I had 2 enjoyable days walking the cloud forest. I would recommend getting a guild for at least the first day. However, be sure to call ahead and get a reservation. the guild associated with the biological station seem to be consistently good. You will see so many more birds and things with a guild. Oscar was our guild and his knowledge of the forest was very extensive.

In addition go early. The forest opens at 7:30 but they start letting people in at 7:00. However, I wish I had set up a guild to met us there at 6:00 as I was looking for birds. There is long hiking trail ~ 4 hour I took. Very few people walked this trail so you were quite alone. The mist and epiphytes are truly magical. If you just sit down and be quiet the forest will come alive.

You would need a taxi or your own car to get there this early in the morning. the bus back to town is really easy. I could spend a week walking these trails and not see everything.

The entrance at Selvatura Park, in the cloud forest reserve is pretty commercialized and I would skip the butterfly garden in favor for the hummingbird gallery. Yet, it was a good place to relax after such a great experience. The hanging bridges experience was enhanced by having a guide as long as your group is small. If there are too many, you cannot hear and it goes too slowly. The cloud forest's unique ecosystem is really an awesome experience! The 13 zip lines also gave us a first time experience and there were enough of them for you to get use to the routine and actually look around as you were on top of the forest canopy. To view the difference of walking the forest floor to flying in the tree tops is a complete experience. We stayed at the Arenal Springs Resort outside of La Fortuna and felt it was a perfect picturesque retreat from our busy day. Three restaurants: The Tree Top, the Butterfly Cafe, and the Tramonati (Italian) and all in La Fortuna were good. One was known for its peanut butter pie which others raved about!

We enjoyed our visit to the Monteverde Cloud Forest very much, but like any natural area, seeing wildlife can be hit or miss. A knowledgable guide helps locate animals and identify flora and fauna, and is certainly worth the expense. Again, a good guide can be hit or miss. We walked a very easy 2 1/2 hours with our guide which you can book as you walk into the park, and wished we had timed our trip earlier in the day so we could have spent more time exploring on our own after that excursion. Maybe they have extended walks that go beyond the very limited portion that we explored (out to the waterfall and back); if so, I would recommend that you pursue that.

You can't visit Monteverde without visiting the cloud forest. This is the main attraction, and is well worth it. Get a tour guide, because s/he will be able to tell you all about the plants and animals and history, so you'll get a lot more out of your visit. Our guide was Ricardo, who works for the Reserve itself, and he was fantastic!