ellen730

A friend and I are going to be in CR is June/July, spending half the time at Arenal and half on the beach. We're young, so some nightlife would be nice but we definitely don't want a party beach. She prefers a beach with nearby hiking or wildlife for exploring. I want that too, but I'd also like to find a good beginner's beach for surfing.

Originally we were looking at Samara but now I am concerned it might not be exactly what we're looking for.

Some say Malpais might be a good place to try. Suggestions? Keep in mind we will NOT be renting a car (instead taking buses) and will be coming from Arenal to the beach, so we don't want to spend more than a day traveling between the two.

Suggestions?

THANK YOU!

Iza

Samara may be too quiet for you and there is no surfing. Nosara has surfing but it is VERY quiet. Malpais is beautiful and it is definitely a surfing beach but not much of a town - you can hang out with fellow surfers, though. It is also fairly difficult to get to.

It sounds like Tamarindo may be a good spot for you, although for my taste it has become a bit too much of a boom town. But you will be able to find a good combination of surfing, night life, good selection of restaurants and nearby hiking and exploring. Manuel Antonio would also be nice - good combo of beach, hiking, wildlife etc., but I am not sure about surfing there. Maybe someone else can weigh in it.

LA_FadeAway

You might think about Montezuma too. I'm not sure about surfing there, but Mal Pais is not tooo far away. Montezuma expeditions (http://www.montezumaexpeditions.com/transfers.htm) offers transfers from Arenal for $38 per person.

shillmac

Definitely if you should choose Mal Pais (and I wouldn't recommend it unless you have quite a bit of time), you would have to depend on Montezuma for night life. There basically is NONE at Mal Pais. . .just returned from there. Great surfing, great place to relax, but when the sun goes down, the day is OVER! Montezuma, on the other hand, would have a lot going on at night, I'm sure. There is a LITTLE bit of a problem (at least for us--we didn't go over there at night) because it is about a 45 minute drive on some fairly rough terrain to get there. You have to drive back inland to Cobano and then cut back down to the Montezuma beach. There IS a road that some of the locals will tell you about that connects Cabuya (close to Montezuma) to Mal Pais, but PLEASE trust me---you would NEVER NEVER want to take this one at night. We drove it during the day. It was almost impassable it was so rugged--very narrow one lane, very hilly, washed out, huge rocks, you get the picture. The hotel people didn't tell us about it, (and we soon discovered why) but the locals said we could return to Mal Pais on it. The number of kilometers was considerable less than our usual route of going back through Cobano, but believe me, we would never take the road again--even in the daytime. Tamarindo, on the other hand, has it all. Good surfing, high speed internet!, cool shops, good restaurants, nightlife. A lot of people think Tamarindo has become too busy and commercialized, but we've always enjoyed spending at least a couple of days there.

KatieS

I would recommend Manuel Antonio or a beach adjacent to Tamarindo (but not Tamarindo). I went on a trip in January with a group of my girlfriends and wanted the same mix of good nightlife, but not party beach, etc. One of my friends took a surfing lesson in Manuel Antonio and another took one in Tamarindo - of the two, Tamarindo definitely caters to surfing and has beginning surfing lessons everywhere you go.

The benefit of MA is the national park - lots of wildlife and beautiful beaches within. The nightlife was fun and ranged from dance clubs to nice dinners at local hotels.

Tamarindo itself is an awful beach (lots of horses and their...um, droppings) and the town is overrun by young American surfers. A total disappointment. BUT, Playa Grande and Playa Langosta on either side of it are gorgeous. If i were to go back, I'd go to Playa Grande. You would have a great beach, good, calm surf and access to the town of Tamarindo for some nightlife.

Montezuma is great as well. One of my favorite locations on our trip, but the surf was pretty rough, even for treading water. The town is really cute and small. Its a popular place, but it feels pretty isolated compared to Tamarindo and MA. The nightlife was relaxed and fun. We stayed at Sano Bonano on the beach and have nothing but great things to say about it. The only negative is the surf - otherwise, Montezuma might be the way to go.

ellen730

Wow -- thanks everyone. We had looked at Montezuma before but was concerned about travel time. We'll look again at it and Tamarindo, though I'm not still sold on Tamarindo. Given the choice between a beautiful beach with no night life and a bad beach with lots of night life, we'd pick the quiet beach.

But thanks for all the input. And if there are other suggestions please share them!

Ally

While Mal Pais is a quiet town and does not have 'nightlife' so to speak, we found fun at Mal Pais Surf camp. It's mostly younger people (we were the oldest at 40's I'm sure) who are looking for some kind of night entertainment. They have the largest pool in the area and their bar has a pool table and board games. Darts and surf video's. It was lively enough for us. With hiking and good surf, this Mal Pais might be the place for you, though as others have said, it takes a while to get there. It would probably take all day from Arenal, but worth it once you get there.

ellen730

Great. Does anyone know about weather in June/July? I know its the beginning of the rainy season. Does anyone know how that will affect water conditions? From what I understand its typically sunny til mid-afternoon for a storm...

ellen730

Shoot -- forgot to ask. We are going to be on a pretty tight budget. Any accomodations suggestions at Tamarindo, Playa Grande, Nosara, Malpais, Montezuma?

KatieS

I'm not sure how tight your budget is, but we stayed at Hotel Pasatiempo in Tamarindo and El Sano Bonano in Montezuma. Both were moderately priced and we enoyed our stay in each.

Ally

Tamarindo area may be just a BIT dryer than Mal Pais, but won't be a problem, so don't worry about that! Yes, just mostly afternoon or evening showers. I don't know your budget either but here's some suggestions.
You won't find many hotels on Playa Grande at all, because that's where the giant leatherback turtles go to lay their eggs so the beaches are protected, but one hotel is El Bucanero. It's about 10-15 minutes from the town of Tamarindo. Rates are $35-45.
Villa Baula Hotel for about $45-$50.
In Tamarindo, El Jardin Del Eden at about $60. (Highly recommend)
In Nosara, Cafe de Paris, $45, Guilded Iquana (my 1st choice) $50, Blew Dog Surf Club, $35-$45 and Harbor Reef, $60. You can also get good prices at Casa Tucan if you just walk up.
In Mal Pais, the Surf camp has rooms from $25 for shared bath, to $65 for private cabin. We really liked Tropico Latino for $65 too.

shillmac

We just stayed at Tropico Latino and liked it (Santa Teresa/Mas Pais), but the rates were $85 garden, $95 oceanview (don't know how much they will drop for the green season, if any). It was a nice property. The Pasatiempo in Tamarindo is one of our favorite places and we have stayed there several times. About $60 a night in the green season. Not on the beach, but good atmosphere. Cabinas Zully Mar might be a good alternative (in Tamarindo) as well. They own a nice little restaurant across the street and on the beach. They are close to the main area of town.

Ally

We stayed at Tropico latino in Sept. a couple years ago and got the garden room for $65. Their web site still shows this discount for the 'green season'.

ellen730

Excellent. I think we have narrowed it down to between Mal Pais / Montezuma / Santa Teresa. Some sites say Montezuma has become too much of a tourist town. Others say its secluded. What gives? If we find Montezuma to be too busy, how difficult would it be to go to Mal Pais or Santa Teresa (or vice versa if we're looking for a bit more life...)?

And thanks for the info so far. This is incredibly helpful.

shillmac

Montezuma is both secluded and busy. Secluded because it isn't very close to anything else (or seems far because of roads) and busy because there are more people (tourist) there than anywhere on the southern Nicoya Peninsula. If you wanted to "quiet down" at Mal Pais/St. Teresa or "liven it up" at Montezuma, you would have about a 45 minute drive--through the town of CObano, (note the accent), which is a little larger and sort of the commercial center of the area. It is where you go to "do business". . .ATM, etc. It's inland.

Ally

Santa Teresa and Mal Pais is basically the same place. From the main (only) road to the area, you will come to an intersection at the beach. If you turn right, you are in Santa Teresa. If you turn left, your in Mal Pais! If I remember correctly, it's only about an hour from Montezuma.
Shillmac may be able to answer that better as he's been there most recently. Oh, in fact I just re-read his post and he says about 45 minutes. There are buses that go between the two towns, but they may take longer. Just inquire at whatever hotel you stay at. They should be able to help you.

shillmac

Yes, you can catch a bus at Frank's Place. This is a hotel/restaurant at the "crossroads" where you turn right to Sta. Teresa and left to Mal Pais. We ate a couple of nights there and saw the tour desk and the buses coming and going picking people up. You can also get transfers to Samara and Tamarindo from here, I believe. Yes, it was 45 minutes. My husband times everything! Well, maybe not EVERYTHING. . . .but almost! By the way, we ate an incredible lunch in Montezuma at a restaurant down at the end of the first main street to the left. I didn't note the name of it, and wish I knew, but we sat overlooking the beach, and the food was very good. Had a strawberry, pineapple, banana shake to die for! We used Montezuma not for the nightlife (although I'm sure it is lively!) --because we didn't want to drive the 45 minutes at night after we had already been there during the day--but we loved going there 2 different days. One day we went to the falls and spent time enjoying the cold pool after a hot hike and did some climbing around the falls. The next day we hiked the Cabo Blanco Reserve. . .very tiring, but enjoyable. On this hike, you have the choice of an hour and a half loop during which you will see plenty of wildlife or a 2 hour one way hike up and over the ridge to the beach on the other side. We did this, and it was a 5 hour round trip. Fun, but extremely taxing! Saw great wildlife. Were glad to see showers and fresh potable water at the beach. Good idea to take plenty of water and even a little lunch or snack for replenish your strength while resting at the beach before heading back!

LA_FadeAway

Shillmac,
Do you know if it's still true that Cabo Blanco is closed on both Mondays and Tuesdays? I just read this somewhere and we will be arriving in Montezuma on Sunday afternoon and leaving Wednesday morning! It won't kill me to miss it in the rainy season, but it sounded like something we might want to do.

Iza

Cabo Blanco is in fact closed both Monday and Tuesday. We visited it last August and walked the shorter loop trail which was beautiful - but we didn't see a lot of wildlife - too late in the day, I suppose.

Montezuma, is a small town which seems busy relative to other place on southern Nicoya Peninsula but is much quieter than, say, Tamarindo. I thought the beach in Malpais and Santa Teresa was much prettier than in Montezuma.

shillmac

LA FadeAway:
This would have been our problem exactly--except we were not leaving until Thursday. We did the reserve on Wednesday. Your trip is a few months down the road. You could probably adjust forward a day or two (or extend one day) and work this out. I hate to say "don't miss it" because everyone's tastes are not the same, but we enjoyed this very strenuous hike! Saw some wildlife we hadn't seen before on other hikes in C. R. for example: little brown and white tailed deer (little petite things!); anteaters, others saw little wild pigs. . .just to name a few.