Tamarindo
Tamarindo is the easiest beach town in Costa Rica to reach and the one that teaches the whole northern Pacific to surf. Eight hundred leatherbacks a year nest along this coast.
Tamarindo in a nutshell
Tamarindo: what to expect
The figures here sit on 87,000+ planned stops across Costa Rica on Stippl.
Tamarindo is the easiest beach town in Costa Rica to get to, and the waves are beginner waves. Ninety minutes from Guanacaste Airport on a paved road, with the surf schools using the town beach because the bottom is sand and the break forgiving. Las Baulas National Marine Park covers the bay, protecting the largest leatherback nesting colony on the Pacific coast at Playa Grande. The estuary behind the town runs into mangroves with two monkey species, wading birds and crocodiles in them, and Playa Conchal north of here is made of crushed shells.
Nowhere in Costa Rica keeps travellers as long as Tamarindo, and it is where the country splits in two. Stays here run to three nights and beyond more often than at any other destination we measure. From Tamarindo, Uvita and Tortuguero both sit below what trip length alone would predict, exactly as Tamarindo does from their side: Costa Rica is planned as two trips and travellers pick a coast.
Take the surf lesson here rather than chasing better waves, and stay 3 nights. Playa Avellanas and Playa Grande are half an hour away when you want them, and the Catalinas Islands are thirty minutes up the coast for rays. Leatherback nesting runs October to February with a certified guide, and sightings are genuinely unreliable. Skip Tamarindo if you came for rainforest, because this is dry deciduous forest and mangrove.
Für wen sich Tamarindo eignet
First-timers who want it easy
An international airport ninety minutes away, a paved road the whole way, and a town that speaks English
Beginner surfers.
This is the teaching beach for the whole northern Pacific
People who want a night out.
Tamarindo has the nightlife the rest of the Costa Rican coast does not
Families and older travellers
which one source states plainly against the party reputation
Not the best waves nearby
those are half an hour away
Not rainforest wildlife
this is dry forest. This is dry deciduous forest and a mangrove estuary, not a jungle
Not with the south or Caribbean
The data says people pick one coast
Wann du nach Tamarindo reist
Dry
December–April
3–42 mm a month, hot and cloudless, and the turtle window. 52.0% of trip starts
Green
May–November
122–367 mm, arriving in May and stopping in November, both abruptly.
- The July dip: 209 mm against 304 in June and 273 in August, the veranillo, and our strongest wet-season month.
Add your Tamarindo dates and we'll flag the weather
Stippl shows the season, crowds and prices for every stop on your route.
Beschreibe deine Reise und erhalte in Sekunden eine Route für Tamarindo
Alles in diesem Reiseführer ist bereits in Stippl. Sag dem Planer, wie viel Zeit du hast und was dir gefällt: Er baut die Route, die Tage und die Reisezeiten, und du änderst, was du willst.
Things to do in Tamarindo
Photo by César Badilla Miranda via Unsplash
Photo by Luis Diego Aguilar via Unsplash
Photo by Jeffrey Eisen via PexelsA surf lesson.
Tamarindo is the teaching beach for the northern Pacific: sand bottom, forgiving waves, and more schools than the town needs. Two hours, group or private
Sunset on the beach with a happy-hour drink
which every source treats as the fixed point of the day
A boat trip through the Tamarindo estuary
into the mangroves of Las Baulas: two monkey species, wading birds and crocodiles. Kayaks can be rented to do it alone, or a naturalist guide taken
A leatherback nesting tour at Playa Grande
October to February, at night with a compulsory park-certified guide and dark clothing. Sightings are unreliable and getting worse
Playa Avellanas and Playa Grande for better surf
both about thirty minutes away
Diving at the Catalinas Islands
thirty minutes up the coast, for rays and larger pelagics
Die Viertel von Tamarindo
Playa Langosta
couples, families
Two kilometres south, past the point: quieter, more residential, a nesting beach inside the park, and no nightlife
Two kilometres south, inside the park, and one of its three nesting beaches.
Tamarindo centre
first-timers, nightlife
The main strip behind the beach: restaurants, surf shops, bars, the shopping plaza and almost all the nightlife
The teaching beach for this coast, and sunset happy hour along the beachfront.
Playa Grande
surfers, seclusion
Across the estuary: a surf beach, the leatherback nesting ground and a village with almost nothing in it
A better surf break than town, and the beach the leatherback park was created for.
See every Tamarindo neighbourhood on one map
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Wo man in Tamarindo übernachtet
Casa Pura Vida Surf Hostel is our sources' pick for the best overall hostel
Playa Langosta
Two kilometres south, past the point: quieter, more residential, a nesting beach inside the park, and no nightlife
Tamarindo centre
The main strip behind the beach: restaurants, surf shops, bars, the shopping plaza and almost all the nightlife
Playa Grande
Across the estuary: a surf beach, the leatherback nesting ground and a village with almost nothing in it
Was du in Tamarindo essen solltest
The town's most-agreed taco bar
A beach-club restaurant where the meal is the occasion
The brewpub attached to Volcano Brewing
Barbecue
National plate of rice, beans, salad, plantain and a protein
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Tamarindo customs and what not to do
The nickname is "Tamagringo"
and the town wears the foreign-resident and package-holiday reputation openly
The turtle rules are the park's
certified guide, dark clothing, no lights, and the beach closes to unguided visitors at 17:00 during nesting season
Tip in colones, not dollars
Tip in colones, not dollars
Pura vida
is used as greeting, thanks and goodbye
Tagesbudget für Tamarindo
Budget
≈€47–75
Dorm bed or basic cabina, sodas for most meals, on foot in the centre, one paid activity every other day
Mid-range
≈€105–170
Mid-range hotel double, a surf lesson and restaurant dinners, happy-hour drinks on the beach
High-end
≈€300+
Occidental Tamarindo or JW Marriott Guanacaste, private guides, private transfers
Track what you actually spend
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Wissenswertes über Tamarindo
The largest leatherback nesting colony on Costa Rica's Pacific coast, about 800 females a year, in a park that is 98% sea
February averages 3 mm of rain and October 367 mm: a 122-fold swing, the sharpest in this layer
The largest mangrove estuary in Latin America is at the end of the beach
The longest average stay in Costa Rica at 3.42 nights
The flattest demand curve in the country, in the place with the most extreme seasonal weather
The measured edge of the country's two-circuit split. Uvita 0.95 and Tortuguero 0.96 from here; Tamarindo below the floor in all five files on the other side
Lokale Tipps für Tamarindo
Paved from Liberia
The whole route is paved, so no 4×4 is needed and it is safe to drive after dark
Avoid the "collectivos"
They are private cars working as taxis without licence or insurance, and they have been documented charging about €17 for a one-mile ride and €85 to reach a village five kilometres away
No Uber at Liberia airport
Book a private shuttle or a taxi ahead rather than expecting a ride-share when you land
No bridge, take the panga
There is no bridge over the estuary. The panga is the crossing
Crocodiles in the estuary
Crocodiles have been reported on Tamarindo beach itself, coming from the estuary at the north end. Never cross the estuary on foot
Theft is the main crime
Theft and pickpocketing are the main risks in a town that is otherwise fine for families and older travellers
Tamarindo questions, answered
Pair it with Liberia rather than San Jose. The airport is about ninety minutes away against four and a half hours from the capital, so a Guanacaste week works best flying in and out of the north. Tamarindo carries 3.6% of everything planned in Costa Rica on Stippl. Lay the coast days out in Stippl.
Three nights. The Tamarindo stops planned on Stippl run to 3 nights, among the longest in the country, because it is a town people settle into rather than tick off. Surf lessons, a sunset and one day trip up or down the coast fill it comfortably.
More evenly across the year than anywhere else in Costa Rica. Travellers planning Tamarindo on Stippl book about 71 days out, and arrivals spread rather than piling into the dry months, because the surf works all year and the rain here is lighter than on the southern Pacific.
It is the teaching beach for this coast. The break is sandy, forgiving and long, and the schools along the front run lessons all day. Experienced surfers drive half an hour north or south for something with more shape, which is exactly what makes the main beach so good to learn on.
Yes, in the estuary at the north end of the beach, and they have been reported on the sand. Do not wade the estuary on foot, however shallow it looks and however many people you watch doing it. Take the boat across instead: it costs almost nothing and runs all day.
No, though it has the reputation and a strip of bars that goes some way to earning it. The same beach carries surf schools full of families, retirees walking at dawn and turtle tours at night. It is busier and more built up than the rest of Guanacaste, which is a different complaint.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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