Beach Towns Abound in Costa Rica (#5)

A beach (playa) is for soaking up calm experiences and the ones west of Liberia do not disappoint. First up, there are several to choose from. Do you want to see iguanas and have an SUV? Check out Playa Iguanita. Do you like swimming with lots of manta rays, but not crowds of people? If so check out Playa Cabuyal. Do you like a long beach with gorgeous sunsets and an array of restaurants and souvenir shops nearby? If so, check out Playa del Coco. Honestly, there are tons of beaches in Costa Rica, including some secluded ones you can get to by renting a kayak, so take your pick.

From the above beaches that were within suitable driving distance for us, we went to Playa del Coco (AKA Coco Beach). Getting there was pretty easy and I thought a lot of the ads on the side of the road were interesting since many were on home satellite dishes that were in use. Like most beaches, there are parking attendants that will watch your car like a hawk for you - and will stop traffic so you can drive away when you are done. That peace of mind should only cost 2,000 or 3,000 colonnes and you will need to cross the language divide to make that happen. People are calm and used to it. I mean, their office is a freaking beach!!! La pura vida.

My wife has parking angels, so of course we got a spot right off the beach. We hopped out, paid an old lady who made arrangements to watch our vehicle, and hit the beach. Coco Beach is really long and gorgeous!

The water was lukewarm in January and the tides on this beach are really noticeable over the course of a day. Bobbing along is enjoyable and there were even some sand banks off to one side where a couple guys were collecting oysters for nearby restaurants!

Speaking of which, you do have a wide selection of restaurants including ethnic foods from around the world. The only drag is the main drag, the main road into town. All the restaurants and souvenir shops are on that road. Being the main road into town, that means lots of traffic. Apply some pura vida and you won't notice as you munch down a delectable meal in good company. (Really; you won't unless all you do is gawk at the road.) For us, we opted for our only non-Costa Rican meal at a Mexican restaurant.

Logistically, palm trees dot the top of Coco Beach in case you forget your beach umbrella, toilets are only found in restaurants, and there are a few open air showers near the concrete walking path to rinse off any sand in your cracks. That said, they do turn off at some point in the afternoon, but no one complained when that happened. (I know because we sat near one for an hour in the late afternoon to soak up more of the beach view.) La pura vida.

If there was one thing I would have done different, it would have been to spend a night near/on a beach as opposed to packing up before sunset to get back to our lodge. Still, we managed to catch the sunset up the road into the mountains, which suited us just fine - - I mean, la pura vida.

I hope you enjoyed this introduction to Costa Rica and seriously consider visiting. To check out other articles I have written on Vocal Media on this and other topics, click here.