Manuel Antonio is a ridge of rainforest that runs down to the Pacific, and almost every villa on it is built to face west. That single fact explains the whole rental market here: you are paying for a sunset over the water, seen from your own pool, with howler monkeys working through the canopy below you at six in the morning.
The national park is the draw, 1,700 acres of protected forest holding sloths, three species of monkey, and beaches calm enough to swim. But the reason people book a villa rather than a hotel is that the good ones sit above the road in gated communities like La Reserva, ten minutes from the park gate and far enough up the hill to be quiet.
Almost all of ours come with a private pool, air conditioning, fast fiber, and a concierge who can arrange a chef, a driver, or a fishing day without you making a single call. Prices run from about $329 a night for a two bedroom to $1,371 for an eight bedroom estate that sleeps seventeen, with the biggest swings at Christmas and New Year.
Three hours from San José by road, or twenty five minutes by domestic flight into Quepos. Most of the hillside needs a car, and a few properties genuinely need four wheel drive in the green season, which we will tell you before you book rather than after you arrive.
22 properties we know personally. Each carries a reference code, so it is easy to compare two by name on a call.
Looking for real rainforest instead of the hillside? The Quepos and Savegre houses sit in the jungle between here and Dominical, including a five-bedroom glass house with its own infinity pool.
Manuel Antonio is small, and everything else runs from it. The national park and the mangroves are on your doorstep, Marina Pez Vela is fifteen minutes away for sportfishing, and the rafting rivers and waterfalls are an hour inland. Our tours from Manuel Antonio list every trip that picks up from this hillside.
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