Endless summer: learn to surf at Playa Tamarindo

Surfing and sea turtles put this Pacific town on the map.

And its recent rapid transformation from sleepy fishing village to garish gringo beach resort is a story that is becoming all too (depressingly) common along Costa Rica's overdeveloped Guanacaste coast.

Pollution, drugs and prostitution have followed the tourists, but has done little to deter the endless stream of North Americans and Europeans from coming here.

There are now more foreigners than Ticos in Tamarindo, their restaurants, shops and hotels hogging the waterfront land that hugs the two-kilometre-long beach.  

Tamarindo has long been a surfing magnet (it had an honourary cameo in Endless Summer II) and its gentle waves make it an excellent place to learn to ride a board. Pro surfers tend to head further afield to the larger waves at playas Langosta, Avellana, Negra and Grande. 

During nesting season (November to February), leatherback turtles lay their eggs at Tamarindo and also north at Playa Grande. Between December and May, the tiny hatchlings can be seen wobbling towards the ocean, trying to avoid a crushing death by  oblivious beachgoers.  

Tamarindo is well set up for the activity-oriented holiday crowd. Sailing, sportfishing, snorkeling, horse riding, ATV tours and canopy rides are all offered, as well as wildlife-spotting trips to the estuary to see monkeys and crocodiles. 

For those with little desire to stray more than a hundred metres from their hotel room, there are strip malls for retail therapy, small tidal pools for beach swimming and plenty of nightclubs to lose a few brain cells in.