Manuel Antonio
Manuel Antonio is the easiest place in Costa Rica to see a lot of wildlife in one morning, on flat trails with a swimming beach inside the park. Rainforest and sand this close exist nowhere else on the coast.
Manuel Antonio in a nutshell
Manuel Antonio: what to expect
Our travellers have planned 87,000+ stops in Costa Rica on Stippl. That is where the numbers here come from.
Manuel Antonio is the country's smallest national park and its most visited, and it puts rainforest and beach in the same morning. Eight or nine kilometres of trail hold over a hundred mammal species and a hundred and eighty birds, including three of Costa Rica's four monkeys and both sloths. Manuel Antonio Beach sits inside the park in a protected cove and is the best swimming here. Espadilla Sur is longer, emptier and has the stronger currents, and Playa Biesanz is ten minutes through jungle to the sunset.
Manuel Antonio is the first place in Costa Rica travellers treat as a holiday rather than a stop. Its stays spread wider than anywhere else in the country, with the longest tail of five-night visits, where most Costa Rican destinations sit rigidly on two nights or three. It also anti-correlates with the whole Guanacaste coast: the country has two beach circuits and travellers pick one.
Hire a guide with a scope for the morning walk, and stay 2 nights. Without one you will walk past almost everything, which every account agrees on. Uvita is the next beach down and the strongest pairing in the country, so the coast road south is the natural continuation. Skip Manuel Antonio if you want solitude, because it is the busiest park in Costa Rica and the daily cap only softens that.
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Download the appWho Manuel Antonio is for
Anyone wanting wildlife easily
Manuel Antonio is the easiest place in Costa Rica to see a lot in one morning, which is why it is on 10.1% of stops in the country.
Families
Flat trails, a short visit, and beaches inside the park itself, which makes it the easiest national park in the country with children.
Anyone wanting jungle and beach
Rainforest and sand in the same park is the actual selling point, and nowhere else on the coast does both this close together.
Beach travellers
The best swimming is inside the park, and the public beach outside it is better for surfing than for swimming.
Maybe not for you: anyone seeking solitude, since this is the busiest and most popular national park in the country even with the daily cap; and day-trippers, because almost nobody comes here without staying at least a night.
The best time to visit Manuel Antonio
Dry season
December to March
The one place where the national December to April advice is actually true: the only genuinely dry stretch measured at any Costa Rican destination we cover. Hot, busy and the park at capacity.
Green season
May to November
Wet most afternoons and October the wettest month in the country, but the park is open, the beaches are empty and the wildlife is the same. The lodges drop their rates.
- January is the month most travellers plan Manuel Antonio for on Stippl, about 75 days ahead. The park's timed tickets are the thing that sells out in that month, and they are bought online, not at the gate.
- Go into the park at opening. Wildlife is most active at seven, it is the coolest hour, and the park fills between half past eight and noon even with timed tickets; an afternoon entry sees the crowd and the sloths asleep.
- Manuel Antonio is the hottest place on most Costa Rica itineraries. Arriving from the Central Valley, the humidity is the shock; the beach inside the park is the answer, and the hill road between the town and the park is a taxi, not a walk, at midday.
- The park is closed on Tuesdays. It is the one fixed closure on the coast and it catches people every week; a two-night stay that lands on a Monday and Tuesday sees the beach and not the park.
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Things to do in Manuel Antonio
Photo by Jake Marsee via PexelsA guided walk in the park
Take a guide with a scope for two to three hours on the Sendero Principal, about €40 plus the €16 park ticket; without one you walk past almost everything. Book the seven o'clock entry online and be at the gate at opening.
Manuel Antonio Beach
Swim in the protected cove inside the park, the best swimming here, at the end of the main trail. Keep the bag closed; the capuchins and raccoons open zips.
Playa Espadilla Sur
Walk to the longer beach on the other side of the tombolo, bigger, emptier and with stronger currents. Swim only in the shallows and never alone.
Playa Espadilla Norte
Surf or take a lesson on the free public beach outside the gate, about €40 for two hours with a school, the beginner break of the coast. The beach bars run to sunset.
Playa Biesanz
Walk the ten-minute jungle path to the hidden cove, the sunset beach with calm water and a kayak rental, free. Weekday afternoons have it nearly empty.
Nauyaca Waterfalls
Take the day trip south toward Dominical to the two-tier falls with pools beneath, reached by a four-kilometre walk, a four-wheel-drive transfer or on horseback, about €10 to €35. The most beautiful waterfall in the country by most accounts.
The neighbourhoods of Manuel Antonio
The park road
Hillside hotels, Pacific views
The seven kilometres of hillside on Route 618 between Quepos and the park entrance, lined with hotels looking over the Pacific, where most visitors stay. For first visits and for the view; some let you walk into the park.
The view and the park within reach, and a hill for every walk.
Espadilla Norte
Public beach, surf schools
The public beach at the bottom of the road just outside the park gate: surf schools, sun loungers, beach restaurants and the hotels behind the sand. For beach days and for the gate on foot.
The beach and the gate on foot, and the busiest corner of the coast.
Quepos
Working town, marina, buses
The working town seven kilometres north: the bus station, the marina, the supermarket and the cheapest beds, not a beach town. For budget travellers and for the buses and the sportfishing boats.
The cheapest beds and the buses, and a bus ride to the sand.
Playa Biesanz
Hidden cove, calm water
The small cove off the park road below the big hotels, reached by a short trail, with calm water and a couple of hotels on the hill above. For families who want to swim and for the cove before ten.
Calm water and shade, and a trail down with the bags.
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Where to stay in Manuel Antonio
Stay on the park road for a first visit, on the hillside with the Pacific below, and as close to the entrance as the budget allows: the hotels beside the gate let you walk in and skip the parking altogether. Most people give Manuel Antonio 2 nights on Stippl and many take three. Quepos is the budget answer, with the buses.
The park road
Hotels and lodges with pools and ocean views along the hillside, €100 to €300, and hostels from €18 a bed.
Espadilla Norte
Beach hotels and cabinas behind the sand, €70 to €180, a walk from the park gate.
Quepos
The cheapest beds, hostels from €14 and plain hotels €35 to €70, near the bus station.
Playa Biesanz
A couple of upscale hotels on the hill above the cove, from €250, with the calm water below.
What to eat in Manuel Antonio
National plate of rice, beans, salad, plantain and a protein
Rice and beans fried together, the standard breakfast
A Thai restaurant on the park road
The other named restaurant in town
The one sit-down restaurant inside the park; reported closed by one source
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Manuel Antonio customs and what not to do
The park was won locally
It was created in 1972 after local pressure against foreign landowners who had blocked access to the beaches; the community victory is why entry is capped and the beach is public.
Do not feed the wildlife
The food ban exists because visitors fed the monkeys and left litter; the capuchins steal bags and turn aggressive, and the rangers search bags at the gate for it.
The gate touts are not staff
Men in official-looking badges sell tours and tickets that are not the park's; the ticket exists only on the SINAC site and the rangers wear the green uniform.
The beach closes at three
The park shuts its gates early to let the animals have the beach; the public beach at Espadilla stays open, with the currents and the manchineel trees to mind.
Do
- Book the seven o'clock slot on SINAC days ahead
- Take a guide with a scope; it is what you are paying for
- Swim in the cove inside the park, not at Espadilla Sur
- Bring water and use the refill stations
Don't
- Bring food or spray repellent into the park
- Buy a ticket from anyone at the gate
- Leave a bag on the sand while you swim
- Sit under the manchineel trees on Espadilla
What a Manuel Antonio trip costs
Budget
€47–75
Dorm bed or basic cabina in Quepos, sodas for most meals, public buses with the occasional shuttle, one paid park every other day, free beaches.
Mid-range
€105–170
Park-road hotel with a Pacific view, a share of a rental car with its mandatory insurance, a guided wildlife walk and restaurant dinners.
High-end
€300+
Hillside resort or signature lodge, private guides, private transfers and the higher-end tour operators.
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Fun facts about Manuel Antonio
Manuel Antonio is the smallest national park in Costa Rica and the most visited. The park authority says so itself, about 8 to 9 km of trails, which is why half a day covers it.
The park exists because local people fought foreign landowners. Its owners had blocked access to the beaches, and public pressure created the park by law in 1972.
Three of Costa Rica's four monkey species live in the park. White-faced capuchin, squirrel and howler monkeys, alongside two- and three-toed sloths, iguanas and basilisks.
A sand isthmus gives the park two back-to-back beaches. El Tómbolo joins Cathedral Point to the mainland, with Manuel Antonio beach on one side and Espadilla Sur on the other.
The park holds a 14-hectare lagoon and offshore islands. Mangrove, islands and lagoon sit alongside the forest and the beaches, and the islands are nesting sites for seabirds.
The town is Quepos and the park is Manuel Antonio. They are 7 km apart with a resort road running between them, and the hotels along that road are what people mean by Manuel Antonio.
Local tips for Manuel Antonio
There is no official car park
The signs on Route 618 and the men in hi-vis vests are private lots charging what they like. Stay near the gate or book a tour with transfers and the problem disappears.
Tickets only on the SINAC site
The people in official-looking badges at the entrance sell tours and tickets that are not the park's; walk past them. Book the seven o'clock slot online days ahead.
Uvita is the next stop
An hour down an easy coast road, and the place Manuel Antonio pairs with more than any other. The bus runs a few times a day for about €3.
How long to stay
Most people give Manuel Antonio 2 nights on Stippl: the park with a guide one morning, the public beach the next. The park is closed on Tuesdays.
Swim in the cove
Manuel Antonio Beach inside the park is protected; Espadilla Sur has currents, and the manchineel trees along it are poisonous to sit or shelter under. The beaches close at three.
Monkeys take food and bags
Nothing on the sand while you swim, and the raccoons open zips. Bring water and use the refill stations; the walk out is hot and mostly at midday.
Manuel Antonio questions, answered
Book the ticket first and pick a day that is not a Tuesday, when the park closes. Tickets are sold on the national parks site only, in advance, with a passport number per visitor. Travellers planning Manuel Antonio on Stippl book about 75 days out, so put the park morning into Stippl early and leave the beach for the afternoon.
Two nights. Manuel Antonio gets 2 nights in the trips people plan on Stippl, which is a park morning, a beach afternoon and a travel day at each end. The park itself is half a day; the beaches outside it are what fills the rest.
It is the busiest small park in the country and carries 10.1% of everything planned in Costa Rica on Stippl. The crowd is real, and it is also why the wildlife is so easy to see here. Arrive at opening, walk the far trails first, and it thins out fast.
For wildlife, effectively yes. The sloths, the owls and the snakes are invisible without a scope and a trained eye, and the guides work the same short trails all day long. Hire one at the entrance, or walk close enough behind a group to hear the commentary, which plenty of people do.
You can swim: the beach inside the park is the sheltered one, and Espadilla Sur next to it has currents that are not. Food is another matter. Bags are checked at the gate and only water gets through, because of the monkeys and the raccoons, who are extremely practised at this.
Quepos for a lower price and the bus connections, the park road for the views and for being able to walk to the gate. The road is one steep hill between the two with the restaurants strung along it, and a taxi from end to end takes about ten minutes.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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