Manuel Antonio National Park

This was our first stop on our Costa Rica adventure, after picking Granny up from the airport and spending one night in San Jose recovering from the travel.

I'd gone for Manuel Antonio as I'd read that it was packed full of wildlife and glorious beaches, but also very accessible and easy to hike around for kids (and Grannies in their 70s!).

Getting from San Jose to Manual Antonio

The bus from San Jose took around 3hours (after I'd finally managed to figure out which bus company/bus station in San Jose ran buses to Manuel Antonio - there's no 'central' bus service in Costa Rica, just a series of smaller companies that all operate different routes. I used the guide on the Visit Costa Rica website here to figure out which route/company we needed. The bus tickets cost £42.97 in total (this was for 5 of us now we have a Granny in tow!).

Where we stayed

We stayed on the road between Quepos and Manuel Antonio village, at Pura Natura Lodge. There's loads of accommodation options along this stretch as there is a regular bus service along the road between Quepos and Manuel Antonio so it's a good spot. 

The view from the lodge was spectacular - it was the Costa Rican panorama from my dreams, lush greenery and then the sparkling Pacific Ocean beyond. The lodge had a huge decked area with hammocks where you could hang out and watch the sunset (if you were quick - the sun goes down pretty sharpish in these parts!). 

We had an apartment with two rooms (each with a double and a set of bunk beds, so the boys did a bit of bed hopping during our stay) and a kitchen/lounge area, with a terrace outside looking out across THAT view.

Manuel Antonio National Park

The first full day we had, we were straight down to the national park for some wildlife spotting/beach hanging out. The bus went from a stop about a 5-min walk from the lodge and took about 20mins to get down to Manuel Antonio village, where the entrance to the national park is. We'd decided not to go for a guide for our first national park visit - we wanted to go at our own pace and just see what we could see. The tickets were a total of £60.95 for the five of us.

Within about 30seconds of entering the park we were surrounded by Capuchin monkeys darting around in the trees and running along the railings, including a couple of babies. Which was a pretty good start! The walk through Manuel Antonio is pretty easy - most of it is along raised wooden boardwalks and it's flat all the way to the beaches, with just a short climb on the loop back out of the park at the end (if you choose that route). 

On our way to the beaches we spotted land crabs, huge iguanas, armies of leaf-cutting ants and loads of birds (most of which I wouldn't be able to name!). 

The first beach was beautiful but if you cut through the jungle to the second stretch of beach the swimming is much safer, so we opted to do this. Unfortunately between us we'd managed to forget the bag that had our swimming gear in - at first the boys were so disappointed but then we all decided to go for a swim anyway as the water was just too enticing! 

Once the boys were in, that was it - they were in their happy place and we ended up staying there for hours. 

We swam in the sea, watched the hundreds of hermit crabs scuttling around on the beach, saw iguanas sunning themselves on the rocks and the boys found a dead puffer fish on the beach which they watched for AGES as it was gradually consumed by hundreds of tiny hermit crabs. 

Then a couple of the beach told us that they'd spotted a sloth - a sloth! - in one of the trees. This was our first sloth spotting in Costa Rica and I couldn't believe our luck that it was on our first outing. It was quite far up the tree so you couldn't make out it's face but we were thrilled!

After soaking up the sun and playing in the surf for hours, we started to make our way back. Steve was walking slightly ahead of us and suddenly came to stop and turned back to us, eyes wide and beckoning us forwards. To our complete amazement (and joy!) there was a sloth sitting at the base of a tree right in front of us. Griffin promptly announced that it was doing a poo, as that was the only reason that sloths came down from the trees, and they only did this every 8 days. He's definitely been paying attention during all those David Attenborough documentaries with Granny!

We were later told by a sloth guide that it was a 1 in a 1000 chance to see a sloth so close up on the ground - we were amazed at the time but I'm not sure it registered just how lucky we'd been until much later.

After watching a few more huge armies of leaf cutter ants, spotting howler monkeys and squirrel monkeys, plus an agouti (a giant rodent) we made our way home, very sweaty and tired but over the moon. 

One tip: we didn't realise that you couldn't take any food in to the national park so had to ditch the packed lunch that Steve had so diligently prepared that morning. You're also not allowed to take any single use plastic in to the park, so all water bottles have to be reusable ones (which they do sell at the stalls outside the park).

Manuel Antonio Village

On our second day in the area we took the bus down to Manuel Antonio village and had an afternoon at the beach. The village itself is pretty small, with a couple of blocks of restaurants, shops and hotels. 

The beach is not as stunning as the beaches in the national park but the boys had loads of fun in the water and there was a nice chilled vibe - a few vendors selling food and drink but nothing too pushy. 

We ate at a little place tucked down the path that heads to the national park entrance, which was lovely.

There's definitely a reason why Manuel Antonio is so high on the list for so many visitors to Costa Rica - it's really accessible yet there is so much wildlife to see and the beaches are just beautiful.