Hello to all the websurfers out there!  I’m heading out on another adventure this weekend, and Tamarindo is the destination.  A notorious surftown for Gringos in Costa Rica, it has earned an international reputation for its waves and laid back atmosphere through word of mouth and from the surf film “Endless Summer II” featuring Kelly Slater.  This is one of the hotspots in Costa Rica I have yet to visit, but have heard so much about. 

Located in the Guancaste Province of Costa Rica this beach paradise has experienced loads of development in recent years, not only in Tamarindo itself but towns all throughout the region.  The expansion of the Liberia airport in hosting international flights has really played a large role in getting travelers to the Tamarindo area quickly.  Before the expansion a person wanting to travel to Tarmarindo would have to first fly to San Jose International then endure a layover for a flight to Liberia or the Tamarindo airstrip aboard a single prop engine plane or suffer through a 5-6 hour drive, while now an international flight can directly land in Liberia leaving the traveler with a short 45 minute drive to their final destination, Tamarindo. 

Now, not only is Tamarindo an extremely easy destination for travel, it is also an area of Costa Rica which experiences some of the best weather.  Many places in Costa Rica such as the city of San Jose and the rainforests of the country experience a long rainy season (April-October), the Guancaste region has a completely different climate all together, much dryer and more sunny all year round than the rest of the country.

Tamarindo is said to be much like the other mega tourist destination beach town in Costa Rica, Jaco, but with it’s own style.  Unlike Jaco, Tamarindo grew around its surf culture and hippie attitude towards life, this is what draws more and more people to Tamarindo every year.  Some say it is growing to big and is losing that essence which made it so popular, there is even a Pizza Hut here now!  This weekend I will see for myself the development, culture, and general state of Tamarindo… Part 2 when I return.

This post's rating:

Related Stories

Filed under: Travel on September 7th, 2007