Diamante Eco Adventure Park — Attraction in Sardinal

In mid May 2023, I did the adventure pass, which included one adventure activity, an all you can eat buffet lunch, and all of the activities. Sunday is the best day to go because they have the morning feeding of the sloths and jaguars. I started at the nature sanctuary at 9AM, where the monkeys were ready to have breakfast and were already quite active. At 9:30AM I went to the sloth breakfast feeding. They have 3 female sloths: Lucy, Mia, and Ziggy. Lucy and Mia were injured rescues and there used to be a male rescue, but he mated with Mia and that’s why they have Ziggy, so he is at a different sanctuary now. At 10AM I went to the jaguar feeding, where they give the jaguars a meat-sicle that dangles and they have to solve the puzzle of how to get it. It was very fun to watch these huge cats figure out how to get to it. After that, I walked through the sanctuary to visit the rest of the animals and took the shuttle back up to the main area. For the adventure activity you can choose ATV, horseback riding, or zip line. I chose zip line and went at the assigned time of 10:45AM. The zip line is very fun and not complex. The Superman style is amazing and you get up to 60MPH flying over the entire massive property. After that I did the free fall, which is a controlled fall and very fun. After zip line I took the shuttle back up to the main area to enjoy the huge buffet lunch, with offerings for everyone from pizza to traditional Costa Rican cuisine to a fresh salad bar. Once I was full I took the shuttle to the farm and cultural area. I came for the sloths and zip line, but I stayed because of the farm and Josh in the cultural area. The farm is a new addition that started in March 2023 and the farmer was so enthusiastic. He shared about each animal, allowing me to feed them carrots and telling me all about them. I met Lola the mommy cow, who was due to give birth any day and the farmer was beyond lovely. He took tons of photos of me holding the animals. It was so nice to see how well cared for the animals were. Then, it was onto the 2PM cultural tour with expert guide Josh. Josh is a brilliant individual who is fluent in English, Spanish, and Mandarin. A well traveled person with deep connections to the Costa Rican community, he shared stories of his parents and grandparents working as naturalists with the plants and animals throughout the country. I almost did not do the farm or cultural tour because I worried I would be bored and they were just as fascinating as the zip line and sloths. A few tips: do the sanctuary in the morning before it gets hot and the animals decide to nap the day away. Don’t miss the farm or cultural tour! You’ll get to try fresh Costa Rican coffee, sugar cane, and chocolate. Fun and educational for all ages. Be sure to ask Josh about his hippy activist days. He has great stories that will make you laugh. Plan to spend at least 6-7 hours in total and spend the $16USD for the professional photos from the zip line. I got over 35 pictures that were...

A fantastic place to go with families, couples, or friends.

Ziplining: Diamante is known for its ziplining and it did not disappoint! The lines were long and well staffed. Each staff member was kind and made small talk in between. The views are beautiful, and the long distances (one of the longest on CR) allow you to fully appreciate them! If you are scared of being stuck, just a heads up that if it's windy, you may get stuck (as I did) - the team promptly comes out to get you through a tandem line. I never felt unsafe.

If you get the adventure pass and don't want to zipline you can go around on ATV or horseback.

Cultural experience: the coffee, chocolate, and sugar can experience was great. Although all jammed into an hour, it was an experience engaging all the senses. Kids can enjoy being part of demonstrations and adults can enjoy the taste of coffee and the artistry of chocolate making! It runs hourly. If you are a coffee or chocolate (or sugar cane) buff, this may not be the experience for you, but if you'd like a quick demo and experience it's perfect.

Nature park: The park itself is well maintained, beautiful, and full of adventure. There are 3 sloth feedings a day that were a great joy to watch! There are 3 walk through experiences - two toucan experiences and the butterfly garden. Although all 3 have only 2 species each in them they are quite emersive. There are also many educational signs or exhibits to help you get more from the experience.

One of the biggest things to comment on is the animals look happy. There are many stimulation experiences for them (such as obstacles to get food for monkeys), each exhibit has a lot of space, and there is no park-led breeding. This allows for a safer environment for these rescued animals. I'm no expert on animal safety and health but wanted to make this observation!

Food: The adventure pass comes with a buffet. It was good. It wasn't anything to write home about but the options were wide for vegetarian and vegan folk, and also for picky eaters.

Beach: A beautiful and clean beach! Not a piece of trash was on site. We went kayaking on the beach and the staff was so kind to help us out of the water after. I could spend 3-5 hours there if the beach didn't close by 4:30. There is a shuttle bus every 15 minutes.

Overall a lovely experience. I'd recommend this to many people but especially those with families or only in CR for a short time. If you are here for months, you may be able to see everything here elsewhere over time but this was a great one stop shop that felt luxious. The price is quite steep but if you can afford it I'd recommend you...

I wasn’t sure what to expect based on reviews. So many said it was awesome, many said it was a glorified zoo that was sad. It was highly recommended from an American we know that resides in Coco.

I first want to acknowledge this is a sanctuary where animals go that have been rescued - injury, poached and rescued, or some other reason that prevents them from surviving in the wild.

Transportation - we took an Uber from Coco. Note there is no cell reception at the Eco park, at least not for T-Mobile. But once you get to the visitor center they do have wifi you can connect to. That said, we could NOT get an Uber home. No one picked up our ride, so the desk called us a red cab. It was $30USD from the park to where we stayed in Coco, and cabs don’t take credit cards. So, plan a shuttle, schedule pickup with an Uber, have a rental car, or bring cash for a cab to get back.

The park - I was very, very impressed with the natural vegetation and surroundings for the park. The amount of tree coverage and canopy, with native plants was truly an experience. So fun to see and be in! We felt they did a great job building enclosures for the animals that fostered their natural environment - remember, these animals can’t survive in the wild, and therefore do need to be in enclosures, as sad as that may be. We did wish the Jaguars and bigger cats had more space - their enclosures seemed a bit small for their size.

Our kids LOVED being in the same space as the Tucans (or CanTu as our 3yo calls it), other ducks, butterflies, watching the sloths be fed, seeing parrots, monkeys, etc. This visit was the highlight for our 3yo! He kept asking the rest of the trip if we could go back to the sanctuary to see the animals ❤️ Our 7yo loved the crocodiles, jaguar, and the capuchin monkeys! We could be really close to the monkeys, despite being separated by the fence.

They also have a cultural experience that’s included with the sanctuary - highly recommend this!! Our 7yo enjoyed the presentation on how to make coffee and chocolate, the history from the region, and volunteered to help. And our 3yo loved the farm animals, being able to feed them all carrots (chickens, bunnies, pigs, donkey, cow, sheep), and hold them! He got to sit on the cow, hold the bunnies, and pet all the others. Now he wants a bunny… ha!

The staff was wonderful, knowledgeable, friendly, and very invested in teaching us all we wanted to learn. They were accommodating and and very helpful, especially when we couldn’t get an Uber and needed to get home 🥴 In total we spent about 3-3.5 hours there in the sanctuary and the...