Costa Rica Travel Guide | Playas del Coco, Tamarindo, Flamingo, Playa Conchal & MORE! (Guanacaste)

Welcome to paradise. We are finally showing you Costa Rica's tropical gem and a place near and dear to our hearts, Guanacaste. From its pristine beaches and vibrant marine life to the lush rainforest, this is the ultimate destination for nature lovers and thrill seekers alike. Get ready to immerse yourself in the serenity of Playa Conchal, go surfing in Tamarindo, have a shot of chile guado, and enjoy traditional celebrations, all while spending lots of quality time with our family and friends. Pura Vida you guys. Good morning you guys and welcome to Costa Rica. It is so exciting to be back here. We are currently in Playa Del Coco here in Guanacaste. So these videos have been a long time coming to make. Me and Sammy actually met in this town, Playa Del Coco, many many years ago and we can't wait to show you guys our favorite places here. So my mom is Costa Rican and we lived here whenever I was little. We moved back to the U.S. and then once I graduated high school my parents moved back to Costa Rica with my younger siblings. So my family lives here in Costa Rica, aunts, uncles, my tita, lots of cousins here and Tommy after he graduated college he moved here to Costa Rica and when I graduated college in Louisiana I moved here to Costa Rica and we were introduced here in Playa Del Coco by my cousin Tabby. The story is a lot more intricate than that but that is the short and sweet version. So Playa Del Coco used to be a small fishing village but it's grown into more of a tourist hub and a place for, well it's become a place for retirees and expats. Tommy and I love it here because we have friends and family here and it's very centrally located. It's only 40 minutes from the airport so you can really use it as a great base to explore Guanacaste. Right now we're hungry we want to go get some breakfast, a typical Costa Rican breakfast. We want to show you guys what that looks like. We just came to Claudio and Gloria's for breakfast. It's this nice little restaurant right on Playa Del Coco beach. So what we ordered is a typical breakfast. What it comes with here in Costa Rica is gallo pinto which is made of rice and black beans stir-fried with some seasonings. This is our first time eating out but Tommy and I have been eating this every day at my parents house. There's a reason Sammy loves rice and beans more than anything else and gallo pinto is the reason. Yeah so anyway this is what I grew up eating and yeah we just wanted to show you guys what a typical Costa Rican breakfast looks like. And it's amazing setting you guys. We're right on the beach. It's just so funny because when we make videos and we go to countries and like try the food we're like oh wow this is what they eat for breakfast and like I feel so silly talking about pinto. So last time you guys saw us we were in Barcelona and I'm sure you're wondering how we end up in Costa Rica. After Barcelona the plan was to take an epic train journey across a ton of countries in Europe and visiting some major cities which I've been looking forward to since I was like in high school train traveling Europe. Who doesn't want to do that? But I feel like we were so burnt out after nine months of straight traveling and missing family and friends so much we weren't enjoying Spain as much as we should have been. So we decided to hit pause on that trip which we'll be going to later on this year. Instead we ended up coming to Costa Rica. Sammy has family here. We both have tons of friends so we are so stoked to be back. So that breakfast is not as amazing as I remember but we've also been spoiled from Sammy's mom all week with a bunch of homemade delicious meals. Okay so the plan today is show you guys some of our favorite spots here in Guanacaste plus a couple new ones we've never been to. Okay now we just have breakfast but you can't do a road trip without snacks so we got all of this to go. These are my favorite ones. They have a little bit of spicy carne y papas in the middle. They also come with like you can get arroz con pollo, you can get pollo, you can get just potatoes but this one is the best. I agree. We're not going to be going through that. No. We've done that before. The river is really high for rainy season right now and we're not going to do that because on your rental car agreement your insurance is completely nulled if you drive through a river in Costa Rica. We're gonna go a little detour around it. So it's pretty crazy. It costs five thousand colones or ten dollars to make use of their bridge unless you're doing a tour. So not cheap. No I tried to haggle. I said he's like no lady you gotta pay ten dollars so you can't haggle at the bridge. So our first stop today we're heading to Playa Flamingo but on the way we just ran into this new marina here called Marina Flamingo. We're gonna show you guys that and hopefully find a coffee somewhere along these little boutique shops. Yeah we've never been here before so it looks really nice. Oh this is nice Tommy. I'll take that yacht right there. That looks amazing. I'll take any of these. I'll take the little jet ski over there. That's true. We're not picky. No I'm not picky. You got a kayak? What an amazing setting though with all these beautiful green hills behind it. So fancy now isn't it? I know. I've never seen this. This looks like it could be like I don't know in Europe or the states or something. Definitely. This is it's not very Costa Rican style. It's very interesting to me. It looks like we found our coffee spot with the view right up there. Yeah what was your name sir? Okay the usual is Brian right? Yeah. But my name is with D. With D. Brian. Brian I like that. Where are you from? My friend is Costa Rica. Yeah where abouts? I live in Santa Cruz. You have a beautiful presentation. That is. But for a drink it's still recommended to shake. Yeah. You're the drink parachute shot. Okay thank you my man. So we're gonna enjoy our Brit coffee which is my favorite coffee here in Costa Rica overlooking this beautiful marina. How is it guys? The humidity is real right? Wow it's so so humid. It's even cloudy today and I'm still just dying, sweating. Tell them you don't do well in the heat. I don't. I don't do well in the humidity. All right let's take these coffees to go to the beach. To the beach. You guys check out this dog. He has sunglasses. Yeah it's so cute. This is worth the 35 minute drive from Coco. The sand is so soft between my toes. So we just made it to our first beach of the day. This is Playa Flamingo, my second favorite beach here. We're heading to my favorite right after this. This beach is so stunning. It's known for its white powdery sand, its turquoise clear water. It's a little overcast today so I can't show you guys how beautiful the water is which is a bummer but the weather is still great for us. It's also super convenient. You just park your car literally right there on the road. You walk five steps and you're here on this beautiful beach. This is so nice. This is my perfect beach weather. It's a little bit overcast. It's not too hot. There's breeze. I know Tommy's dying in the humidity but I love it. Great stop at Flamingo. Onwards we're about to head about I think Bracelito and Playa Conchal is only like 10 minutes away right? Super close. I love being on these like back roads, unpaved, like going to find the best beaches. We used to go to so many different beaches growing up here. We've been all up and down this coast and this to me is just like fun adventure style Costa Rica. We have just made it to Playa Bracelito. In order to get to our favorite beach you have to park at Bracelito and walk 10 minutes because there's no parking access over there. But it's worth it you guys. So we paid 3,000 colones which is about six dollars for parking. You can find free spots just on the street but for us it's nice to have an attendant watching our car the whole time. We don't have to worry about any of this stuff in our car. The crocodile glimph. I don't like this. Costa Rica does have crocodiles and they also used to tell us when we were kids like where the estuary meets the ocean that's where you're going to find all the crocodiles. So I always get super nervous walking through those things because I'm like for sure I'm going to get eaten by a crocodile. So when you get all the way to the end of Bracelito you'll come to this like path through the woods. You're going to take that path and it'll be the access to Playa Conchal which we'll show you why it's called Playa Conchal in just a minute. It's so crowded. This is crazy. Yeah this is not only our favorite beach it's everybody else's favorite beach too. The reason they call this beach Playa Conchal is because instead of sand it's seashells. So the reason why this is our favorite beach and so many others is because not only the shells make everything so white and clear but most beaches here in Costa Rica are volcanic sand beaches. It's a lot darker not quite as scenic. It makes the water a little murky compared to how crystal clear this is. It's amazing. Isn't this super amazing? I love it so much though I hardly ever get in the water at the beach because it's always too cold for me but it is the temperature is absolutely perfect here. Tommy would say it's a little too warm. I just like it a little more refreshing but that's just that's just my take. He grew up in Washington state I grew up in South Louisiana so our body temperatures for water have not acclimated to be the same. In this humid environment like I want to get in and cool down but it's not quite that cold to do that but most people love it. I'm the odd one out for sure. Okay so it does look like the clouds are rolling in right now. We do want to show you guys a couple more spots and we're getting pretty hungry so I think we're gonna leave the beach and go head to a little soda. Okay the estuary crossing has turned into a full-on river crossing. The tide has How my wife drives you guys. Look at her knees like what are you doing you got those long limbs and you like to get that close to the wheel. I feel more comfortable I don't know I just how I drive. My grandma used to drive like that too she was also very short though. So on our way to our next destination we stopped at this restaurant this is called Ace Soda here in Costa Rica. So what a soda is it's an open-aired restaurant they serve local Costa Rican food at a very affordable price and it's usually owned and ran by the same family. Cheers! We got some ginger lemonades and of course my favorite beer here in Costa Rica the original imperial. Salud! So this is a typical Costa Rican dish this is called a casado. It comes with rice, black beans, usually some type of vegetable, plantains, and some type of protein. You can get it with chicken, fish, steak, pork, whatever you want to get. This is essentially what I grew up eating you guys it's very affordable this entire plate of food was only I think 3,500 colones which is seven dollars that's the most affordable dish we've eaten on this entire trip. Costa Rica has been a little more expensive than it used to be. Yeah it's more expensive eating out is expensive but if you get a typical dish like this you can say an affordable budget range. Everything is really good you guys I just had a bite of my chicken, rice, and beans. I mean there's not much you can say about it it's pretty simple food but dang it hits the spot. It does, my steak is delicious. So we made it to Tamagringo, I mean Tamarindo. This used to be a like a small surfing village now it's a huge tourist hub and it's really been built up over the years so I'm excited to see how it's changed so much. Sammy and I both have taken like beginner surf lessons. It's a great place to learn how to surf. It's not a beach that we frequented a lot because it's just like it's always very busy here but it's a great a lot of people a lot of tourists love this beach because surfing amenities it's huge it's nice sand good nightlife as well yeah oh yeah nightlife too. We just walked through Tamarindo it has its you know normal array of tourist restaurants and souvenir shops. There's also this place called El Mercadito they have all kinds of food from around the world like Italian food, Mexican food, Argentinian food, and typical foods. It looks really nice I've actually never been here before so I want to walk I mean we just ate but I want to walk around check it out. So I was expecting big changes here in Tamarindo but really it still reminds me of the surf chill town that I visited 12 years ago. There are a ton more resorts now still plenty of bar and restaurants right on the beach which is so perfect but the surfing vibe is still here. People are all very friendly. Prices have gone up other than that though I could still spend a week here. You have all the amenities you need never have to leave town. Beautiful beaches, awesome surf, and all those beaches we just came from are only like 30 minutes away. Okay it was so funny because we were passing by this souvenir shop and they have this towel that's like a 1000 koloni so one thing is the money here in Costa Rica so pretty is so pretty the 1000, 2000, 5000, and 10,000 kolonis. I was always like why are you listing the money? Anyway it's so pretty look at this one and you can buy towels that look like the money. I think that's a really cute souvenir too. Anyway I just thought it was cute a souvenir that looks like the money. The money here is really pretty. We're at Volcano Brewing which is right on the beach here. How great is this setting? We both got IPAs. I got the Volcano IPA which is named after the brewery and Sammy got Witches Rock. This is good. How's yours? Mine's okay. Okay I thought they were six dollars a pop so it's not as bad as I thought actually. Now we got some live music now. Sammy really wants to show you guys the very pretty money here in Costa Rica. Let me let me show it. 1,000 for the deer, the monkey, the white-faced monkey on the 5,000, and a clock on the 10,000. So we just made it back to Coco. I met up with my best friend since I was a young kid named Timmy. We're here with the sun at Pacifico Beach Club. This is a beautiful spot that overlooks Coco Beach. We're gonna get some drinks, just enjoy the pool, and relax. It is super beautiful here at night. So we came here in Costa Rica in the rainy season. There's way less tourists. Everything is so green and beautiful, but in the afternoons it can start raining. So we got rained out at the beach club, but we made our way over to The Wave. This place is brand new. There are so many TVs. The food here is absolutely delicious. We've tried almost everything now. If there's a sporting event you need to watch or you want to grab a fancy drink or a delicious meal, make sure you guys come check out The Wave and come say hi. They also have a selection of seven different craft beers here. I got the Hazy IPA, which I'm super excited about. Cheers, you guys. It was so, so good with the steak bites and your ciders. It's delicious. And the service has been great too. Thank you. Thank you. This morning we woke up bright and early. We decided to come to this area called La Leona. So what it is, is like this beautiful river and there's these tours that they sell. They'll take you through caves and then you end at this waterfall. So we came with my family. This is our whole crew here. It's my mom, my cousin, her boyfriend, my sisters, my cousin, and all of her kids. I don't have Tommy with me. I don't have my cameraman. This is what I have. I'm a cameraman. It feels so weird. Anyway, we're taking the tour with Finca Don Rafa and it's 8,000 colones a person. I don't know if that's the local price or if that's the actual price. And yeah, we're about to go tubing and go to a beautiful waterfall. I'm sad Tommy had to stay behind and edit a video because we have so much going on with so many different people here, but we obviously still have to put out videos. So he sat this one out today. So he's just filming. And I have my sister, one of my sisters on GoPro duty. So you're so cute, lady. We'll see how I do. I'm nervous. Elena is so cute. She's getting all of the shots. She said, am I getting the shots like Tommy? I said, yes. So I got one of you, but I'll be okay. So just say Tommy. We just finished up the waterfall hike. Super, super fun. We all had a great time. A little bit more challenging for the kiddos than we thought it was going to be. The current is very strong in rainy season, but we all had a great time. And now it's time for an hour and a half drive back to Coco. We got back to Coco and met up with some of my cousins, but I hadn't seen in ages. We were able to reminisce, have some drinks and just catch up. When you visit Costa Rica, you have to try Chile Guado. It is Costa Rica's most iconic shot. It's made with traditional local liquor and has a little bit of a spicy kick to it. While we were in town, the tope was going on. The tope or the horse parades are a typical Costa Rican tradition where riders from around the area come to show off their beautiful horses and incredible riding skills. We laughed, danced and had such an amazing time. Travel blogs are turning into girls gone wild. Cousins gone wild. So this morning we woke up bright and early and came to one of my favorite beaches. This is Playa Nacaskolo. So this is a beach I came to all the time as a little kid. It's a great beach to bring kids because it's super flat and the water is very shallow and very flat and calm. There's so much nature. As soon as we got here, there's like dolphins in the water. We've been seeing lizards everywhere. It's about 45 minutes north of Playa Zococo where we're staying. You park in the Four Seasons parking lot and they have free shuttles that bring you down to the beach. So you park there, you get on the shuttle, you come down to the beach. You have to pack everything with you like lunches and everything like that because the only amenities that they have here are the bathrooms. But it's a great place to come spend the day and there's also another beach like 20 minutes north of here called Playa Cabo Jau. So if you also wanted to go to that beach, you can make a day of it. Come here in the morning and go there in the afternoon. What are you drinking, dude? They gave it to me. I don't think you're old enough, B. Hey, are you liking the beaches down here? Yeah. You were exploring a lot today. What animals have you seen today? Iguanas, birds, baby iguanas, those special Jesus lizards. Oh, I saw tons of hermit crabs, hermit crabs in general. Oh, fun place to hang out then, right? Yeah. Oh, we can cut that. This afternoon, we drove out with my whole family. We're here at my uncle Mike's farm, so it's near Bogasas. My uncle Mike wanted to show us his fishing project that he has going on here. He has some hatcheries, he has some ponds, he's growing this fish called Pangasius. So yeah, we're just spending a nice afternoon with the family out here at the farm. His property here is so beautiful. Everything's so green. There's these gorgeous mountains in the background. You can see why he wants to retire here. I can't believe how big some of these fish are. Oh, that was so big. So that was super fun. My uncle Mike and his partner Christina just showed us the whole breeding process of the fish. They had some of their workers come out with this huge net and drag the pond. They pulled up so many fish. It's an episode of River Monsters. They got the male and female out, and Christina, she's such a badass, she took a straw and stuck it into the fish's egg sac and sucked up a few of the eggs, so that way she could put them on a plate and show us how to tell if the eggs are ready. It was really fun to learn about, and now they've also pulled up some fish for us to go cook and have a cookout together. Why is he still alive? I love garlic. I put garlic on everything. I can't wait to taste it. Christina's about to fry us up some chicharrones. We're going to do chicharrones and then we're going to fry the fish. It's like that crunchy, crispy, delicious. I feel like it's just like melting in my mouth. I hope we got the greasy part. We're having a chicharrone moment. Should we do it like Lady and the Tramp? I love eating fish like this. It's very good. That's amazing. Keep the bones clean. We just had such a great evening hanging out with the family, and Uncle Mike was telling us earlier that this farm has beautiful sunsets, and he was not kidding because the sunset was incredible. But thank you, Uncle Mike, for hosting us. It was a great time with the family, and now we're heading back to Plaza Coco. So much fun. We are so grateful to be able to spend quality time with family and friends. It was just what we needed. Thank you, everyone, for watching. Don't miss next week, where we show you more of our favorite places here in Costa Rica.