Tamarindo COSTA RICA, a Valentine's Day Wish

Tamarindo is on the Northern Nicoya Peninsula coast of Costa Rica. It is a tourist beach destination, with a small population of about 500 people with little infrastructure, but it can be a great vacation. The accommodations are as nice as they come and the restaurants are as well. Surfing again is king, with 2 professional breaks where tournaments are often held and the swells reach as much as 12 feet during November and December. The remainder of the beach is good for the beginner surfers and safe for swimming, but don’t forget, you are on the Pacific coast where getting caught in an outgoing riptide can be deadly. From December to April the leatherback turtles take over Playa Grande beach and it is quite an amazing ecological event.

Our trip to Tamarindo almost 1 1/2 years ago was a solo trip, no children, and combined with a fact finding mission a year to the date before we moved to Atenas. We landed in San Jose, stayed in a cheap but nice hotel, and then embarked on a 2 day personal tour of The Real Costa Rica. After the tour we set our sights on Tamarindo. We booked a flight with Nature Air which took just under an hour from San Jose. The planes are small and fly at a lower altitude than an airliner so the views out the window were spectacular.

We landed on a dirt air strip and as soon as we hopped off the plane a young man identified us, grabbed our luggage and whisked us down the bumpy dirt road to the sweet boutique hotel Capitan Suizo. This place is the bomb. There are howler monkeys all over the immaculately landscaped property and our air conditioned bungalow was built out of native hardwoods from floor to ceiling. The pool was lovely, the restaurant was fabulous, and we relaxed on the beach, wined, dined and tried to make another baby. 

We weren’t the only ones either.  One evening we saw a naked couple sitting on their patio in their beachfront bungalow - I think they assumed their jungle surroundings were thick enough to hide their bare skin. You should try it someday, we highly recommend it.  I only wish we could go again and I could treat my beautiful wife to a Valentine's Day getaway. She deserves it since she just gave birth our new baby girl, Sofia about 3 weeks ago. Unfortunately, it is hard enough leaving 2 kids with a babysitter, but now we have 3. So it looks like our romantic getaway will just have to wait. If anyone is lucky enough to take a vaca - try Hotel Capitan Suizo on the beach, it was perfect, and have a drink for us! Happy Valentines Day. Pura Vida!

Be a Fan