Tamarindo

Nosara is a district on the west coast of the Nicoya Peninsula in Guanacaste Province, about two and a half hours' drive from Liberia Airport and approximately five hours from San José. You come here to surf at Playa Guiones, for yoga classes, and due to its proximity to Ostional's turtle beach.Nosara consists of several parts: the Costa Rican village about six kilometers inland by the Río Nosara, the quieter Playa Pelada, and the area around Playa Guiones, where most accommodations, cafés, and surf schools are located. A tangle of unpaved roads and paths connects the neighborhoods.In the 1960s, a US entrepreneur bought the coastal land to subdivide it for a residential development. The project failed, but the landowners founded the Nosara Civic Association, which to this day ensures that a forested strip is preserved along the beaches. That's why you barely see any buildings from the water.Playa Guiones is an approximately six-kilometer-long sandy beach with very consistent waves, where beginners and advanced surfers can surf. Since the founding of the Nosara Yoga Institute in 1994, the place has also been a center for yoga and retreats.

Liberia, the capital of Guanacaste province, lies about 215 kilometers northwest of San José on the Interamericana. Most visitors arrive via Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport, using the city as a base for exploring Pacific coast beaches and Rincón de la Vieja National Park.Liberia earned its nickname "White City" from the light gravel that once paved its streets and the whitewashed colonial houses. Some of these, along with the 19th-century Ermita de la Agonía, are preserved in the city center.With over 50,000 inhabitants, the city serves as a commercial and administrative hub, not a resort. Around Parque Central, you'll find banks, supermarkets, and simple restaurants, making Liberia a practical stopover before or after onward travel.If you don't head straight to the coast after landing, half a day is enough for a stroll through the center. For Rincón de la Vieja, the city is a good base; access to the Las Pailas sector takes about an hour.

Guanacaste is Costa Rica's dry northwestern province on the Pacific coast, approximately 215 kilometers northwest of San José. You come here for the beaches of the Pacific coast, for volcanic landscapes like the Rincón de la Vieja, and for the light blue Río Celeste.From November to April, there's hardly any rain here, which makes Guanacaste the country's most reliable beach destination during this time; from May to October, it usually rains daily. The landscape is characterized by pastureland, dry forest, and volcanic ranges; the Area de Conservación Guanacaste in the north is a UNESCO World Heritage site.The capital is Liberia, home to the country's second international airport, the Aeropuerto Daniel Oduber Quirós. From there, you can reach the beaches around Tamarindo as quickly as the national parks inland.

The Nicoya Peninsula, in northwestern Costa Rica, juts about 120 kilometers into the Pacific, separating the Gulf of Nicoya from the open ocean. You come for its long, sparsely developed beaches, the surf spots on the west coast, and the small towns where roads often still consist of gravel.Politically, the peninsula is divided: the north belongs to Guanacaste Province, while the south, with Santa Teresa, Mal País, and Montezuma, belongs to Puntarenas Province. Nosara is located on the west coast in the Nicoya Canton, near the turtle beach of Ostional.The peninsula is counted among the so-called Blue Zones, regions where many people live to be very old. In daily life, you notice little of this, but certainly the tranquil pace in the villages away from the surf towns.

Rincón de la Vieja National Park protects its namesake volcanic massif in Guanacaste, about 25 kilometers northeast of Liberia. You come here to hike through tropical forest among fumaroles, bubbling mud pots, and waterfalls.Established in 1973, the 141 sq km park is a UNESCO World Heritage site (Area de Conservación Guanacaste). The volcano is active: repeated minor eruptions occurred in Aug/Sept 2026; early Sept. saw the national emergency agency CNE issue a green alert for surrounding districts. The hiking trail to the crater has been closed for years.Most visitors enter via the Las Pailas sector. A roughly three-kilometer loop trail here passes fumaroles, a steaming lagoon, and mud pots; longer trails lead to La Cangreja and Escondida waterfalls. The quieter Santa María sector further north is only accessible by 4x4 vehicles.The park closes Mondays. Entrance fees and current access rules are published by protected area authority SINAC. Volcanic activity may restrict access short-term; check the current status before visiting and heed foreign office advisories.