If you have the time and want to see the most of this beautiful country, don't miss the opportunity to visit more than 750 combined miles of shoreline on its Pacific and Caribbean coasts that Costa Rica has to offer the beachgoers. On the Pacific coast, you have from the north in Guanacaste and the Nicoya Peninsula down to Manuel Antonio with the first popular beach destination. Below Puerto Viego, Punta Uva and Manzanillo are two of the best beaches of the eastern coast that take on the true Caribbean splendor with turquoise waters, coral reefs, and palm-lined stretches of nearly deserted white-sand beaches.
Guanacaste offers some of the country’s best beaches – with shores stretching about 99 miles from the border with Nicaragua to the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula. Some are pristine and deserted, some are dotted with new luxury resorts and still others are backed by little villages. Some beaches have been declared protected breeding grounds for the leatherback sea turtle. Four Seasons has a resort on exclusive Peninsula Papagayo, a master-planned resort community encompassing 2,300 acres. This secluded natural sanctuary spills down a coastal hillside to an isthmus of golden sand and provides abundant opportunities to experience eco-adventure on land and in the water. Liberia, Guanacaste’s capital, is one of Costa Rica’s oldest cities, founded in 1769. A traditional local farming centre, it provides a convenient place to shop for essentials. If Guanacaste province is your primary destination in your visit to Costa Rica, you may want to consider as an alternative in arriving at the Liberia International Airport that Delta, Continental and American Airlines have direct service to/from the U.S.
Sport-fishing enthusiasts are impressed by Guanacaste’s rich waters, which offer various kinds of marlin, sailfish, dorado, wahoo, grouper, roosterfish, amberjack, mackerel and exceptionally large tuna.
Floating in a raft on the calm Corobici River offers a peaceful way to view the beautiful scenery of this natural paradise. A certified river guide points out exotic flora, and wildlife such as white egrets, tiger herons, motmots, howler monkeys, ospreys, crocodiles, iguanas and other lizards.
Guanacaste offers some of the country’s best beaches – with shores stretching about 99 miles from the border with Nicaragua to the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula. Some are pristine and deserted, some are dotted with new luxury resorts and still others are backed by little villages. Some beaches have been declared protected breeding grounds for the leatherback sea turtle. Four Seasons has a resort on exclusive Peninsula Papagayo, a master-planned resort community encompassing 2,300 acres. This secluded natural sanctuary spills down a coastal hillside to an isthmus of golden sand and provides abundant opportunities to experience eco-adventure on land and in the water. Liberia, Guanacaste’s capital, is one of Costa Rica’s oldest cities, founded in 1769. A traditional local farming centre, it provides a convenient place to shop for essentials. If Guanacaste province is your primary destination in your visit to Costa Rica, you may want to consider as an alternative in arriving at the Liberia International Airport that Delta, Continental and American Airlines have direct service to/from the U.S.
Sport-fishing enthusiasts are impressed by Guanacaste’s rich waters, which offer various kinds of marlin, sailfish, dorado, wahoo, grouper, roosterfish, amberjack, mackerel and exceptionally large tuna.Floating in a raft on the calm Corobici River offers a peaceful way to view the beautiful scenery of this natural paradise. A certified river guide points out exotic flora, and wildlife such as white egrets, tiger herons, motmots, howler monkeys, ospreys, crocodiles, iguanas and other lizards.
A good destination for families with kids is Playa Hermosa. Surrounded by dry, steep forested hills, this curving gray-sand beach is long and wide and rarely crowded despite the Condovac condo development and the Sol Playa Hermosa Hotel and Villas on the hill at the north end of the beach.
Playa del Coco (Coco Beach) is the most accessible and frequently visited beach in Guancaste with a paved road running right down to the water. The beach has a grayish-brown sand which is quite wide at low tide and almost nonexistent at high tide.
As a service town for the surrounding beaches, Coco offers a port captain, post office, bank, groceries and a selection of restaurants and souvenir shops. The crowds that come here like their music loud and constant, so if you're looking for a quiet retreat, stay away from the center of town and the lively nightlife.
Further south down the road is Playa Flamingo. Playa Flamingo is the prettiest white sand beach in this area, although it can sometimes get a bit rough. The beach is located on a long area of land that forms part of Potrero Bay. At the northern end of the bach is a fortresslike high rock where most of Playa Flamingo's hotels and vacation homes are built with great views. Flamingo also has a full-service marina.
Playa Conchal is the last in a string of beaches stretching south along this coast known as the Gold Coast. This beach is dominated by the impressive and expensive resort of Paradisus Playa Conchal. This unique beach is made up primarily of soft crushed shells. With some of the clearest waters on the Gold Coast, snorkeling is a must-indulge activity for anyone who knows how to swim. With a fantastic array of marine life on display, you can swim with the many tropical fish that dwell here, and even catch a glimpse of stingrays that swim in the area. For the more adventurous, deep seas fishing, scuba diving, and other water sports are offered as well. Playa Conchal is also close to a few national parks and nature reserves and a small estuary. Surrounded by a number of cattle ranches, Playa Conchal also has quite a few areas where one can camp out and sleep under the stars. For the avid golfer, the ‘Garra de Leon’ Golf Course is just a few paces away from the beach. This championship course, designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., is considered to be one of the best golf courses in Central America with its breathtaking scenic beauty of the Pacific coast. Bordered by a forest on one side, you can often catch sight of howler monkeys that live there.
Tamarindo is a boomtown as the most well developed tourist town with a small, vibrant community set on a 2-mile beach. The town offers more than 40 restaurants, a lively outdoor market, an art gallery and a host of craft and pottery stores. With much to enjoy and even more to do, this multi-cultural community is the ideal place to have some fun in the sun! The beaches here are first-rate, and the entire town has a relaxed laidback feel to it, making it a fabulous place for anyone looking to have a good time. With the surfing and windsurfing conditions here near perfect for the experienced as well as novice surfers, Tamarindo is probably the most accessible beach town on the country’s entire northern Pacific Coast. Besides surfing, swimming, snorkeling, sailing, kayaking, jet skiing, boogie boarding, horseback riding and scuba diving, visit the nearby wildlife refuge of Diria, as well as the Marino Las Baulas National Park where leatherback turtles come every summer to nest and breed.
No other destination in Costa Rica has received more international attention than Manuel Antonio. Many first-time visitors to Costa Rica plan their vacation around Manuel Antonio south of the town of Quepos between Damas and Matapalos. Manuel Antonio National Park was established in 1972 and is one of the most beautiful and bio-diverse areas in the world. Although it is the country's smallest national park, Manuel Antonio contains a charming combination of rain forest, beaches and coral reefs. The beaches are the most beautiful in the country, lined with lush forest, and the snorkeling is excellent too. The forest is home for sloths, iguanas, the rare and adorable squirrel monkeys and millions of colorful little crabs. And the trail that winds around Punta Catedral affords some spectacular views. The southern facing beach, Playa Manuel Antonio, is a picturesque half mile long, white sand crescent bisecting deep green foliage to one side and a private, secluded cove to the other. However, increased popularity of Manuel Antonio has its price with increased development and ever-growing beach crowds in once a remote and pristine area. You can miss most of the crowds by staying away during the peak months of December through March and if you do decide to come then, try to avoid weekends when the beach is packed with local families from San Jose. Crowds usually show up at the park at midday so, visit early in the morning and lounge by the pool or patio at the hotel in the afternoon.
Playa del Coco (Coco Beach) is the most accessible and frequently visited beach in Guancaste with a paved road running right down to the water. The beach has a grayish-brown sand which is quite wide at low tide and almost nonexistent at high tide.
As a service town for the surrounding beaches, Coco offers a port captain, post office, bank, groceries and a selection of restaurants and souvenir shops. The crowds that come here like their music loud and constant, so if you're looking for a quiet retreat, stay away from the center of town and the lively nightlife.Further south down the road is Playa Flamingo. Playa Flamingo is the prettiest white sand beach in this area, although it can sometimes get a bit rough. The beach is located on a long area of land that forms part of Potrero Bay. At the northern end of the bach is a fortresslike high rock where most of Playa Flamingo's hotels and vacation homes are built with great views. Flamingo also has a full-service marina.
Playa Conchal is the last in a string of beaches stretching south along this coast known as the Gold Coast. This beach is dominated by the impressive and expensive resort of Paradisus Playa Conchal. This unique beach is made up primarily of soft crushed shells. With some of the clearest waters on the Gold Coast, snorkeling is a must-indulge activity for anyone who knows how to swim. With a fantastic array of marine life on display, you can swim with the many tropical fish that dwell here, and even catch a glimpse of stingrays that swim in the area. For the more adventurous, deep seas fishing, scuba diving, and other water sports are offered as well. Playa Conchal is also close to a few national parks and nature reserves and a small estuary. Surrounded by a number of cattle ranches, Playa Conchal also has quite a few areas where one can camp out and sleep under the stars. For the avid golfer, the ‘Garra de Leon’ Golf Course is just a few paces away from the beach. This championship course, designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., is considered to be one of the best golf courses in Central America with its breathtaking scenic beauty of the Pacific coast. Bordered by a forest on one side, you can often catch sight of howler monkeys that live there.
Tamarindo is a boomtown as the most well developed tourist town with a small, vibrant community set on a 2-mile beach. The town offers more than 40 restaurants, a lively outdoor market, an art gallery and a host of craft and pottery stores. With much to enjoy and even more to do, this multi-cultural community is the ideal place to have some fun in the sun! The beaches here are first-rate, and the entire town has a relaxed laidback feel to it, making it a fabulous place for anyone looking to have a good time. With the surfing and windsurfing conditions here near perfect for the experienced as well as novice surfers, Tamarindo is probably the most accessible beach town on the country’s entire northern Pacific Coast. Besides surfing, swimming, snorkeling, sailing, kayaking, jet skiing, boogie boarding, horseback riding and scuba diving, visit the nearby wildlife refuge of Diria, as well as the Marino Las Baulas National Park where leatherback turtles come every summer to nest and breed.No other destination in Costa Rica has received more international attention than Manuel Antonio. Many first-time visitors to Costa Rica plan their vacation around Manuel Antonio south of the town of Quepos between Damas and Matapalos. Manuel Antonio National Park was established in 1972 and is one of the most beautiful and bio-diverse areas in the world. Although it is the country's smallest national park, Manuel Antonio contains a charming combination of rain forest, beaches and coral reefs. The beaches are the most beautiful in the country, lined with lush forest, and the snorkeling is excellent too. The forest is home for sloths, iguanas, the rare and adorable squirrel monkeys and millions of colorful little crabs. And the trail that winds around Punta Catedral affords some spectacular views. The southern facing beach, Playa Manuel Antonio, is a picturesque half mile long, white sand crescent bisecting deep green foliage to one side and a private, secluded cove to the other. However, increased popularity of Manuel Antonio has its price with increased development and ever-growing beach crowds in once a remote and pristine area. You can miss most of the crowds by staying away during the peak months of December through March and if you do decide to come then, try to avoid weekends when the beach is packed with local families from San Jose. Crowds usually show up at the park at midday so, visit early in the morning and lounge by the pool or patio at the hotel in the afternoon.
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