Manuel Antonio National Park from San José

San Jose, Costa Rica

Great choice

10+ bookings last month.

12 to 13 hours (approx.)
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

Overview

Visit one of the top beaches in Costa Rica even if you have limited time with the convenience of a full-day tour from San Jose. Manuel Antonio National Park encompasses a rain forest that is home to monkeys, sloths, and other wildlife, and white-sand beaches on the Pacific Ocean. Get an early start to make the most of the day on a tour that includes two meals and transportation.

Spend the day at Manuel Antonio on a beach excursion from San Jose
Breakfast, lunch, and bottled water provided
Hear insightful commentary from the guide
Includes hotel pickup and drop-off

What's Included

All Fees and Taxes
National Park Entrance
Air-conditioned vehicle
Lunch

Lunch + soft drink included (not included in Economic Tour)
Guide during the tour
Breakfast

Typical breakfast

Tips

Meeting and Pickup

Meeting points

Select a meeting point

End point

This activity ends back at the meeting point.

Operating hours
.6:00 am

Itinerary

San Jose (Pass By)

Orotina

45 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Playa Manuel Antonio

5 hours • Admission Ticket Included

Manuel Antonio (Pass By)

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Not wheelchair accessible
Infants must sit on laps
Most travelers can participate

This option includes your entrance to the National Park. Please send or attach to your reservation at least 24 hours in advance the full names and passport numbers to add it to your ticket, otherwise we will not guarantee your entry.
If you were not able to secure a ticket, the booking will be cancelled and refunded..
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 20 travelers

Supplied by

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

Traveler Photos

Gallery picture 1 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 2 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 3 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 4 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 5 (from a traveler's review)

Featured review

Milad_R

We went on this tour with Arthuro. He is very funny and knowledgeable. We were laughing all the way to the destination and back to hotel. He has more than 35 years of experience in this business which is very valuable. He is fluent in both spanish and english. I hope we would get more chance with different tours guided by arthuro.

Reviews

4.2

based on 132 reviews

Total reviews and rating from Viator & Tripadvisor

We perform checks on reviews

The beach, national park...

Rashin_B, Jan 2026

The beach, national park and the ride, the road all was so great! I enjoyed it the entire time. I didn’t give 1 star because of the tour guide, she was a joke, she probably said 3 sentences in english and mostly ignored english speakers!

The tour got off to a...

Georsadd_G, Jul 2025

The tour got off to a slow start with a late guide. It’s a long drive from San José, and you only get about 3 hours in the park, which isn’t much. The place is stunning, though, I’d recommend staying overnight to explore more. Breakfast was great, lunch was just okay. I was hoping for a bird’s-eye view of the park, but you'd need more time to find the right spots for that.

Via Tour and Local Operator SCREWED up this trip.

David_F, Feb 2025

This was an exceptionally bad experience. The local tour company screwed up the pickup location and did not respond to calls or email communication. Via Tour did NOTING other than send a few Emails, their calls also went unanswered by the local Tour Operator. There was NO good resolution by either VIA TOUR or the local operator.

We went on this tour with...

Milad_R, Dec 2024

Dont choose this tour operator for Manuel Antonio!

Sevgi_K, Dec 2024

Our tour is cancelled due to an accident happened on our route. We only had breakfast and had 2.5 hours more to on our way and the tour operator suggested us two options either to go Tortuga island or get paid 50% of the tour. The options were not equitably selectable, ofc everyone selected to go Tortuga island and the tour operator charges us for the park fee of Manuel Antonio and the breakfast we had in our way. Accident was not our fault either but we had to pay the price and the tour operator had not done anything for customer satisfaction. In Tortuga island the experience was not good either, there were no free sunbeds even and the breakfast we had on our way to Manuel Antonio was bad. I dont recommend this tour at all.

Great!!

Geovana_B, Oct 2024

Love it. Just make more of your tours available for solo travelers NOT just some. Thanks. Very Exciting

every thing incredible especially the tour guide and driver .

Banwari_G, Sep 2024

every things incredible especially the tour guide she very knowledgeable and very hospitable and responsible,

Beach, sun , wildlife.

Lyda_V, Jun 2024

What a wonderful experience. The ride was long but broken down by breakfast and shopping. At Manuel Antonio it was amazing seeing animals in their environment. The beach was breath taking and we had a beautiful day!

Incredible Manual Antonio

Nitin_T, May 2024

My trip to Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica was incredible. The scenery and wildlife were breathtaking, and our guide was knowledgeable. However, I was disappointed when the guide wouldn't drop me off at my hotel just 1 km away from the scheduled stop.

They will not drop off off at your pick up point.

Maggie_Z, Mar 2024

The tour was ok, nice beach. Be mindful - They will not drop off off at your pick up point. I was dropped off at the airport and had to take an expensive red taxi to where my hotel was. It’s unfortunately.

Needs improvement

Tatiana_M, Mar 2024

Beautiful parc and beaches. The drive itself was very pretty but the driving was terrible, too fast and furious. The Guide was very nice but didn’t give us much information about the city/country/places, we had to ask for some in the van. In the parc (no food and no plastic bottles allowed) all the other guides had a small telescope, our Guide just had binoculars, this company should really invest in one. On the way to the beach we saw a few animals from a distance (1 monkey, 1 coati, 1 sloth). After the 3 hours of free time on the beach we walked our way back too fast to even spot anything (except deers), even if I said that people saw 2 sloths on this path in the morning. The place for breakfast was great but the one for lunch wasn’t. I had a good day overall but was also a bit disappointed at the same time for such an expensive tour.

Manuel Antonio

Jennifer_P, Jan 2024

Victor did an awesome job on our tour!!! The beach was beautiful and the monkeys were sneaky!!! Beautiful day and had a great time!!

Long trip, long hours in...

Patrycja_P, Jan 2024

Long trip, long hours in the car totally not worth it. 30 minutes walk around the park, rest of the time we were supposed to spend on the beach. More animals you can see just casually walking in the costa rica roads than there. Totally overrated

Manuel Park

AsmaKhan, Dec 2023

The tour was alright; we barely encountered any animals at the park. However, the food and the beach were enjoyable.

Great day on the beach....

Audrey_M, Dec 2023

Great day on the beach. Do make sure to bring recycling bottle of water as it is forbidden inside the park.

Don’t recommend

Jason_S, Nov 2023

This tour is oversold - you do not see jaguars, snakes or anything exotic as the tour guides would lead you to believe. You’ll see an iguana and have a brief, short, “manufactured” pseudo-walk through what is tantamount to a man made plastic rainforest . Don’t believe the hype.

Response from Host, Nov 2023

Hello! You must take into account that Costa Rica does not keep wild animals in cages in its national parks, so sighting them is totally natural, you may be lucky to see them or not. This is one of the most visited National Parks in Costa Rica, so of course there is human intervention to provide accessible paths to tourists. I am sorry that the national park did not meet your expectations.

Great Park, Unnecessarily Long Day

Jaclyn_K, Oct 2023

Manuel Antonio is a beautiful park, and I got to see some amazing animals and sights during this day tour. We spent 3.5 hours at the park and I felt like this was about perfect. Unfortunately, the other 10+ hours of this day tour was not enjoyable. The breakfast and lunch were average quality and nothing made them an authentic Costa Rican experience. We spent way too much time at rest stops and food stops. This tour needs to lower the price so that we don’t feel obligated to eat average food, lessen the amount time spent at rest/food stops, and/or add another attraction to break up the long driving day.

Great service

Glendy_F, Sep 2023

The guides were very helpful and guided us great. I really enjoyed this trip a lot. Learned about Costa Rica

Very disappointed

Teresita_B, Aug 2023

We were so excited to see the number one national park in Costa Rica but we ended up being very disappointed with this tour to say the least. We paid for a guided tour through the national park so that we can get the full experience of the nature and animals but our guide was not prepared. According to him, he was not informed that he was going to be our guide so he did failed to bring his telescope which made spotting animals extremely difficult. We relied on only what our eyes could see and where the crowd was and even then, we barely saw much. The food provided was okay, nothing fantastic. The drive is lengthy from San Jose so be prepared. The park itself is beautiful with amazing views but I’m sure the experience would have been a thousand times better had the tour guide been prepared.

Response from Host, Sep 2023

Hello, At Inside Tours we are committed to training young people for a bright future in tourism. Josué, who is our newest guide, must develop himself to provide excellent experiences as we are usually used to providing. We have spoken with Josué because he indicated that he was not prepared for the tour due to a telescope, however the tour is carried out in this telescope since it is a walk with information about trails and sighting of animals in sight then it is given to the client a beach time I am very sorry for the misunderstanding, we will try to continue training Josué so that our clients have a nice experience.

National park

Deborah_H, Jul 2023

I met many great people on the tour. We did the hike and enjoyed the beach afterwards. Breakfast, lunch and evening beverages are provided. Special shout out to Roberto . He is very knowledgeable about the area.

Amazing beach

Marianna_T, Jun 2023

The park is 3h drive from San Jose, BUT it is soooo worth it. We had a group of monkeys playing in front of us on the trail, so close, we saw iguanas and other animals. But the beach is beyond amazing. It is picture perfect. I am glad this company provides these tours, they are doing great job, especially when you travel solo. Recommend!

National Park is great, maybe book through a different operator

Eileen_W, Jun 2023

It's been mentioned here before, but I'll repeat it: it's absolutely unclear why you would pay $90 to get to the National Park and *not* enter the National Park. The economic option makes little sense. I booked it because I read that you should always buy tickets with the park directly. Of course I had no idea that you needed to book them weeks in advance - my bad, though a notice would have been nice. So I got a ticket on the day for $40 in cash with one of the 'vendors' in front of the park. I should also mention that all people who booked the economic option got contacted by the operator to buy a National Park ticket for $25 (less than the listed 'full' option). Apart from the confusion around the economic option, the tour itself was just okay. The pickup around San José took 2 hours, so you might need to add that to the 3 hours of travel. Our tour guide was verbose about the logistics, sometimes basic facts like meeting times were unclear. Once you are in the National Park, everything is magical of course. I recommend *not* going on the guided tour, or at least going on a guided tour offered by someone from the National Park.

Response from Host, Jun 2023

Hello, Sorry to hear your comment. But in the economic option, it says very clearly that IT DOES NOT INCLUDE ENTRANCE TO THE NATIONAL PARK. Many people who visit Manuel Antonio go to the public beach and there is also the option that if someone has purchased a ticket they can buy this package without the ticket. In addition to cheap to full, there is a difference of $45, which is the amount in which the resellers sell the tickets when they are sold out. When there are still tickets, we contact the customers of the economy as a courtesy in case they wish to buy the tickets, however when they are sold out we can no longer do so. We were trying to contact you to give you the option to buy it but we never received a response.

Day Well Spent

Danielle_T, Jun 2023

Be prepared to walk in the heat and the humidity through both the town and the national park. Van ride was comfortably air conditioned and the guide was friendly and informative, providing commentary in both Spanish and English. He had trouble understanding English spoken to him by any of us. We were served much bigger breakfast and lunch meals than I had expected. Quite a few choices. Too bad it takes quite a while to drive there and back (plus pick up and drop off the participants) because it makes for a long day. My tour was 13.5 hours, 5.5 hours of that in Manuel Antonio. The park has both a boardwalk and a well-maintained trail. It is best you buy the tour that includes the entrance to the park. If not, the guide did manage to buy tickets there in the town for 3 participants, but not at the park itself and their availability is not guaranteed (max numbers per day). I also don't know if they were being charged only face value for those tickets. Plus the rest of us were just standing in the hot street. If you don't go to the park, there is the town and a public beach.

Good but stressful

Shauna_H, Jun 2023

The tour was good however there is an option to book it without lunch or entry fees, we chose this option as we tought it was pretty steep to add on the lunch and entry fees for an extra €50. At no point did anyone tell us that you can't pay for entry to the national park on the day and you have to book online weeks in advance. We were lucky that we met someone with extra tickets if not we would have paid 85€ to be told when we arrived that we could only go to the beach and not the national park. This information should be stated somewhere or else you shouldn't sell the tour without the entry. Not very fair we would have driven 3.5hrs to go to a beach and wouldn't have seen the national park at all if it wasn't for the kind people we met.

Response from Host, Jun 2023

Hello, You selected the package without entry, Economy Package. It is specified that it does not include lunch and does not include entrance to the National Park. It is a visit to a public beach as your package says. The information is specified from before your reservation.

1st time to Costa Rica

Jose_B, May 2023

I want to start off with.. I love the fact that this tour picks you up at your hotel. That was one of the factors when picking tours. Next, the communication was great. Thank you! That is extremely important. The bus was nice. The driver and guide were awesome. The food was very good too. =) I know some people like to rent a car and try to navigate to these places. But why? They are long trips. It’s nice to sit back and relax while others do the driving for you. I actually had the Tortuga Island tour with this same company the very next day. I will copy and paste this comment on that tour as well. Enjoy Costa Rica. Pure Vida!!

Response from Host, Jun 2023

Thank you for your valuable comments. 💚 Pura vida! 🇨🇷

A great place!

Irene_T, Apr 2023

Great landscape, enjoyable trip, fantastic tour guide, nice fellow travelers! One of the best beaches I have ever seen!

Manuel Antonio

Monica_S, Apr 2023

Beautiful beach but didn't see any animals except for a Scorpio in the water fountain. If you tire easily or have a heat intolerance, be careful. You have to walk a lot and nothing has a/c.

Very good tour, guide,...

ANNA_T, Mar 2023

Very good tour, guide, and food. On time pick up with comfortable seat. I saw blue iguana and monkeys interacting. No plastics allowed inside the park. Nice view of the beach. Easy trails to explore nature.