Monteverde and neighboring Santa Elena are thriving tourist destinations located on the Pacific slope of the Tileran Cordillera (Mountain Range) in northern Costa Rica. The area is best reached by a very bumpy gravel access road from the Pan American Highway. Though bumpy, the access road is much improved over its condition some 30 years ago when it was impassable to buses and cars and was much narrower and more pot-holed. It takes about 3½ hours to drive to Santa Elena from San Jose. From the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, Monteverde can be reached via an extremely pot-holed paved road from Arenal Volcano National Park followed by 35 miles of bone-jarring washboard gravel road or by a combination of jeep and boat transfer across Lake Arenal (which can be arranged through a number of hotels and lodges).
