Manuel Antonio National Park tickets, hours and guides

Is Manuel Antonio closed on Monday?

The short answer is no, and it has been no since April 2021.

Monday is a park day. At 7am the gate staff start scanning codes off phone screens, and the trail toward the beaches is quiet enough to hear a capuchin shift in the branches overhead. The one day Manuel Antonio keeps for itself is Tuesday, closed for maintenance. ²

The change is five years old and search results still get it wrong. On 1 April 2021 Costa Rica's tourism institute announced that the park would open every Monday and close on Tuesday instead. ¹ Any page that still warns you off a Monday was written before that.

Holidays follow the same logic. Christmas Day, Easter week, a national holiday in the middle of your trip: the gate opens, 7am to 4pm. The exception is a holiday that lands on a Tuesday, which closes with the park. ²

How do you buy SINAC tickets online?

One portal, one account, one timed slot, no counter at the gate.

One website sells every ticket: serviciosenlinea.sinac.go.cr. SINAC runs Costa Rica's protected areas and keeps the whole transaction online. Registration comes first, and the portal emails a password to the address you give it. Manuel Antonio appears by name in the park list. ⁵

1. 01

   Register before the day you want to go

   The portal creates an account and emails the password back to you. Get that out of the way at home, on a laptop, with time to spare. ⁵

2. 02

   Pick the park and the date

   The calendar shows which dates still have room. That calendar is the most current answer anyone has to how busy your date will be. ⁵

3. 03

   Choose a time band, and choose an early one

   SINAC sells entry in time bands to spread arrivals through the day, and its own FAQ says exactly that. Take the earliest band you can realistically reach. ⁵

4. 04

   Pay and save the ticket offline

   A non-resident adult pays $18.08 with tax. Screenshot the code; phone signal at a forest gate is a lottery, and a screenshot costs nothing. ⁴

5. 05

   Arrive inside your band

   SINAC tells visitors running late to email the park's own address. Its own FAQ says it does not refund an entry the visitor did not use. ⁵

What does a Manuel Antonio ticket cost in 2026?

An adult pays $18.08 and a child aged 2 to 12 pays $5.65. The legal base price sits in executive decree 38295-MINAE, in its current in-force version: $16 for a non-resident, CRC 1,600 for a resident. ³ Costa Rica's 13% value-added tax turns that $16 into the $18.08 printed on the ticket. ⁴

The decree writes the fee in dollars and converts it at the Banco Central de Costa Rica's sale rate on the day of purchase, so the colón amount drifts with the rate. ³ On 25 September 2026 that sale rate stood at CRC 454.15 to the dollar. ⁸

Is a Manuel Antonio guide worth it?

Optional at this gate, and the difference between a walk and a wildlife morning.

A guide is optional at Manuel Antonio and close to essential if you came for animals. Manuel Antonio does not require a guide to enter, and most visitors walk straight past the wildlife on their own. ^{9, 4, 2}

What the money buys is a trained eye and a spotting scope. A naturalist guide picks out the camouflaged animal you just walked under, sets the telescope on it, explains what you are looking at, and handles the ticket and rules at the gate. ⁹

Ask to see the carnet before you pay anyone at the entrance. It is the badge Costa Rica's tourism institute issues to a guide, with a photo and an ID number on it. ²

What does a day at the gate actually cost?

Two adults, a rental car, a guide hired at the entrance and a locker, priced line by line.

Two adults, driving in, guide hired at the entrance: about $96.16 for the day. Entry accounts for $36.16 of that, the guide for $50, and the guide alone is 52% of the bill. ^{4, 2}

Entry is the small number here. At $36.16 for two, the ticket is about 38% of a self-driven day with a gate-hired guide and 21% of the same day on a booked tour. The two-week trip cost page prices the rest of the country the same way, line by line.

What can you bring into the park?

Water, sunscreen, a towel and a camera go in with you. The rules keep out six things. Food is the messy one, and it deserves its own line below. ^{2, 9}

• Alcohol, cigarettes, firearms, drugs, drones and speakers stay outside. Pets and hunting gear stay out too. ^{2, 9}
• Food is unsettled. The current rule keeps outside food at the gate. A March 2023 news report described a temporary SINAC exception for packaged food in reusable containers up to 600 millilitres, tied to a change of food operator inside the park, and no later source confirms or ends it. Eat first. ^{2, 7}
• A locker at the entrance costs about $6 for the day, 7am to 4pm, which beats carrying beach gear along the forest trails. ²
• The park cafe is the only food inside the fence. Build the day around a proper breakfast in Quepos or Manuel Antonio village. ⁴

Where do you park, and how do you get there?

The park runs no parking lot of its own. Route 618 carries signs that suggest otherwise. Both named lots by the entrance, Manuel Antonio National Park Official Parking and Chalo Parking, are private businesses. ^{4, 2}

The 14-day Costa Rica itinerary shows where this park sits in a two-week loop, and the Costa Rica guides hub collects the rest of the country.

How should you time the day?

Take the earliest band you can reach and the park pays you twice: cooler air on the trails, and animals moving before the middle of the day. SINAC's time bands exist to spread arrivals, which is why the 7am slots go first. ⁵

1. 01

   7am, at the gate

   Code on the phone, bag light, breakfast already eaten. The gate opens at 7am and that first hour is the calmest one you'll get. ²

2. 02

   Hire or meet the guide

   Independent guides work the entrance in the morning. A booked operator tour meets by arrangement; Earth Trekkers names Chalo Parking as the meeting point for its own. ^{4, 2}

3. 03

   Trails first, beach second

   Wildlife is easier to find early, and the beach gets better once the guiding is over. Two hours with a guide still leaves most of the day yours. ²

4. 04

   3pm, off the sand

   Rangers begin clearing the beaches at 3pm. Pack up before they reach your towel. ²

5. 05

   4pm, out of the park

   Everyone leaves by 4pm. Collect the locker, refill the water bottle, and walk out with time in hand. ²

Season sets the rest of it. December to April is the dry stretch, with the most reliable wildlife sightings and the biggest crowds. May and November are the quieter shoulder months. June to October is green season, with heavier afternoon rain and September and October the wettest of all. ⁴ A morning slot earns its keep most in that green half of the year. Pack for it with the one-bag tropics packing list.