Brasilito, Conchal & Tamarindo are just a few of the jewels of the Pacific

Luxury Resorts		All Inclusive Resorts		Golf
Beach Houses		Deep Sea Fishing		Surfing

Guanacaste’s beaches are in the top ten best in Costa Rica for all this and more!

The northwest corner of Guanacaste province is the driest region in Costa Rica so it shouldn’t be surprising that most of the international hotel chains have chosen this area to locate their beach resorts.

All Inclusive Beach Resorts

Starting at the top of the map also happens to be the top resort – the Four Seasons at Peninsula Papagayo with three beaches and an Arnold Palmer championship golf course.  South from there you’ll find familiar names like Hilton, Ríu and Westin until you reach the JW Marriott south of Tamarindo.  A few newcomers are less familiar but recommended Dreams Las Mareas, Secrets (formerly Hilton Papagayo), and Mangroove.

Further south the pavement ends and the resorts give way to the smaller boutique hotels and surfer cabinas of the Nicoya Peninsula.

Beach Communities

Playas del Coco, Hermosa, Grande, Brasilito, Panamá, and Flamingo were all once sleepy fishing villages where you’ll now find dozens of options for small to medium sized hotels and resorts, rental houses and condos and dozens of restaurants and bars to explore.  Any one of them can be the perfect setting to just collapse and enjoy the beach for a week or two.

Tamarindo was also once a fishing village but differs from its neighbors because it’s significantly outstripped the others in development.  Condo towers rise from the beach and small shopping malls are all along the main road.  Dozens of hotels and a couple of mini-resorts provide home bases for surfers and beach lovers who want more nightlife and action than the smaller beach destinations offer.

National Parks, Reserves & Wildlife Refuges

North of the cluster of resorts on the gulf of Papagayo is one of the largest chunks of world’s remaining tropical dry forest and some of the wildest most deserted beaches in Costa Rica within Santa Rosa National Park.  There’s a 4WD road (open seasonally and at the discretion of the rangers) from the La Casona station to Playa Naranjo and Costa Rica’s second most famous surf break (the long left at Pavones is legendary) at Witch’s rock.

From the northern Murcialago station near Cuajiniquil a 20 km track (sometimes passable by 4WD) stretches all the way to the tip of the Santa Rosa peninsula passing a dozen of the most perfectly secluded beaches in the world along the way.

Other notable natural areas are Mario Las Baulas (leather back sea turtle) National park at Tamarindo, Bahía Junquillal wildlife refuge near Nicaragua and Costa Esmeralda and Iguanita refuges in between.

What is Not in the Northern Guanacaste Beach Region

Sometimes it’s as helpful when planning to know what’s not readily available in an area as it is to know what’s there.  Because it’s so dry the Papagayo region offers more luxury resorts than the rest of Costa Rica combined, but for the same reason there’s no rainforest here. More on what you shouldn’t expect on the Guanacaste Beaches.