Photography Tours
3 hours
Recommended by 100% of travelers
100% of reviewers gave this product a bubble rating of 4 or higher.
from
$98
per adult
Forest Alive
Forest Alive
5
Walking ToursNight ToursSightseeing ToursNature & Wildlife ToursPhotography Tours
9:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Monday
9:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Tuesday
9:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Wednesday
9:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Thursday
9:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Friday
9:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Saturday
9:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Sunday
9:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Full view
About
In a Natural History Private Tours you will be in the Nature Documentary yourself. Learn about the Cloud forest with your Naturalist Guide who will help spot unique wildlife and plant species. The forest has a unique language, let our guide from the Forest Alive Naturalist-Team translate it for you! Day tours and Night tours in all different Reserves and Parks in Monteverde and adjacent areas. Why a Private Tour? Go away from the crowds. Perfect for families. Experience the forest according to your own goals and interested. The right pace and focus for photographers(beginners, amateur and professionals equally). For people that want to have a deeper experience in understanding the different forest types of Monteverde. For Scientists like Biologist, Botanists, Ornithologist, Teachers and more...
Monteverde, Costa Rica
Meets animal welfare guidelines
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
Popular mentions
5.0
560 reviews
Excellent
547
Very good
7
Average
3
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2
Terrible
1
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David G
4 contributions
Feb 2020 • Couples
Andres Alvarado aka Andy brings all that you could ask of a private tour guide. His enthusiasm is infectious and knowledge outstanding. Our half day with him, which extended to lunch and early afternoon, were truly memorable and included a wide variety of birds and vegetation, plus great guidance on how to use our iPhone to compile a photographic record. We rate him as highly recommended with best wishes for the future.
Written February 1, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
kierandawg
Keswick, UK2 contributions
Jan 2023 • Couples
Had an incredible experience on a night hike with Andy. He had amazing gear including heat vision and night vision goggles that we utilize to explore the forest. We saw amazing creatures and learned so much from Andy, who has an intimate knowledge of the forest. We were out there for hours and would highly recommend anyone who visits Monteverde to take a hike with him!!
Written February 2, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Erin B
1 contribution
Nov 2021 • Couples
It was a very exciting adventure through the rainforest at night. We learned a lot and saw many different creatures non stop though out.
We saw more than we can even name and our tour guide helped photograph along the way.
Having a tour guide like Andres is essential because every inch of the rainforest is covered in life, and with a guide we were able to spot and learn about more than we could have imagined on our own.. He is especially exceptional at his job, and bountiful in his knowledge of the ecosystem. I'm grateful we booked with Forest Alive and think you should too if you want to actually experience and learn about the life within Costa Rica!
We saw more than we can even name and our tour guide helped photograph along the way.
Having a tour guide like Andres is essential because every inch of the rainforest is covered in life, and with a guide we were able to spot and learn about more than we could have imagined on our own.. He is especially exceptional at his job, and bountiful in his knowledge of the ecosystem. I'm grateful we booked with Forest Alive and think you should too if you want to actually experience and learn about the life within Costa Rica!
Written November 7, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Eduardo y Beatriz
San Juan, Puerto Rico5 contributions
Aug 2024 • Family
We took a night tour at the Monteverde Wildlife Refuge and a day tour at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve with Forest Alive. Andrés, our guide, demonstrated extensive knowledge of the local and national wildlife, leading us through both tours with an engaging demeanor and a great sense of humor. We spent a good amount of time with him during the tours, but there’s so much to explore in the forests that neither tour felt too long.
Written August 22, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Brian
New York City, NY5 contributions
May 2021 • Friends
Had an awesome time with Andres in both our day and night tours. We saw a quetzal within 5 minutes of arriving at Selvatura preserve, and the tour only got better from there. The night tour was a fun jaunt as well, and by the end of it I gained a huge appreciation for the biodiversity of the cloud forest. Highly recommend.
Written May 11, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Simone O
3 contributions
Sep 2023 • Couples
Really good tour! We booked the private night tour and were lucky enough to be with Andres and Jorbin. They had a lot of equipment with them, including night vision goggles and thermal imaging cameras, so we were able to find even more animals that would otherwise have remained hidden. I promised not to reveal which ones, but we saw everything from reptiles to amphibians, insects, many mammals and birds. As well as some plant species that take on a completely new appearance at night. Exciting and highly recommended!
Written September 18, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
AlecParodi
Clearwater, FL6 contributions
Nov 2015 • Couples
Firstly you should know that this is my first review on TripAdvisor. Here is some background data for context - I have been taking a honeymoon with my wife through several cities including several in Costa Rica and recently stayed in Monteverde hoping to see as much wildlife as possible in our 2 days here. We started with the night tour which happened to be done in the trails behind our hotel (Monteverde Inn). The tour was interesting and we saw a few nice things: an armadillo, a sleeping mot mot bird, army ants, etc. But none of it was particularly noteworthy. We then did a self-guided tour through the Monteverde reserve and saw lots of...flora. Unfortunately not much animal life. So this was a bit of a disappointment since I expected to see so much in the heart of the Cloud Forest.
Then I checked out TripAdvisor to find out what I was doing wrong. I found Forest Alive and the extremely positive reviews of Andres. If you don't want to read the rest of this review because you are short on time, that's fine - just make your reservation with Andres now and call it a day. Trust me. You can thank me later.
I called Andres about 12 hours before I was due to leave Monteverde. I suprisingly reached him by calling the number on his website and found that he had some availability the same night due to an unexpected schedule change. Bingo. I was able to secure a one-on-one tour with him at night, to begin within the hour.
I'm probably making this review super long, so let me just list out what animals we saw in our 2.5 hour night walk. These are only the ones I remember - we saw TONS and I apologize if I miss any out or use the incorrect common name for the animal:
1. Coati (within the first 2 minutes of the tour! I had also specifically requested seeing this one)
2. Kinkajou (it was feeding and Andres got awesome photos of it hanging by its prehensile tail!)
3. Two-Toed Sloth (one of my other requests!)
4. Humming Bats (feeding at night - Andres allowed me to use his spectacular night vision goggles to see them with perfect clarity
5. Three different individuals of Striped Palm Pit Vipers (two green, one brown juvenile)
6. One blunt-nose snake
7. Pgymy Frog
8. Large walking stick (About 7" long)
9. Net-casting spider (super awesome and ready to strke prey!)
10. Orange-knee tarantula (the last of my requests!)
11. Bark scorpion (got excellent photos under Andres' black light)
12. Harvestman spider (unique species which glows under a black light)
13. Leaf-Mimic Katydid
14. Rhinoceros Katydid (huge mandibles on this one)
15. Large nest of paper wasps up close
16. Moss mantids (Andres somehow remembered what tree they were on from a previous tour and we had a blast finding them again, super camoflauged in the moss)
17. Sleeping orange-bellied trogon (related to the Quetzal)
18. Sleeping keel-billed toucans (2x!)
19. Sleeping jay bird (sorry Andres, can't remember the name you gave for this one)
20. Bioluminesant moss (totally wild, couldn't believe what I was seeing)
21. Tons of other miscellaneous spiders, caterpillars, millipedes, centipedes, etc. Too varied to list.
All in all I couldn't have been happier with the trip. Andres impressed me with his depth of understanding of the rainforest habitat and his unwavering professionalism. He was just as enthusiastic as I was to be finding these animals and helped me capture excellent photos of many of the above animals for taking back to show my friends and family.
Here are my tips to those who are looking to go to MonteVerde to see animal life:
1. Make a reservation now with Andres. The added cost for this tours over other tours is well worth it because you actually FIND the wildlife and learn whole new facets to their existance which you never knew before. Trust me, because I did two other disappointing tours before I booked with Andres and had a blast.
2. Do the night tour. So much of the wildlife is nocturnal. So do the day tour if you can, but absolutely do not miss the night tour.
3. Bring good photography equipment and binoculars if you have them. You won't want to miss anything.
4. Respect the wilderness you are entering - remember it is THEIR home, not ours.
I hope this review has been helpful. Thanks very much Forest Alive for making this the most memorable part of my vacation. Pura Vida!
Then I checked out TripAdvisor to find out what I was doing wrong. I found Forest Alive and the extremely positive reviews of Andres. If you don't want to read the rest of this review because you are short on time, that's fine - just make your reservation with Andres now and call it a day. Trust me. You can thank me later.
I called Andres about 12 hours before I was due to leave Monteverde. I suprisingly reached him by calling the number on his website and found that he had some availability the same night due to an unexpected schedule change. Bingo. I was able to secure a one-on-one tour with him at night, to begin within the hour.
I'm probably making this review super long, so let me just list out what animals we saw in our 2.5 hour night walk. These are only the ones I remember - we saw TONS and I apologize if I miss any out or use the incorrect common name for the animal:
1. Coati (within the first 2 minutes of the tour! I had also specifically requested seeing this one)
2. Kinkajou (it was feeding and Andres got awesome photos of it hanging by its prehensile tail!)
3. Two-Toed Sloth (one of my other requests!)
4. Humming Bats (feeding at night - Andres allowed me to use his spectacular night vision goggles to see them with perfect clarity
5. Three different individuals of Striped Palm Pit Vipers (two green, one brown juvenile)
6. One blunt-nose snake
7. Pgymy Frog
8. Large walking stick (About 7" long)
9. Net-casting spider (super awesome and ready to strke prey!)
10. Orange-knee tarantula (the last of my requests!)
11. Bark scorpion (got excellent photos under Andres' black light)
12. Harvestman spider (unique species which glows under a black light)
13. Leaf-Mimic Katydid
14. Rhinoceros Katydid (huge mandibles on this one)
15. Large nest of paper wasps up close
16. Moss mantids (Andres somehow remembered what tree they were on from a previous tour and we had a blast finding them again, super camoflauged in the moss)
17. Sleeping orange-bellied trogon (related to the Quetzal)
18. Sleeping keel-billed toucans (2x!)
19. Sleeping jay bird (sorry Andres, can't remember the name you gave for this one)
20. Bioluminesant moss (totally wild, couldn't believe what I was seeing)
21. Tons of other miscellaneous spiders, caterpillars, millipedes, centipedes, etc. Too varied to list.
All in all I couldn't have been happier with the trip. Andres impressed me with his depth of understanding of the rainforest habitat and his unwavering professionalism. He was just as enthusiastic as I was to be finding these animals and helped me capture excellent photos of many of the above animals for taking back to show my friends and family.
Here are my tips to those who are looking to go to MonteVerde to see animal life:
1. Make a reservation now with Andres. The added cost for this tours over other tours is well worth it because you actually FIND the wildlife and learn whole new facets to their existance which you never knew before. Trust me, because I did two other disappointing tours before I booked with Andres and had a blast.
2. Do the night tour. So much of the wildlife is nocturnal. So do the day tour if you can, but absolutely do not miss the night tour.
3. Bring good photography equipment and binoculars if you have them. You won't want to miss anything.
4. Respect the wilderness you are entering - remember it is THEIR home, not ours.
I hope this review has been helpful. Thanks very much Forest Alive for making this the most memorable part of my vacation. Pura Vida!
Written November 14, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
achancock
2 contributions
Dec 2017 • Couples
We did the "natural history tour" which is birdwatching. Ian was our guide. He did an amazing job finding a wide variety of birds, and explained details on each. Finding two Quetzals was definitely the highlight. We loved the tour. Ian recommended that we go to lunch at a popular birdwatching cafe because they have bird feeders. At lunch, while sitting amongst other birdwatchers, Ian turned on a radio station on his phone drowning out the birds and left it on until his phone died. He got some glares, but my husband and I were too uncomfortable to say anything. Then he asked the server to put his lunch on our bill. (I'm not sure he knew that I can speak Spanish and overheard him.) When the bill came he walked away and ignored it. We were going to tip him anyway so we bought his lunch, but then felt strange dropping him off where we began the tour without tipping so we did it again. That was obviously our choice and we could have refused to buy the lunch, but in general it just left a bad taste in our mouths after a great tour. This is why gave this four stars rather than five.
Written December 16, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Cashewfeni
McLean, VA72 contributions
Aug 2016 • Family
Our guide was awesome...friendly, enthusiastic, chatty, polite. But I did not feel that this excursion was worth the amount of money I paid. We saw the male and female Quetzals (that are apparently a big deal because they are very rare) but not much else. Even the Quetzals were located because some other guides alerted us to their presence. The forest - Curri Cancha - did not appear to have anything significantly special. The guide walked the same hiking path as everyone else. He was a very good hiking companion - but far too expensive for what he did. This was the most expensive excursion for us - more than the zip lines and La Paz waterfalls that we thoroughly enjoyed. Those need a lot more capital investment and operational expense - as compared to nearly nothing for a guide based business.
Before this trip, I stayed at the Observatory in Arenal. There, on a FREE guided hike, we saw monkeys, several toucans, frogs, wild turkeys, and a few other animals whose names I cannot remember. Even during our drive across CR and during walks, we saw a lot of wild life.
Tripadvisor reviews have helped me make a lot of good decisions. This excursion will not be an example for that.
Before this trip, I stayed at the Observatory in Arenal. There, on a FREE guided hike, we saw monkeys, several toucans, frogs, wild turkeys, and a few other animals whose names I cannot remember. Even during our drive across CR and during walks, we saw a lot of wild life.
Tripadvisor reviews have helped me make a lot of good decisions. This excursion will not be an example for that.
Written August 27, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Kalambaka
Cobourg, Canada59 contributions
Jan 2016 • Couples
After a couple of weeks at various rain- and cloud-forest lodges in Costa Rica, we had come to learn the value of having a guide to locate and identify birds, animals, trees and plants and generally add value to our experience. This paid-off in spades when we stayed in Monteverde. With only two-days advance notice we were able to engage "Andy" from Forest Alive to spend a morning with two of us. We left the choice of locations to Andy based on his knowledge and news from the 'underground network that the local guides use to share information". He picked us up at our hotel with a car and driver, took us to one spot in Monteverde that acts as a natural funnel for birds moving between rain forest areas where we were enchanted by a wide variety of birds including motmots, yellow-throated euphonious,a white-eared ground sparrow, a white-throated magpie jay etc. etc.. Then on to nearby Curi Cancha park for a walk through the forest and a hunt for the elusive Resplendent Quetzal. Andy's knowledge and our patience were rewarded with the sighting of not one but three Quetzals - a definite highlight of the trip. Andy was very knowledgeable and generous with his time (our 4 hour trip took closer to 6 hours as we waited for the Quetzals to appear). Andy also gave us valuable tips on how to get close to birds and other wildlife without scaring them away. We paid US$190 for the experience and feel we got great value.
Written February 13, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
I am trying to contact Forest Alive to make reservations using their email link in TripAdvisor but am having some difficulty reaching them. My emails may be going into junk mail? Does anyone have a different email or contact method?
Written January 18, 2020
The address doesn’t show 🙄. But it is exactly the same you used! it takes them a couple of days or even weeks to answer. Be patient ...;-)
Written January 18, 2020
We have the best naturalist guides in our team that work with us exclusively! We have very experienced naturalists and biologists with years of working in the field. Our tours are only private where we focus on your particular interests and we work the whole area and reserves for multiple reserve visits, specialty tours like photography, birdwatching, natural history, canopy ecology and much more...Ours is not a tour but an inmersion of interpretation of the Forest to come Alive!
Written February 25, 2017
The guys are so knowledgeable and honest that I would ask them. Time might depend upon month and weather, so we tourists can't answer you properly.
Written September 13, 2016
We meet in the Monteverde Outdoor Center in town or will be picked up in your hotel if transportation is arranged through us.
Written June 12, 2018
RPWPhotography
Carlsbad, California
Google does not bring up the website, how to we book tours online? What are the costs? Thank you!
Written August 19, 2015
Hi Mainemal,
I am planning a solo traveler December trip to Costa Rica. If you don't mind answering some questions, I would appreciate some information. Was December a good month to view nature in CR? Where did you stay in Monteverde and other locations in Costa Rica? Are there any other tours in Costa Rica that you would recommend ( for horse riding, zip lining, etc.)? And what was the cost of each tour?
Thanks,
David
Written July 5, 2015
Hi stillwaterfu,
I am planning a solo traveler December trip to Costa Rica. If you don't mind answering some questions, I would appreciate some information. Was December a good month to view nature in CR? Where did you stay in Monteverde and other locations in Costa Rica? Are there any other tours in Costa Rica that you would recommend (horse riding, zip lining, etc.)? And what was the cost of each tour?
Thanks,
David
Written July 5, 2015
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*Likely to sell out: Based on Viator’s booking data and information from the provider from the past 30 days, it seems likely this experience will sell out through Viator, a Tripadvisor company.