The Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve is the original protected area on the mountain and still the headline destination — 10,500 hectares of largely virgin forest spread across the continental divide between the Atlantic and Pacific slopes. The trail network around the visitor centre is well maintained and lets you walk through six different life zones in a few hours, from open lookouts to dripping moss-covered cloud forest.
The biodiversity is the draw: more than 2,500 plant species, including over 500 kinds of orchid, 400 species of bird (most famously the resplendent quetzal), and a long list of mammals from agoutis to pumas. Hire a naturalist guide if you can — they spot things you would walk straight past. The reserve also has its sad symbol: the golden toad, endemic to a tiny patch of forest here, has not been seen since 1989, an early casualty of the chytrid fungus pandemic now linked to climate change.