Tamarindo
Costa Rica is not a cheap destination — Tamarindo even less so. A beer at a bar around $5, a meal at a restaurant from $12. Best surf waves are between December and April. Reachable by bus from San José (~5 hours) or via Liberia (~1.5 hours).
Tamarindo, once a small fishing village, has turned into one of the most popular beach destinations in the country. Locals sometimes call it Tamagringo — there are more Americans than locals. It's one of the best places to surf in Costa Rica. And if surfing isn't your thing, the beach is also a nesting ground for some of the world's most endangered sea turtles. There's also a well-known Czech restaurant nearby called Mycelium — more on that in the bite section below. I was here mainly to surf, for 10 days.
Surfing
I won't forget this surf trip with Surf & Travel anytime soon. I was staying in a beach villa 10 minutes from Tamarindo — a complete escape, where I could spend the day chilling in a hammock by an enormous pool a stone's throw from the beach.
The villa itself was something else. A monumental timber construction from solid wood, several decades old, that gave the whole place an incredible soul and atmosphere. The house is built in the spirit of tropical open-air living — the breeze from inland flows freely between the beams and wooden shutters, so you're constantly in touch with nature and the sounds of the ocean. At first it took some getting used to — no air conditioning and a fairly loud ocean at night — but after a few days it was perfect.
Was it worth going with a surf camp?
All I knew about surfing before this was that you stand on a board. If you know nothing about it and want to actually make progress, it's worth it. It depends on who you're going with and how you click with the group — that part you can't control. What made the difference was seeing that both the trip leader and the instructor genuinely love surfing. That kind of enthusiasm is contagious.
Beaches around Tamarindo reachable by car — ideal for surfing.
Day trip: Llanos del Cortés Waterfall
Hidden in the jungle near the town of Bagaces, this is one of the most beautiful and easily accessible natural spots in Costa Rica. The water drops roughly 15 meters into a wide, calm pool with a sandy shore — a perfect place to cool off during a hot tropical day.
You can also approach from a back road and skip the entrance fee entirely. The route is marked on the map below. Instead of a ticket, you pay a small fee to a parking attendant on that side.
Liberia
Liberia is a small city near the international airport. There isn't much going on in town. It's reasonably safe — at least during the day you can walk around alone without any issues. In April, when the heat peaks, the whole place is baking and not great for exploring on foot.
We spent one night there and visited a local craft brewery called Maderos Brewery. It's just outside the city center — a few dollars by Uber.
