Visiting Manuel Antonio National Park is an absolute must-do on your Costa Rica itinerary! It is the smallest national park in the country, but also the most visited- and for a good reason! This park is so diverse and beautiful. You’ll see plenty of wildlife and gorgeous white-sand beaches. An easy day trip from nearby Jacó, and an absolutely perfect way to experience real Costa Rica. Here are my top tips for visiting Manuel Antonio National Park!
Read More: 8 Things to Know Before Your Trip to Costa Rica
Book reservations ahead of time
Reservations for visiting Manuel Antonio National Park are required, and I’d recommend booking them as early as possible. These are made online, on the SINAC website (which is their National Parks page). First, you’ll need to create an account with SINAC, and then you’ll choose the date and time of entry. You will also need everyone in your party’s passport number to book a reservation. At time of writing, it was $16 USD per person to enter the park, plus a few extra dollars in fees. Once your reservation is confirmed, you’ll receive an email with a barcode and confirmation number. I recommend screenshotting this ahead of time so you have it when you get to the entrance. Connection can be spotty in these remote areas of Costa Rica!
Get there as early as possible
When making a reservation, I highly recommend booking the earliest timeslot available. When booking, you’ll receive a window of time for your arrival, for us it was 7:00 am – 7:40 am. We arrived right at the tail end of that timeslot and I wish we had arrived right at 7:00 am! Traffic and parking by that time were already difficult (more on that below) and there was a long line to get into the park. Plus, the heat and humidity here are real- getting in early will give you the coolest temperatures possible! By the time we left around 11:00 am, we were drenched in sweat and couldn’t imagine just starting our park day at that time!
Parking
Parking at Manuel Antonio National Park is a s***show, to say the least. There is no official parking for the park. Therefore, locals will open their private lots for day parking. The entrance to the park is located here, so I’d recommend putting this address into your GPS. Once you get close, park on a private lot on a side street. Try not to pull up to the gate if you can, because turning around can be crowded tricky. Learn from our mistakes!
We ended up turning down Beach Trail, located here, and parked at a lot on our left side about 50m down the road. It was only a few minute walk to the entrance, which made things easy. Parking in private lots should cost anywhere from ₡2,000 – ₡7,000 for the day. If you’re being asked to pay more, you’re likely being scammed. Try to negotiate or find another lot. We ended up paying ₡5,000 for the day (which honestly, we were just relieved to finally put the car in park and would have paid more if asked!).
Hiring a park guide
During my planning, I had heard over and over again that hiring a guide through the park was the best thing to do. I had also heard to be weary of hiring any guides prior to entering the park gates, as they aren’t certified by the Costa Rican Tourism Board. Once we got inside the gates and looked down the main path, we saw several groups stopped with their guides looking at wildlife. For that reason, we decided to forego a guide and do the park ourselves.
Whenever there is notable wildlife, you’ll see groups of people (both with and without guides) gathered around, so you just also stop and take a look. We joked and called it “leaching” off the guides. But hey, nature is open to all! We also appreciated being able to stop and go as we please, and only stop and observe animals that we were really interested in. For example, we skipped over a lot of groups that were discussing flora and fauna, but definitely stopped for the monkeys and sloths!
What not to bring
Visiting Manuel Antonio National Park does come with some pretty strict rules! Prior to entry, park rangers will inspect bags and confiscate any prohibited items. Aside from the more obvious items like alcohol, tobacco, weapons, etc., there are a few prohibited items that you cannot bring into the park. Absolutely no food of any kind. This includes packaged and loose food. I didn’t realize that I had a granola bar in the bottom of my backpack, but the park rangers found it and disposed of it. There is also absolutely no single-use plastic allowed, including water bottles. Be sure to pack your reusable bottle- there are filling stations located throughout the park! No drones, pets, hammocks, or coolers are allowed either. Pack light and be sure to review the website ahead of time to avoid losing your items at security!
It is HOT and HUMID
I am trying to think of a time in my life that I sweat more than visiting Manuel Antonio National Park. Honestly! We arrived at the park a little before 8:00 am, which we thought was early enough to beat the heat. Nope! The humidity and heat settles in quickly and it is rough.
The Sendero La Catarata trail (which leads out to a waterfall) was probably the worst, as you’re more inland in a dense rainforest with little breeze. About halfway there, we found out that the waterfall was actually dry (as it typically is if you visit in the dry season of December-April), so we turned around. Once you’re on the trails that lead down to the beaches, you’ll still experience the heat and humidity, but the breeze off the ocean will help significantly. Definitely bring a water bottle and hat, or even a cooling towel if you can!
You can make it a beach day
The beaches at Manuel Antonio National Park are gorgeous! We did a day trip here from Jacó where the beaches were more black sand with dark water. In Manuel Antonio, the sand is golden and the water is crystal clear. We saw many people who made a beach day out of it- and boy was I jealous! If we had another day, I would have loved to return here and plop my butt on that sand for hours. While there are public (free) beaches in the town of Manuel Antonio, visiting these beaches inside the national park ensures crowd control. It’ll never get too busy! There are plenty of restrooms and fresh water showers at the beaches to change in and out of suits when you get there. It’s a perfectly easy beach day!
Don’t forget the binoculars!
Binoculars were probably one of the best things we brought on our day visiting Manuel Antonio National Park! There were many times that wildlife like birds or sloths were high up in trees, and having binoculars were a great way to get to observe them more up close. All of the tour guides will have the stationary scopes that have a tripod, but we were just fine with the basic kind that hung around our necks.
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