Thanks for the advice on what to do. What I meant by variety is: does Monteverde provide activities and sights that are substantially different from Arenal and the Corcovado area.

http://www.desafiocostarica.com

In the time you have just do Arenal

substantially different from Osa.

How much time do you have in Arenal? Monteverde doesn't have so much different activities as it has different atmospherics. The towns themselves are less resortish than La Fortuna, which would be at home on the Jersey shore. The restaurants are great, and there are any number of interesting places to stay. And it's in the mountains and is less accessible.

The ziplining is supposed to be better (didn't zipline in either place) and the cloud forest is an entirely different ecosystem. In terms of wildlife, you can see quetzals in Monteverd but not in Arenal. It may sound like a small deal, but when we went this past February, we saw 8 quetzals, and it was the highlight of a ten day trip.

We have done both. Would definitely do Arenal again - fantastic rain forest, lovely town, great hanging bridges, amazing volcano and views, easy to get to and plenty of choice of hotels. Monteverde I would not do again. It was a nightmare drive to get to and to get down from, the cloudforest was a let down, the town was dingy with nothing to do, our hotel was bland and good food was difficult to find but Selvatura was amazing. I would only recommend Monteverde if you are paticularly interested in the eco systems of the cloud forest. If not, it's a long way and difficult journey.

We have spent 4 days in Arenal and 2 days in Monteverde this August and we found nature to be more interresting in MV. The road is bad but the views are fantastic. For nature nad wildlife always hire a guide. We hired Andreas Alvarado and he was great.

If you are wondering whether Monteverde will give you something else then Arenal: it sure will! We did both last April, and I would definitely do Monteverde again and not Arenal. That is because we are more into the nature and eco-system, as mentioned before, and not so much in ziplines and stuff. If you like man-made adventure (canyoning, ziplines etc), you should stick to Arenal. If you prefer nature and like different views and impressions, choose Monteverde.

Monteverde is not the easiest place to travel to, we were told that's done on purpose to only have the people coming that are really interested. The views are stunning and getting there is an adventure on its own.

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