The National Park area offers some of the best beaches on Costa Rica's Pacific coast for swimming and snorkeling. Within the area, there are many activities to enjoy; bird watching, hiking, kayaking, horseback riding, canopy rides, boat trips for fishing or to watch dolphins and much more…

Located besides the town of Quepos in the Central Pacific Zone. It is the only white sand beach on the Central Pacific coast, and very developed for tourism. Hot and humid. There is no other destination in Costa Rica that has received more international attention than Manuel Antonio.

Many first-time visitors to Costa Rica plan their vacation around seeing it and it's no surprise why. The views from the hills overlooking Manuel Antonio are spectacular, the beaches, particularly those inside the national park, are idyllic, and its jungles are filled with white-faced and squirrel monkeys, among other species of exotic wildlife. You will have to pay to see it, and you'll have to share it with more fellow travelers than in other parts of this coast. What was once a scattering of small hotels tucked into the forested hillside has become a long string of lodgings along the 5 km (3 1/4 miles) of road between Quepos and the national park.

Still, this remains one of the most beautiful locations in the entire country. Looking down on the blue Pacific from high on the hillsides of Manuel Antonio, it's almost impossible to hold back a gasp of delight. Offshore, rocky islands dot the vast expanse of blue, and in the foreground, the rich deep green of the rain forest sweeps down to the water.

Even though it is one of the most popular national parks in the country, Manuel Antonio is also one of the smallest, covering fewer than 1,700 acres.
The mountains surrounding the beaches quickly rise as you head inland from the water however, the park was created to preserve not only its beautiful beaches, but its forests, home to endangered squirrel monkeys, three-toed sloths, purple-and-orange crabs, and hundreds of other species of birds, mammals, and plants. Once this entire stretch of coast was a rain forest teeming with wildlife, but now, only this small rocky outcrop of forest remains as a reminder.