Monteverde Cloud Forest Hanging Bridges Tour From San Jose

Monteverde and TreeTopia are amazing, but you are better off staying in Monteverde. 5+ stars for our guide, Carolina, at the park - so interesting! Nice tour for about 1 1/2 hours. But the full day was another story - After being picked up, the tour operator messaged us that we would not have a guide, only a non-English speaking driver for the 4 hour trip each way. When we messaged our disappointment, the response was “ I understand; to be honest, there isn't much to see along the way, the main attractions are in Monteverde, and on the road, you'll mostly just be dealing with traffic.” - i was expecting commentary along the way about San Jose, culture and customs, and nature information as we entered the windy road up the mountains - which is very lovely and quite long. So this ended up being expensive transportation only on the tour operator’s side. Viator was not particularly helpful either; one customer service agent thanked me for the feedback as it will help future customers while offering us - the current customers - no resolution at the time.

Our Hanging Bridges tour was one of the highlights of our trip, and Johann made it an exceptional experience. From the moment we met him, Johann was warm, professional, and incredibly accommodating. He is fully bilingual and seamlessly switched between English and Spanish throughout the day. My travel companion is learning Spanish, so Johann was happy to speak Spanish with her while making sure to translate everything into English for me. He made us both feel included and comfortable. What really stood out was how attentive he was. He was constantly looking for opportunities to make the experience even better, stopping to point out wildlife we would have otherwise missed, including monkeys and other animals along the roadside. When he realized my travel companion was excited about rambutan, he even stopped to buy some for us to try. Those thoughtful touches made the tour feel personal instead of rushed. Johann also has an incredible knowledge of Costa Rica. No matter what we asked—about the rainforest, wildlife, plants, culture, or daily life—he always had an interesting and informative answer. You could tell he genuinely enjoys sharing his country with visitors. We visited during the rainy season, and I want to encourage anyone who might be hesitant because of the weather. Yes, it rained while we were walking the hanging bridges, but it wasn't cold at all. The rainforest was beautiful in the rain, and everything felt lush and alive. An added bonus was that we had the entire tour to ourselves, which made the experience even more special. We would absolutely recommend this tour, and we especially recommend requesting Johann if you have the chance. His professionalism, kindness, knowledge, and genuine care for his guests turned a great tour into an unforgettable one.

If you are being picked up in San Jose for this adventure, be ready for a long ride there and back to your hotel. This definitely a full day tour. We had a great time. We went to do the Hanging Bridges, but added on the Zip Lining Adventure as well. We had great driver and tour guide. He made the trip pleasurable with good conversations about Costa Rica. This tour is a great one if you like nature. The company that runs Treetopia is first rate and does everything to make you feel safe and secure.

Our tour started out a little shaky. I gave Yojhan Esquivel the wrong pick up location. He stuck with us a gave us an excellent day. Yojhan poined out things we missed in the cloud forest and was very patient. Since it was the off season and my wife and I were the only ones on the tour he was able to provide a lot of personal attention. Even though he has probablely done this a hundred times he made us feel as if it was his first. Thank you for an excellent day.

I rarely leave a feedback to a tour, but this one is highly recommended! Bryant and Steven were taking care of all of us (total 10x persons) during the trip. They made fragrant short stops for us during long distance drive. They also kept looking wild animal while they are driving and rewarded to see wild coati, sloths, scarlet macaws, and iguanas during the trip. We had good time with Bryant and Steven! Two thumbs up!

We enjoyed the trip very much. We were concerned that with my wife's new Knee it will be rather difficult walk, but she was able to manage it. It was November so it was raining but not very hard. Obviously, it is cloud forest. We were able to see different wildlife. There were a number of tour providers, but it seems all guides work with each other and help each other if one one sees a wildlife.

Enjoyed the trip! Wish there were more things in the package. Yancy (tour guide) & Jonathan (Van Driver) were very helpful. Transport van seem old, A/C was not that great

Johan was extremely kind and knowledgeable about Costa Rican wildlife and unique plant life. My son and I had a great time on the tour. I highly recommend Johan, he made our Costa Rica tour very enjoyable.

The cloud forest is beautiful. The tour guide, Johan, was excellent! He was very knowledgeable, was great at pointing out various plants & knew the history of the area. Breakfast and lunch were outstanding & delicious. Highly recommend this tour.

Beautiful place and walking across the six bridges was amazing. It was a great experience. I did enjoyed every second of it.

Yancy, our guide, was wonderful and the entire tour very well managed. The tour started on time, the entire day plan was well planned and executed

Beautiful place. Tour was from point A to B, hard roads to get there. We wish there was more sightseeing from in between to see more of the area.

It’s good amount of walking, stairs and incline. We saw some older people that couldn’t complete it. But it was worth it. Nice views.

Beautiful park and walk within and above the tree tops. Great flora. The mistiness gives it great atmosphere. About $155. More if you want to add on butterfly or sloth exhibits.

If you only have one tour to choose, skip this one. We were not told about pick up time at night, unlike all other tours. So we showed up at 5:30am as the ticket says and were not picked up until 6am as the ticket says operating hour 5:30am-6:30am. We sat in a mini van with 4 rows of seats, but the leg rooms are very compacted. Our guide and also driver took us to breakfast, and then Monteverde. Be prepared for traffic as it took us almost 4 hours to get there. The guide then took us to the forest walk via 8 suspension briges. Didn't see any animals. The plant talk can be boring. After the walk, we were driven to an Italian restaurant for a covered lunch which has pizza, sandwiches and the local plate options. The fresh fruit juice was nice. And it came with dessert. After that, we spent another 4 hours in the van driving back to San Jose. The traffic is so bad that by the time we reached the breakfast spot, the toilet was already closed. The compacted leg room almost crippled my legs when I was getting out of the car.

It was an amazing trip! I went with my friend and we had an amazing time. Luis was our guide and he was knowledgeable, social, and friendly. I would definitely come back 😊

Yojhan was our guide. He was patient, professional, and willing to go the extra mile. Our lunch was outstanding at an amazing restaurant. Fantastic day.

The best parts of our 14+ hours trip were the 8 hanging bridges and lunch at Bistro Bon Appetit. These 2 activities were less than 3 hours. Our tour guide from AyE Tours was awful. He did not share any points of interest, never engaged us in conversation; but he and the bus driver had a merry time! We drove very slowly because another group was supposed to meet and join us somewhere along the way. The hanging bridges were awesome but we learned that in order to be above the cloud forest, you need to get there before 8 a.m. or after 4 pm. Visiting the Monteverde Cloud Forest and Hanging Bridges is a great tour.....just make sure your guide is not from AyE Tours.

Loved the tour. Cloud forest was beautiful. My Grandson enjoyed the Zipline as it was much longer than our other ones! The guide was very good. And the Pizza lunch was delicious

Monteverde Cloud Forest is amazing. Seeing the lush forest underneath us was breathtaking. Luis was a fun guide and very knowledgeable. This was our second time with him, and we were very happy he was the one picking us up. He saw every little flower, animal, and recognized the sounds of birds. He was able to give little anecdotes that added dimension to the whole experience.

The company canceled at the very last min. They stated that it was due to weather conditions which didnt make any sense because we were able to use a different company to go to the same place on the same day. We were forced to pay much more out of pocket because of the short notice. Please listen to these reviews as I wish I had. Only after contacting viator did the company eventually respond and provide us a refund. Very unprofessional and would not recommend.

Although we were just the two going, the tour was not cancelled. Luis was very knowledgeable and guided us throughout the journey. Walking the 8 bridges was a fantastic experience. Both breakfast and lunch were excellent.

We went to the Monteverde cloud forest with Luis. We had a very, very great adventure, and Luis was awesome! He spotted and pointed out several animals, birds, insects, and rare plants. He answered our questions about the country on our ride there and back. He made the experience great. I highly recommend that you request him as your tour guide. Very nice stops for breakfast and especially lunch. 5 stars!

Luis did an absolutely amazing job. My girlfriend and I ended up getting a private tour and everything from pick-up to drop-off was perfect. Luis was great to communicate with, friendly and knowledgeable. The tour itself was unforgettable and the beauty of the rain forest and experience of walking through the canopies was unlike anything I’d experienced before. Highly recommend!

Tour was well organised and enjoyable. Good breakfast options (including vegetarian) and delicious lunch. Driver made extra stop for me to take drone photos.

Enjoyable 2+ mile / 3 km walk round a well-surfaced path and across 8 hanging bridges - the longest over 100m long - with excellent views of the forest canopy from close-up and over sections of it when we crossed a wide valley, and opportunities to spot monkeys and a range of birds. Very safe, but we somewhat regretted not having a local guide to help us understand what we were seeing. The one frustration in some ways was that it was dry and hot and there wasn’t a trace of the clouds that give the forest its name…. Worth visiting, but perhaps not quite as striking as we’d expected.

For us, this was a trip highlight. The ziplining was the most extensive in Costa Rica with one of the 13 lines reaching 1 km in length ! We were very lucky with the weather in that the skies were clear while we walked the hanging bridges (o.k, not really too exciting) then the highlight, the ziplining. The clouds rolled in on only the last 'zip', which was pretty cool to 'zip' into the clouds. The tarzan swing was fun near the end too. However, the communication with this tour company was VERY BAD. They cancelled our first trip at 12:30 AM ! Citing mechanical problems. Surely they knew whether they had a vehicle before then. They changed our date to a Saturday (2 days later) and it was o.k. for us because we were still in town, but I suspect (I don't know this for sure) that they rescheduled us for Saturday hoping to get others signed up. It turned out no one else booked in so we had a private tour. Yes, this was a really fun day, but be prepared for a very long drive. Essentially, this 'tour' was a vehicle and a driver for the day, taking us to the Selvatura Park in Monteverde. It included the hanging bridges walk, but we paid extra for the ziplining. If you have your own car and are prepared for a long drive in a single day, do it on your own, OR, i suggest you can drive to Monteverde, stay overnight in Monteverde and go to the park and do the ziplining on your own.

Eric was amazing! He went out of his way to make sure we had the best experience!! We had great food, amazing hike in the rainforest and ended the day with sunset on the beach. Thank you, Eric

The cloud forest is beautiful and if you know how to spot wildlife it would be amazing. The bridges are right in the canopy and the trails are easy to navigate in sneakers. Our tour guide did not really talk to us after introducing himself. He did not tell us anything about our day until we got to the stops. He did not accompany us on our walk in the cloud forest. We asked how to spot animals and he said, “lots of animals today, go look for them.” At the end of our walk he met us on the bridge to make a short video. He asked us what we thought of the forest. It was beautiful but we saw not one animal. There are zip-lines there and butterfly exhibits etc. our guide dissuaded us to pay for those. It seemed like a very nice place.

My friend booked this tour for the 2 of us, then it was cancelled at 9pm the night before the trip. We received a full refund, but due to the last minute cancelation we were not able to book a new trip.

Please do not book anything with this tour operator. They canceled this tour on us and never even informed us. We had to leave costa rica without experiencing Monteverde hanging bridges. We called the operator 20-30 times but they didn’t respond. Then when we called viator and told them after that they picked up our call. This is a highly unreliable tour operator

Trip canceled at the last minute due to vehicle mechanical issues. Refund issued. We couldn’t find any other tours for the day and it was a fiasco.

Our trip was canceled last minute. We were outside of our hostel and waiting for 20 minutes for a response from the WhatsApp phone number. Finally got in contact with the owner and they informed us the hose in the van had broken. Still waited for 30 minutes to see if the hose could be fixed. Unfortunately, it could not. We are promised a refund back. This was yesterday, so no refund yet, but it is the new year. I will update only if the refund is not given. Not sure how often of an occurrence this is, but it was difficult getting in contact with the WhatsApp number.

The tour was very well organized. Our driver ,Cesar ,was very good in negotiating the mountain roads. Luis was very attentive to the needs of the group. He was knowledgeable about the area and very personable.

Great breakfast and lunch was amaizing , the cloud forest in the jungle is wonderfull, our guide Luis know all about the forest. Pura Vidaaa

The cloud forest is absolutely magical and I highly recommend to anyone visiting Costa Rica. The amount of plant biodiversity is especially stunning. We saw monkeys and birds and a sloth in the wild (though at a distance). Even spotted a flying toucan on the drive over but that seems to have been uncommon. We came during the transition to the high season so we were able to get a private tour with just our group, which was nice. There is a decent bit of walking so keep that in mind if you’re traveling with seniors - especially if you’re seeing all 7-8 bridges. Recommend asking your guide to allot some time at the end to see the sloth sanctuary if you didn’t get to see any in the wild.

It rained really hard the day before so the roads were closed and I didn't get to go. Was supposed to pick me up at 6a and was notified of road closure at 620a. Very dissapointed as I flew in a day early to do this activity but safety first and mud slides can happen in the rainy season.

Customer service was very poor. We were given a 1 hour hotel pickup range from 5:30am and 6:30am, but tour never showed or attempted to contact us. The telephone number was not “in service”! The hotel front desk discovered WhatsApp worked. By 7:10am we found out the tour was cancelled. I called Viator help number and they confirmed the telephone number was not active. Viator registered our case via email. We did get out full refund. Other Viator tours have used WhatsApp and been in contact telling us exact pickup times or if any delays occur. Do not use AyE tours.

This trip was so much fun! Magaly and Luis were amazing guides. They provided us with so much information about the area we were going to see, which was breathtaking and peaceful, as well as the places we were passing through on the way. They also generously shared their knowledge and love of Costa Rica in general, the economy, the history, the culture, and things that we should not miss during our stay here. They made us feel like family instead of tourists, and I will 100% use their services on future trips.

Wonderful guides and experience! Loved this tour & would definitely recommend. Didn't get to see animals, but we did hear plenty howler monkeys, and the hanging bridges are absolutely worth the hike along. Guide and driver were really accommodating and knowledgeable.

This was a perfect last hike to wrap up my trip. My two guilds were super nice and had a since of humor. The view and trail were stunning.

Johan was a fantastic tour guide for our trip to Monteverde. His knowledge of the forest along with Costa Rican history was most enjoyable. Our stop for lunch was one of the best meals we had our entire ten day vacation.

This is not from San Jose! I booked it for that reason come to find out they weren’t picking me up from San Jose. They told me I had to meet them at the Fortuna, which is 3 hours away from San Jose. One top of that they aren’t giving me a refund because I had to cancel. They were the reason why I had to cancel.

Good climate, not too hot, plenty of shade. Wonderful tour guide, he was very thorough. The bridges scared me a bit at first, but then I got used to it. Got great pics. Good breakfast and lunch options. Highly recommend this tour.

After two days of getting up at 4am we still were not able to take the tour. On our scheduled day the tour was canceled do to a vehicle issue. When asked if it would be acceptable to reschedule for the following day I immediately said yes and asked for confirmation that the tour would infact proceed the following day. I recieved no confirmation after four attempts to contact AYE tours but decided to go to the pickup location just incase because we were really looking forward to this tour. After waiting for an hour without any contact from AYE tours we finally called it. Do yourself a huge favor and go to AYE tours and read the reviews. Save time,money and frustrations by booking with another company. I would have given AYE tours a zero star rating but this was not an option.

Cloud forest hanging bridges was a memorable experience. Guide was nice but didn't seem as knowledgeable and interactive as others guides we overheard. Also, this is a very long trip from San Jose and that should be considered when selecting this tour.

Lovely day with Luis as our guide. He was ready at my hotel nice and early before the arranged pick up time - the pick up time was confirmed within only a couple of hours of booking which was great. I had booked with a tourist I had met on another tour to meet the 2 min person booking, and he had accidentally gone to the wrong hotel with a similar name, Luis was great about it and we picked him up from there no problem and we headed up to Monteverde. It was just us two and the guide and it was comfortable heading up in a car, with a good hit buffet breakfast on the way. The walk through the hanging bridges was beautiful, Luis was great at pointing things out and answering questions, and we also saw a cute caoti! The hanging bridges and trail take about an hour/hour and a half if of average fitness, maybe 2 if you’re a little slower - absolutely stunning views, I’d really wanted to see in my tint in Costa Rica and well worth the view. Lunch is also included and really filling, didn’t need dinner later! And not rushed, about an hour for this. Luis also spotted some spider monkeys along the way and we saw those too! We arrived back to the hotels at 530 which was so nice as you don’t arrive back to the hotel late at night and tired, so was also ideal for my last day in Costa Rica and perfect in my schedule! When you consider that you get 2 good meals, 3 hour transport in each direction, a guide and entry it’s good value. A wonderful day, thanks so much Luis!

The cloud forest is beautiful and the trip from San Jose worth the 6(+) hours of driving. Our guide, Luis M, was fantastic. He was friendly and welcoming, and his unabashed childlike enthusiasm and love for his country was contagious! I was reluctant to book this tour given some of the other reviews, but we had no complaints. Thank you Luis and AyE for a great day!

We were the only people on our trip so it was a bonus . Johan was brilliant , he had so much knowledge about the plants and animals in the jungle and beyond . It’s a really long drive there and back for just over two hours in the jungle but Johan suggested other things we could do on the way back to make up the time , he was great and the trip was great .