www.CostaRicaTicas.com

lol

Go to the Whale's tail. There is a sandbar shaped like a whales tail at Uvita. This is 15 kilometers south of Dominical or about 100 south of Quepos. The gringos have not found it yet. You can still pick wild fruit everywhere and the Ticas are not westernized. It reminds me of Jaco 30 years ago.

A couple of weeks ago I spent days at Samara and enjoyed it. Laid back little town about four hours from San Jose via Interbus and five and half hours via regular bus. Very nice beach for swimming. Didn't seem to be any riptide, the bay is protected by a reef about a mile offshore. A few miles south is Playa Caralillo, another gorgeous beach and easy to swim in. Both of these areas didn't seem to have much in the way of P4P. Depending on your age bracket, lots of European backpacker girls.

To me the prettiest beaches I saw were on the Caibbean side. As mentioned in an earlier post, Cahuita is really pretty with great water for swimming and snorkeling. Cahuita itself is a great little hideaway with 8-10 bars, a fair number of hotels and limitless peace and beauty. Farther south, a few miles beyond puerto Viejo are more beautiful beaches, Punta Uva, Los Coceles. I swam on them and they were gentle at that time. I personally preferred the Caribbean side of Costa Rica to the parts of the Pacific side I visited. YMMV

The Carribean Coast, Punta Uva especially is a great place to spend some time. Best kept secret in Costa Rica as far as Beaches go. Well worth the trip, check it out!!!