Cahuita

Dusty Cahuita (pronounced cah-WEE-tah), its main street flanked by wooden-slat cabins, is a backpackers' vacation town—a hippie hangout where you can be immersed in Afro-Caribbean culture. Tucked in among the backpackers' digs are a few surprisingly nice get-away-from-it-all lodgings, and restaurants with some tasty cuisine at decent prices. After years of negative crime-related publicity, Cahuita has beefed up security and has made a well-deserved comeback on the tourist circuit. No question that nearby Puerto Viejo de Talamanca has overtaken Cahuita and become the hottest spot on the southern Caribbean coast. But as Puerto Viejo grows exponentially, Cahuita's appeal is that it remains small and manageable. It's well worth a look.