Hello clerkehome!

I can certainly help clarify things for you. To confirm, the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve Tour is a hiking tour through the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve. This protected land area doesn’t have an aerial tram, and it’s also not considered one of Monteverde’s hanging bridges parks (like the Selvatura Park or the Monteverde Sky Adventures Park), though it does have a bridge. It also has a small waterfall and a point where you can stand atop the continental divide. If you’d like, you can read more about the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve in our related blog post: https://costaricatravelblog.com/monteverde-cloud-forest-or-monteverde-cloud-forest-reserve/

In contrast, the Sky Walk Hanging Bridges and the Sky Tram Aerial Tram are both located inside the Monteverde Sky Adventures Park. This park is an adventure center (it has ziplines, hanging bridges, the aerial tram, tree-climbing, and a restaurant), unlike the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve, which is a biological reserve. You can read more about the Monteverde Sky Adventures Park in our related blog post: https://costaricatravelblog.com/sky-adventures-monteverde-park/

To answer your question, there isn’t much overlap between these two experiences, apart from the fact that you’ll hike through forested land at both. At the former, you’ll hike around a biological reserve. Early-morning bird-watching experiences are often the highlight. At the latter, you’ll likely be more active: can go zip-lining, cross a series of hanging bridges, ride an aerial tram, etc. Overall, some people visit one of these two places during their trip and others visit both, so you could do either.

Since you mentioned you’ve already picked a tour to experience at the Selvatura Park, may I ask which tour you’ve selected? I ask because the Selvatura Park and the Monteverde Sky Adventures Park are more similar than the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve and the Monteverde Sky Adventures Park, so I’d be more concerned that the tour you’ll experience at the Selvatura Park may overlap some of the experiences you’ll have at the Monteverde Sky Adventures Park, mainly the hanging bridges. Both the Selvatura Park and the Monteverde Sky Adventures Park compete as Monteverde’s best hanging bridge parks, so if you plan to experience the hanging bridges at both parks, this particular activity would overlap.

Pura vida! 🙂

Hello clerkehome!

Great! Thank you for getting back to me in regards to which specific Selvatura tour you’re considering. In this case, I’d recommend going with one of these two tour options (Selvatura’s Treetop Walkways hanging bridges tour vs. Sky Adventures’s Sky Walk hanging bridges tour), not both, because the tours are very similar. An exception would be if you purposely want to experience the hanging bridges at both parks (the Selvatura Park and the Monteverde Sky Adventures Park), knowing that the experiences you’ll have there (hiking through the forest over a series of hanging bridges) will be similar. Also, it’s worth noting that the two parks (the Selvatura Park and the Monteverde Sky Adventures Park) are adjacent to each other, so the scenery is shared.

If you’ve decided to do one of these two tours but you’re not sure which one to choose, this related blog post of ours should help you decide: https://costaricatravelblog.com/best-hanging-bridges-costa-rica/

Specifically, it details the Selvatura Park’s bridges and the Monteverde Sky Adventures Park’s bridges (in addition to two hanging bridge parks in the La Fortuna/Arenal region). The most obvious difference between the two tours you’re looking at is that the Monteverde Sky Adventures Park is home to an aerial tram (the Sky Tram) and the Selvatura Park is not, so if you’re interested in experiencing a tram side, you’ll need to go with the Monteverde Sky Adventures Park. If the tram ride doesn’t interest you much, you can base your decision on other details covered in the blog post linked above, such as bridge quantity, bridge length, etc.

Pura vida! 🙂