TORTUGUERO TAMARINDO ARENAL MONTEZUMA JACO ZANCUDO
STATS
Sandra and I visited Costa Rica in 2011 from January 28 - March 25 and this is what we did and what we thought of it. We had reservations for all accommodations for the first month, but did not reserve anything for the second month. We left March wide open so we could revisit places we went to in February if we wanted, or to explore new places we might have heard about during our February travels. This isn't everyone's style of travel, but it worked out great for us. This was my fourth time to CR, and my second time to CR with Sandra, so we were both experienced CR travellers. Sandra has virtually no Spanish and I have very limited Espanol malo but this was never a barrier and we always got what we needed using my terrible Spanish and a Tico's limited English. Driving directions were not needed this time round because we had a Garmin Nuvi GPS with CR map from navsatcr.com which performed flawlessly.
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I was first in Tamarindo about ten years ago and loved it. It was a relatively small place with a lot of surfers and a very laid back vibe. I talked this place up so much to Sandra. We drove here in the trusty Terious from Arenal. The drive was beautiful, especially from Arenal to Tilaran. From that point on the scenery became steadily dryer and dryer. For us Tamarindo was a bit of a disappointment. It is over developed and the building is still going on. It doesn't feel anything like the cool laid back surf town of a decade ago. We spent more time exploring neighboring towns rather than stay in Tamarindo. We stayed at hotel Nahua, again because it had good reviews on TA. This place was just short of a dump. Everything was filthy. Don't stay here. When I got back home, I looked this place up again on TA to see if I maybe got it mixed up with another similar named place. I didn't. And what's more, there was a review praising the place AFTER we had stayed there. Maybe the more expensive rooms actually get cleaned and maintained and the less expensive rooms get clean towels only. Probably won't be returning to Tamarindo, not that it's bad, and not because of our hotel room, just because it's become a place we're not interested in. I gotta feel sorry for the surfers though. All the gringos wanted to hang out with surfers and do the surfer thing then the developers swooped in and gentrified the place. Not nearly as many surfers as before. One of the adventures we went on we got there completely by accident. We wanted to go to Playas Del Coco. A friend of ours from Bermuda retird there a few years ago. I typed in Playa Del Coco into Wanda, our Garmin GPS, and Wanda did as instructed, she took us to Playa Del Coco. This little village is a hidden gem. We stopped along the way for lunch at an elevated restaurant run by some French gringos. Excellent food. After lunch we continued down the single lane dirt road to find a genuine surf camp. There had to be 30-40 tents all pitched in what little shade could be found and the surfers were actually surfing, not just bobbing around in the waves like most wannabe surfers. This is a cool place. Not much in the way of amenities. Just a few small basic hotels and one or two places to get your board repaired. On the way back I realized the error I had made. Playa instead of Playas. So the very next day we were off to PlayaS Del Coco. We only spent an afternoon exploring this area. We checked Playa Panama, just over the hill and around the corner from Playas Del Coco. This town had a very nice feel to it. we were there on a Sunday and the beach was comfortably full of Tico families enjoying the beach. Met our frien for drinks at Beach Bums, a real tourista bar, but a good time anyway overlooking the bay. We will be coming back for a few days here next time.
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