Monteverde vs. San Gerardo: where to go for cloud forest in Costa Rica

"As the light came up, we went out. A male started singing and our guide became so infectiously excited that you’d think he’d never seen a quetzal! We got a really good look at him, his long tail feathers at their most resplendent. Then we got a REALLY good view of a female...

We walked between avocado trees to a spot exclusive to our lodge, finishing our morning watching two males and one female on the same tree just a few metres above our heads! It was a very, very special experience and, as you told us, this really was a case of knowing the best place to stay and having a truly brilliant guide who knows all the likely quetzal spots intimately."

Kate Humble, travel writer & broadcaster

Kate was staying in the tiny cul-de-sac of San Gerardo de Dota in the southern highlands. Following a spur off the Pan-American highway, you descend from a high pass into a tract of cloud forest that feels more like the Andes than the tropics. The cool temperatures and undulating terrain are ideal if you like to feel immersed in nature and appreciate its tranquillity.

Meanwhile in Monteverde...

If you've done a bit of research into Costa Rica, you will almost certainly have read about Monteverde. Some would have you believe it’s the only place in Costa Rica you can have the definitive cloud forest experience. It’s not. And nor is it even close to being the best. 

In Monteverde, conservation rules and land ownership dictate that only 3% of the reserve is accessible to tourists. Best estimates put that at a land mass of 315 ha. That's smaller than Central Park in New York. Or half the size of London Gatwick Airport. Now consider that Monteverde accommodates between 250,000 and 300,000 visitors a year.

Cloud forest is arguably the most beautiful of Costa Rica’s ecosystems. It’s somewhere your silence and patience are rewarded with sights of myriad bird species.

None of which exactly tallies with the joyous scream of someone hurtling down a zipline, or the throaty roar of a quad bike rumbling through the forest. These are just some of the activities on offer in Monteverde.

A quick Google shows that Tripadvisor currently has 118,000 reviews for hotels in Monteverde. San Gerardo has 6,000.

That perfectly illustrates why Monteverde village has become a place of wall-to-wall restaurants, tour agencies and cheap souvenir shops. It has lost all sense of identity. There are a couple of very nice places to stay, though the name badges, perfect English, valet parking and bug removal service can make it all feel a little too polished and efficient.

Tour guides are knowledgeable, enthusiastic and extremely well organised; they try their best to keep their groups apart and to avoid sharing sightings with lots of other people.

But the experience is a long way from feeling 'wild'. It's just far too busy. There would be absolutely no point booking a private tour, as you cannot escape being with other people.

We sent Kate Humble there for a compare and contrast experiment, and she quickly drew the same conclusion:

"It is not a place for anyone seeking to get an authentic, under-the-skin experience of Costa Rica, nor is it a place to be able to quietly enjoy the natural world at your own pace in glorious solitude.  But for those who want an effortless, don’t-have-to-think, experience that allows them to say “I’ve been to a cloud forest, seen a sloth and the burgers were great,’ it works."

Compared to the crowded trails of Monteverde, San Gerardo is a peaceful haven, with quiet paths meandering beside clear mountain streams.

This area of cloud forest lies just north of  Cerro de la Muerte, the highest pass in Costa Rica. From here, the descent into the valley is jaw-dropping.

The valley itself is basically a 10km cul-de-sac, lightly scattered with lodges, hotels and homes. The best place to be is down at the bottom, where the bird action happens.

There's no need for plastic feeders here. You can step out of your cabin and see half a dozen hummingbirds furiously feeding on flowering shrubs which line the paths through the lodge's garden.

Aside from the birds, San Gerardo is a place to just 'be'. There are some short trails around your lodge, or you can walk along the crystal-clear Savegre River for a stretch. 

But really it's an invitation to slow things right down, kick back in a rocking chair on your terrace and just soak in your surrounds. At night, they get the woodfires roaring and bring hot water bottles to you

But if there's an experience that sums up the difference between San Gerardo and Monteverde, it is those early morning quetzal tours.

The Resplendent quetzal is the poster bird of Costa Rica’s bird life, a stunning bird of emerald green and crimson, with tails up to a metre long. Its beauty had rendered it to the status of myth and legend in Pre-Colombian Central America, with the feathers being more treasured than gold.

Some estimates say that you have a 90% chance of seeing a quetzal in San Gerardo, compared to maybe 40% in Monteverde.

But when there are Resplendent quetzals building nests in your lodge's garden, as they regularly do between March and May each year, then your chances go up to nearly 100% in San Gerardo. There are more here than anywhere in Costa Rica and often they come to you. All you have to do is drag yourself out of your toasty bed at 6am!