A Manuel Antonio monkey tour costs $30 per person in a shared group, $65 with the park entrance and hotel pick-up included, $69 for a Classic Private tour and $100 for a VIP Private tour. All four options walk the same park trails with the same ICT-certified naturalist guide and the same Swarovski ATX spotting scope. What changes is the group size, the pick-up and whether the SINAC entrance ticket is bundled.
Manuel Antonio is the one park in Costa Rica where the Central American squirrel monkey — the mono tití — still lives, and it is the single reason most visitors choose this park over any other. This page is the honest version of what a monkey tour here is: which species you can realistically see, at what hour, on which trail, and what nobody can promise you.
Four prices, and each one includes the guide and the scope:
The SINAC park entrance is $18.08 per adult ($16 plus 13% sales tax), paid to the national park, not to us. Children under 12 enter free.
Three species are seen regularly inside the park: the Central American squirrel monkey, the white-faced capuchin and the mantled howler. Costa Rica’s fourth monkey — Geoffroy’s spider monkey — is listed for the region, but it is not part of the regular sightings here. Independent visitor accounts of the park say the same thing in plainer words: “While Costa Rica’s fourth species, the spider monkey, is said to live in the park, we have never spotted one on our many visits.” If a spider monkey is what you came to Costa Rica for, Corcovado or Tortuguero is the honest answer, not Manuel Antonio.
We have a page for each of the three you can actually see: the squirrel monkey in Manuel Antonio, the white-faced capuchin monkey and the howler monkey and its dawn roar.
The grey-crowned Central American squirrel monkey survives only on a narrow strip of Costa Rica’s central and south Pacific coast, and Manuel Antonio is the most accessible place left to see it. It is not a Costa Rica-wide animal that happens to be here — it is endemic to this coastline, and its entire remaining range is that strip. That is why the troop crossing the canopy above the Sendero Perezoso boardwalk is the sighting people fly in for, and why it is the one we plan the morning around.
The first two hours after the park opens at 7:00 a.m. — that is when all three species feed and move. Howlers start before that: their roar carries at first light, which is why a private tour leaving the hotel at 6:15 a.m. hears them before anyone is on the trail. By 11:00 a.m. the troops are resting high in the shade, the light is flat and the trails are full. A tour that starts at 10:00 a.m. is not the same tour.
Sendero Perezoso, the boardwalk, is where the squirrel monkey troops cross most often. The four trails do different jobs: Sendero Perezoso for the squirrel monkeys and sloths; Punta Catedral for the howlers calling from the ridge and the ocean viewpoint; the Mirador for the long-range canopy scan with the scope; Playa Gemelas and the beach edges for the capuchins, which come down to ground level. A guided circuit walks them in the order the wildlife is using them that morning, not in the order the map prints them.
Capuchins and howlers are near-daily sightings all year; the squirrel monkey is the one that varies. In the dry season, December through April, the troops are more predictable along the boardwalk and the light is better for the scope. In the green season, May through November, the forest is denser and the sighting depends more on the guide hearing them first. We do not publish a percentage, because no guide can honestly give you one. What we can say is that in five hours on the trails with a guide who knows the current troop routes, the three species is the normal outcome and one species is the bad morning.
The beach capuchins are the easy sighting and the worst one. They are habituated, they raid bags, and they are there because visitors have fed them. A troop moving through the canopy on its own feeding route is the sighting worth the trip — and it is the one that needs a guide, because you will walk past it otherwise. If your photo goal is a monkey on a picnic table, you do not need us. If it is a wild troop behaving like a wild troop, you do.
Do not feed them, do not touch them, and keep food sealed inside your bag. Fed monkeys lose their foraging behaviour, crowd the beach, fight, and get sick from human food — the squirrel monkey especially, because its population is small enough that it matters. Park rules prohibit it and our guides enforce it. Stay on the trail, keep four metres of distance, and no flash photography.
It turns a dark shape 30 metres up into a squirrel monkey whose face you can see, and it puts that image on your phone. A monkey troop in the canopy is above the range where a phone camera or ordinary binoculars give you anything. The ATX resolves it, and the guide sets the phone to the eyepiece so you leave with the photograph instead of the memory of a branch moving. It is included in all four tour options — it is not an upsell.
Yes, and monkeys are the reason it works: they move, they make noise and children spot them first. The trails are flat to moderate and the boardwalk section is stroller-friendly. Children under 12 enter the park free. For families we recommend the Classic Private tour at $69: the pace follows the child, and when attention runs out after three hours the tour ends instead of pushing on.
The tour runs, and rain is often better for monkeys than sun. A morning shower in the green season pushes the troops lower in the canopy and quietens the trails. We carry rain gear and the scope is weather-sealed. The park closes the trails only for lightning or flooding; if SINAC closes the park on your date, you reschedule or you are refunded — you do not lose the money.
Manuel Antonio National Park is closed every Tuesday: December 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29 of 2026, and January 5, 12, 19 and 26 of 2027 — nine Tuesdays in total. No monkey tour runs inside the park on those dates. If your only free day is a Tuesday, the mangrove boat tour and the night walk both operate outside the park boundary and both see monkeys, the capuchin especially.
SINAC opens its online ticket window two months ahead, and the high-season mornings sell out. For a December 2026 or January 2027 date that means the ticket goes on sale roughly 60 days before, and the 7:00 a.m. slots are the first to go. Book the guide first — we hold the date — then buy the ticket the day the window opens, or take the $65 option and we do it for you.
Take the $30 shared tour if you are two adults who just want the sighting; take the $69 Classic Private if you have children, a camera or limited walking speed. The $65 option is the same shared group with the entrance ticket and hotel pick-up folded in — it is the least paperwork, not a private tour. The $100 VIP Private is for the earliest entry and the longest time standing at one troop.
Closed shoes, water, insect repellent, a hat and a rain layer. Leave the food in the hotel — sealed snacks attract the capuchins and park rules are strict about it. Binoculars are optional because the scope is better than anything you will carry. Cash for the ticket if you are on the $30 tour.
We will not promise you a monkey. No honest guide in Costa Rica can, and the ones who do are selling you a zoo. What we commit to is the right hour, the current troop routes, an ICT-certified naturalist guide and a scope that makes the sighting count. To book, write to us on WhatsApp at +506 8514 1361 or reserve a December or January date on our December booking page.
How much is a monkey tour in Manuel Antonio?
$30 per person for the shared group tour, $65 with the park entrance and hotel pick-up included, $69 for a Classic Private tour and $100 for a VIP Private tour. The SINAC entrance is $18.08 per adult when it is not bundled.
Will I definitely see monkeys?
No guide can promise a wild animal. Capuchins and howlers are near-daily sightings in the park and the squirrel monkey is the variable one; three species on a morning is the normal outcome with a guide, not the exceptional one.
What is the best time of day to see monkeys in Manuel Antonio?
The first two hours after the 7:00 a.m. opening. Howlers roar before dawn, and by 11:00 a.m. all three species are resting high in the shade.
How many monkey species are in Manuel Antonio National Park?
Three are seen regularly: the Central American squirrel monkey, the white-faced capuchin and the mantled howler. The spider monkey is listed for the region but is not part of regular sightings here.
Which trail has the most monkeys?
Sendero Perezoso, the boardwalk, for the squirrel monkey troops. Punta Catedral for howlers, the Mirador for canopy scanning with the scope, and the beach edges for capuchins.
Is the park entrance included in the monkey tour?
It is included in the $65 option. On the $30 shared tour you buy your own SINAC ticket at $18.08 per adult; children under 12 are free.
Is Manuel Antonio closed on Tuesdays?
Yes. In this season that is December 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29 of 2026, and January 5, 12, 19 and 26 of 2027. The mangrove boat tour and the night walk run on those days.
Can I feed the monkeys?
No. It is prohibited, it makes the animals sick and it is the reason the beach capuchins raid bags. Keep food sealed and stay four metres away.