A Monteverde Airbnb with a fireplace: MAUMA 1, reviewed

A wood fire at 1,400 meters

Monteverde's night air settles at 18C to 19C in every month of the year. The afternoon before it has run to 26C, sometimes 29C in April, and then the cloud comes back over the ridge. ¹ That hour is when the wood-burning fireplace in MAUMA 1's living room stops being decoration. ⁴ The town sits at roughly 1,400 meters, mean annual temperature 18C. ⁶

The villa is the whole building. Two bedrooms, a king bed in one and a queen in the other, two bathrooms, a compact kitchen, a desk, a daybed and a mountain view, capped at four guests. ⁴ Entry is a smart lock you work yourself, between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., with checkout before 11 a.m. ⁴

This review is built from the listing's own pages, the published ratings and the reserves' own sites, all read on 25 September 2026. Prices and house rules move. The box at the foot of the page says what to check on the day you book.

What do you get at MAUMA 1?

Every line below comes from the listing itself, read on 25 September 2026.

The host builds the place around staying put. MAUMA is described as "a retreat to connect with nature and enjoy the tranquility of the Monteverde cloud forest." ⁴ The practical version of that is a dedicated workspace, WiFi, free parking on the property, a TV, a patio and exterior security cameras. Forty-two amenities are listed in total. ⁴

The location, in the listing's own words, is a safe neighborhood with several rental houses, lit along the approach and easy to find. ⁴ No street address or coordinates are published, which is standard until a booking is confirmed. Santa Elena, the town that services Monteverde's reserves and most of its hotels, is a short drive downhill. ⁷

How good are the reviews, really?

4.96 out of 5, across 143 reviews. Of those, 96% sit at five stars, about 137 reviews, and the other 4% at four stars. Three stars and below: zero each. ⁴ Airbnb labels the home a guest favorite, its tag for listings ranked on ratings, reviews and reliability. ⁴

What guests write about is the view. Airbnb's own tally counts the view in 68 reviews and the location in 57, with accuracy of the listing in 17. ⁴ Reviewers also describe toucans and hummingbirds from the balcony, cold nights that want a layer, a short drive into town, and a kitchen without a microwave, dishwasher or laundry. ⁴

• The host. Mariliana holds Superhost status, three years of hosting, 452 reviews across her listings and a 4.97 average. Those totals span everything she rents, separate from this villa's own 143. ⁴
• The consistency. Four categories at a flat 5.0 is the part that matters on a remote booking: the place matches its photographs and the key works when you arrive. ⁴
• The gap. Ratings say nothing about price. The nightly rate and the cancellation policy both wait behind the date picker. ⁴

What does it cost to get to Monteverde?

Operators' own published fares and times, read on 25 September 2026. Monteverde has no airport of its own.

From San José it is 133 kilometers and about 3.5 to 4 hours, out on Route 27, along the Interamericana, then up Route 606 into Santa Elena. ⁷ Route 606 was paved in 2019, and a 4WD is the sensible choice from May to November. ⁷ If the flights are still open, MMT compares SJO and Liberia first.

From La Fortuna the drive got an hour and 40 minutes shorter this April. A 112-meter bridge over the Cano Negro river entered service on 24 April 2026, and Route 936 through El Castillo and Rio Chiquito now covers the ground in about 1 hour 50 minutes, against about 3.5 hours on the old road through Nuevo Arenal. ⁵ That is 100 minutes back, on a mountain road best driven in daylight.

Airbnb's own listing highlight reads "50-min drive to Arenal Volcano." ⁴ That figure is the platform's, it names no route, and it sits well under the drive times operators publish. Treat it as a rough marker beside the sourced numbers above. MMT's two-week Costa Rica itinerary maps the legs properly.

Which cloud forest reserve should you book?

Four reserves sit within a short drive of the villa, and two of them publish a price. Curi-Cancha charges $25 for adults and $15 for children aged 5 to 20 to walk its trails unguided, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. ¹⁰ Selvatura's standalone hanging-bridges ticket is $49 for adults plus 13% tax and fees, open 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., 365 days a year. ¹¹

The tax turns Selvatura's $49 into $55.37, which is $30.37 more than Curi-Cancha asks. ^{11, 10} The two buy different mornings. Bridges are a built walkway and an hour with a camera. Curi-Cancha is trails and time. Two adults doing both in one day come to $160.74 before food or fuel: $110.74 at Selvatura with tax, $50 at Curi-Cancha. ^{11, 10}

The Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve is the famous one, and the one with the numbers. Its own site counts more than 400 bird species, including the Resplendent Quetzal and the Three-wattled Bellbird, over 3,000 plants with 450-plus orchids, 800-plus epiphytes, and all six of Costa Rica's wildcat species. ²

The Preserve sits on the Continental Divide, rain off one flank running to the Pacific and off the other to the Caribbean, in an average band of 14C to 22C the site says shifts with two degrees of change. ² Its walks open 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a night walk at 6 p.m. ¹² Admission sells through a booking system that would not open, so ask on arrival.

Where to stay in Monteverde: is this the right base?

This villa suits four people who want forest at the door and a car in the drive. Monteverde asks every visitor the same question: quiet and a view up the hill, or walkable town at the bottom of it. MAUMA 1 answers it one way. MMT's where to stay in Monteverde sets Santa Elena town against the forest edge, with the rates each property publishes.

• Two couples, or a family of four. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a hard 4-guest cap make the split clean. A fifth person changes the plan entirely. ⁴
• A remote worker with real calls. The listing names a dedicated workspace and WiFi, and guests score accuracy 5.0. Ask the host for an upload speed measured at that desk, at a working hour. Permission to work from Costa Rica is a separate matter; MMT's Costa Rica digital nomad stay guide covers the income and insurance evidence. ⁴
• Anyone who plans to cook. The kitchen is described as compact and fully equipped, and reviewers mention the absence of a microwave, dishwasher and laundry. Shop in Santa Elena on the way up. ⁴
• Late arrivals, with a caveat. The smart lock is self-service, and the house rules put check-in between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. A 9 p.m. landing at SJO plus four hours of mountain road puts you outside that window. Message the host before you book that flight. ^{4, 7}

The forest-edge address is the whole argument, in both directions. You wake to the view 68 reviewers wrote about, and you drive for dinner. ⁴ For how MMT weighs the same trade in a city, see where to stay in San José, and for the country basics, the Costa Rica travel guide.

Three nights here, inside a two-week trip

Monteverde works as the middle of a loop. The drive in eats half a day from any direction, so a one-night stop spends most of itself on Route 606. Three nights buys two full reserve days and one slow one.

Fares and drive times for every leg are in the table above. ^{7, 5, 9} The full 14-day route, priced line by line, is MMT's two weeks in Costa Rica, priced.

What should you check before you book?

Five minutes of messages settles most of this, and two of these five questions decide whether the villa is right for your dates at all.

1. 01

   Enter your dates, then read the total

   The nightly rate appears only once check-in and checkout are set, and the cancellation policy loads on the same screen. Screenshot both. ⁴

2. 02

   Ask about the fire and the alarms

   On 25 September 2026 the amenity panel marked a carbon monoxide alarm and a smoke alarm as unavailable. Ask the three questions in the callout above, and get the answers in the message thread, not on a call. ⁴

3. 03

   Match the check-in window to your flight

   Smart-lock entry runs 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., and the drive from SJO is 3.5 to 4 hours. Work backwards from 7 p.m. and pick the flight that fits. ^{4, 7}

4. 04

   Book the reserves you actually care about

   Curi-Cancha sells entry at reservacuricancha.com; its older marketing domain is now a parked sales page. Selvatura's bridges ticket is separate from the zipline bundle, at a third of the price. ^{10, 11}

5. 05

   Check entry and money the week you fly

   US passport holders sit in Group I of Costa Rica's November 2025 entry directive: up to 180 calendar days, with a passport valid at least one more day. ¹³ The Banco Central's reference rate was 450.87 colones to buy a dollar and 454.15 to sell, so Curi-Cancha's $25 is about 11,354 colones. ¹⁴