good job. The problem lies with the tour company. We booked this tour in part because the website said they would pick up at our hotel. Several pickup sites were listed and our hotel was one of them. Two days before the tour I got an email saying we had to go to another hotel for pickup. The hotel was close by - less than half a mile away - but on the other side of a major highway making walking not an option. I contacted TripAdvisor and they tried to contact the tour company but no one answered and the voice mailbox was full. TripAdvisor sent them an email but the tour company refused to accommodate us. The night before the tour, at around 8:00 pm, I got a message through WhatsApp telling me pickup was at 4:45 am. The website had said 6:00 am. Now it was too late to cancel. Even worse, I had just downloaded WhatsApp and set it up that day. If I hadn’t I never would have received their message. They did NOT email or try to inform me in any other way about the extremely early pickup time. I had a rental car, so I drove to the pickup location. My friend and I were the only two being picked up at that location — so there was absolutely no reason for them refusing to pick us up at our hotel. To make matters even worse, the parking at the pickup hotel cost us $35. The only reason I gave them two stars was because our driver and guide were good. But STAY AWAY FROM THIS TOUR COMPANY.

Great!!

Love it. Just make more of your tours available for solo travelers NOT just some. Thanks. Very Exciting

every thing incredible especially the tour guide and driver .

every things incredible especially the tour guide she very knowledgeable and very hospitable and responsible,

Great

Our guide was Marianela, she was great and took time to give us information in our tour. She was very helpful and did as in the guide. Will defiantly do it again. The beach was omg and water was great. Yes, obey the rules of the park. They are very strict and don’t bring food or plastic; no gum/snacks/shells One little issue was that she was not given the right code for our group ticket to the park but the time we waited she compensated. It was not her fault it happens plus again our time was not taken off. We got to stop to see the 🐊 that was exciting. Take money to buy gifts to take home. Bring extra bag to put your wet clothes.

Communication via WhatsApp

Need WhatsApp to communicate with Inside Tours, if your tour is cancelled you will be notified by WhatsApp only and may not know.

Beach, sun , wildlife.

What a wonderful experience. The ride was long but broken down by breakfast and shopping. At Manuel Antonio it was amazing seeing animals in their environment. The beach was breath taking and we had a beautiful day!

NOPE

I try not to leave bad reviews because it can potentially take food out someones mouth, but at the same time people work hard for their money and should be able to get its worth. This tour is guided by an older gentleman who swears he is the king of tours (just wait) and knows everythingggggg. He promised to stop for fresh fruit and coconuts. They stop for breakfast at El Jardin which is a hugeeeeee tourist trap. You are rushed to eat then shoved back on bus. Longgggg drive to manuel antonio. He DID NOT POINT OUT ANY ANIMALS. if it wasn’t for the prepared guides with binoculars/scopes we wouldn’t have been alerted anything was in area. When you ask to stop to see what people are looking at, he tells you no hurry the beach will be crowded. Is this a nature walk or no???? Anyways, saw lots of monkeys to the point you walk past them like a stray cat. A couple sloths observed. The beach area is awesome. you spend about 3 hours and then leave. We stop for lunch at this sub par restaurant called “villa bosque” which was dead ( I understood why). Your lunch consists of a dry piece of mahi with no rice. Or spaghetti (who orders spaghetti in CR??) or chicken fried rice. The meal was 2 out of 10. Lastly it was time to leave and a female reminded him about the coconuts and which he got upset and said he never said! The driver (bless his heart) said he would stop for us. I recommend you do this tour with someone who actually cares about nature and history. If you have time to take the bus to quepos and find your way here, DO THAT. Its $163 of being in the car 80% of the trip. Not worth it

Incredible Manual Antonio

My trip to Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica was incredible. The scenery and wildlife were breathtaking, and our guide was knowledgeable. However, I was disappointed when the guide wouldn't drop me off at my hotel just 1 km away from the scheduled stop.

A worthy day trip from San Jose

A nice excursion from San Jose. We saw beautiful birds, a sloth and a coatis, but no monkeys. The beach is stunning and the water is perfect. The guide was knowledgeable and generous, he did a great job pointing out animals during the first part of the park. We had expected the guide to join us on the second part, but we hiked alone and did not see animals. Lunch after the tour at a nearby hotel restaurant was delicious. The tour is recommend but keep your expectations of seeing animals well-managed.

Accommodating and Helpful

Nela, our tour guide, was delightful and incredibly knowledgeable. I'm grateful for Inside Tours' flexibility in accommodating my last-minute request to reschedule the tour due to a flight delay that caused us to miss our connecting flight. While the flying experience to Costa Rica wasn't ideal, the communication from the company provided reassurance. I'd also like to note that this rescheduling request was made close to the typical 24-hour cancellation window, ensuring it wasn't within 3-4 hours of the activity just for clarification. As the company does have to purchase the admission tickets to the National Park ahead of time. Overall, I highly recommend!!!!!! Enjoy!!!

Great Time

We had a great time on the way to, at and back from the park. Our guide Arthur was amazing. He was very informative and attentive. On the way there he provide so many interesting facts and pointed lots of things out. The breakfast and lunch were tasty too. We saw lots of animals and the beach is gorgeous!

They will not drop off off at your pick up point.

The tour was ok, nice beach. Be mindful - They will not drop off off at your pick up point. I was dropped off at the airport and had to take an expensive red taxi to where my hotel was. It’s unfortunately.

Needs improvement

Beautiful parc and beaches. The drive itself was very pretty but the driving was terrible, too fast and furious. The Guide was very nice but didn’t give us much information about the city/country/places, we had to ask for some in the van. In the parc (no food and no plastic bottles allowed) all the other guides had a small telescope, our Guide just had binoculars, this company should really invest in one. On the way to the beach we saw a few animals from a distance (1 monkey, 1 coati, 1 sloth). After the 3 hours of free time on the beach we walked our way back too fast to even spot anything (except deers), even if I said that people saw 2 sloths on this path in the morning. The place for breakfast was great but the one for lunch wasn’t. I had a good day overall but was also a bit disappointed at the same time for such an expensive tour.

Great Trip to Manuel Antonio

My friend and I had a great time on this trip! We were only in Costa Rica for a long weekend, and since we stayed close to the airport, this was the perfect way to be comfortably transported to Manuel Antonio - and we saw a ton of wildlife! Our only wish is that we would have been recommended more things to do in the park. Besides that, the beach was lovely, the sloths were precious, and the food was great!

Manuel Antonio

Victor did an awesome job on our tour!!! The beach was beautiful and the monkeys were sneaky!!! Beautiful day and had a great time!!

Long trip, long hours in...

Long trip, long hours in the car totally not worth it. 30 minutes walk around the park, rest of the time we were supposed to spend on the beach. More animals you can see just casually walking in the costa rica roads than there. Totally overrated

Manuel Park

The tour was alright; we barely encountered any animals at the park. However, the food and the beach were enjoyable.

Great day on the beach....

Great day on the beach. Do make sure to bring recycling bottle of water as it is forbidden inside the park.

Don’t recommend

This tour is oversold - you do not see jaguars, snakes or anything exotic as the tour guides would lead you to believe. You’ll see an iguana and have a brief, short, “manufactured” pseudo-walk through what is tantamount to a man made plastic rainforest . Don’t believe the hype.

Super nice - beautiful beach

The tour was really good. Amazing guide and driver. The beach is beautiful and the tour people are amazing. I highly recommend it.

Manuel Antonio was nice but ride was not very comfortable

The park at Manuel Antonio was great but did not have very many animals since so many people. We did see a couple of sloths, blue crabs and many lizards but was hoping for more. And the paths at park were really nice along with beautiful water to cool off in. A nice part of trip was stopping at a beach on way back because our guide saw macaws. The macaws were amazing and gave a great show of how fun they are. The bus was not very comfortable and we were on it for a really long time. And the food was just okay. The guide was polite and kept everyone on track but had limited time for everyone since such a full group of people on tour.

Great Park, Unnecessarily Long Day

Manuel Antonio is a beautiful park, and I got to see some amazing animals and sights during this day tour. We spent 3.5 hours at the park and I felt like this was about perfect. Unfortunately, the other 10+ hours of this day tour was not enjoyable. The breakfast and lunch were average quality and nothing made them an authentic Costa Rican experience. We spent way too much time at rest stops and food stops. This tour needs to lower the price so that we don’t feel obligated to eat average food, lessen the amount time spent at rest/food stops, and/or add another attraction to break up the long driving day.

Great service

The guides were very helpful and guided us great. I really enjoyed this trip a lot. Learned about Costa Rica

Amazing adventure.

Tour guide Alex was amazing. Driver Victor was fantastic. Amazing adventure. Need to know: don’t attempt to bring disposable water bottles or food into the park. Reusable bottles only. There are filling stations to use. Bring towels, comfortable shoes and beach shoes. Pay for the all inclusive for access to the better beaches and amazing tour guide who will teach you about, and show you the animals you’d never see on your own. The breakfast and lunch were excellent.

Very disappointed

We were so excited to see the number one national park in Costa Rica but we ended up being very disappointed with this tour to say the least. We paid for a guided tour through the national park so that we can get the full experience of the nature and animals but our guide was not prepared. According to him, he was not informed that he was going to be our guide so he did failed to bring his telescope which made spotting animals extremely difficult. We relied on only what our eyes could see and where the crowd was and even then, we barely saw much. The food provided was okay, nothing fantastic. The drive is lengthy from San Jose so be prepared. The park itself is beautiful with amazing views but I’m sure the experience would have been a thousand times better had the tour guide been prepared.

Some highlights, but many unexpected and avoidable disappointments.

This tour had some highlights, but was also full of unexpected disappointments. About a week before I planned to go, I tried contacting Inside Tours to ask several questions. First, I could only see the "Economic tour" for $90 dollars on Trip Advisor, and wanted to know how to access and sign up for the all-inclusive tour. Second, I wanted to know if I could buy park tickets to Manuel Antonio the day of the tour (if I went with the economic tour, that is). Third, I wanted to know if lunch was included, since the website and the reviews gave contradictory answers. Even after contacting several numbers (calling and texting through WhatsApp), I received no answers to any of my questions. Running out of time, I signed up for the economic tour. One frustrating thing about this company which I found before on the Tortuga Island tour (which is excellent, by the way), is that they do not tell you your departure time from the hotel until the night before. After you have already payed for the tour, it would be nice to know that someone anticipates your arrival, giving you time to so call and fix any mixups in your booking if necessary. But no, they will not respond to texts until the night before your trip. I left from the Gran Hotel Costa Rica at 5:15 am. We made three stops at other hotels and were on our way. Breakfast was included in the $90 tour, and was delicious: Gallo pinto with two sides (I got plantains and bread) and coffee or juice. There is also an amazing souvenir shop attached to the restaurant (El Jardín). Next, we made our way to Manuel Antonio. Upon arrival, I asked the tour guide about acquiring tickets into the park. Although our tour guide was very friendly, she had no idea where to get tickets or how much they cost. I found the ticket booth myself, only to discover that all tickets were sold out until Wednesday (my tour was on Sunday). I was so disappointed because the primary reason I came to Manuel Antonio was to see the animals in the park and to hike the trails. This could have been resolved if only Inside Tours had responded to my messages and calls and answered my question about how to enter the park. My recommendation would be to figure out how to buy tickets beforehand online, or to buy the all-inclusive tour (which I never found). Unable to enter the park, I spent the day at the adjacent beach which is absolutely stunning. This was certainly the highlight of the trip. It turned out lunch was not included. Although I survived off of coconuts from the beach, there are several restaurants in the area that are easily accessible for lunch. I saw a cara blanca (white-faced) monkey right before I left, which was memorable. We left around 2:30 pm (around 4 1/2 hours at Manuel Antonio). We stopped at Cocodrilos on our way back to San Jose. Around 6pm, we made it back to the Gran Hotel in downtown San Jose. I will admit that the tour provides transportation to and from Manuel Antonio for an incredible rate. Ninety dollars is dirt cheep compared to trying to get an uber, taxi, or private van. I would recommend that people choosing the economic tour would think of the tour as their breakfast ticket and transportation, nothing else. YOU are responsible for figuring out how to get into the park, which activities to do while there, where to eat lunch, etc. I hope this review gives future visitors a realistic understanding of what this tour does and does not include. While I am very frustrated with Inside Tours' complete lack of communication before the tour, I admit that they do provide clients with a pleasant experience, and would especially recommend their trip to Tortuga Island.

National park

I met many great people on the tour. We did the hike and enjoyed the beach afterwards. Breakfast, lunch and evening beverages are provided. Special shout out to Roberto . He is very knowledgeable about the area.

Highly recommend

The meals were great and the beach was fantastic. I would just suggest that if anyone is booking this tour you’ll want to make sure you pay for the inclusive tour. If you do that you’ll have a great time. 👍

Amazing beach

The park is 3h drive from San Jose, BUT it is soooo worth it. We had a group of monkeys playing in front of us on the trail, so close, we saw iguanas and other animals. But the beach is beyond amazing. It is picture perfect. I am glad this company provides these tours, they are doing great job, especially when you travel solo. Recommend!

Highly recommend!

Excellent tour! It was a great day to explore the beach and park, and the tour was wonderful. The breakfast and lunch was also very good!

National Park is great, maybe book through a different operator

It's been mentioned here before, but I'll repeat it: it's absolutely unclear why you would pay $90 to get to the National Park and *not* enter the National Park. The economic option makes little sense. I booked it because I read that you should always buy tickets with the park directly. Of course I had no idea that you needed to book them weeks in advance - my bad, though a notice would have been nice. So I got a ticket on the day for $40 in cash with one of the 'vendors' in front of the park. I should also mention that all people who booked the economic option got contacted by the operator to buy a National Park ticket for $25 (less than the listed 'full' option). Apart from the confusion around the economic option, the tour itself was just okay. The pickup around San José took 2 hours, so you might need to add that to the 3 hours of travel. Our tour guide was verbose about the logistics, sometimes basic facts like meeting times were unclear. Once you are in the National Park, everything is magical of course. I recommend *not* going on the guided tour, or at least going on a guided tour offered by someone from the National Park.

Day Well Spent

Be prepared to walk in the heat and the humidity through both the town and the national park. Van ride was comfortably air conditioned and the guide was friendly and informative, providing commentary in both Spanish and English. He had trouble understanding English spoken to him by any of us. We were served much bigger breakfast and lunch meals than I had expected. Quite a few choices. Too bad it takes quite a while to drive there and back (plus pick up and drop off the participants) because it makes for a long day. My tour was 13.5 hours, 5.5 hours of that in Manuel Antonio. The park has both a boardwalk and a well-maintained trail. It is best you buy the tour that includes the entrance to the park. If not, the guide did manage to buy tickets there in the town for 3 participants, but not at the park itself and their availability is not guaranteed (max numbers per day). I also don't know if they were being charged only face value for those tickets. Plus the rest of us were just standing in the hot street. If you don't go to the park, there is the town and a public beach.

Improvement areas and good points

It was a nice trip but there are some areas I think we can improve -They sent a list of things that are forbidden at the park but they didn’t send a list of recommended things to take In my case i didn’t take my hiking boots since didn’t seem necessary to me but on site i had to change my sandals as an emergency for my vans which are not made for this kind of place Also there was a girl who got upset because of the same (list not sent) as per she didn’t have soap nor shampoo and guide told her that on the showers there must be a soap but she wanted her own soap (me as well) but we were told there was no place to buy anything inside the park and the problem is if we were outside the park we could not go in again. -I would highly recommend to add in the description this is a “Self-guided tour” since I and part of the team thought it was in group but guide said we had the option to follow him on hiking or go by our own to the beach or through the park , I just followed the guide but part of the group got separated and there was a point were he left the beach and said we should meet at the parking lot 10 minutes before 3 pm, so in summary is a self guided tour and not what I and some of us expected to be honest. Good points - Nice people - Guide doesn’t speak English very well but i liked the fact he put all his effort for us to understand him, which it worked because everything was understandable, good job , keep it up! -Food was great! -They stop in areas such viewpoint for us to see afternoon and the cocodriles and also for us to take coffee/use bathrooms -They were very communicative during the road , explaining a little bit of Costa Rican Nature -Safe ride

Good but stressful

The tour was good however there is an option to book it without lunch or entry fees, we chose this option as we tought it was pretty steep to add on the lunch and entry fees for an extra €50. At no point did anyone tell us that you can't pay for entry to the national park on the day and you have to book online weeks in advance. We were lucky that we met someone with extra tickets if not we would have paid 85€ to be told when we arrived that we could only go to the beach and not the national park. This information should be stated somewhere or else you shouldn't sell the tour without the entry. Not very fair we would have driven 3.5hrs to go to a beach and wouldn't have seen the national park at all if it wasn't for the kind people we met.

You’ll love this tour!

This was my second tour with Inside tours. I had the same driver as the first tour (Junior) who is very skilled behind the wheel and made me feel safe while we traveled. In Manuel Antonio, Beto was our guide. As we toured the national park it was clear he had a ton of knowledge about the animals and other wild life living there. Even the plants! There wasn’t a question he could not answer. Along the four he gave history of things we passed by. They did a great job at providing an excellent experience.

1st time to Costa Rica

I want to start off with.. I love the fact that this tour picks you up at your hotel. That was one of the factors when picking tours. Next, the communication was great. Thank you! That is extremely important. The bus was nice. The driver and guide were awesome. The food was very good too. =) I know some people like to rent a car and try to navigate to these places. But why? They are long trips. It’s nice to sit back and relax while others do the driving for you. I actually had the Tortuga Island tour with this same company the very next day. I will copy and paste this comment on that tour as well. Enjoy Costa Rica. Pure Vida!!

A great place!

Great landscape, enjoyable trip, fantastic tour guide, nice fellow travelers! One of the best beaches I have ever seen!

Not worth it. Pick a different tour

This tour was not it! As matter a of fact, it wasn't even a tour! You're just paying for the ride there, breakfast, and lunch (btw, the food was not good). You then have to pay to get into Manuel Antonio park, which has the nicer beaches. I was under the impression that if you didn't want to go to the park to do the hike and see the animals you could just go to the beach because the two were separate. But pretty much every photo you see in this listing is inside the park. There is a public beach outside the park but it's not as nice. Again, you are paying $90 per person for a ride and two meals, and it doesn't include anything you see in the photos unless you also pay to get into the park. Keep in mind that "self-guided tour" pretty much means that you won't see any animals. They are hard to spot without a guide. It definitely felt like a money grab on their part. One of the worst tours I've done out here.

Manuel Antonio

Beautiful beach but didn't see any animals except for a Scorpio in the water fountain. If you tire easily or have a heat intolerance, be careful. You have to walk a lot and nothing has a/c.

Very good tour, guide,...

Very good tour, guide, and food. On time pick up with comfortable seat. I saw blue iguana and monkeys interacting. No plastics allowed inside the park. Nice view of the beach. Easy trails to explore nature.

Fun at Manuel Antonio

The beach is amazing. The national park is great just make sure to be Rady to hike or you can stay at the beach. Our tour guide was awesome.

Great day!

Manuel Antonio park is beautiful. You walk through the forest seeing wildlife and end up at an amazing beach!

Nice Park/Beach; Overrated Tour

Manuel Antonio is a nice park and beach, and you’ll definitely see monkeys and other wildlife, but this long one-day trip was otherwise disappointing. To be clear, this is NOT a “tour”. You are paying for transportation (breakfast and lunch included) to and from the park on a minibus. The “guide” was aloof and disinterested the entire time, spoke very little English, and provided no information or commentary during the trip other than instructions about lunch and departure times (primarily in Spanish). We were given the wrong pickup time (4:25AM) which caused us to have to wait 45 minutes; then on the return we were dropped off on the opposite side of the highway from the hotel where we’d been picked up and told to take the pedestrian bridge to get back.

Disorganized, trip ruined

I booked this tour in 2022, months in advance of the Jan. 2023 departure date. They wait until the night before the tour to tell me that they've run out of tickets, and that I can pay a scalper an upcharge once at the park or cancel all together. They're response was that some operators buy up the tickets in advance. I sure wish they were one of them because my entire trip is ruined. I literally only came here to visit Manuel Antonio. "A pity" that this company can't be better organized. The money for this tour can be returned, but my time cannot. Avoid.