Things to Do

News about our area… Flamingo Beach
 

Playa Flamingo in Guanacaste, Costa Rica Playa Flamingo, with some of the top hotels, resorts, bars, casinos and nightclubs on Guanacaste's "Gold Coast," offers a rich variety of fun things to do on vacation. Your hotel or resort can help you book a tour or fishing boat.

Best beaches for tanning, swimming, surfing Costa Rica's brightest, whitest sand blankets the beach at Flamingo, so it's tops for tanning. The area's safest beaches for swimming are Playas Brasilito, Potrero and Puerto Viejo

With its gleaming white sand, Flamingo Beach is the perfect setting for a vacation getaway. It hosts some of the most beautiful Hotels and condominiums that Costa Rica has to offer. Many gorgeous Villas dot the Playa Flamingo Beachfront, where wealthy foreigners and Ticos continue development at an astonishing rate.

Unlike many beach communities, Flamingo Beach has no village center. The community that extends east is home to exclusive beachfront Resorts and coveted private property. Thus, life beyond the beach and water sport activities is limited to a few excellent restaurants, and visitors seeking nightlife should head to the nearby town of Brasilito, or beyond.

As is the case with all Beaches in the Papagayo region, Flamingo Beach is rich in natural beauty. Mangroves are abundant in the area, and Salinas Point offers a stunning view of both the Potrero and Brasilito Bays. Not far south of Flamingo Beach is the Marino Las Baulas National Park (Parque Nacional Marino las Baulas). Established in 1990, this refuge encompasses roughly 450 hectares of coastline and mangrove swamp, and it is one of the world's most significant nesting sites for the endangered Leatherback Turtle. These giant, majestic creatures come ashore to nest between November and April. There is an informative turtle museum on site and night-tours are offered during nesting season. The park is also a great place to spot marine birds, including the White Ibis, the Blue-winged Teal, and the Muscovy Duck. Additionally it is home to monkeys, Coatis, and even crocodiles.

Surfing and other Beach Activities

Flamingo and nearby Tamarindo are popular surfing spots, such as Avellanas beach and Negra beach. Playa Naranjo, home of Witch Rock, is Costa Rica surfing to our surfing page. In Flamingo, you can find full line of rental gear for water activities at The Edge, which books other tours and sport fishing too. For surfing lessons please call Point Break Surf at ( 506 ) 8866-4133.
Horseback riding on the beach or along trails is available in Brasilito, only minutes from Flamingo ( 506 ) 2654-4106. All-terrain ATV quads may be rented from Tamarindo Adventures for the beaches and dirt roads.

Ride a river raft on the Coricibi (a full day tour from Flamingo), a bigger boat on the Tempisque River or Tamarindo Mangroves and Estuary cruises. Or dangle from a slim piece of cable as you glide between the trees on one of two zip line canopy tours (half day to Colon, or full day to Rincon de la Vieja National Park. Several aerial canopy tours are in the Flamingo area.

Two sunset and day cruises embark from the Marina Flamingo for snorkeling, dolphin quests, and a good time at the open bar. The 45-foot Papagayo, call ( 506 ) 8829-8103 for any boat tours, and 52-foot Shannon can be booked at local tour companies.

Diving and Snorkeling

Scuba diving and snorkeling tours, PADI courses too Go underwater for some of the top diving and snorkeling in Central America. A 60-80 foot dive at Catalina Island, directly off Flamingo, can yield visions of white-tipped sharks, giant manta rays, hammerhead sharks and sailfish. The diving is excellent any time of year.

Three dive shops serve Tamarindo and Flamingo. The Edge in Flamingo is a Dive Shop takes divers to Catalina and six other sites, offering full PADI courses; the popular $350 open water certification course includes all gear. The Aqua Rica dive shop is in Tamarindo and Costa Rica Diving is in Brasilito.

Professional Diver Expeditions??

Call Mauricio Cruz for the best service in the area!

( 506 ) 8941-4663

In nearby Playa Hermosa, Diving Safaris also offers a full plate of PADI and NAUI courses, including NITROX. Underwater photography and shark diving courses are on hand, and they rent jet skis and sea kayaks.

Fishing off Flamingo

If you'd rather catch fish than ogle them through goggles, offshore billfishing is spectacular almost year-round from the Bat Islands near Nicaragua to the southern tip of Nicoya. Inshore, you can hook up with Roosterfish for a real battle. April-November offers the best all around deep sea fishing in the area, though October is often too rainy for much action. Anglers usually raise the most billfish in July, when the yellow fin tuna catch also takes off.

Some of the country's top captains call the Gold Coast home port. Boats that work the area include the 37-foot Dorado IV, the 45-foot WaveDancer, the 32-foot Osprey, and the 41-foot Gamefisher. The top "big boat" in the area is WaveDancer.

Massages

Tired after of so much sports?? Please call Jenny Smith, the best Therapist in the area ( 506 ) 2654-4498.

National Parks

Guanacaste boasts more National Parks than any other province in the country. From the Pacific coast are you can reach Guanacaste, Rincon de la Vieja, Palo Verde, Barra Honda, Santa Rosa National Parks, Arenal and Las Baulas National Marine Park.

Home to the area's most active volcano and a staggering variety of geysers and related phenomenon, Rincon de la Vieja.

How to get to Flamingo ?

Daniel Oduber Quiros International Airport offers seamless travel to the region, and Flamingo Beach can be access by way of a paved road. Alternatively, the smaller airport in Tamarindo receives domestic flights from around the country, and from this airport visitors are a short taxi or bus ride away from Flamingo Beach. From the capital of San Jose, however, the bus or car ride is about six hours along the Inter-American Highway.

There are a variety of options for moving between destinations in Costa Rica: domestic flights, rental cars, shuttles, private vans, ferries, public bus, and even horseback. Your travel routes, budget, and length of stay are all important factors to consider when deciding on one or a combination of these options, and the guide below can help with a detailed description of each travel mode. While transportation modes may vary in flexibility and comfort, each is an opportunity to take in Costa Rica's amazing scenery.