The Nicoya Peninsula

The Nicoya peninsula (places we stayed): Playa Brasilito, Playa Conchal, Junquillal, Samara, Playa Carrillo, Santa Teresa, Mal Pais, Playa Cobuya and Montezuma

Thankfully we hired a 4x4 as many roads, even main roads, are only suitable for 4x4’s and we decided to drive along the Western coast road down the Nicoya Peninsula to get a full appreciation of Costa Rica’s coastline. The roads were largely dirt tracks with a top speed of about 20km/hr (much to Johnnys disgust, although he did enjoy the 4x4ing 😂) through rural villages, the jungle, beaches with a couple of river crossings. Of course mum was sent out to check the depth of the water at the river crossings, and I later discovered the rivers were intact crocodile infested 😳.  

The route was quite incredible, and the beaches were spectacular. They were forever changing colour, with dark black Jurassic-type beaches, and then pure white sand, and every colour in-between. For me they were the perfect beaches, with giant waves for the  boys to nearly kill themselves in 😳, some amazing snorkelling , and plenty of trees overhanging creating lots of lovely shade for the more fair-skinned amongst us. 

Along the coast-road we stayed in many little beach towns and villages, with far nicer accommodation than we’ve stayed in anywhere on our journey, and still very reasonably priced (£30-40 night). Unfortunately, our camping days only lasted for 3 nights on the coast as it was just too hot 🥵. 

A highlight of the Nicoya peninsula other than the beaches was definitely the nature, all of which we spotted outside of the official reserves. We saw endless colourful birds (Tristan can tell you every last detail about each one!) and we were lucky enough to watch a pair of scarlet macaws at the beach flirting with each other, cracking open almond seed pods and spitting them over our heads and then flying majestically along the beach., a very special moment.