The Magic of the Cloud Forest

Santa Elena Costa Rica is a town that has maintained intact its natural beauty, although one of the most important touristic activities has been taken place in Costa Rica. It's the nearest "Pueblo" to the famous reserves of Monteverde and Santa Elena, therefore the encounter center for all visitors who come to these lovely cloud forests.

There are many services you can find in Santa Elena: banks, supermarkets, public buses, restaurants, Internet, drugstores, and many more. In just a perimeter of 10km around downtown Santa Elena they are constituted a wide range of hotels and attractions that will make your visit comfortable and enjoyable.

Where to stay

Santa Elena is a diversified destination that can be visited for any type of tourist, no matter what the social range is. In this welcoming town you can find an affordable hostel, small cabins, houses, or even deluxe lodges, such as "El Establo Hotel".

Near the Reserve of Monteverde and in the downtown, there are many hotels categories, each hotel with different characteristics, but maintaining the concept of mountain hotel, aspect very representative of the Costa Rica cloud forest. A natural destination!

Refer to our Monteverde hotels section for a compressive list of accommodations.

Things to do

Santa Elena offers a great variety and diversity of activities at your proposal, not only for nature lovers, but for venturous people. In less of 15 minutes walking from town you can visit a beautiful orchid garden, a frog pond, butterfly gardens, serpentariums and art galleries. All these attractions are available at small entrance fees from $6 to $10 per person.

If you have your own vehicle, you can enjoy the two most important cloud forest reserves of our country Costa Rica, in just a 20 minutes journey; we are talking about the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve and Santa Elena Reserve. You can also visit the Cheese Factory and the famous Children's Eternal Rainforest.

During your stay in Santa Elena Monteverde you can book more than 20 guided activities operated by local companies. These companies are certified by the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT), which means they work under quality and security standards. Some of the tours you can experience are: hanging bridges, canopy, ATV tour, horseback riding, coffee tour and more.

For further information please check the Monteverde tours.

How to get

If you are planning to visit Monteverde Costa Rica, we recommend you to come in a 4X4 vehicle, the gravel roads are an adventure themselves, but it's worthwhile.

There is also public transportation service from different places of our country:
San Jose - Monteverde: 6:30am and 2:30pm
Monteverde - San Jose: 6:30am and 2:30pm
Puntarenas - Santa Elena: 7:50am, 1:50pm and 2:15pm
Santa Elena - Puntarenas: 4:30am, 6:00am and 3:00pm
Tilaran - Santa Elena: 1pm
Santa Elena - Tilaran: 7am

If you do not have you own car, one of the best and cheapest options to go from Arenal to Monteverde is by Jeep-Boat-Jeep. This transfer can be booked from La Fortuna or in Santa Elena and it consists on three stages: (1) transportation in a minivan from your hotel to the Lake Arenal dam, (2) boat transfer to the other side of the lake and finally (3) land transportation to your hotel in Monteverde.

Here you will find the map of Monteverde so that you can locate inside the area.