Jaco/Hermosa best surf spots

with the new bridge near Parita its a little quicker now. if your traveling with your lady take her to Manuel Antonio for sure.

 

Not that far from Hermosa. Antonio only really breaks at a high tide. rain forest is awesome there. Nice accomodations especially if you're bringing a girlfriend. I stayed at Backyard Hotel in Hermosa. Pretty accessable to mostly everywhere in the region. Dont forget to try the zipline in Hermosa.

 

Agreed. It was a blast. Even the wifey had fun. On one of the last segments you get a nice aerial view looking south down Hermosa beach.

Everything looks safe but it gives you an appreciation for building codes in the good ol' USA. The "Let's tie these pallets 60' in a tree. The bark growing around the cables will help hold them in place" mindset would never fly here.

 

which reminds me of Ol' widow maker in the shower.

 

Had to laugh about the zip line. When I went they told me that "it is way better than what you have in the states as we really don't have any rules"

 

Manuel Antonio is about an hour south. New roads. Easy drive. But you need to leave early enough to see the park completely. They run everyone out around 4:30ish, as I remember. Gets dark there about 6.

 

Joco sucks... I'd rather stay north.

 

hey guys, my brother and I are headed to cr, one way tickets to liberia, we were planning on going yo tamarimdo

to find a place to stay thats centralized and get settled in to find work and get work visas, and also looking to surf as much as possible, any recomendations?

 

It's been a while since I've been to Costa, but I'm going back down to Hermosa then to Pavones in July and into early August. I just got the book Surfer's guide to Costa Rica to refresh myself on the areas. If you can download the book onto a Kindle or your computer or whatever it's got some good info on the main breaks and areas. It has a good overview on where the breaks are and when they break best and what kind of swell they require. It's at least worth checking out. Good luck down there

 

Skip both Jaco and hermosa. I'm sitting in hermosa now. It's been closing out for 3 weeks. Stay in where you are or go to dominical

 

The Point in Dominical is epic, and worth the drive. It is south of Dominical proper, which also tends to close out, but not as much as Hermosa. Jaco is a honkey tonk.

 

X2 for Esterillos. Esterillos Centro is similar to Hermosa (paddle out is worse though) and Esterillos Oeste is an easier point type wave. at least the outside is, there's an inside wave too.

 

Oeste has 3 sometimes 4 peaks and a small boat channel to the north if it's giant.

 

Esterillos on a big swell sounds fun. I only surfed the place when the tide was wrong elsewhere. There's another low tide spot that I won't name because I don't recall seeing anyone else mention it.

In general CR is so friggen played out. I really enjoyed it my first time down there (11 yrs ago) but found it to be WAY too overrun by condo-owning gringo's the second time only a few years later. More than twice as expensive as it used to be and littered with petty theft and wise guys trying to sell dope. Sad, but I would go elsewhere...there's a few other countries down that way. Most of them have some good waves if you care to try.

 

There are over 100 surfbreaks in Costa Rica along two coastlines (Pacific and Caribbean) so you can always find an empty peak. Even right around Jaco are uncrowded lineups that you can score if you do a little searching or have some locals show you where. There is no 'bad' part of Costa Rica, unless you go looking for it - and then you'll probably find it. And compared to:
Panama - has surf but you're driving hours from one beach to the next, and it's less consistent (and Santa Catalina, is usually packed if there is swell) Caribbean side can get pricey.
Nicaragua - lots of driving to get to Popoyo and south, then either you're on a crowded peak or have to boat around to catch it (need the right tide, too). The resorts on this stretch are mostly expensive.
El Salvador - Close from airport to La Libertad and Punta Roca, but the water can get polluted and the lineup is crowded. Las Flores is expensive and usually crowded, with only 1-2 spots to boat/drive to in between.
Guatemala - Has a couple of breaks. Cheap and not too crowded but not the safest place.

So overall Costa Rica is still the best deal for packing a lot of surfing in on a short trip. Hostels are still $10-12pp per night, too. And a vehicle rental is ~$50/day, and you'll find the most boards to rent in Central America in Nosara, Jaco, Tamarindo for ~$15-20/day.

 

If you want uncrowded surf in CR, be in the water at daybreak.