We spent our last few days in a couple of beach towns on the Nicoya peninsula in the north west.

We drove the 5-6 hours from La Fortuna to our first location at Santa Teresa beach.

It’s nice to drive as you get to see so much more of the countryside.

Santa Teresa beach is lovely and sits next to Carmen beach too, making for a very long stretch of sand.

Both are surf beaches although swimming is possible in certain areas.

There are some great bar/restaurants that back onto the beach, well placed to watch another sunset or two!

We stayed in a lovely hotel just back from the beach which was great. The beautiful surroundings making for a very relaxing time.

One couple staying there had found a tarantula spider on their door one evening but loved the place so much they extended their stay!

We had this visitor too, even the squirrels here are beautiful.

We town is quite big and mostly set back behind a road that runs parallel to the beaches. This one unmade road leads to some chaotic traffic at times.

We found some great restaurants here.

Our final stop was in Tamarindo, although we stayed a little way back from the beach this time as it’s a very busy town.

Our first view of the beach is via these entrance steps and signage. This is the estuary with the main beach to the left, we saw no crocodiles thankfully!

Of course, more beautiful Costa Rican sunsets were enjoyed.

This is a surf beach but with mostly minor waves making it swim able and also great for surfers wanting to learn.

You see lots of people having their instructions on the beach before hitting the surf.

Tamarindo town is one of the biggest we have seen in Costa Rica, but its a fun place with some great restaurants.

My wife showing off her surfing technique below.

We took a drive out to another beach, just around 30mins away is Conchal beach.

There is no direct access to this beach unless you are staying at one of the two hotels based here.

So you have to park at Brasilito beach and walk along until you reach it.

It’s not a long walk but a rewarding one to find this really stunning beach and beautiful blue sea.

The beach is sandy too but its mostly made up of these shells.

The walk along Brasilito beach.

Sadly thats the end of our trip to Costa Rica. We now head north to cross the land border into Nicaragua.