Which beach in Manuel Antonio
 

Will be in MA after Easter. Want to visit the MA national park on Friday (April 1) in the morning and spend the afternoon at the beach.

Which beach would be the nicest for our family with teens? Also, since we won't have a car, are their lockers at the MA national park where we can store our beach towels/clothes? Also, any place for lunch in the area?

You do not really have to decide on one beach , all of them are within easy walking distance , one after the other basically . The big public beach is filled with lots of teens , surfers , local and otherwise with all kinds of places to eat ( have your stuff in backpacks ). Inside the park are the really pretty beaches , calmer for swimming , lots of wildlife and also a bit of hiking will get you to more remote beaches if the tide is in your favor . But beaches 2 and 3 inside the park are beautiful .

Hi LeslieC - My young teens loved both beaches 2 and 3. 3 was the calmer of the 2 and without any riptides, at the least the days we were there. Beach 2 was rougher - no riptides, but they like it that way. It was too rough for me though! (that's not saying much) I loved beach 3. I had read that the other MA beaches did have riptides so we did not go to them. The park beaches are beautiful and the water is like bath water. One other thing about Beach 3 - there is more shade in the afternoon than at Beach 2 - that was helpful because it is hot in MA. As for picnicing, we took a Neat Sheet to sit on. (I ordered it from Walgreens.com along with stonger bug spray, since it is not available here in winter.) It worked great! We picniced on that. There are picnic tables in various places, also. As for lockers, there are none, but one of us just stayed with our stuff and everything was OK. Once, I had to keep an eye on an iguana who looked interested in our snacks!

Thanks for the info on the different beachs.Does anyone know if there are restrooms in the park and how close they are to the beach? Also,where would you recommend eating while you are visiting the park?
Thanks!

There are paths which run along in behind the beaches , on these paths there are a set of washrooms ( also a few open showers to rinse off). As well , at the very end of Beach 3(also called Playa Manuel Antonio or Playa Blanca - yup , 3 names )there are places to change etc. There is no place to buy food inside the park . Tons of little places to choose from at the public beach ... simple little places with basic fare ,just take your pick !!

Please keep in mind these are very basic beach washrooms , shower consists of big barrel things overhead with a concrete slab to stand on ..... Serves the purpose though !

Thanks faithie,
Basic washrooms are fine just need a place to change. Thats great they have a place to rinse off.

Thanks to all for these helpful replies. I do believe we want to go to the beach inside the park. But it sounds like we'll have to pack in a picnic lunch, correct?

If you are there on a not so busy day, you can go to the park in the morning, leave and have lunch at a soda right outside the park and go back in.