Together with the nearby neighborhood of Cerro Plano, and the community of Monteverde proper, visitors have diverse options for accommodations, dining, guided tours, and more when visiting the area's numerous reserves and natural attractions.

[1] Monteverde rests at roughly at 1,400 m (4,600 ft) above sea level, located in a lush, misty and wet, yet breezy and cool, spot in the mountains.

Various pre-Columbian artifacts testify to the existence of early populations of Clovis Native Americans, who once farmed in villages in the area and hunted the forests, ca.

Agriculture intensified in the centuries between 500 BC and 300 CE, with simple chiefdom societies replacing the formerly smaller, tribal settlements; some level of deforestation accompanied this rise in population, farming and horticulture.

However, in a somewhat cruel "twist of fate", unlike neighboring Nicaragua and Panama, Costa Rica did not yield considerable amounts of indigenous labor or mineral resources, and thus the region experienced colonization at a much slower rate than many other Spanish colonies.

During the first three decades of the 20th century, from roughly 1900–1930, Creole populations arrived in small numbers to the area that is now Monteverde; many men worked within the Guacimal gold mines; many more, still, with their wives and families, provided these miners and their greater communities with needed goods and services.

[6]: 353 What is now considered Monteverde was founded by Quakers from the United States whose pacifist values led them to defy the American draft before the Korean War.

[8] These Quakers and pacifists chose the area for its cool climate, which would facilitate dairy farming, due to the country's non-violent, army-free constitution, and its friendly Costa Rican inhabitants.

On March 8, 2005, a group of three armed Nicaraguan men raided and attempted to rob the Santa Elena branch of the state National Bank (Banco Nacional).

When authorities successfully attempted to retake the bank, a senior police officer and nine civilians died, and only one of the attackers survived.

[10][11] This event raised tensions between Nicaraguans and Costa Ricans nationwide and prompted higher security in many national banks.

[14][15] In recent years, the area's rapidly increasing numbers of tourists has brought a sizable influx of Costa Ricans from other towns and cities.

The district also includes the neighborhoods and towns of Cerro Plano, Cuesta Blanca, La Lindora, Los Llanos, Monte Verde and San Luis.

[21][22] A larger, non-Quaker bilingual (English/Spanish) institution, the Cloud Forest School, founded in 1991, now enrolls roughly 200 students from Pre-K through 11th grade, over 90% of whom are Costa Ricans.

While there is only one institution of higher education in Monteverde, the Distance State University (UNED), the region is home to a considerable number of local and foreign undergraduate and graduate programs.

A long-term resident of the town is the former lead guitarist of British new wave band Japan, Robert Dean, working as a professional ornithology writer.

The district is connected to and transversed by the following road routes: Agriculture has historically been the area's main source of income and sustenance for both Costa Ricans and Quakers.

The massive 10,500-hectare (26,000-acre) Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve is the region's main draw, due largely to its excellent virgin and semi-virgin environment and world-class biodiversity.

UGA Costa Rica operates numerous study abroad programs, ecological and forestry research, as well as ecotourism via on-campus lodging, the Ecolodge San Luis.

Additionally, UGA Costa Rica is responsible for various conservation and sustainability initiatives in the San Luis Valley, namely its Carbon Offset Program and reforestation efforts in the Pájaro Campana Biological Corridor.

In May 2019, ownership of the campus was transferred to CIEE (Council on International Educational Exchange), which only hosts University of Georgia and other academic groups, not tourists.