Playa Flamingo

Playa Flamingo Review

One of the first northern Nicoya beaches to experience the wonders of overdevelopment—a fact immortalized in the concrete towers that straggle up the hill above the bay—Flamingo still has some hidden charms, including one of the loveliest Blue Flag beaches and one of the best restaurants in Costa Rica. The place is still abuzz with real-estate activity, and any ledge of land with a view is a building site. But Flamingo Beach, hidden away to the southwest of the town, is picture-perfect, with almost-white sand sloping into a relatively calm sea and buttonwood trees separating it from the road. This beach is great for swimming, with a fine-sand bottom and no strong currents, though there are a few submerged rocks in front of the Flamingo Beach Resort, so you should swim a bit farther south. There's sometimes a bit of surf, so if the waves are big, keep your eye on little paddlers. There is little shade along the beach's 1-km-long (½-mi-long) stretch, and no services, though there are restaurants in the beach resort and the adjacent town. To find the beach, go straight as you enter town, and instead of going up the hill, turn left after the Flamingo Beach Resort.