Surf town experiencing a loud and fast boom
This Nicoya Peninsula beach town's old identity was as a fishing village and surfer haven. Its new identity seems to be up for grabs, as it struggles with its own popularity.
The place has good bones--great weather, a lovely and surf-worthy span of white-sand beach, an international cast of characters, and an assortment of innovative restaurants, hot bars, and good hotels (try the well-run and affordable Hotel Arco Iris or the luxurious beachside Hotel Capitan Suizo).
The town also sports a sometimes jarring mix of businesses with first-world prices strung along a couple of decidedly third-world roads, dusty in dry season and a stew of mud when it rains. Drivers slow to a crawl as they try to get around the huge trucks bearing building materials for the next condo project.
There is an ongoing battle as to where developers should be allowed to build, with Las Baulas (Leatherback Turtle) National Park just north of town one of the newest battlegrounds, as the government wrestles with decisions about how close to prime turtle nesting areas developers should be allowed to build.
South of Tamarindo is one of the older developments in the area, a sprawling gated community called Hacienda Pinilla. Billing itself as "an exclusive resort community," the development spreads across more than 1,821 hectares (4,500 acres) of a former cattle ranch and stretches along 5.5 kilometers (3.5 miles) of coastline. There are golf courses and condo rentals available.
Farther south, Playa Junquillal, Playa Avellana, and Playa Negra, which used to draw only surfers willing to rough it, are having their own building boomlets, as Tamarindo pushes its own envelope.
The place has good bones--great weather, a lovely and surf-worthy span of white-sand beach, an international cast of characters, and an assortment of innovative restaurants, hot bars, and good hotels (try the well-run and affordable Hotel Arco Iris or the luxurious beachside Hotel Capitan Suizo).
The town also sports a sometimes jarring mix of businesses with first-world prices strung along a couple of decidedly third-world roads, dusty in dry season and a stew of mud when it rains. Drivers slow to a crawl as they try to get around the huge trucks bearing building materials for the next condo project.
There is an ongoing battle as to where developers should be allowed to build, with Las Baulas (Leatherback Turtle) National Park just north of town one of the newest battlegrounds, as the government wrestles with decisions about how close to prime turtle nesting areas developers should be allowed to build.
South of Tamarindo is one of the older developments in the area, a sprawling gated community called Hacienda Pinilla. Billing itself as "an exclusive resort community," the development spreads across more than 1,821 hectares (4,500 acres) of a former cattle ranch and stretches along 5.5 kilometers (3.5 miles) of coastline. There are golf courses and condo rentals available.
Farther south, Playa Junquillal, Playa Avellana, and Playa Negra, which used to draw only surfers willing to rough it, are having their own building boomlets, as Tamarindo pushes its own envelope.
| Area | Nicoya Peninsula |
| Categories | Activities, Beaches & Towns |
| Website | http://www.tamarindonews.com/ |