Monteverde · With kids

A 45-minute guided visit in old Monteverde, built and run by the bat biologist Richard LaVal, with around 90 live bats of eight species in a 17-metre enclosure. Ultrasonic detectors let children hear echolocation, which is the part they remember; it is indoors, which matters when it is raining sideways.

Bosque Eterno de los Niños, over 22,600 hectares held by the Monteverde Conservation League, with four visitor stations and reservations taken daily 07:00–19:00. Worth explaining to children what it is before you go — it is a forest that exists because of a schools fundraising campaign, and that lands better than another trail.

The gondola is the answer for anyone who cannot or will not walk far — it climbs through the canopy with no physical effort at all — and the Sky Walk hanging bridges are a flat, railed alternative to a trail. The same park runs Sky Trek zip lines and the Arboreal tree-climbing course for older children.

The town's public pitch and open space, in the middle of the village opposite one of the Sabor Tico branches. It is where local children are, it costs nothing, and an hour there does more for a fractious eight-year-old than a fourth reserve.

It is cool, wet and windy up here far more often than it is sunny, and nothing dries overnight. Waterproof jacket, fleece and closed shoes that can handle mud for each person, plus a spare set — children who are cold and wet stop looking for sloths very quickly.