Night hiking is an awesome experience just being in the dark in the woods and not knowing what you’ll see next. At Santamaria’s many animals have been sighted including sloths, jungle cats, sleeping birds, pit vipers, tarantulas and many interesting insects.
In this two hour guided tour you will be walking through a privately owned preserve that consists of 25 acres of primary and secondary forest. In addition there are crops of bananas, sugar cane and coffee which provide an easy food source for the woodland wildlife.
Located at an elevation of over 4000 feet, this preserve started as a project to conserve the forest environment as well as provide education to foster a sense of connection to nature. Because most forest animals are more active at night, the night hike is an excellent way to observe nocturnal creatures going about business as usual.
Your experienced certified naturalist guide knows the terrain and where to look for various species. Using flashlights and binoculars you’re most likely to see insects, such as the praying mantis, amphibious frogs, a colorful tarantula, sleeping birds, snakes, and mammals, such as a sloth or kinkajou.
Every night hike is different so there are no guarantees you will see a particular thing but there are lots of things you will see. Other groups will be scouting as well, and with the use of walkie talkies if something of particular interest is found, your guide will be alerted so that you will be able to see it too. There have been occasional nocturnal sightings of elusive jungle cats.
Viewing animal life in their natural habitat is an amazing experience especially when they come out at night to forage for food. The forest feels so alive! With your knowledgeable guide you will enjoy finding the surprises that await your unique hiking experience.
Tour includes round trip transportation from the Monteverde area, certified guide with binoculars and flashlights.
The Santamarias Night Walk is available from Monteverde
All Ages
Data unavailable
12/21/2021
The guide seemed distracted
01/03/2020
Great guide Luis. Very knowledgeable and easy to understand.
08/09/2019
This was a great way to spend the evening. We saw some great rare animals like a pit viper and a kinkajou as well as sloth, scorpions and sleeping birds.
06/03/2019
The night walk was neat, but probably the least favorite of the tours and experiences that we did. The guide was fun and friendly, but it really wasn't what we were expecting. It was really just walking around in the forest in the dark with flashlights looking around for stuff. What we saw mostly was bugs and scorpions, but the experience was neat. Not sure I would do it again though.
04/15/2019
Wasn't expecting much but everyone in our group really enjoyed this night hike. The guides were extremely good and knowledgeable.
03/25/2019
I loved that we saw sleeping birds (motmot and black and white warbler), scorpions in black light, headlight click beetles, palm pit viper. Once I couldn't find the guide and group (got a little lost).
12/28/2018
we didnt see as many wild animals/reptiles/birds as we expected from the description.
12/25/2018
The tour was over subscribed. There were way too many groups of around 10 people plus a guide roaming around a very small space. There was no feeling of discovery or peace. The animals were being harassed. I would not recommend this trip to anyone.
12/13/2017
tougher hike than we thought
03/27/2017
We did see a lot of night life on this tour, and our guide was knowledgeable. However, again, we were bumping up against other tour groups, as well as being bumped from behind. This detracted from the wilderness experience.
03/05/2017
I think there were too many people for the area. Still, we saw a few nocturnal creatures.
05/28/2016
Didn't get to see any frogs, but saw a sloth, walking stick, beetles, centipedes, viper snake (amazing how one of the guides noticed it so high in the tree), and other insects/bugs.
12/20/2014
The guides found lots of sloths and other night animals.
12/08/2014
Tough weather. Guide was great and tour was fun. Driver was sick, grumpy, and unpleasant.