Manuel Antonio tour packages start at $30 per person for the Classic Group departure and go up to $100 for the VIP Private package. There are four real packages, not a menu of dozens: Classic Group $30, Premium $65 with the park ticket and hotel pick-up included, Classic Private $69 and VIP Private $100. This page compares the four side by side so you can pick one and lock a December 2026 or January 2027 date in the same sitting.
Pick by how much privacy you want and whether you want the park ticket handled for you. The Classic Group package at $30 is the lowest-cost guided way into Manuel Antonio National Park. The Premium package at $65 bundles the park entrance and hotel pick-up so nothing is left to buy on the day. The Classic Private package at $69 gives you a guide who works only for your party. The VIP Private package at $100 is the version with the most flexibility over pace and timing. All four walk the same national park with the same certified guides — what changes is the group you walk with and what is already paid for.
| Package | Price | Park ticket | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classic Group | $30 | Paid separately ($18.08) | Budget travellers, solo, backpackers |
| Premium | $65 | Included | Anyone who wants one price with nothing left to sort out |
| Classic Private | $69 | Paid separately ($18.08) | Families, couples, anyone who wants their own guide |
| VIP Private | $100 | Paid separately ($18.08) | Photographers, slow walkers, special occasions |
The $30 Classic Group package includes a certified naturalist guide and the spotting scope for the length of the walk inside Manuel Antonio National Park. The park entrance fee is not inside that $30 — it is $18.08 per adult, paid to SINAC, so the real total for the cheapest guided option is $48.08. The $30 price is a decision we have closed and it does not go up for December or January, which is not something every operator in Quepos can say about high season. If you are counting every dollar on a Costa Rica trip, this is the package that gets you a guide instead of walking the trails blind.
Yes — the Premium package at $65 includes the park entrance, which is the single thing most travellers get caught out by. Our own listing for that departure is titled Manuel Antonio Tour with Park Entrance Included – Hotel Pickup $65, and the hotel pick-up is in it too. Do the arithmetic against the group option: $30 plus the $18.08 entrance is $48.08 without any transport, against $65 with both the ticket and the pick-up handled. The Premium package is a shared departure, not a private one — you are still in a group. What you are buying is one price and nothing left to arrange on the morning of the tour.
The Classic Private package at $69 earns its price the moment your group stops wanting to walk at somebody else’s pace. In a shared group the guide sets the rhythm for everyone; on a private departure the guide is yours, so you stop where you want and stay as long as you want at each sighting. That is the difference that matters with small children, with anyone who walks slowly, or when one person in the party actually wants to learn the biology instead of just getting the photograph. Measured against the $65 Premium package it is only $4 more before the entrance fee — the gap people expect to be large is not.
The VIP Private package at $100 is the version built around your timing rather than ours. It is the one to take when the walk is the point of the day and not a slot inside it — serious wildlife photography, a birthday or an anniversary, or a family that wants the guide’s full attention without watching the clock. It is the most expensive package we sell and we will say plainly when it is not needed: if you want a guided walk with good spotting and nothing more, the $30 and $65 packages already do that job.
For a family with children under about ten, the Classic Private package at $69 is usually the right call. Children set their own pace and ask their questions when they think of them, and neither of those fits comfortably into a shared group walking a trail on a schedule. A private guide can drop to a child’s eye level at the leafcutter-ant column and let them look through the scope twice. If the budget will not stretch that far, the $30 Classic Group package still works well — ask us for a morning departure, when the walking is coolest and the animals are most active.
For six or more people, the private packages are the ones to ask us about, because a private departure is quoted for the party rather than sold as a separate tour per head. We are not going to publish a per-person figure for a group of eight on this page, because the honest answer is that it depends on the size of the party and the date. Message us on WhatsApp at +506 8514 1361 with your number of adults and children and your date, and we will send the total. What we can tell you with no guessing at all: every adult in the party owes SINAC $18.08 for the entrance unless you are on the Premium package.
The cheapest guided option is the Classic Group package: $30 for the guide plus $18.08 for the park ticket, which is $48.08 per adult in total. Nothing we sell goes below that and we are not going to pretend otherwise. You can enter the park without a guide for the $18.08 alone, and plenty of people do — but you will walk past most of the sloths, because they sleep fifteen metres up in the canopy and do not move. A guide carries a scope and knows which branches to check, and that is the entire reason the $30 package exists.
For a couple, the Classic Private at $69 and the VIP Private at $100 are the two to weigh up, and the deciding factor is timing rather than romance. A private guide means no strangers in your photographs and no waiting for the rest of a group at every stop. The VIP Private package adds the flexibility to shape the departure time around the rest of your day. If you are combining the park walk with something else that afternoon, tell us when you message and we will tell you which of the two actually fits your schedule.
On every package except Premium, yes. The park entrance is $18.08 per adult: $16 set by SINAC plus 13% Costa Rican sales tax, which is where the odd-looking cents come from. It is collected by the national park, not by us, and it is the same figure whichever operator you book with. The Premium package at $65 is the only one of the four with that ticket already inside the price, which is the main reason people move to it from the $30 option once they have done the arithmetic.
SINAC only opens park entrance tickets about two months ahead, and that sets the real booking window. In practice a late-December 2026 date becomes bookable at the park’s end around late October 2026, and a January 2027 date around November 2026. You can reserve the tour package with us before that window opens — we hold the guide and the departure, then secure the park ticket as soon as SINAC releases the date. That two-month window is the most common reason a December plan falls apart, so the earlier you send us the date, the less of a scramble it becomes.
Manuel Antonio National Park is closed every Tuesday, which takes nine dates out of the December 2026 and January 2027 season: December 1, December 8, December 15, December 22 and December 29, then January 5, January 12, January 19 and January 26. No package runs on those days, at any price. If your Costa Rica itinerary only leaves you a Tuesday in Manuel Antonio, message us before you book flights — we would rather move your park day than take a booking we cannot honour.
Send us the date, the number of adults and children, and which of the four packages you are leaning toward, and we will confirm the departure and the total. The fastest route is WhatsApp at +506 8514 1361; if you would rather see which December dates are still open first, they are listed on our December 2026 Manuel Antonio tour booking page. We are rated 4.9 out of 5 across 259 TripAdvisor reviews, and every package on this page is run by our own certified guides, not subcontracted out.
None of the four packages includes lunch, souvenirs or tips, and only the Premium package includes the park entrance and the hotel pick-up. Nothing in any package includes a guarantee that you will see a particular animal — we will not sell you that, because nobody can. What the guide brings is a scope and the experience to know which branches to check, which is why guided groups see far more than unguided walkers, but sloths, monkeys and toucans are wild animals and some mornings are quieter than others. Sunscreen, water and closed shoes are on you. If you have a mobility limitation or a dietary need, tell us when you message so we can say honestly whether the trail will work for you rather than find out on the day.
Yes, and the sensible way to do it is to put the national park walk in the morning and anything else in the afternoon, because the park is at its most active early and closes well before the end of the day. Travellers who book two activities with us usually pair a park package with one of our other Manuel Antonio tours rather than stacking two park entries, which would mean paying the $18.08 entrance twice for the same trails. Send us both dates in one WhatsApp message and we will sequence them around the park’s Tuesday closures instead of leaving you to work it out against the calendar. The Manuel Antonio night tour is the easiest pairing, since it runs after the park day ends and does not touch your morning slot.
Pick the package, send the date, and we will handle the rest. Message Wakoo Tours on WhatsApp: +506 8514 1361 — or open the December 2026 booking page to see which dates are still open.
Groups of eight or more are planned differently: see Manuel Antonio large group tours for the per-person price of each of the four options and the advance booking window.
If you would rather pick one activity than a package, see Manuel Antonio adventure tours for every option we run, the four park prices (, , and 0) and which adventures still operate on a closed-park Tuesday.
Before you pay a deposit, see how to choose a Manuel Antonio tour operator — shared versus private, licences and what is never included.
Planning the park day itself? Our guide to the Manuel Antonio Park information center covers tickets, the 7:00 a.m. opening, and every Tuesday the park is closed in December 2026 and January 2027.
Booking on short notice instead of a package? Start with a last minute Manuel Antonio tour.
Before you pay a deposit on any package, read the Manuel Antonio tour payment options guide: there is no deposit, the park entrance is paid separately to SINAC, and the December window is non-refundable.
Spanish-speaking travelers can read our guide on the mejor época para visitar Manuel Antonio, with month-by-month weather and the closed Tuesdays for December 2026 and January 2027.