Tamarindo is famous for its surf breaks, and almost equally famous for being expensive and full of tourists. We spent a month in town enjoying the waves, and got a chance to track down some of the best cheap things to do in Tamarindo.

Boogie boarding on Playa Langosta. While Playa Tamarindo is the most famous beach in Guanacaste, Playa Langosta is just a short walk away. The waves at Playa Langosta are generally smaller, and better for families and newbie surfers. That said, we caught the waves at Langosta at high tide on a big swell day, and managed to smash a boogie board in two. Cost: One replacement cheap boogie board from Super Compro grocery, $10.

Zip lining at New Monkey Jungle Canopy Tours. Great from begining to end. New Monkey Jungle has seven zip lines and an awesome Tarzan swing at the end. We ended our tour with some much-needed juicy watermelon. The owner even picked us up outside our condo, and drove us back home after. Charles gives a full rundown of our experience. Cost:  Around $37 per adult, and worth every penny.

Catching a movie. 2019 update! There’s a new theatre in town called Multicines. See the website here (Spanish only).

Watching an endangered leatherback turtle lay her eggs on a moonlit beach. Imagine running full-tilt through the pitch black beside the pounding surf, and coming across an enormous, prehistoric leatherback laying her eggs on a secluded beach. One of the coolest things I’ve ever done is to visit Playa Grande to watch a leatherback turtle lay her eggs at Playa Grande’s Parque Nacional Marino las Baulas. Cost:  $25/adult. Children are free.

Surfing the famous break at Playa Tamarindo. Actually, this one should be titled, I didn’t surf the famous Playa Tamarindo, and my lame excuses why not. In fact, I have not surfed in some of the most amazing surf locations in the world, including Australia, Florida, British Columbia (Tofino), California, and Costa Rica. I can not surf anywhere. Cost:  Free for my lazy a**, but a week of surf lessons and lodging start at about $859/week at the famous Witches Rock Surf Camp, or around $40 for a two hour group lesson at any one of the dozen surf schools around town. Chat with some of the locals,  and you should easily be able to get the name of a local surfer who’ll teach you for less than the surf schools.

Checking out the Monkey Park Wildlife Sanctuary. Monkey Park is a refuge for injured or sick animals. They have a great collection of monkeys, including spider monkeys, as well as birds and other animals like marmosets. This is not a traditional zoo, and is run on a limited budget from the proceeds of admissions. Many of the animals are being rehabilitated for release to the wild, but some permanent residents are unable to survive on their own.

There’s an option to spend an extra couple of dollars for a guide, which I wish we’d done. I would have loved to have a guide walk us through and explain the Monkey Park’s history and goals. There aren’t any signs explaining the rehabilitation of the animals, or each animal’s story, although signs do tell you the species of each animal and some basic information.

Try to go in the morning or later in the afternoon to beat the heat. Monkey Park is about a 20 minute drive to the small town of Portegolpe. Cost:  $10/adult without a guide, less for kids. Admittedly a bit expensive for Costa Rica, but the money goes toward the care of the animals in the sanctuary.

Hangin’ at the Local Park and Playground. There’s a small playground in the centre of Tamarindo, just behind the mall that houses the Cine-Mas movie theatre and Le Petit Cafe. It’s too hot to visit in the middle of the afternoon, but Cole and Jordan loved playing on the swings and teeter totters  in the cool of the morning or early evening. This is a Tico playground, so if you’re used to the uber-safe playgrounds in Canada or the US, you may be in for a shock. Some of the equipment is broken and rusty, but it’s more than made up for by the awesome fabric swing someone’s set up in a tall tree in the middle of the playground. If you’ve ever seen circus performers on the aerial silks, then you’ll know what I mean. We tied two ends of the stretchy fabric together, and Cole swung like a wild monkey, springing the fabric up and down. Not that I didn’t try it, too. Cost:  My favorite. Free.

Day-tripping in a Tiny Tico 4×4. We rented a little Diahatsu Begu 4×4 and tooled along down the coast to check out Playa Brasilito, Playa Conchal and Playa Flamingo. Cost: $328 for the 4×4 rental for the week, plus $10 in gas. Book your 4×4 ahead of time; last minute car rentals are hard to come by in Tamarindo. 

Playa Brasilito. This is a town built for Ticos, not tourists. Brasilito is missing the veneer of coffeeshops and real estate offices you’ll see in Tamarindo and Flamingo. In their place are a lot of small mom and pop convenience stores and smaller eateries. The beach is a dark, muddy-looking sand that’s not especially appealing at first glance. Playa Brasilito is about 13 miles north of Playa Tamarindo.

Playa Conchal. If you’re looking to find Playa Concal off the highway, you’re out of luck. We found Conchal by pure luck while driving along the beach at Playa Negro, and following some other 4x4s over a steep, rocky, narrow incline. It was a Sunday, so Conchal was jammed elbow to elbow with happy Ticos in tents and beach chairs, all enjoying a family day on the beach.

Playa Flamingo. Playa Flamingo is a darn pretty stretch of beach, with the town itself spreading out along the steep hillsides leading away from the beach. Flamingo is a pretty little town that exudes a feeling of prosperity. Huge houses dot the high cliffsides away from the beach, each with a breathtaking view of the Pacific. Playa Flamingo is about 20 miles north of Playa Tamarindo.

Playa Avellanas. Avellanas could easily hold the title of the most laid back beach in Costa Rica. Like almost all the beaches in the Guanacaste province, Playa Avellanas is long, curving and with decent surf. Playa Avellanas is about 12 miles from Playa Tamarindo, though the road is rutted and dusty, and seems longer. Currents in Avellanas can be strong, so weaker swimmers and kids should be careful.

Lola’s Restaurant. Besides the great surfing, the big draw at Playa Avellanas is the famous Lola’s beach front restaurant. Lola’s is an iconic place to hang out, and named after a pig who used to hang out in the shallow surf. The original 400 lb Lola recently passed away, and has been replaced by Lotita, who we found lounging in the trees at the back of the restaurant property.

We stopped by Lola’s for a late afternoon lunch, and soon found ourselves sucked into the ultra-relaxed vibe of the place. Lola’s was absolutely buzzing with people, and yet managed to seem completely chilled at the same time. Soon, we were chowing down on the the largest plate of nachos I’ve seen in a long time, and some awesome fruit shakes. We were way too full to head back out on the bumpy road, so we took up residence in a couple of the hammocks and watched the surfers do their thing. Cost:  Around $30 for two appetizers and four smoothies. 

Checking out the Nightlife. OK, so with a six and three year old in tow, we didn’t actually make it to any of the local hangouts. But we heard great things about Monkey in the Best Western Hotel on Friday nights (ladies night) and great drink specials at Aqua bar mid-week. Both places are supposedly packed with locals and tourists alike. Cost:  Depends on how much your liver can tolerate.

Sunset Sailing. This doesn’t exactly qualify as cheap, but for an amazing view of the sunset, it may be worth it. There are a couple of catamarans that go out, and both will provide you with a bar and snacks. The Marlin Del Rey is the bigger boat, but the smaller Blue Dolphin gets great reviews as well. Cost:  $85.00/adult and $42.50 for the Blue Marlin sunset tour, $85 for adults on the Marlin del Ray. You may be able to get a cheaper rate by booking through a local tour operator, as they get bulk discounts.

Ripping around through the forest on an ATV. There are quite a few ATV tours in Playa Tamarindo, but the ones with the best buzz seem to be through Go Adventures. Cost: Too rich for our blood. The ATV tours aren’t cheap, at 80. 00 per person (based on 2 or more people), but get great reviews.

Checking out the Sunset on the Beach. Almost all of the beachfront restaurants in Tamarindo run happy hour specials from around 5-7, which coincides happily with sunset. Grab a chair, sip a cool mojito, and enjoy the gorgeous view. Cost:  About $7 USD for two for one specialty drinks during happy hour. Around $5 USD for two frosty Imperial beers.

There are definitely plenty of cheap things to do in Tamarindo. Because we travel for such long periods, we generally don’t check out the more expensive things to do, but Tamarindo has some well rated spas, and very nice, high end restaurants to check out.

Next post, I’ll talk about our search for cheap restaurants in Tamarindo. Our Barefoot Guide to Tamarindo also checks out Tamarindo’s self-catering grocery stores, dishes on car rentals and reviews Mango condos, one of the more affordable condos in Tamarindo.

Because of the heat in this area, we’ve made it a point to stay out of the sun from 12 to 2 each day. Tamarindo is crazy hot and walking out of an air conditioned place into the afternoon sun is like walking into an oven. If you’re out and about at an earlier time and stay outdoors (preferably in the shade unless you like to punish yourself) it’s not so bad. Just like the boiled frog parable, if you slowly roast yourself you won’t realize how hot it is as the day wears on but if you jump into a boiling pot (or the rolling heat in this case) you’ll quickly realize how much folly it is.

That being said, the few times we have braved the elements for the entire span of the day has been at a neighboring beach club. This one in particular is called the Langosta Beach Club and it’s about 2 blocks from our condo. It’s owned by a French company and everyone there seems to speak French, English and Spanish. They have a nice little pool, beach loungers, a few hammocks and one of the nicest stretches of beach (at least in my mind) right in front of the place. They also have a little bar and restaurant in the pool area and serve great food at somewhat reasonable (at least for this area) prices. Their bacon and avocado sandwich is quite delicious. Smoothies aren’t the cheapest we’ve seen but their strawberry one is heavenly on a warm day.

The condo we rented included pictures of the beach club in it’s ad and we foolishly thought that it included the use of it’s facilities. It turns out that it doesn’t. I want to be mad at Julius (the owner of the condo block) for including them but this place is pretty sweet for the price and Julius is actually quite a nice guy (from Montreal it turns out). The club charges $10 an adult in the low season and $15 an adult in the high season. Kids (or at least young ones like ours) are free. For $30 all in we have the run of the beach club from sunrise to sunset. Considering that most tours charge upwards of $100 a day per person for a day’s worth of activities, we’ve found the beach club to be a bargain. We usually get there around 10 and leave around supper time.

During the day we usually jump from the pool to the ocean a few times depending on the heat, the waves and the proximity to lunch. Around the pool there’s 3 large covered oasis’s of comfy chairs, couches and tables and if we’re lucky enough to nab one while we’re swimming around the pool in the morning then we get to enjoy them for lunch. There’s a bunch of chairs and tables around the pool but none of them offer shade so we usually go eat at the shaded tables on the beach. The kids love being down there so they can play in the sand and Cole can swing on the hammocks. It’s one of the only places we’ve found around here where we can let the kids really run around without constant supervision. Micki and I are always amazed how many hours they can play on their own when they have the right setting.

The last time we spent the day at the beach club we decided to buy a boogie board. After pricing them out across town we decided to buy a cheap one. A good quality board can easily cost $200 plus with a moderate board running from $70 to $100. Most places charge $7 – $12 a day to rent but then you need to go pick it up, drop it off, etc… Since we have no idea where or how long we’re going to be on this trip, Micki and I decided to pick up a cheap board at the local market. It cost us $13 and we figured that for that price we could use it a few times and then throw it out. Turns out we were half right.

Tamarindo is known for a few things out here but the biggest is it’s surfing. It has two solid breaks right in town and can pretty much guarantee you’ll see a few good waves every day. This makes it an ideal place to learn to surf and there are a dozen companies in town that will teach you how to stand up within a few hours. There’s also a dozens of “locals” that will teach you as well but it’s a hit and miss kind of thing in terms of their teaching skills. Micki and I are planning on taking a lesson some time next week. We’re both looking forward to it. Up until now we’ve been content with simply playing in the waves and lately, boogie boarding.

While we were at the beach club the other day we had the pleasure of enjoying the rising tide. We’ve found that low tide is the best time to play with the kids in the water and high tide was the best time to go in solo. The waves at high tide can get pretty severe (as well as the undertow) and that day they were the highest we’ve seen since we got here. To put it in perspective, I overheard one of the veteran surfing instructors say it was a horrible time to be teaching to learn and wishes he could quit and go get his own board. The waves were pretty intense. Earlier in the day when the waves were smaller Cole was becoming a boogie boarding master. With his little puddle jumper flotation vest he would swim out into the waves and ride the crest until he was standing on the sand. Once I saw him go so high up the sand that the wave was a body length behind him. It had pushed him so fast that he skidded across the dry sand. It might have to do with him being so light and the board being so big but it was sensational none the less.

Micki and I had gone out a few times around then as well and had a few good rides but as the afternoon wax and waned away high tide slowly crept in. At it’s peak the waves were way too strong for Cole and even Micki and I had a hard time staying vertical when they hit. It was a fun time to bring out the boogie board and we were quickly tiring out. After a particularly rough landing I decided it was Micki’s turn. She was a little apprehensive after watching a fellow boarder take a pretty nasty spill as she walked in but she was excited to get a turn tackling those monster waves. After a few good runs (and a few rough ones) she was ready to come in but wanted one last good ride. As she puts it she was still wading out when a monster wave formed in front of her. It was too big to let pass her by and so she spun into the wave. It was so big that as it curled above her she gained too much speed and did a massive nose dive. After a few tumbles in the wave she emerged unscathed. The board however was now broken in two. Our “cheap” board proved it’s worth and came up wanting.

I ventured out into the surf once Micki got in and tested the board to see if it was still usable but it was like riding a bucking bronco. I would manage a few good feet and then when I thought I was past the worse of it and starting to enjoy the ride the front would suddenly bounce and then dip into the water. On the plus side, I’ve never done such fantastic underwater cartwheels. I finally called it quits after attempting to ride one of the biggest waves I’ve ever had the fortune of being in the water with.

To me it was, as the surfers call it, the perfect wave. It started out far and gave me lots of time to get prepared for. When it reached me it still hadn’t peaked yet but had so much strength it pushed me with ease. I paddled quickly and was soon swept up in its wake. I was quickly gaining speed as the lip started to curl around me. For one brief second I found myself in a perfect tunnel. For that one brief moment I was the king of the sea and Poseidon himself must have looked on me with envy. It was at that moment that the noodle of a boogie board I was riding let me know I wasn’t in control any longer. With a sudden nose dive I was launched out in front of the wave and got to see sand, surf and sky before being mercilessly tossed into the sea. It was great regardless of the outcome and even though I was still scraping sand out of my ears hours later it was worth it.

In a sense, it reminded me of my life and even more so, this journey we’re now on. Sure, I continually have sand in places I’d rather not mention. Sure, I’ve seen a little too much sun. Sure, I’m a little lighter in the wallet than when I woke up but at the end of the day I have great memories that will last a lifetime and a sense of what might be if I let myself be swept up in the moment. Seize the day, enjoy what life has to offer and have no regrets. We only get one wave and all too quickly it will pass us by. Maybe not words to live by but something I think each of us should strive for.

Safe travels everyone from beautiful Tamarindo, Costa Rica.