La Reserva Bosque Nuboso Santa Elena

What a gift to be able to walk through trails in a cloud forest!
The trails are well maintained and easy to hike. Plan to take more time than you normally would because you will be stopping to take in the majestic beauty at every turn! Wear layers, it was colder than I expected for Costa Rica, but normal for this high elevation. This is a nature preserve and you are not permitted to bring in single use plastics. I am happy to report not seeing a single piece of litter on the trails. They have a cafe where you can get some food and drinks and a small gift shop. The cost to enter the reserve was minimal compared to the entrance fees for must things in Costa Rica and was money well spent.

Fabulous park with well maintained trails, stunning viewpoints and several hours of blissful hikes. The unique fauna and flora will blow your mind. There is nothing else like it around.

I recommend going on a dry and sunny day; I went on a gloomy day late afternoon and could not see as far as I wanted from the observatories.

There are so many things to do here. All of the activities are fun and engaging and unforgettable. I chose to focus on the butterfly 🦋 sanctuary/ garden and the hanging bridges in my photos. There is so much to see and learn while having fun at the same time. This is such a great place to take children. Pictures don’t even adequately capture the beauty of it all. The reserve is magnificent. What an adventure. I could post pictures for days on end but I settled on just a few hopefully to entice other travelers to visit.

Very well maintained trails. Some challenging sections, both up and down. Don't miss the observation tower. Several different loops that can be combined to give you a very short walk (~1 km) up to 10 km.
We did a combination that was about 6.4 km.

Beautiful, lush, peaceful old growth cloud forest. Don’t miss it! We loved hiking around in the mist and even saw monkeys,amazing flora, and lots of birds. Wonderful experience!

Gorgeous place to hike/walk for a few hours.

We did the large loop. They said it would take 3 hours, we completed in 2.

We practically had the entire place to ourselves. Passed maybe 6 people total in the 2 hours we were there.

Not much wildlife (as we were expecting) but very well maintained and stunning place to spend some time.

Our guided tour around the park was amazing. We had a very sweet and informative guide called Walter. He showed us a lot and explained everything very well - patiently when we didn’t understand and also in a very engaging manner. I would definitely recommend a guided tour with Walter! :) We saw a lot of fine animals, but even if you don’t end up seeing much, he makes a really interesting tour and tells about fauna and flora. It’s a good experience! :)

Instead of Monte Verde Cloud forest I visited Santa Elena Cloud forest which is a 200 mtrs from Salvetura Park. I did the Green, Yellow and the Blue trails in about 3 hours.

It was so meditative that I didn't feel like talking to anyone for an hour.

Observe and feel the stillness out side in the forest and inside. My mind got still and thoughtless. I really enjoyed being there and can visit again and spend much longer time.

We were very lucky because we had a pretty clear day and saw the entire Arenal volcano! We had a tour with Walter and he was terrific. We didn’t see too many animals: a porcupine up in a tree, a tarantula, and a few birds and insects. But Walter taught us so much about the forest, the area of Monteverde and about Costa Rica. He also taught us so much about the different plants in the forest and how they all interact with each other. Get Walter for your guide. We think the previous reviews of this cloud forest are accurate. Gorgeous place we are very glad we chose. We arrived about eleven o’clock on a Saturday and though the parking lot was full it didn’t seem crowded at all. It was a great day!

I recommend Santa Elena over the Monteverde cloud forest as it’s less touristy and has similar ecosystem. It has five trails varying in length from 45 minutes to 3 hours depending on your pace. There is also zip lining, sloth sanctuary, butterfly garden etc

We hiked all the trails, 7.2 miles in about 6 hours, they estimated about 8 hours. The red trail can be very muddy and also lower portion of blue trail. The upper blue, all the green and yellow were very well maintained with gravel and boardwalks (boards in mud) for easy traversing so anyone looking for an easy rainforest hike can enjoy this park.

Magical place, like walking through Fern Gully. Ethereal, like a place removed from time. Lots of trails, can make it as long or short as you are up for. Definitely get there early.

Breathtaking nature reserve. Even though we didn't see volcanoes from the metal platform that overviews the forest because it was cloudy, we got the most magical feeling - to feel and see the clouds passing around you and mist touching your skin.
Our 3 year old walked the trail almost all by himself. Much better experience than overcrowded and popular Monteverde reserve. Definitely worth a visit!!

We spent an entire morning here and it was honestly magical. The road to get there is absolutely ridiculous - largely unpaved and extremely bumpy, tons of potholes. We were honestly surprised at HOW bad the roads were in Monteverde. But once you arrive at Santa Elena reserve, it's incredible. The hiking trails were well paved and lots of easy sign markers to keep track of where you were. We didn't see any wildlife but tons of gorgeous views and it was just incredible walking through the landscape of the forest.

I highly recommend you take the Youth Challenge trail to the observation tower!! It's worth it! Kind of a scary climb up stairs to get to the top, but the panoramic views were stunning. The tower points out which volcanoes you can see from each direction and it was incredible. You could see the clouds moving through the tree canopies, too!

Absolutely stunning place! Lot's of walking trails, and super private. We felt like we had the whole cloud forest to ourselves! You have the option of getting a guide, but we went solo and loved the privacy. It was so cool to be literally in the clouds! We headed up to their observation point and had 360 views of the forest. We also spotted some hummingbirds!

Very cool natural reserve on the middle of the Monteverde cloud forest. It has several trails that variy on intensity, and all can be hiked. The trails are mostly made of cement, but there are some parts where there's only dirt trails so decent hiking shoes might be better. One of the main attractions is the tower, that stands tall over the forest and provides a very lovely panoramic view (if the climate conditions allow it).
There's a small soda(restaurant) inside the complex where hot drinks and food is available. They also take volunteering service from locals and foreigners.
Overall a very biodiverse place where lots of wild life flora and fauna can be encountered.

Amazing visit. Didn’t see many mammals, but birds are ubiquitous, and the surrounding environment of the Cloud Forest is simply fascinating. Plenty of trails in great state. The lookout platform is cool!

Beautiful cloud forest and almost nobody there! We enjoyed walking around a few of the trails and taking photos. It was totally different from the rest of the rainforest we visited in Costa Rica!

There are quite a few activities to do here. You have the butterfly garden, a sloth experience, and several trails to hike and explore. The cafe has some pretty yummy food as well. I will tell you just down the ramp from the bathrooms. In a very random area is where we saw the big tarantula. So keep your eyes open. The staff here are very friendly, if you speak English, they speak English very well. Very knowledgeable and happy to share everything, that's beautiful about their world with you.

We did the right walk after hiking during the day. This was an excellent way to experience the jungle and seeing the sunset from the elevated platform.

It wasn't the best lace to see wildlife though. We saw the majority of small insects and animals within 100 feet.of the parking lot where the jungle is not so dense. I still recommend the night tour for the experience of walking through a windy, misty, dark jungle at night.