so right now I find myself in the following position.. i live in Venezuela and finding plane tickets has become ridiculously hard, since the government owes billions of dollars to different airlines the have left the country and/or stop selling tickets. i managed to find tickets to panama for 13000 BSF (exchange rate 1:75)=175$. me and a buddy wanted to go to costa rica in the first place, so to get there we would have to buy a ticket separetly for around 400-500$ from Panama to Costa rica. since this is the only way to get to Costa, we would have to pay board fee from Venezuela to Panama which is paid is BSF so its practically nothing, then 150 from Panama to Costa, 150 from Costa to Panama, 150 from Panama to Venezuela. so that adds up to 450 only in boards. We would we renting a car in Costa so add up 600$ per person on that. Theres 1000$ more that we would have to put to get to Costa, and people have told me that Costa in general is more expensive than Panama. so lets say itll be 1500$ more to go to Costa than just staying at panama. also, since well be renting a car, we might find ourselves loosing time driving around than surfing. we've seen the chance of staying in panama and head straight to Santa Catalina to surf the main break, walk 30-45min to breaks nearby and taking boats to nearby breaks. what would you do in my position? ive got 3000$ to surf travel in this year. Lets say in Panama well spend a total of 1000-1300$ in hotel, food, pictures etc. so ill still have more money to do a second trip on the summer. forgot to mention that the dates we'll be traviling are March 31st to April 18th. If the surf in Santa Catalina is good, i think staying in Panama is our best choice. what do you guys think? thank you.
panama would be ur best bet,cr is too crowded nowadays.but if u live in s.america u could head west to Columbia and surf all up and down the coast.
cr sheaper to get to but more expensive overall... you can live cheaply in hostels.. panama is more the opposite ..im a panama fan... but gonna check out nica in march
thanks for the reply. im guessing you mean Costa rica is up the street, and we're really not into driving from panama city all the way up to guanacaste in a short trip, itll take 2-3 days im guessing up and the same down. thatll reduce out surf days from 18 to 12.
yeah bro, been in Nica twice! if youre going to the popoyo area, youre gonna score nad have a great time.. which area in panama you think is the best? thanks
Panama...is this really a question Ive surfed both Costa and Panama. I used to live in Panama for a while. Panama has a bay which houses breaks so similar to southern cali. Needs big swell for those breaks to work. Catalina is as consistent as anywhere in Costa. Its a ****ing rock reef point break that heaves and can hold massive swells. Panama isn't that crowded, there's so many waves unknown to people. Way cheaper, better beer. Why the hell would you want to surf costa, especially during march-april. Thats all south swells, panama is better for south swells and its offshore all day there
dont expect to surf santa catalina alone...its crowded, awesome wave tho. there are other decent spots you can hike too that are empty. CR has great waves but sounds pricey for your situation. Catalina is really far from the airport so seek out some other spots too. id also suggest Nica, its where i live and run a surf lodge, but i assume its a similar situation for you to get there. Good luck, youll score regardless, that is a nice time to go for waves.
I'm going to be in CR the week before OP gets there. Staying in Tamarindo/Playa langosta. I know it is not the ideal season for surf, but someone tell me something good about March down there. Please promise me waves.(insert open can of worms here)
panama bro hands down. Or head straight to Belmar,nj if it's cheaper. You'll spend more money in CR in general- and the waves are just as good in panama - but not as easy to get around in as cr. Anyways- like the other guy said: #itsalwaysbetterinbelmar
March in CR is like Sept in the yoo ess. You get the smaller days(chest to head) and the beginning of the bigger days. Siempre buenas olas alla.
