Costa Rica’s main cities are rounded by mountains, forming the Central Valley, where you will find San José, Heredia, Alajuela, and Cartago provinces. Also, the fact that you can move quickly from one province to another helps increase the chances of a one day hike near San José.
I live in San José, and every weekend I am always looking for a new place to visit that isn’t far away and hopefully full of nature to be able to make a recharge. I am always looking for a one day hike in San José or at least near San José. Some days back, I went to a cool place I had been looking at many photos lately on social media. This place had a charming landscape, making it perfect for photos, and also it was close to my house. This site is named “Hacienda La Chimba,” and you can find it in Santa Ana, San José.
Why should you do this one day hike in San José?
If you are staying some extra days in San José and you are in the mood for a hike but don’t want to move far away, how does it sounds a hike in a Costa Rican coffee field? This feature is what “La Chimba” has to offer in the Mantra Trail, a nice hike in the middle of an actual coffee field and then the chance to grab a bite to eat in their restaurant or drink a coffee that came from the area you just walked around.
This place is just 20 minutes by car from San José. In case you don’t have a car or you returned your rented car, you can always reach this place by Uber or bus (take a bus from San José to Santa Ana’s center and take another one from there to “La Chimba’s road” and then walk for 10 minutes).
Besides making the hike in the middle of a coffee field, this place has lovely scenic views of Santa Ana’s mountains and a couple of places perfect for your Instagram photos that I’ll show you later in this post. If you already did the hike and are in the mood for more, this place offers zip-linning and a walk in the middle of the tree’s attraction.
What should I know before doing this hike?
The first thing is that you have to call or text the place +506 8452-3838 to save your spot the day you want to go (this might be related to COVID protocols). Depending on if you are holding a spot on a busy day or not, you will have to pay the ticket fee (5,000 colones = $8) beforehand.
The second thing you should know is the distance and difficulty of the trail. The Mantra Trail’s total length is around 8km, but after you reach the Mantra Hand (one of the Instagram spots I mentioned before), you can take a shortcut of almost 2km. The trail’s difficulty is middle to low, so if you are in shape, you won’t feel it that much, and if you are not, then it’s good cardio!
Another essential fact to consider is the weather. I went when Costa Rica’s rainy season was ending, so the place was muddy. I believe this hike would have been excellent in the dry season, but if you are here in the rainy season (May – November), I suggest going during the morning when the probability of rain is smaller and wearing hiking shoes or at least sports shoes.
Tip: This place has some wood sticks in the reception, perfect to make the walk more comfortable. Grab one before you start.
Related Post: One Day Beach Trip from San José
My one day hike in San José
As I was telling you, I visited this place in the last days of the rainy season so when I asked a couple of friends (Luis and Javier) to come with me, they weren’t 100% convinced but after telling them I already had paid for our spots there was no way out.
We arrived around 10 am thinking that we would spend 2-3 hours there and we would go to lunch right after. After we went to the reception office to do our check-in and receive all the instructions, we began our hike. Just as we started walking, I noticed Luis was wearing casual shoes, not even sports shoes, only casual Levi’s shoes. That’s when I realized he was going to have a slippery hike.
Just in the first 10 minutes, he had fallen already twice! But thankfully, right after that, he found a wood stick similar to the ones they had in the reception, and he fixed his stability issue. As we continued walking in the trail, we stopped a couple of times to appreciate the view until we got to the first cool place to take a photo. It was this giant Buddha statue with Santa Ana’s mountains in the back.
After walking for 20 more minutes from there, we got to this place’s main attraction, the “Mantra Hand”. This is the place I saw on Instagram lately, which is where most people stop by longer. There was a like a 10-minute line to hop into the hand, but the photos we took were worth the wait.
After checking the trail’s main attraction, we were getting hungrier and decided to take the shortcut. That was the end of our one day hike in San José.
If you want to check more about this place, check their Facebook page here
