Tag: costa rica environmentally friendly vacation

August 28,2026

Is Tamarindo Walkable? Here’s What You Actually Need to Know

There’s something very vacation-esque about not having a car. It’s the freewheeling feeling of ocean breeze in your hair, sand between your toes, and the freedom to pick up and go whenever you want, without wondering where you parked or who has the keys.

 

But then there’s the very practical question of, well, how are you actually going to get there?

 

That’s why you’re probably asking whether Tamarindo is walkable. Or maybe whether you should get a golf cart rental in Tamarindo. Or maybe, if you’re being very honest, whether your whole group can avoid renting a car without turning every beach day, dinner reservation, and grocery run into a production.

 

So, Is Tamarindo Walkable? 

The short answer is yes: Tamarindo is very walkable. But there are some caveats. It all depends on where you’re staying, who you’re traveling with, how hot it is, how heat-tolerant you are, and how many beach bags, beach toys, and surfboards you’ve somehow committed yourself to carrying. It also comes down to whether dinner involves heels, small children, grandparents, or a group that tends to leave the house in waves.

 

As Costa Rican beach towns go, Tamarindo is certainly one of the easier to navigate on foot. The town is compact, beach-oriented, and relatively flat along the main road, where much of Tamarindo’s daily life happens: restaurants, shops, surf schools, cafés, tour offices, grocery stores, pharmacies, boutiques, and beach access points. From there, smaller residential roads branch out toward quieter pockets of town, some closer to the beach, some tucked slightly uphill, and some just far enough from the center to make the walk feel calm instead of crowded.

 

That said, “walkable” doesn’t mean the same thing for everyone. A five-minute walk sounds very different at 8 a.m. than it does at 1:30 p.m. under the Guanacaste sun. A short hill feels different when you’re fresh from breakfast than when you’re carrying groceries, sandy towels, and a 40-pound kiddo who lost their flip-flop to the Pacific. And a lovely stroll to dinner can feel much less lovely if half the group is dressed up and in heels, one person is hungry already, and someone else is asking whether they really have to wear shoes at all.

 

That’s when the is-it-walkable? answer gets a little dicey, and you may want to have a backup plan in place. 

 

If you’re considering our Tamarindo villa rentals, the smartest plan may be walking to most places, using a golf cart when the sun is high or the beach bags are multiplying or the high heels are heeling, and letting your concierge handle the other details that make the whole stay feel convenient before anyone has to ask. But before we get into that…

 

What Can You Walk To in Tamarindo?

If you’re in the right location, you can walk to most of what people come to Tamarindo for. That’s the whole appeal: You wake up, decide what kind of day you’re having, and then leave the transportation plan out of it for a while.

 

Beach and Surf

Tamarindo Beach, aka Playa Tamarindo, is the center of the whole experience: morning surf, sunset walks, sand between meals, that quick “let’s just go look at the water” moment that turns into an hour because, well, there you are.

 

You can walk to the beach for surf lessons, board rentals, beach walks, swimming, sunset, and those small in-between moments that end up becoming half the vacation. If you’re staying close enough, beach access stops being an outing and starts becoming part of the daily rhythm.

 

Dining and Nightlife

You can also walk to restaurants and bars, and Tamarindo has far more variety than most first-time visitors expect. You’ll find casual beach cafés, sushi, seafood, tacos, pizza, cocktail bars, date-night dinners, family-friendly restaurants, and plenty of places where sandy feet don’t feel like a moral failure.

 

For groups, walking to dinner is especially lovely because no one has to drive, no one has to coordinate three vehicles, and no one has to negotiate who’s calling a taxi at the end of the night.

 

Groceries, Shops, and Everyday Errands

Then there are the practical things, which sound boring until you need them and suddenly, your entire vacation seems to hinge on having easy access. Tamarindo has grocery stores, pharmacies, surf shops, boutiques, ATMs, tour offices, and enough everyday conveniences to make a villa stay easy.

 

Run out for sunscreen. Grab a coffee. Pick up snacks, replace sunglasses, rent a board, or buy the hat you forgot to pack… it’s all right here, within easy walking distance

 

Tours and Pickup Points

Many tours also offer pickup and drop-off, depending on the operator and activity, which is where staying in a well-supported rental starts to feel especially smart. You may not need to walk, drive, or cart yourself everywhere.

 

With the right concierge support, your beach days, dinner reservations, grocery needs, and tour logistics can start fitting together before anyone in your group has to make a spreadsheet.

 

When You May Not Want to Walk Around Tamarindo

Of course, walkable is not the same as wanting to walk. That’s the part people sometimes forget when they’re planning from a climate-controlled living room somewhere very far from the Guanacaste sun.

 

A short walk in Tamarindo can feel lovely in the morning. Coffee in hand, ocean breeze, still-pleasant sun, everyone feeling cheerful and well-rested. That same walk at 1:00 p.m., with the sun high, three beach bags, two wet towels, and a surfboard, can feel like an endurance event. Both physically and for your patience.

 

Then there’s the group factor. Couples can usually make walking work pretty easily. Families and larger groups have more variables. Someone moves slowly. Someone forgot sunglasses. Someone wants to go back for the room key. Someone is dressed for dinner, not a dusty roadside stroll. Someone’s small child has decided, very firmly, that walking is no longer an element of their personal brand.

 

None of this means Tamarindo isn’t walkable, but it does mean that can and will are two different things, and that it’s ok to adjust your best transportation plan to match the actual people on the trip. If your rental is central, your group is flexible, and you like walking, wonderful. If your villa is a little uphill, your dinner plans are spread around town, or “easier” is a welcome addition to your vocabulary, then you may want something with wheels.

 

The No-Car Sweet Spot: Golf Cart Rental Tamarindo

This is where golf cart rental Tamarindo starts making a lot of sense. A golf cart gives you the ease of having transportation without the weight of having a car. No parallel parking, no finding a gas station, no big rental-car energy. And absolutely no one has to climb into a hot SUV with molten seat upholstery just to go three minutes down the road for tacos.

 

A golf cart rental also has a way of making you feel very Tamarindo: breezy, casual, easy to hop in and out of, and just practical enough to count as planning while still feeling like vacation. Most rentals are 4-passenger or 6-passenger carts, which works well for couples, families, and small groups who want an easier way to move around town.

 

Use a golf cart for beach runs, dinner reservations, grocery stops, surf shops, cafés, pharmacy runs, and trips down toward Playa Langosta. Keep it local, though. Golf carts are great for Tamarindo and Langosta, and while they’re street legal (you must have a driver’s license), they’re not meant for airport transfers, national parks, Hacienda Pinilla, Playa Grande, Avellanas, Conchal, Flamingo, or longer Guanacaste exploring. For those, you’ll want a car, private driver, tour transfer, or some combination of the three.

 

If you’re staying in one of our Tamarindo villa rentals, your concierge can help arrange the right golf cart for your group and have it delivered directly to your villa or condo, so it’s ready when you are. Pickup can usually be arranged from the property too. Just one more detail handled before anyone has to ask.

 

Where to Stay in Tamarindo

The right Tamarindo villa rental does more than give you a beautiful place to stay; it shapes how easily you move through town, reach the beach, gather your group, and enjoy the car-optional vacation you actually came here for.

 

Ibis Condo #2

Tamarindo | 2 Beds | 2 Baths | Sleeps 6

 

 

Ibis Condo #2 is the easy-walk answer for travelers who want Tamarindo close, but not quite in their lap. Set just across the street from Tamarindo Beach and only a few minutes from downtown, it keeps the best parts of town within reach: morning surf, sunset walks, dinner out, groceries, coffee, and all the small vacation errands that feel much better when they don’t require a car.

 

The real bonus is the included VIP Langosta Beach Club membership, which gives you access to an infinity-edge pool, fitness center, Pilates and yoga studio, French restaurant, ocean-view bar, and direct beach access just across the street. Back at the condo, the outdoor terrace gives you your own place to slow down between beach runs and dinner plans. 

 

For couples, small families, or friends who want a comfortable condo with strong amenities and an easy Tamarindo rhythm, Ibis 2 is wonderfully straightforward: walk when you want, golf cart when you feel like it, and let the concierge help with the rest.

 

>> Book Now <<

 

Soul House

Langosta | 4 Beds | 4 Baths | Sleeps 10 to 13

 

Soul House is for the group that wants space, calm, and a little breathing room, while still staying close to Tamarindo. Located in the peaceful Langosta Beach community, just south of town, this home sits about a five-minute walk from the beach, with a supermarket and restaurant across the street and downtown Tamarindo less than a mile away. It’s close enough to keep the trip easy, but removed enough to let the house feel like its own retreat.

 

The home itself has a grounded, relaxed energy, with a private pool, garden, fire pit, open-air common areas, and a detached private suite with its own bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and living area. That setup works beautifully for families and groups because people can gather when they want to and retreat when they need to.

 

Elite Service adds breakfast preparation, cocktails and snacks until 2 p.m., daily housekeeping, laundry, and a dedicated concierge, which means many of the practical pieces are already handled. Add a golf cart for quick trips into Tamarindo, or keep things simple with beach walks, pool afternoons, and dinners close to home.

 

>> Book Now <<

 

Ready to Plan a Walkable Stay or Rent a Golf Cart in Tamarindo?

If you’re dreaming of a Tamarindo vacation without rental-car logistics, parking questions, or daily transportation debates, you’re looking in the right direction. With the right villa, a smart location, and maybe a golf cart waiting outside, Tamarindo can feel wonderfully easy to move through.

 

Start with the rental. Then let us help with the rest.

 

When you book with Vacation Rentals of Tamarindo, your personal concierge can also help arrange grocery pre-stocking, golf cart rental in Tamarindo, airport transfers, tour pickup and drop-off, dinner reservations, surf lessons, private chefs, and the little conveniences that keep a trip moving smoothly.

 

So go ahead, get in touch! Tell us how your group likes to travel, and we’ll help you decide what you actually need: walking, golf cart, rental car, driver, or a combination of all of the above.

July 30,2026

5 National Parks You Can Visit from Tamarindo

Guanacaste, the province where Tamarindo is located, is home to at least seven national parks, chosen and protected for their historical significance, natural beauty, ecological diversity, habitat importance, and varied flora and fauna. You may have heard of a few of them, but we’ll bet there are at least a couple you haven’t.

 

And while we couldn’t fit them all on this list of the best national parks in Costa Rica – part two coming soon? – we’re happy to share five of our favorite must-visit national parks in Guanacaste, all within day-trip distance from Tamarindo and our Guanacaste vacation rentals.

 

Las Baulas National Marine Park

Drive Time: About 30 to 40 minutes

Recommended Experience: Turtle Tour or Playa Grande Day Trip

You may have heard that Las Baulas National Marine Park, located just across the estuary from Tamarindo, is one of the world’s largest nesting sites for leatherback turtles. These are the world’s largest sea turtles and, depending on which conservation list you consult, they’re considered vulnerable, endangered, or very much at risk. Either way, they’re to be protected, not only because they’re extraordinary, but because they’re incredibly important to both Costa Rica’s and the planet’s ecosystems.

 

And here, just a few hundred yards from Tamarindo, along the shores of Playa Grande, Playa Ventanas, and Playa Carbón, as well as acres of inland mangrove forests, Las Baulas hosts these gentle giants, along with beautiful sand, sun, swimming, and spectacular surf. Playa Grande is especially beloved for beginner-to-intermediate waves, including fast-breaking lefts and rights, with a few barrels, peaks, and long rides thrown in for good measure.

 

The Wondrous Leatherback Turtle

Did you know that leatherback turtles are the largest sea turtles in the world and the fourth-largest of all reptiles? They come in fourth only to three crocodilians, which gives you a pretty good idea of how big they are. Some people even call them the Earth’s last dinosaur, since the species has lived for millions of years and outlived even the last of the dinosaurs. Pretty impressive for a six-foot-long, 1,500-pound turtle that can dive as deep as 3,900 feet, where the pressure is so intense that a human would implode!

 

When to Visit

Las Baulas National Marine Park makes for a great visit any time of year, thanks to its scenic coastline and mangroves. But if you’re here for the leatherbacks, your best chances are during nesting season, which typically runs from October through March. Keep in mind that you’ll need to take an official nighttime turtle tour to see the leatherbacks nesting.

 

Rincón de la Vieja National Park

Drive Time: About 2 hours
Recommended Experience: Las Pailas Sector, Volcano Hike, Waterfalls, and Hot Springs

We like to think of Rincón de la Vieja National Park as the one with a fiery heart and a watery outer layer. Because at its true heart – and by that we mean deep within the earth – Rincón de la Vieja is an active volcano that produces one of Costa Rica’s steamiest (and absolutely jaw-dropping) attractions.

 

Here, you can get up close and personal with still-active volcanic vents, which is one of the hottest and coolest things we’ve ever done. We’re talking boiling mud pots, volcanic rivers, cold-water waterfalls, scrubland, cloud forest, and a whole host of ecosystems and microhabitats that support incredible flora and fauna. 

 

What makes it even better is that Rincón de la Vieja is still just off-the-beaten-path enough that you may only meet a handful of other visitors in the park. So, you’re not bumping elbows, you’re not lining up for a 5-second look at anything. You really do get the sense that you’ve stepped into this incredible volcanic wonderland almost on your own.

 

Spotlight on Las Pailas Sector

Rincón de la Vieja is too large to see in a single day, so if we had to make one recommendation, we’d point you toward the Las Pailas sector and the park’s most popular loop. Here, you can see:

 

·      Boiling mud pots

·      Steaming fumaroles

·      A mini-crater, or volcancito

·      Hot springs and volcanic vents

·      Rivers and dry savannah

·      Rainforest and cloud forest scenery

·      Seasonal waterfalls and access to longer waterfall hikes

 

Santa Rosa National Park

Drive Time: About 2 hours
Recommended Experience: History, Dry Forest, Wildlife, and Remote Beaches

We love recommending Santa Rosa National Park, in part because it doesn’t always make the recommended lists… and we’ll never understand why. Costa Rica’s first national park, Santa Rosa is home to untouched beauty and wild nature, which is exactly what most people hope to experience in a national park. 

 

Here, you’ll find rivers, rare tropical dry forest, rocky islands, sandy beaches, mangrove forests, and so much more, all of which creates a landscape home to beautiful plants and bucket-list wildlife, including howler monkeys and the white-tailed deer, a national symbol of Costa Rican wildlife.

 

Santa Rosa’s Historical Significance

Easily one of the best national parks in Costa Rica, thanks to its historic significance alone, Santa Rosa is one of Costa Rica’s most important national parks, with ample signage that details its cultural and historical significance. 

 

Here, you’ll find La Casona Historic Museum, the park’s true point of interest and the real reason Santa Rosa became Costa Rica’s first national park. In a story all Costa Rican schoolchildren know, this is the site where U.S. filibuster William Walker and his army were defeated by a small group of Costa Ricans, a victory that helped protect Costa Rica’s sovereignty.

 

Flora and Fauna

Santa Rosa is incredibly historic, but there’s a lot of nature here too. National parks aren’t zoos, of course, so no sighting is ever guaranteed. But when you’re in a place as ecologically dense as Santa Rosa, you have pretty good chances. 

 

Here, you’ll find 750-plus plant species, 100-plus reptile and amphibian species, 115-plus mammal species, and 4,000-plus butterfly and moth species. And then, of course, there are the 250-plus resident and migratory bird species. So grab your bucket list and your naturalist guide, and ready yourself for a great trip.

 

Palo Verde National Park

Drive Time: About 2 to 2.5 hours

Recommended Experience: Tempisque River Boat Tour and Birdwatching

 

Palo Verde National Park is always one of our top recommendations because of how rich a contrast it is. Here, some of Costa Rica’s most ecologically diverse and important wetlands cozy up to one of the planet’s most important swaths of tropical dry forest. It feels like a contradiction, but in Costa Rica, it’s not.

 

That’s because Palo Verde is both set within Guanacaste province and located along the Río Tempisque, which gives so much life to this otherwise arid region. Named for the green stick, or palo verde, that you find in so many Costa Rican wetland habitats, Palo Verde stretches just over 45,000 acres but is home to 15 distinct habitats. The result is deciduous forests and plains, wooded savannas, lagoons and marshes, saltwater mangroves, riverside forest, and so much more, creating an incredible oasis even in the dry season.

 

Birding at Palo Verde

Palo Verde is home to an incredible 300-plus bird species, including what is believed to be the greatest concentration of waterfowl and shorebirds in all of Central America. If the timing is right, up to a quarter million birds may reside here at any given time, making this birdwatching central and an incredibly important habitat for migratory and resident bird species.

 

Here, you could spot:

 

·      Great egrets

·      Anhingas

·      Pink herons

·      Snowy egrets

·      Green-backed herons

·      Roseate spoonbills

·      Snail kites

·      Blue-winged teals

·      Northern shovelers

·      Black-necked stilts

·      Black-crowned night herons

·      Cattle egrets

·      Great curassows

·      American wigeons

·      Toucans

·      Parrots

·      Scarlet macaws

·      And many more!

 

In addition, keep an eye out for:

 

·      American crocodiles

·      White-faced monkeys

·      Howler monkeys

·      White-nosed coatis

·      Collared peccaries

·      Armadillos

·      Jaguarundis

·      White-tailed deer

·      And so much more!

 

Diria National Park

Drive Time: About 1.5 hours

Recommended Experience: Hiking, Birding, Forest Trails, and Seasonal Waterfall

You don’t hear a lot about Diriá National Park, and that’s part of its charm. This ever-developing national park is still a work in progress, but the progress it’s already made is pretty incredible.

 

To start, Diriá is an incredible dichotomy of hot, arid lowlands, home to rare tropical dry forest, that then climb nearly 6,000 feet in elevation to cooler temperatures and premontane tropical wet forest. In turn, that provides an incredible diversity of flora and fauna to appreciate as you wonder at the ever-changing landscapes. There are at least three trails through the park, which loop for anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes and pass seasonal Brazil Waterfall, a natural swimming hole, biking trails, lookout points, and more.

 

Flora and Fauna

One of the biggest reasons people visit Diriá National Park is because of its primary forest, sometimes called virgin forest, which is an incredibly rare type of forest in the world nowadays. Primary forest has never been cut, farmed, or otherwise changed from its natural state, which creates a very unique ecosystem that can’t be replicated, even in the oldest secondary forests. In turn, these primary forests create habitats unlike any other, with plant life that supports animal life in different ways than what we see in secondary forests.

 

Diriá is a pretty exhilarating visit for wildlife lovers because there are so many large mammals here, including white-faced monkeys, howler monkeys, coatimundis, anteaters, coyotes, boar, possums, and occasional jaguarundis.

 

The park is also a paradise for birdwatchers, who can keep their eyes peeled for:

 

·      Turquoise-browed motmots

·      Elegant trogons

·      Collared aracaris

·      Squirrel cuckoos

·      Plain chachalacas

·      Long-tailed manakins

·      Broad-winged hawks

·      Ivory-billed woodcreepers

·      Barred antshrikes

·      Olive sparrows

·      Masked tityras

·      Great kiskadees

·      Banded wrens

·      Stub-tailed spadebills

 

Where to Stay

If the best national parks in Costa Rica are on the docket, then where you stay matters. Our Guanacaste vacation rentals offer an easy home base, good concierge support, and enough space to come back dusty, happy, and very ready for the pool.

 

360 Splendor #501

Flamingo | 3 Bedrooms | 3 Bathrooms | Sleeps 6

 

360 Splendor #501 is a great fit if your national park plans are part of a broader Guanacaste vacation. Set on Flamingo’s north ridge, this ocean-view condo gives you a slightly quieter base, with Flamingo Beach, Marina Flamingo, restaurants, a supermarket, and ocean adventures all close by. It’s not in Tamarindo proper, but for travelers who like Flamingo’s calmer rhythm, that’s exactly the point.

 

After a day at Santa Rosa, Rincón de la Vieja, or Palo Verde, the condo is the kind of place that makes re-entry easy: ocean views from every bedroom, two private balconies, king beds, an ocean-view gym, a rooftop terrace, 24/7 security, and free golf cart shuttle service to Playa Flamingo, the supermarket, and the marina. A national park day may start with hiking shoes, but it can end very nicely with a sunset view and dinner close to home.

 

>> Book Now <<

 

Casa Howler

Tamarindo | 4 Bedrooms | 4 Bathrooms | Sleeps 8

Casa Howler is for travelers who want nature without leaving Tamarindo behind. Set inside Tamarindo Park, an eco-friendly gated community where most of the land remains untouched, this brand-new home gives you lush views, modern tropical design, and the kind of quiet that feels especially good after a day spent hiking, birding, boating, or bouncing along Guanacaste roads in search of wildlife.

 

The location keeps things easy: you’re about a 10-minute walk from Tamarindo Beach, a short walk from downtown, and just minutes from supermarkets and pharmacies. Guests also receive access to Langosta Beach Club, which adds a pool, restaurant, bar, fitness center, and direct beach access to the stay. Back at home, there’s a private pool, daily cleaning and laundry, breakfast preparation, cocktails and snacks until 2 p.m., and a dedicated concierge to help make the national park logistics feel much less like logistics.

 

>> Book Now <<

 

Casa Laurel

Tamarindo | 7 Bedrooms | 7 Bathrooms | Sleeps 19

Casa Laurel is the big-group answer, and we do mean big. This brand-new Tamarindo mansion was designed for families, reunions, and multi-family trips that need real space, not creative sleeping arrangements and a prayer. With nearly 5,000 square feet, seven bedrooms, dedicated kids’ rooms, a movie and game room, a private pool, a plunge pool, and partial ocean views from select areas, the house gives everyone somewhere to land.

 

That matters when you’re planning national park days, because not everyone returns from a hike, turtle tour, or river safari with the same energy level. Some people will head straight for the pool. Some will want snacks. Some will disappear for a nap and reemerge at dinner like nothing happened. Casa Laurel absorbs all of that beautifully, with breakfast preparation, daily housekeeping, laundry, and concierge support included, plus the option to upgrade with airport transfers and a local culinary experience.

 

>> Book Now <<

 

Ready to Explore Costa Rica’s National Parks and Guanacaste Vacation Rentals?

If the best national parks in Costa Rica already have you dreaming of turtle tours, volcanic mud pots, river safaris, tropical dry forest, and the kind of wildlife sightings you’ll talk about for years, then Tamarindo is a pretty excellent place to begin. From beachfront condos to spacious vacation homes with pools, terraces, and room for the whole crew, your rental can be more than where you sleep. It can be the home base that makes every national park day easier.

 

That just happens to be our concierge, Cris’s, specialty! She knows Tamarindo, Guanacaste, and the tours worth building a day around, from Las Baulas and Palo Verde to Rincón de la Vieja, Santa Rosa, and Diriá. Cris can help you sort through drive times, tour options, family logistics, and what actually makes sense for your group, your budget, and your vacation style.

 

It all begins with our welcome packet, which you’ll receive after booking. Have a look, start building your wish list, and then talk to Cris. She’ll help turn “we should do a national park” into the kind of day that actually works, hiking shoes, binoculars, snacks, and all. Get in touch and let’s get started!

 

January 15,2019

10 Things You Can Do to Make Your Tamarindo Vacation More Environmentally Friendly

If you google “the happiest country in the world,” you know what you’ll find, right? Costa Rica, of course! Everybody loves Costa Rica. Visitors love it, expats like us who come here and never leave love it, and Costa Ricans love it. Because we all love Costa Rica, those of us who live here are dedicated to taking care of it. We’re glad that the rest of the world has noticed how happy we are, but we’re proud to be at the top of the line-up of countries dedicated to becoming free of single-use plastics, and we’re proud that for 4 years in a row we’ve been running on 98% clean energy.

Read between the lines:  we love our environment and we’re dedicated to living in harmony with it.  We also love sharing our beautiful home with the rest of the world and we want you to know how to help us keep it healthy and beautiful while you enjoy it.  Here are some tips and ideas for how to have an environmentally-friendly vacation in the happiest country on the planet:

1.BRING OR BUY A REUSABLE WATER BOTTLE

Single-use plastics are on the way out, but we still have them.  Drink tap water, or buy water in jugs, not in individual bottles.  The tap water in Costa Rica is safe to drink.  Because of droughts in recent years, the mineral content is higher than what our bodies need, but the water is potable and will not give you anything dreadful like dysentery.  After a meal in a restaurant, rather than buy a bottle of water to take with you, ask your server in the restaurant to refill your water bottle. Or use your Tamarindo vacation rental as a spot to fill up water and freeze for those hot days on the beach.  The oceans and landfills thank you.

2. RECYCLE AS FREQUENTLY AS POSSIBLE

You may have read that last sentence and wondered why plastics would be in landfills and not recycling centers.  The answer is that some are, and some aren’t.  Costa Rica’s recycling programs vary widely in their scope according to the region, and here in Tamarindo we are on the (literal) edge of a very rural area.  Join us in doing the best we can with what we’ve got and recycled what you can every time you have the chance.  If you travel around the country, recycling options will vary depending on where you are. Fill up those recycling bins!

3. PRETEND YOU HAVE TO PAY THE ELECTRIC BILL

Seriously.  Not to go all Mama Bear on you or anything, but if you care about the environment at all, one way to show it would be not running the air conditioner in your Tamarindo vacation rental with the door open.  Just saying.  Yes, we know you’ve paid top dollar to live in luxury for a week, but running the air conditioning with the doors and windows open is not cool.  So to speak.  Turn the lights off when you leave—at least most of them.  Shut the doors and windows.  Turn off the fans.  Turn back the air conditioning.

And do we seriously mean you’re supposed to go to all that bother while you’re on vacation?  Um, yes.  We do.  Please.  Not because you’re responsible for the electric bill.  Because you are responsible for how you behave on the planet.  No matter how much money you paid to be pampered.

4. GO LIGHT ON THE CHEMICALS

Think about how much chemical sunscreen the ocean is forced to swallow every day.  Bottles of it.  Imagine the insect repellents, lotions and cosmetic products going down the drain every time you take shower.  Mother Nature says, “Yuck.”  New Body Costa Rica makes a completely organic water resistant 50+ SPF sunscreen that stays on and works.  Take it from a local surfer who can’t stay on land or in the shade!  Google them and place an order.

Lots of stores where you live and here carry natural insect repellents, and of course, there’s nothing sketchy for the environment in good old aloe vera after you’ve given your skin a hard day.

BioLand is a Costa Rican company that makes organic personal products and foods.  It’s safe to say any grocery store you visit in Costa Rica will have BioLand options among the shampoos, soaps, lotions and more.  Pick some up to try during your visit and take some home to share the love.

5. COLLECT THE TRASH; LEAVE THE SHELLS

Now there’s an idea.  Take a little bag to the beach and collect things the beach doesn’t need instead of things it does need—like shells!  Removing seashells from Costa Rica is illegal anyway, so if they are discovered in your luggage on the way out, they will be removed by the authorities and returned to where they belong.  Hopefully, you won’t find a lot of obvious garbage on our beaches, but little pieces of plastic, straws, bottle caps, and cigarette butts are everywhere you look if you pay attention.  Collect them and put them in the trash where they belong.  It’s amazing how good such a small deed can make you feel.  Heck, you might leave here one of the happiest people on earth, yourself.

6. TELL THE PERSON WHO SELLS YOU A COCONUT ON THE BEACH THAT YOU DON’T NEED A STRAW

Buy the coconut—they’re delicious and so good for you!  But tell the person who sells it to you that you don’t need the straw, even if it’s just a paper straw.  Seriously.  A straw for drinking from a coconut?  Come on.  Live a little.  Put that puppy up to your lips and drink it the way the squirrels do.  Get back to nature.  It’s a coconut, not a cocktail.  There is no way you need a straw.

 

7. SUPPORT LOCAL AND ORGANIC BUSINESSES

We know a sandwich from Subway sounds safe and familiar, but Tamarindo is full of local businesses making fabulous locally-sourced food.  Several Tamarindo organic markets that carry earth-friendly groceries and goodies, and if you’re here on Saturday morning, for sure don’t miss the Tamarindo Farmer’s Market.  For more specific suggestions on organic eating, check out our October 2018 blog post called How to Be Healthy During Your Tamarindo Vacation.

8. SKIP THE PLASTIC SHOPPING BAG

Just in general.  You do this at home, right?  When you do your Tamarindo shopping, bring a reusable shopping bag or pick one up here.  They make great souvenirs and gifts, too.

9. DON’T FEED THE WILD ANIMALS

We don’t mean to insult your intelligence, but it does bear mentioning.  Birds, iguanas, raccoons, crocodiles…don’t feed them.  Those silly blue jays with the little plumes on top of their heads are terribly cute and naughty, and it can be so much fun to feed them pieces of your breakfast or lunch—but don’t.  It’s terrible for them and interferes with nature’s ability to feed them.  And feeding crocodiles?!  We sincerely hope you will not witness anyone doing such an absurdly counter-intuitive thing, but let’s just say it has happened.  That creates a dangerous situation that continues to be dangerous for as long as the crocodile lives, so please—in the interest of your appendages and our children—do not under any circumstances feed a crocodile.

10. RENT A BIKE OR WALK

Depending on where your vacation rental is located, renting a bike can be a win/win for the environment and for the quality of your vacation.  Tamarindo traffic at the busiest times of year can be bad for your blood pressure as you can spend longer than you think possible idling in a line waiting for your turn to get through tight-squeeze spots.  Rent a bike and cruise on through.  Pedaling is good for you, and who needs a car to get from one side of Tamarindo to the other?  Save the rental car for grocery shopping and surf trips.  Take the bike to breakfast or the beach.

Contact us with any questions! Pura Vida!