TAMARINDO, COSTA RICA TRAVEL GUIDE! (BEST DAY)

Hola! Bienvenidos! Welcome to beautiful Tamarindo! Buenos dias! Good morning Country Collectors and welcome to Costa Rica! We ended our Guatemala series a bit abruptly as we ran out of time to do some things with you before we went home to spend some much needed time with our families. That's right and it was great. But now we are back and ready to make some more amazing memories with you starting here in Tamarindo, Costa Rica! But before we get started make sure to hit that subscribe button and ring the bell so you don't miss out on any of our future adventures! All right let's get started. Well you're probably wondering well how did we get to Costa Rica. There are two international airports here. One in the capital San Jose and one up north in Liberia which is the one we flew into. We ended up spending a few days in the city of Liberia at the Pura Vida Hostel where we were working and planning our travels around Costa Rica before heading to the central bus terminal and buying a ticket to Tamarindo for 2,000 Colones. Check it out they have this colorful money. This has a shark on it I love that! I love how colorful and fun money is in other countries. That's awesome. It took about two hours to get here. There are faster options like a private taxi or a shuttle but those prices are significantly more expensive. I got quoted about fifty dollars for a taxi. That only takes one hour so it's whatever you have and what your budget really allows for. Once in town we got dropped off in front of Enea's restaurant and took a quick walk over to Tamarindo Backpackers where we've been enjoying our last few few days. Here they offer private rooms and dorms. Were staying in the 12 person shared dorm. It costs $28 dollars for a night. And here they also have a pool, a shared kitchen, Wi-Fi, hammocks. It has a really great environment so we definitely recommend it. And you know it's been a minute since we stayed in the hostel so we kind of forgot about the community aspect of it. And it's just been great. Yeah that's the best part you know when you're in a hotel you're kind of just with one another but you're in a hostel we have met so many people. I feel like more than we met like the last two years combined! And it's nice because you kind of get like the inside scoop. Some of them have already traveled Costa Rica for three months so we talked to them - I'm looking at you the traveling hat. And they've given us such you know invaluable information. Absolutely and it's just nice to share that travel experience because like we share with you it makes it that much better. Yeah so if you're looking when you come here to maybe connect with some people we definitely recommend staying in a hostel. All right what do you say we head into town? It's a great idea. Come with us! And something that you might not know about me is that 22 years ago my first ever solo trip was in Costa Rica. Not Tamarindo, but in Santa Teresa we're going to be going in our next video so I can't wait to see how much it's actually changed and what is new and I'm so excited that you're going to be here to share it with! I'm sure you guys are are excited to get to the beach. It's just down this way but how about we head through town first. I like that idea. Tamarindo is a very walkable town but you might want your own wheels. This place here we just walked by, Handlebar. It says that they rent beach cruisers for ten dollars a day, $45 a week and ninety dollars a month. So if you're staying here long term it might be nice or even just a couple days to grab a bicycle and just go cruising. And they also have mountain bikes as well so you can do a little more adventure. Right now we are on Central Ave which is the main drag through town. There is no shortage of bars, restaurants, surf schools, shopping and tour operators here. You are not lacking for options when you come down. This is actually very busy, busier than we thought it was going to be and that probably has something to do with the fact that it's only one hour from the Liberia international Airport. So people just land and come straight over here on a shuttle. It's really cool and very lively. Let's go take a walk around and see what else we can find! It's 10 a.m right now and it seems like the town is just coming alive. Tamarindo is known as a place where you play hard and party maybe even harder. Across the street here there are some bars. The one that has BBQ on top we actually walked by it last night and it was full with people and they were singing karaoke. It was such a lively place. A lot of fun so if those if you like doing those two things you know having a lot of adventure and then also playing hard partying at night this could definitely be the spot for you! Just off the main street we popped into this restaurant and bakery we have been - we had an eye on it for a couple of days now it's called Breaking Bread and you know I'm a punny guy so we had to go in there and check it out. And we know some of you are Breaking Bad fans and it made us think of our old roommate Phil because he loved the show! Hi Phil hope you're doing well. But yeah we went in there and we got a couple of smoothies. I went with the redneck and I got the orange blossom... boom! Oh the Orange Boom. And check it out it even has the little Heisenberg Breaking Bread symbol on the front. And I also got this almond croissant which just looks delicious! We'll take a bite! Let's do this! Looks like nice big crunchy almonds on it with some of that paste inside. Oh my goodness it's like the perfect sweetness. A little crunchy on the outside and so soft and that almond and powdered sugar on top, man just takes it to the next level! But really dense too. I was carrying it and was like, "Is there like a brick in this thing?" Yeah it's like a pound. So yeah if you're looking for a nice little place to go get some breakfast we definitely recommend popping in there! They also even have a little outdoor seating area where you can enjoy it there. Yeah well we're gonna keep on well we're gonna enjoy this and then we'll see you in a minute. We're gonna keep on going. Just across the street from breaking bread you will see Little Lucha Taqueria we've noticed that there has been large lines over there people wanting some tacos so if you're in the mood for them that could be a great spot. There is also a skate park that's where we are right now. And it has a basketball court so bring your basketball if you want to shoot some hoops. Over to my left here is the aptly named restaurant called The Roof. Last night we were walking by and we were kind of looking up and I noticed they had this huge projection like TV. They were showing the futball match. And it looks like it has probably one of the best views in town so that could be a nice spot for you. And then below it is a supermarket. Man make sure you are staying hydrated because it is hot here! I just popped into the supermarket to grab some water and something you will probably notice when you are walking around and shopping is that the prices are much higher here than other places in Central America. Almost comparable to back home in the states. It's about 30 to 50% more than other places you'll find in Latin America and that's largely due to the fact that they have a high import tax here. It's something that you know kind of caught us a little bit off guard. Normally we go to the supermarket to save money but yesterday we were looking at a small jar of peanut butter and it was nine dollars! Interesting! See he just he just saw how much the peanut butter was and it drove him crazy! One pro tip we learned from our hostel if you want veggies or fresh fruit come down here on the main road there's a fruit and veggie truck here. This lady is so sweet. And we came down here yesterday got watermelon, avocados, bananas. She has strawberries. Whatever you need. And they were so fresh and delicious and cheaper than the grocery stores! Oh and she's just here on the weekdays so don't forget that. If when you arrive here you are in need of a SIM card everybody around said we needed to go with the service Claro so we came down here to Fast Cell and they set everything up for us. It was super easy. We ended up going with the plan that is for 30 days it comes with five gigs and with the SIM card and that package it costs 12,000 Colones which is about twenty dollars. There's a lot of places around town that can help you with it we just ended up coming here so if you need you come here too! All right let's keep going. As you continue down the road you're going to come to a T. To the left is beach access just a little bit farther down to the right goes deeper into the town where you're gonna find more of those restaurants, bars, hotels and lots more souvenir shopping. As well as bathing suits and things you might need to enjoy your day on La Playa! And this guy just pulled up right here this is Imperial. It is the National Beer of Costa Rica and absolutely delicious so make sure to have at least one or two cold ones while you're here! And they obviously have to stock up every day because it goes down quite good! Nice and easy. And it's on your hat! Oh yeah right there check it out! Love it! And speaking of hats the other day we actually went out and bought these and we were surprised to find out that when we were paying they charged us in US dollars. So we said you know what we want to pay in Colones and he did the conversion for us and it ended up being more expensive. Of all the places we've been in the world it's almost always cheaper to pay in a local currency but here it actually ends up being cheaper to pay in US dollars at least of the places that we have been. Like yeah we've noticed some restaurants will charge in USD but then others in the local currency so I don't really know what the best thing to do is. Maybe pay with your credit card that doesn't have international transaction fees or brings USD and get out some Colones. It's kind of tricky. At the ATMs that we've been using they actually offer the option of dollars or Colones so that's something you might want to bear in mind. And also download a currency converter app so you can always do you know the transactions because even at our hostel we booked our place on booking.com and it was in USD and then when we were going to pay in Colones so it was going to be like $25 dollars more. So yeah it's just kind of interesting. Something that you know when you're on vacation you don't really want to think about all the time but... I don't know if it's like that in all of Costa Rica or just here but just be aware of it. And where we're sitting right now is actually at El Mercadito. We came here last night for dinner and it was muy sabroso. It's a really interesting like food park. They have food and cocktails. And some great music playing. They even have this boat bar it's like a sailboat they've converted into a bar. They have draft beer. They have a ton of food options and it's a really great vibe. So if you are like in a big group and people you know someone wants Italian someone wants Sushi it's a place that can serve everyone in your party. We actually got Sushi last night I got the soy paper roll. And I got the king crab roll. We liked mine the best. The tuna was so fresh I'm just dreaming of it right now so yeah this is definitely another place that we recommend! And behind me here is Pops. This is supposed to be a great place to pick up some ice cream and cool down in that midday heat. We're not going to get here right now though because we're going for a very special treat a little later on. But for now let's head to the beach! Oh I see the beach right here. Looks so pretty! And the colorful Tamarindo sign which is probably a great place to snap a photo! And before you get to the beach you will see the Pacifico bar which is a great nightlife spot as well as the Surf Shack over here which is known for its burgers and wings. Adam. May I have a mango sir? Can I get you a mango? Anything? No. Okay. A little later! Okay! Welcome to the beach! It's La Playa baby! Like Adam just said welcome to the beach. I am hiding in the shade right now because you know this little skin is so sensitive to that sun. But this is such a beautiful place to come. It's nice and long and spread out. There's a lot of areas to sit and enjoy the views. Out in the, I guess it's sort of like a little bay here. You can see a lot of boats and along the beach there's restaurants, hotels, places to get massages. Behind me here are horses so you can do a horseback ride. And what I like is they have the little bags around their butt to collect the Poo so it's not all over the beach. So yeah it's just a great place to come down and take a stroll on the beach. We are now gonna do just that we're gonna head down a little bit to where the surfers are because we haven't talked about that yet. Tamarindo is known as a premier place to learn how to surf. The waves are very gentle and consistent so if you're looking to do that this could be the spot! And as you're walking down the beach you are going to see lots of restaurants and Beach Clubs along the way. Right behind me here is El Be! We actually she came down here last night and there was fire dancing it was so cool. I think they have it every night. I think they do too it's like When the Sun Goes Down the lights on the beach come up and the party begins! Finger dancing! Just a few steps down we saw this place here called Tama Onda. It looks like they have happy hour all day every day which is amazing. And it also says that they have the best fire show in town so I think I smell a rivalry here. I think we're gonna have to come down here later and compare the two. I like that idea! And if you're looking for a little more upscale place to stay right on the beach there is the Tamarindo Diria Hotel. This place looks fancy. They have tons of loungers, a nice restaurant, a beautiful pool with a view of the ocean and we just talked to someone they said the prices range from about $150 to $200 a night so this is definitely something if you have a little more in your budget! Let's keep heading down the beach. And I cannot tell you how envious I am of these people getting massaged. I was just sitting there when Adam was getting the info of that resort watching her just rub his knots out and I was just imagining it was my neck. So I asked how much it was. $30 an hour which I think is just wonderful. So I think tomorrow we're gonna have to take a little break from work and get down here and rub all that little stress out of us. And as you head to the north side of the beach you will come to where most of the surfing is taking place, at least the teaching part. Out here you see lots of people of all different levels kind of enjoying themselves. The waves are kind of small right now I think that there's other times of the year where they might be larger. Over here turn with me. There are lots of chairs and shade. We found out it cost twenty dollars for the day for two chairs and an umbrella so you can really enjoy yourself down here and not be crispy when you leave at the end of the night. Also one more tip when you're out in the ocean here remember the rocks are not exposed sometimes when the water is high so don't just run in and dive or anything because you could really hurt yourself. But there are lifeguards right up here who are here to look out for you which is great but if you hit your head on a rock it's not going to do much good. Yeah so just be careful. We care about you. And as you're walking down the beach you are going to see flags. These are important to pay attention to. Yellow means it's a warning. It could be a Riptide out here but it's still okay to swim just be cautious. Right down here is the red. If you see a red flag that means don't swim in front of it because you might get pulled out to sea. Just be careful! You want to come to the beach and enjoy yourself. Safety first. That's right. And while we're enjoying this beautiful beach life we would love to give a special shout out to our newest Patrons: Jason, John Kim, Dawn, Ben, Monique, Parker and Frankie Mai. Hi everyone and thank you so much for all of your contributions. We want to dedicate this incredible brach and the whole day to you today. Thank you so much for being part of our community! Yeah if you would like to join our patreon community we will put the link in the description below. Well all right let's keep going! Over here like we mentioned earlier we hope to get a very special treat so come along! So just north of Playa Tamarindo is Playa Grande. You can see it's separated here by the the Tamarindo River that actually runs into the Estuary. We've heard there are crocodiles, well we actually know there are crocodiles back here and there was actually an attack back I think eight years ago seven eight years ago so you need to be very careful when you're crossing. They do have boat taxis up here to cross if you would like to so just to be safe! We are going to take that instead of wading through this water here so let's go jump in one! We actually just got down to the end of the beach there was a boat waiting there. We hopped in it was 1,000 Colones each to cross over to Playa Grande over here. And it took like 30 seconds. And what time is the last boat? Five o'clock. And that's only one way so when you come back down you walk to the same spot wave to the guy it'll come over and pick you up. Yeah he's right over there. He just goes back and forth all day long. Sounds like a pretty good deal. Speaking of boat trips we actually learned that Tamarindo is kind of sandwiched between a national park here it's called Marino Las Baulas and if you'd like you can take a tour through the Mangrove Estuary here. We did it yesterday morning and it was so much fun. It actually leaves just from right here so check it out! We booked this tour at the tour booth in Villa Amarilla Beachfront Hotel for thirty dollars each which was the best price we found in town. They picked us up at 7:20 a.m and we were on the boat cruising by 7:30 am. And we actually lucked out as we had it all to ourselves. During the tour we saw many beautiful birds in the trees and flying overhead. We even saw a hawk try to catch a smaller bird right by our boat! The ride took us through thick Mangrove forests where we spotted some howler monkeys and a cute little baby! It was so amazing! There were crabs and fish jumping as well as two crocodile spottings. Ot was an absolute wonderful and affordable way to get acquainted with some of Costa Rica's wildlife and diversity! Not only was it fun but it was one mangroovy tour! That's got to be like the best one I've heard so far! Thank you thank you. I was working on that! Magroovy baby! Mangroovy baby! All right let's go check out Playa Grande. We have never been here so we're seeing everything with fresh eyes with you! This beach is like the complete opposite of that beach over there. There's nothing down here or at least very little. We're just walking. There's not people around it's so quiet and peaceful. All you can hear are the waves. It looks like right here there's like a little fort inside of a bush that you could hang out in some shade if you needed it. There's a couple surfers in the water but I think if you're looking for a different kind of experience pay the thousand colones come over here and just have the beach to yourself. Very cool let's keep going! We've been walking for about 10 to 15 minutes. I've been checking my Google Maps to see where we're gonna need to cut in and we saw this sign it says no mascotas or no pets allowed. Where we are right now on the beach is actually a turtle nesting area so it is protected. You can take tours from Tamarindo. They'll bring you down here at night you can actually see green turtles and Olive ridleys coming in and creating their nests right here on the beach. Yeah I believe there used to be a lot of leatherbacks here but unfortunately due to us, human development, yeah they've kind of they've gone to other secluded beaches. So yeah I think we're just gonna take this little path here and go to the cafe! Oh is it right here? Let's go! You know the only way I can get him to do these long hard things is by enticing him with some food! And it looks like it's just right up here! Thank goodness we've made it to Cafe Mar Azul. And we made it just in time because they were like sorry we're closed and I was like no please we came all this way and she took pity on me and she gave me their most popular treat that they have here. It is a banana bread Ice Cream Sandwich! Yeah we traveled all this way for that! It looks incredible. Just based on looks it was totally worth it. But let's jump in. I'm so jealous because I'm gluten-free so I can't eat this. This whole thing's for me! I didn't even realize this is great! The banana bread is like perfect. It has that beautiful banana flavor, nice and spongy. And this vanilla ice cream! Mmm thank you! But I can still enjoy the ice cream actually so he's not as happy. Man! You know what I'll make an exception for you! And while Adam was enjoying his treat I was enjoyingchecking out this magazine here it's called the Swell Dealer. And it has a lot of you know advertisements for businesses in Tamarindo and over here in Playa Grande. But what I really like is they have a whole month with everything that's going on like the events, live music, places that have happy hours, what they're offering. So when you come here try to find this and pick it up. Also over here yeah it says all the happy hours and what they have. Ladies nights, all day specials. Yeah like there's ladies nights where ladies drink for free till midnight! When's guys night? I know for real though come on! But yeah this just seems like a great way to get to know you know the deals around and just to see what's going on! Wow that was great and definitely the break we needed. I mean I can actually feel this like ball of cool it's kind of radiating up from my stomach. Sorry babe. What? You didn't get to have any. It's okay no I had some ice cream! Oh right right okay. Brain dead the heat is just sizzling that brain a bit. It is, it's been cooked like an egg! But we are actually gonna jump over to another beach here it's called Playa Langosta. We went there last night for sunset and it was spectacular we have to take you there. But instead of taking you along the whole way and that arduous walk back over there we're just gonna jump over there so come with us! Oh man I gotta get used to that. It's kind of ooo. It's a little bit of like not time travel but speed travel! Yes speed travel I like it. We'll say but yes we aren't at Playa Langosta yet but we are here back on Playa Tamarindo. We wanted to show you this a little bit at sunset. For sure so if you come down and you're facing the ocean and you go to the left that's where we are right now. We're heading down towards the headland and we're going to be going around that. During low tide you have the option of walking on the rocks and sand to get over to there or you can cut through like if it's high tide there's a trail that will take you up and over and down to where you want to be. And we'll show you that but right now on this beach you could see these people are going by on a horseback. Sunset horse ride. Man I'm jealous! Yeah there were dogs running around playing in the water. The birds are flying and diving in getting in some dinner! There are these guys out there with these hand line fishing like on the little spool and they're throwing it out and they're pulling them in really quick and getting some pretty decent sized fish. Yeah everyone's just you know they're in their seats just waiting for the sun to set it's a really nice time to be down here. Best show in town. It sure is but yeah why don't we head in front of us and go to that little walkway we'll show you how you can get up and over to the next beach. We better hurry we want to miss the sunset! Let's go. We've made it down to the decision point you can either go continuing down the beach. It's low tide so you can actually make it around. We're going to take you on the always accessible way through here the wooden gates. You make a right onto the trail, down to the fork, make a right and then it opens up into this incredible sunset view! Woo! Welcome to a beautiful sunset! Oh my gosh look at that! So nice! You can actually continue down a little bit more so you get like the whole beach in front but this is that like postcard view right here. A little "ch". Yeah take a little picture up here. Let's continue down take them to the beach! Let's do it! What a sight! Pretty sweet. Yeah and this is Playa Langosta right here. Yeah it is and it's usually way less busy than the main beach in town here. So if you don't want to go all the way down to Playa Grande you could also come down here and just kind of sit out. It'll actually wrap around a little bit over here. iIt goes to the other mangroves that we mentioned earlier. So this is where the sandwich happens just around the corner, Mangrove Heaven! Let's keep going. You see his sunburn? Oh my gosh! You got a redneck. Just like my smoothie this morning! This little girl over here her name is Spice. We actually encountered her yesterday while we were down here. She was following us around jumping all over us! She was being playful like but biting you know it was a little much at times. So if you encounter her you know just strictly say no, down, stuff like that and we've noticed that she she'll listen. Um but yeah you'll probably see her around. It seems like she just kind of runs around we're not really we're not sure who her owner is but it seems like she likes to come here for the sunset. She's over with Adam right now. But yeah it's like, see that. She's just yeah a little wild thing. Sit, enjoy the sunset! But yeah she's super cute though too so it's kind of hard to be mad at her for being a Playful Pup! And as the sun is going down we would love to just give some final thoughts on Tamarindo. You know I wasn't sure when we got here that I liked it. We've been here for a couple of days and I like it. It grows on you for sure. You know it is quite busy, very touristy and at first that might seem like a turn off for some people but after a couple days we were like okay we see the appeal of this place. Especially if you're coming on vacation for a week or two. Yeah. I mean if you if you want something a little different than say an all-inclusive place you normally go to. You can fly to Costa Rica Liberia. Be here in one hour. Get yourself a nice hotel right on the beach for $150 bucks a night, maybe even cheaper if you book it farther in advance. And they have so many options for food and activities. Yeah it's a wonderful place for families too. Mentioning the activities. Like you can do the a jungle tour, you can go to a volcano, there's hiking, they're ziplining, there's surfing. You know it's just kind of like a all-in-one kind of stop. And we took you to that one food court today the El Mercadito but you know what they actually have three more similar ones but with different offerings in this tiny little town. Yeah. It's like one more block there's another one another one another one. A lot of International Food so you're not gonna be like you know hungry for choices. Oh absolutely! Yeah so we've definitely yeah we've been enjoying it. I think we're looking forward to maybe going to some other beaches that maybe are a little more off the beaten path, a little less touristy. But you know what even here we got that on Playa Grande. Yeah that's true. You have the option to get away. And down right over here at Langosta. So yeah. So yeah it's definitely it's a good spot to come for sure bring your family or just come on your own. Like our hostel you can meet a ton of people when you go out at night same thing everyone's very open and just here trying to have a good time! So unfortunately I think it is time to say our goodbyes. We're gonna sit here and watch the sunset with you but. Thank you so much for coming along today it would have been nowhere near as much fun to do without having you here to share it with. Yeah so if you if you've been here all the way since Mexico and Guatemala and now you're in Costa Rica thanks for joining us. And if it's your first video with us thanks for being here as well we hope you'll stay along for the ride! Absolutely! And if you enjoyed this video make sure to hit that subscribe button, leave us a comment and don't forget to DLING, DLING, DLING, DLING the bell! We'll see you, next time! Adios and Pura Vida! Pura Vida!