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Costa Rica resorts within walking distance of waves that are fun on a HPSB
- Thread starter ChaseTMP
- Start date
If you are staying in Tamarindo, there is a triangle/circle area where Pacifico bar is on the beach. There is also a quickymart that stays open after hours, so the local kids like to hang out in that circle and have their little beach raves. Of course if they see a surfer dude one of them will likely ask you if you want pocket coffee. That's probably about as shady it will get there. Jaco is way more of a crazy party town. There is a parking lot and taxi lot next to Picos cafe on the beach, which is another beach party location for locals. I actually like to hang there since its close to the rock peak and river mouth. The taxi's will drive you out to Avallanes for like $5 from there. I like the gourmet mercadito for grabbing food and hanging out too. At the skate park they have farmers market and there are some cool restaurants up the hill there. Sometimes the monkeys will hang out in the trees there too. Don't get scared and resort trap yourself. It's very safe. I get more freaked out walking around my local city.
Oh yeah, don't forget to do the estuary boat tour. It's actually super cool. There is also a boat that will take you to the grateful dead hotel/bar from the rivermouth so you can get a boat tour and then chill at the bar. I haven't been there personally, but I heard its pretty cool and then you can walk around/surf playa grande for the day. That's something I need to remember to do next time. You can actually walk across the river mouth at low tide, but watch out for crocks at high tide.
I'm not worried about crime at all. I'd be traveling with my Costa Rican in-laws, I'm worried about traveling with my 3 year old daughter and covid is at it's highest point right now. I'd hate to go down and not be able to come back when I want or not be able to do the things we want to do.
I'm staying at the JW Marriott north of Avellanas. From what I understand, I can park at the resort's beach club at the Southern end of the resort property and walk to Little Hawaii and Avellanas. Playa Langosta is the quickest spot to drive to to the north.
I'll most likely surf wherever I have the best opportunity to get some barrels during the eight mornings I have there. I'm hoping to get decent Playa Negra and erase the memory of three days of knee high waves when I stayed at the Mono Congo Lodge a short walk through the jungle from there.
I want to avoid whatever the wave (that type of wave) is that has the Surfline cam on it in Tamarindo. That looks worse than I what I remember Jaco delivering the two weeks I stayed there (I mostly surfed Playa Hermosa) when I wanted to get wet quickly and not have to drive.
This trip is a compromise to get me in the water for the family summer trip. I was supposed to have a guys trip to BSR for my actual 50th b-day in September and then a Boca De Toros trip with the same crew January 2021. Two weddings a month apart in New York (at expensive upstate hotels, plus flights from LA) this fall are eating up my surf travel fund. I hope I get some at least fun short-boardable waves in CR.
I'll most likely surf wherever I have the best opportunity to get some barrels during the eight mornings I have there. I'm hoping to get decent Playa Negra and erase the memory of three days of knee high waves when I stayed at the Mono Congo Lodge a short walk through the jungle from there.
I want to avoid whatever the wave (that type of wave) is that has the Surfline cam on it in Tamarindo. That looks worse than I what I remember Jaco delivering the two weeks I stayed there (I mostly surfed Playa Hermosa) when I wanted to get wet quickly and not have to drive.
This trip is a compromise to get me in the water for the family summer trip. I was supposed to have a guys trip to BSR for my actual 50th b-day in September and then a Boca De Toros trip with the same crew January 2021. Two weddings a month apart in New York (at expensive upstate hotels, plus flights from LA) this fall are eating up my surf travel fund. I hope I get some at least fun short-boardable waves in CR.
I hear ya. My wife and I got our 2nd Moderna shots over a month ago. It sounds like they'll be approving Pfizer this Wednesday afternoon for 12-15, so we plan on getting our 14 year old a shot when it's available. A three year old; yeah that's a different deal.
I haven't surfed Mansita, which is the Marriot break, but anything along that stretch of coast line will be bigger than Tamarindo bay. Playa Avellana where Lola's cafe is gets big, it's a long stretch of beach, never walked up to the mansita reef area. The left reef right outside of lola's will barrel, but further up north on the beach is less reefy and you can find some long rights. You probably won't need to go up to Langosta or Tamarindo since that is the prime spot where you are at.
I am married to Tica as well and biggest concern always is theft regardless who your with so watch your stuff.
All I remember about crime in CR is never turn down the guy who offers to watch your car aka the guy who’s gonna break into your car and jack your stuff if you turn him down but if you take him up on his offer he’s gonna watch the sh!t out of your car no matter how long you are away.
You can tell he’s legit if he has a milk crate to sit on and a dank cudgel to wail on the other car watchers if they try anything janky.
You can tell he’s legit if he has a milk crate to sit on and a dank cudgel to wail on the other car watchers if they try anything janky.
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Knowing the CR people pretty well I would not encourage you to pay one guy unless group of guys (2+) not fair fight best not to bring or leave in car or out of site things you might miss. Also highly encourage tourist not to pay cops cash (under table) for tickets regardless how much claim ticket well be. Your car rental place should take care of it and can bill you or you can pay at bank. Just tell officer in English always regardless how fluent you are in Spanish to write ticket please so you can go. Almost always they well let you go with warning and no ticket.
They do this (of course) in Peru. After a while the car-sitters/washers came to recognize
me (showing up at the reg surf spot) and the minute i pulled in they went to blows.
I would pull out a buck or two and only that would stop the fight which the big kid won
anyway so I would give him the money ASAP to stop the brawl.
I've never experienced anything like this in CR. Maybe I'm just too ugly and broke looking. I did have one guy pester me for my mcdonalds in San Jose, I gave him my left over soda with some ice cubes, he seemed happy.
When I was there in 1997, my buddy and I met with up with Charlie Kuhn who was an East Coast pro back in the 80's. Over beers he warned us about car break-ins around Playa Hermosa. He said just to leave the car unlocked with absolutely nothing left inside and also pointed out that every hot girl in the bar/club we were in (can't remember the same, somewhere in Jaco) was a pro, which proved to be true (for pretty much the whole town back in those days).
At Playa Hermosa, we'd park by the big Almendro tree. Like clockwork, we'd turn around when we were at the halfway mark to the outside and there would be at least two guys in the car looking for anything that wasn't nailed down. We'd see the potential thieves out at night and it was a running joke that they were never going to get anything more than the first pair of cheap flippy's they scored. One of thieves bought one of my boards at the end of the trip and they helped get our little SUV out of the sand at least twice during the month my buddy and I were there.
At Playa Hermosa, we'd park by the big Almendro tree. Like clockwork, we'd turn around when we were at the halfway mark to the outside and there would be at least two guys in the car looking for anything that wasn't nailed down. We'd see the potential thieves out at night and it was a running joke that they were never going to get anything more than the first pair of cheap flippy's they scored. One of thieves bought one of my boards at the end of the trip and they helped get our little SUV out of the sand at least twice during the month my buddy and I were there.
No, but that place was notorious though. I can't remember the names of the couple places I'd go out to.
Jaco area is just like any touristic city, it has crack heads who will take anything. There is a reason why all the hotels have 15 foot fences with glass shards at the top. You don't really see them wandering the streets during the day, but at night you can hear them scampering around. I saw some tourists park out in front of a hostel with their surfboards tied to the roof. I thought to myself, I hope they are just visiting for the day. Sure enough, they stayed the night and of course the car was broken into and boards were taken. I don't know why they didnt park inside the hostel complex, maybe lazy or naive. The same thing would have happened in any beach city in california. I was there a couple years ago and it is becoming more gentrified very slowly, and I'm sure the pandemic hasn't helped. Hermosa has more yoga retreat type of stuff now so I think they try to watch over the cars parked because they don't want to lose business, but I still wouldn't leave anything worth stealing in the car. I dislocated my arm at hermosa and some yoga jedi lady walked up and offered to fix it. She had this cool yoga tree fort next to the little beach cafe. Worked on my arm for an hour, better than any PT i'v had done here. She was legit, and rips at surfing too. Probably helps out allot of surfers who blow their arms out there.
I do not understand why anyone would go to Jaco, other than to party and run whores. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
i usually stay at Playa Hermosa every year. Its a tradition. I like having jaco near by for conveniance. i usually cook my own food when im there so the gorcery store ia a huge plus, and when you do want to get into a little trouble, or eat a nice meal in the outdoor mall,its nice that the option is there. It also cleans up a teeeny bit every year with all the yogi's and juice bars taking over the storefronts on the south end.