Chelsea's Postcards

 

What to do in Tamarindo, Costa Rica and Guanacaste Province

Chase Waterfalls

We scheduled a day trip through Guanacaste Traveler. We can’t say enough nice things about our driver Jhonny and he really made our trip, but we did not have an English speaking guide as promised. We drove close to two hours to the area near Arenal Volcano, stopping at Llanos de Cortes waterfall to check out the view. If this had been our only stop we probably would have gone in swimming, but thinking of being soaking wet in the car for the next hour or more did not seem fun so we opted for just taking a few pictures. After checking out the waterfall Jhonny was nice enough to stop and buy us fresh coconuts from a roadside stand. It was my first time trying fresh coconut water and it was so good! There are many other beautiful waterfalls in the Guanacaste Province worth visiting as well.

Buena Vista Tour

This is an all in one tour where you have the option to check out quite a few adventures and it included a local lunch. When we arrived for the Buena Vista tour a guide led us down 15 hanging bridges. We opted for the bridges over ziplining because we chickened out, but I think the bridges may have been just as scary if not more. We were high in the trees and the bridges shook and jumped with every move. We did see some monkeys and other animals so that was really neat. With the tour we also had a horseback ride, a water slide through the forest, and swimming in a volcanic spring. I loved the water slide it was about 500 meters downhill and really sent you flying! It was a busy and full day, but we loved having the chance to experience so many things in one place. That being said we were really close to the Arenal Volcano and I would love to explore the area here more if we are lucky enough to go back.

Explore Tamarindo

We ventured into Tamarindo twice during our stay and we really enjoyed exploring the town. We ate a few really great restaurants in town. I still dream of the meal that we had at Panga’s Beach Club. The food, the view, the monkeys in the trees above. This meal was just so great! We loved the meal that we had at Patagonia Argentinian Grill. We didn’t have reservations, but were able to snag a couple great seats at the bar. One evening we watched the sunset and had cocktails and appetizers from Matapalo. We saw what was maybe the most beautiful sunset of the trip from this restaurant. Seriously the sunsets in CR were unreal, watching the sun drop right into the Pacific without a cloud in sight was so amazing. And the shrimp and mango ceviche we ordered was some of the best I have ever eaten. There is great surfing in Tamarindo as well. We also found quite a few boutiques that we enjoyed shopping at. We explored the town both during the day and in the evening. While the sunset here was AMAZING we liked the town a little better during the day simply because of the number of people approaching us trying to sell us things we didn’t want as the day went on.

Costa Rica you sure were beautiful! The Pura Vida way of life is beyond amazing! We can’t wait to return! Any tips or suggestions for a return trip? Leave them in the comments. If you missed the first part of our trip, find it here.