Each year, over 200,000 people visit Monteverde, Costa Rica, despite the fact that it's four hours from San Jose, with the last hour and a half on steep, unpaved roads. Monteverde's Cloud Forest Reserve was one of Costa Rica's first principled ecotourism destinations, but now it is in danger of being loved to death. Monteverde has been an inspiration to many other areas in Costa Rica which now provide less crowded alternatives, and can take some of the pressure off Monteverde's still beautiful forests.

People usually go to Monteverde for one of four reasons:

1. to visit the cloud forest and see the Resplendent Quetzal

2. to do a zip line or walk on hanging bridges in the forest canopy

3. to see how organic, fair-trade coffee is grown.

4. to learn more about the fascinating Quaker community which immigrated to  Monteverde in 1951

Those who want to see the cloud forest and the quetzal should consider the mountainous region south of San Jose, traversed by the Interamerican highway between Cartago and San Isidro de El General. Quetzals are visible year-round in these hills. Three of our favorite lodges in this area are the cozy, charming El Toucanet (www.eltoucanet.com) in Copey de Dota; the campesino-owed Mirador de Quetzales (www.exploringcostarica.com/mirador/quetzales.html), near kilometer 70 on the Interamerican; and the Hotel de Montana Rio Savegre (www.savegre.co.cr), in San Gerardo de Dota, home of a quetzal research center run by Oklahoma's Southern Nazarene University. All these lodges are closer to San Jose than Monteverde, and access is mostly on paved roads.

To avoid the traffic of San Jose, this area can also be accessed through the hills south of Costa Rica's International Airport. The simple but gracious Nacientes Palmichal in Palmichal de Acosta, is a community-owned lodge whose cloud forest reserve protects the headwaters of several rivers. From Nacientes Palmichal to Copey de Dota is a very pleasant 90-minute drive through the picturesque villages of the Los Santos region, one of Costa Rica's prime coffee producing areas. Tours of organic coffee farms can be arranged by your hotel.

For those who want the thrill of zip lines and suspended bridges in the forest canopy, don't think that Monteverde is the only place to find them. The area around Rincon de la Vieja National Park in Guanacaste, with its bubbling mud pots, waterfalls, hiking and mountain biking trails, also has several of the country's most exciting canopy tours. Hacienda Guachipelin's zip line (www.guachipelin.com) traverses a canyon instead of going from tree to tree. Many more are mentioned in the latest edition of The New Key to Costa Rica.

Arenal Hanging Bridges (www.hangingbridges.com), near Arenal volcano, and the Tirimbina Reserve (www.tirimbina.org) in La Virgen de Sarapiqui, two hours east of Arenal, have well-constructed hanging bridges through stunning rainforest. Heliconias Lodge and Rainforest in Bijagua de Upala, near Guanacaste's Tenorio National Park, is a community-owned reserve with well-tended trails and four suspended bridges in beautiful rainforest. One of the most thrilling community-owned adventures is the 127-meter suspended bridge at Los Campesinos Reserve, about an hour and a half inland from Manuel Antonio National Park. The bridge lets you get up close and personal with a 175-foot waterfall. Farther upstream is a delightful waterfall-fed swimming hole, perfect for a refreshing dip. See pictures and read about our trip there.

For those who are fascinated by the story of the Alabama-based Quakers who had been jailed for resisting conscription in World War Two and who emigrated to armyless Costa Rica at the start of the Korean war, the pilgrimage must be made to Monteverde itself. There you will see how they started a successful cheese business, integrated with local families, and protected their watershed by founding the famous cloud forest reserve, and later the Children's Eternal Rainforest. Art, music, scientific research, study, volunteer and adventure opportunities abound in Monteverde, but it is no longer the only place in Costa Rica where these things are happening.

You can read about all the above-mentioned places in The New Key to Costa Rica, by Beatrice Blake and Anne Becher, now in its 17th edition.

According to The Nature Conservancy's Andy Drumm, "This latest edition sets the standard for environmentally and socially responsible tourism guides."

The 17th edition includes detailed information on 27 community-based ecotourism destinations which form part of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, one of the most exciting developments to come out of Costa Rica's 20 years of blending conservation, community development and tourism. Blake and Becher have been writing about Costa Rica since 1982.