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Playa Grande is a surf town known for its consistent swells, an ecotourism destination known for its array of wildlife and a vacation and retirement community known for its tranquility and seclusion. Surfers, environmentalists and expats, not mutually exclusive categories, all coexist in this natural retreat.
Surf shops and instructors abound for surfers at any level who need equipment or want to improve their skills. For those seeking a less strenuous and more relaxing vacation, Playa Grande offers spa services, bicycle and scooter rentals, estuary tours and sunset sailing. Meandering along the beach and the monkey trail looking for wildlife is also popular.
Playa Grande’s beachfront is a protected habitat as part of the Parque Nacional Marino Las Baulas. As such, the houses and businesses in town are set inland from the beach, noise and light restrictions are enforced and littering and collecting shells are prohibited.
While surfers, swimmers and sun-worshippers populate the beach by day, it is off-limits to visitors at night from November through February when the endangered leatherback turtles come to nest. From dawn to dusk during nesting season, only those with a registered guide may walk the beach wearing dark clothing and without lights to catch a glimpse of the turtles as they come ashore to lay their eggs.
Located just across the estuary from the buzzing and brightly lit Tamarindo, Playa Grande encourages a much more tranquillo lifestyle. Its reputation for great waves also means this town runs on a surf schedule – early to bed and early to rise.
The largest surf point is in Playa Grande Estates, the more commercial and dispersed of Playa Grande’s two constituent neighborhoods. Surfers usually elect to stay on this side of town, as it is home to the hollow lefts and rights immortalized in the surf classic Endless Summer II.
Palm Beach Estates, much like its Floridian counterpart, is a vacation and retirement destination, comprising second homes, boutique hotels and cabinas. It is a model of sustainable, low-impact development in Costa Rica.
The neighborhoods are easily walkable and bikable, and the community is small and friendly enough that it’s common courtesy to greet everyone you pass with a cheerful hola. En route are many restaurant-hotel combinations boasting creative chefs and a wide variety of cuisine from Tico to continental to sushi to pizza.
A walk along the beach at low tide or a bike ride through town will land visitors at Playa Ventanas or Playa Carbón, more secluded beaches to the north.