Costa Rica

Playa Langosta, Tamarindo, Malpais, Santa Teresa, and Paquera

My husband, Mike, and I decided to visit Costa Rica for our honeymoon in July 2022 and it did not disappoint.

Costa Rica is located in Central America with coastlines on the Caribbean and Pacific side. It’s known for being a rainforest with about a quarter of its area made up of protected jungle filled with tons of wildlife including monkeys, birds, and lots (like LOTS) of insects.

Getting there

There are two main airports in Costa Rica with the biggest being located in the capital, San Jose. This airport is centrally located in the country making it a popular airport for international travelers. The second biggest airport is located in Liberia which is located closer to the pacific side on the north-west side of the country. Since our trip included lots of surfing spots in this area, we decided to fly into the Liberia Airport (LIR).

Where to stay

Let’s be clear, Costa Rica is huge – it’s a whole country after all. Since I have only visited once, I will share where we stayed and my recommendations for these areas. Just know, where to stay in Costa Rica is really going to depend on what sort of trip you want to have – surfing and beaching, adventure and hiking, waterfalls and wildlife, etc…

Playa Langosta | near Tamarindo

We heard Tamarindo was a popular spot for visitors to Costa Rica because of the surf culture and it’s location near to the airport. While searching for Airbnb’s to stay near Tamarindo we found this one which is technically located in Playa Langosta – about a 2 min drive (5 min bike ride or 15 min walk) away from the main strip in Tamarindo.

We cannot recommend this Airbnb and this location enough. Playa Langosta, the neighborhood, is close enough to Tamarindo where you can go for food, drinks, shopping, people watching, etc… but in a quieter and more neighborly location. The beach, Playa Langosta, was just a 5 min walk away from the Airbnb’s location and this was our favorite beach in the area. It was both a great surfing spot, a beautiful and clean beach to hang out on, and less busy than Tamarindo.

Besides location, we loved this Airbnb because the place itself was beautiful, modern, and so clean. Jesse, who owns the Airbnb, greeted us at check in and made sure we had everything we needed for our stay including answering our questions about Costa Rica. He told us there were bikes and surfboards on the property we could borrow which we also greatly appreciated.

Malpais | near Santa Teresa

The Malpais and Santa Teresa area was the absolute favorite part of our trip. Similar to our first destination, we heard Malpais was nearby to the cool surf spot of Santa Teresa so when we found this Airbnb – we locked it in right away.

This Airbnb made our trip; just like the photos, truly breathtaking. The property is nestled high up on a hill overlooking the beaches of Malpais, Playa Carmen, and Santa Teresa. If you decide to stay at this place or one that’s similar, make sure your car has 4 wheel drive – the hill up is very steep.

The drive to Santa Teresa, where all the action is, was not too bad either. About a 10 min drive away (on a very bumpy road) was a long strip of restaurants with delicious food, cute boutiques for shopping, and plenty of places to rent surf equipment.

Santa Teresa has some of the best food we had during the entire trip and we wish we could have stayed longer to try more of it.

I've never actually stayed in the same Airbnb twice but we've already decided to come back and stay again it was that good.

Paquera

About 1 hour and 30 min East of Malpais was our final destination in Paquera. Paquera was the most remote location we stayed at during our trip and we wanted to visit because we heard there was bioluminescence in the bay which we thought would be fun to check out.

We found this Airbnb, which similar to our Malpais spot, looked to have breathtaking views high up on a hill. We had a lovely stay here but we probably wouldn’t stay again because of how remote it was.

It was run sort of like a bed-n-breakfast where breakfast was included and each morning of the stay and was prepared on site by the staff. Throughout the day you could order drinks at the bar for an additional cost as well as dinner in the evening – again everything prepared on site.

If you are looking for a more remote spot in a beautiful location without many people around then this spot in Paquera may be the right one for you. It’s important to note that unfortunately, due to thunderstorms both nights we were there, we were unable to see the bioluminescence – so just know, that some experiences they offer are just not guaranteed.

Trip timeline by location

Our trip in total was 8 days and brought us to three core areas on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. If you’re interested in what we did during each location, keep reading!

Arrive in Liberia (LIR); drive 1 hr 30 min to Playa Langosta
Stay 4 days in Playa Langosta / Tamarindo
Drive 4 hours to Malpais
Stay 3 days in Malpais / Santa Teresa
Drive 1 hr 15 min to Paquera
Stay 3 days in Paquera
Drive 3 hours to Liberia (LIR); return home

How to get around

Based on the trip we had planned to make 3 different stops on the pacific side of the country, we decided to rent a car.

A lot of people warned us around driving in Costa Rica because there are a lot of unfinished roads with potholes, but knowing a lot of people rent cars to get around Costa Rica, we decided to proceed with it ourselves and I’m really glad we did.

Yes, there are many roads that are unfinished with many, many potholes but we found it all to be very manageable as long as your are a cautious and safe driver. Driving worked really well for us because we wanted the flexibility to drive 4 hours south to our second destination during our trip, which would have been made more complicated and more expensive if we needed to rent shuttles to take us around.

While there, we learned over the last few years, there was a newly paved road that was built which connected the north area near Tamarindo to the south side near Santa Teresa which really made our trip a breeze.

Type of rental

For two of the three Airbnb’s we rented in Costa Rica, they pretty much required us to have a vehicle with 4-wheel drive to get to the property, so that was very top of mind for us when it came to renting.

During our research for the trip, we also noticed many people generally just recommended to get a 4-wheel drive vehicle to safely get around the roads so I think from now on, we will always rent there with a car that has 4-wheel drive capabilities when visiting Costa Rica.

The cost

The cost of renting a car is not necessarily cheap but again, depending on your trip could be the cheaper option. Our rental costed us about $100/per day including insurance which I highly recommend getting. Remember the roads are still pretty bad in certain areas which could cause damage to the car and if you’re reading this blog, you probably haven’t spent that much time driving in Costa Rica before – so better to be safe than sorry.

Through our research we saw this cost of about $100/day to be the average of renting a car in Costa Rica and that if you find anything that looks significantly lower, you are probably looking at the cost before adding insurance and other protections on the vehicle. This may be the company trying to capture your business as a customer before showing you what the actual cost is going to be once you arrive.

Do you research with this and set yourself up with clear expectations for how much it’s going to cost you and it’ll be a breeze.

We had a great experience renting through Alamo and would definitely use them again in the case we need to rent a car in Costa Rica.

When to visit

Mike and I got marred in July and went straight to our honeymoon so we visited Costa Rica during it’s rainy season which runs from May to mid-December.

Leading up to our trip, we checked the weather and it was honestly hilarious how bad it looked. It showed rain, flash floods, thunderstorms, every single day of our trip. We knew we’d make the best of it no matter what, but we thought it would be nice to get at least a little bit of sunshine while we were there! Well, as it turns out, when we got there, we got just that – lots of sunshine! The sun was out each day during our trip. It was perfect.

We learned the weather in Costa Rica is very hard to predict so when you check the weather forecast it’s not really that accurate. If it does rain, it often rains in spurts of time and then moves on.

During our trip, we got mostly nice and sunny weather throughout the day, and then at night it would completely switch to heavy rainfall and thunderstorms. Only a few times during the day it rained, and each time we saw it coming and took cover before it got to us.

We heard that the worst weather days in Costa Rica happen when there’s a dramatic peak in precipitation from September into November – with October being the worst. Contrast that with their dry season, where there's nearly no rainfall between January and April.

All in all, we had a blast during our trip in July and the weather was not a huge factor in disrupting our plans. The only excursion we for sure missed out on due to weather was a bioluminescence tour in Paquera which of course would happen in the evening, right around the time the thunderstorms would start.

Where to eat and drink

Tamarindo

Generally speaking, we were a little bit underwhelmed with the food options we came across in Tamarindo with a lot of restaurants (especially the beach front spots) seeming to be overpriced and just not very good. Maybe we just didn’t do enough research to find the right spots? Not sure. That said, we did come across a few places we thought were standouts.

El Mercadito - $
This was Mike and I’s favorite places to eat. It’s set up like a food court with many vendors to choose from which offer different cuisines. We had been seeking out traditional Costa Rican food so both times we went, we ordered from the Costa Rican vendor and the food was SO good and for such a good price.

Breaking Bread - $
Absolutely AMAZING breakfast spot! So sad we only went once. Definitely order a smoothie with your meal. We ordered the shakshuka and french toast – both made with their homemade challah bread. So 👏 good 👏

Patagonia Argentinian Grill - $$$
We had an absolutely amazing meal here and highly recommend the steak! Although the atmosphere is casual, it is a more expensive sort of meal with prices feeling familiar to a nice night out in the US. I do recommend calling ahead of time and asking for a reservation! We called the same day and were able to get the dinner time, granted we were traveling during non-busy season so it could be different during different parts of the year.

Jardín Tamarindo Food Truck Park - $
We stopped in the food truck park for a drink and a small bite to eat early on during our trip and it definitely didn’t disappoint. We ordered ceviche as a snack and made our way to the bar. The bar here is so cute! We did tequila shots (because – yah know, honeymoon) and grabbed beers togo which we took with us while we walked on the beach.

Shakshouka and challah at Breaking Bread

Malpais

Tierra Mar - $
This cute, family run restaurant was at the bottom of the hill to where our Airbnb was and was the perfect dinner spot for us during our first night in Malpais. We ordered traditional Costa Rican meals togo so we could eat and watch sunset from our Airbnb. The owner of Tierra Mar is Mayli and she’s so sweet. Definitely recommend!

Santa Teresa

Eat Street - $
This spot is INCREDIBLE. We went here twice during our short trip in town and I still can’t wait to go back one day and try even more of the dishes. Eat Street sort of looks like a food hall where there are multiple vendors you can order from with different cuisines as well as a cocktail bar but we thought it may have all been run by the same company.

The first time we came here we were just looking for a snack to tide us over before dinner so we ordered ceviche and hummus. To our surprise these appetizers ended up being in huge portions and just absolutely SO GOOD. Probably some of the best ceviche and hummus I’ve ever had. We decided to come back the next day for lunch before we headed out on the road for our final destination.

For lunch, we ordered grain bowls and again… so freaking good! Specifically, we ordered the Mahi Mahi Curry Bowl and the Lentil Mango Bowl. If you’re ever in Santa Teresa – this spot is a must!

Ani’s Bowls and Salads - $
When we were looking for a lunch spot after Mike’s morning surf sesh - we stumbled across Ani’s Bowls and Salads and, omg it was so good! This cute cafe is alongside a few boutique shops right off of the beach and I honestly wanted to try everything on the menu. We got a smoothie bowl and a grilled cheese breakfast sandwich. Both were so yum! I would love to come back and try more things on the menu!

Katana - $$
Katana was such a highlight for us! After our Airbnb host recommended us to come here for dinner and remember seeing Katana on a list of places to try in Santa Theresa, I texted the restaurant on WhatsApp (which you can find on their Instagram account) to see if we could get a reservation for that night. We got it and we went to dinner after watching sunset from our Airbnb. We ordered all dishes to share – our favorite from the sushi menu was the Volcano Roll (a must try!) and we ordered the Butter Chicken from another section of the menu and it was also just so good.

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All in all, we were so pleasantly surprised with the food options in Malpais and Santa Teresa. We ate so much good food and saw so many more spots to try – it really doesn’t seem like you could go wrong here.

Paquera

Like I mentioned earlier, Paquera is very remote. We found a restaurant at the bottom of the hill from the Airbnb we were staying at but it was so local that it didn’t really have a name – or at least one we could find. At any rate, if you find yourself at this same Airbnb we were at and are looking for a lunch spot - I do highly recommend this restaurant. All the food was local Costa Rican cuisine and we ordered the calamari plate. It was sooo good, especially the plantains.

Tortuga Island

During our time in Paquera we did do a short day trip to Tortuga Island which is a small island surrounded by the bay near Paquera.

Tortuga Island seems like a place that the surrounding resorts take guests to for day trips and there are a number of local Costa Ricans who work on the island for when the guests arrive.

I have two food recommendations for you if you find yourself on Tortuga Island. The first is to order yourself a cocoloco – which is a fresh coconut with rum drink. And the second is to try the fresh oysters. The guy who we bought the oysters from said he caught them that morning. They were so fresh and so good and it was a really cool experience to see him prep it in front of us. The oysters came with onions and fresh lime juice as well as hot sauce to taste. So good and such a cool experience!

Must Do’s

La Leona Waterfall hike
This hike was awesome and I highly, highly recommend it. You have the option of getting picked up and shuttled over to the beginning of the hiking spot or driving yourself there (with a 4-wheel drive vehicle) and since we had a car we opted to drive ourselves there.

This hike is advertised as an intermediate hike but it’s definitely more of an adventurous sort of hike on the advanced side so — be warned.

The most hilarious part of the hike was that on the website it says to, “wear good hiking shoes that can get wet” – but we soon discovered that not only do your shoes get wet but you fully submerge yourself in water and swim during the hike - an actual LOL sort of moment when we realized that.

This was a private hike and our tour guide was a local Costa Rican guy named Ner who was an absolutely wonderful tour guide and a wonderful person to get to know. We stopped at many points along the way to learn about the area and about different wildlife. I felt like we were in safe hands with Ner by our side.

After the hike we ate a delicious Costa Rican meal served to us at the entrance of the hike which was on a small farm with some of the freshest mango juice I have ever drank before.

If I were to do this hike again, I would probably wear shoes that were completely waterproof with the expectations that my feet would be completely submerged in water for a large part of the hike. I would also make sure that we either left our backpack in the car or brought ourselves our own dry bag. Luckily, Ner had a dry bag for the hike (it’s like he knew what he was doing!), and he let us put our wallets, keys, and phones in the dry bag for the duration of the tour.

Ner also took photos and videos of us throughout the hike which was so special! He helps run a personal Instagram account for the tours – @laleona_waterfall – so make sure to check it out and reach out to the account directly if you have questions.

Sunset boat cruise
We did a sunset boat cruise during our stay in Playa Langosta and the boat departed out of Tamarindo. We super lucked out with the weather that day because the night before it was storming pretty hard, but the day we went out it stayed dry all throughout the evening and we got to see an absolutely beautiful sunset.

We had an enjoyable time on the boat cruise which we booked through Airbnb, but I wouldn't necessarily say it was a good enough of an expereince that I’d want to link it here.

The boat cruise was advertised as a snorkeling and sunset cruise but I think it was just not a good time of the year to go snorkeling or something because the water was so foggy that we couldn’t see anything. It was still nice to get in the water during the trip we just were set up with false expectations.

The boat also had an all-you-can-drink bar onboard where we drank many pina coladas and they served us a Costa Rican meal after snorkeling which was very delicious. All in all, it was a good time but I imagine there are many boat cruises that offer a similar experience out of Tamarindo so I recommend doing a bit of research and booking one on your own. When in doubt, check Airbnb!

Surfing
We specifically stayed on the pacific side of Costa Rica, so Mike could go surfing and he had such a blast with it while we were here. Compared to where we live in San Diego, the beaches we visited were much less crowded for surfing than what he was used to – although we did visit during the non-busy season so keep that in mind.

Mike’s a more advanced surfer so with that in mind, the beaches we’d recommend for surfing at would be: Playa Langosta, Playa Negra, Playa Carmen, and Santa Teresa. Based on how many surf lessons we saw going on during the first part of our stay, I believe Tamarindo would be a good surf spot for beginners as well as certain parts of the Santa Teresa area.

Biking around
We had bikes we were allowed to borrow at the first place we stayed at in Playa Langosta and it was so fun to just bike around the area and into Tamarindo. I would definitely recommend renting them if you are visiting and don’t have access to any to borrow. This is a fun way to get to know the area.

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A quick note on shelling – it’s not allowed, don’t do it.
Mike and I love collecting shells and have done quite a bit of shelling in Maui, Hawaii especially while we were living there in 2020. In Costa Rica, there are SO many beautiful shells, all over the place. We got so excited and started collecting them while walking the beach various mornings during our stay.

Sadly, all our shells were confiscated at the airport and with a quick Google search we discovered that bringing shells off of Costa Rica is just not allowed. I wanted to make sure to include this since it was an innocent mistake of ours and to help anyone else who may not realize this as well.

Below is a photo I took of our shell collection that I organized during our final stay in Paquera. At least we can look at this photo and reminisce!

Lifetimes In: Costa Rica was last updated July 2022