Manuel Antonio: Guided Nature Walk & Wildlife Spotting with Beach Time

5.00

(137 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

“If you want to see a sloth, you have to look up — but not too fast,” our guide Diego grinned, already scanning the branches above us. He’d barely finished his sentence when someone gasped and pointed at a slow-moving bundle of fur. I was honestly surprised how calm it felt under the trees, even though there were other groups somewhere nearby — mostly you just heard the cicadas and Diego’s soft explanations about which monkey makes that weird barking sound (it’s the howler, apparently). The humidity stuck to my skin but I didn’t really mind; it kind of made everything smell greener, if that makes sense.

The whole walk through Manuel Antonio felt like a treasure hunt. Diego had this battered old telescope he set up every few minutes so we could spot birds or try to catch the two-toed sloth blinking in the sunlight. Once he let me peek at a toucan’s beak up close — I almost laughed out loud because it looked fake, like something from a cartoon. He told us stories about how locals grew up playing in these forests before there were so many visitors. A couple of white-faced monkeys kept their distance but watched us like they were judging our camera skills (they probably were).

After all that searching for wildlife, we ended up at this ridiculously pretty beach inside Manuel Antonio. The sand really is pale and soft — not just Instagram hype — and you could hear kids laughing somewhere down the shore. We only had about half an hour there with Diego before he offered to walk anyone back to the entrance, but some people decided to stay longer until closing. I still think about floating in that warm water after all those hours sweating in the forest — it felt like hitting pause on everything else for a bit.