In eastern Costa Rica, near the Panama border, a pothole-filled road meanders down the coast. It passes through a beach town named Puerto Viejo de Talamanca and follows the contours of the land between the Gandoca-Manzanillo national forest and the Caribbean Sea.
It's dotted with small businesses - Internet cafes, yoga studios, grocery marts - but the main attractions are the bungalows. Every few minutes as you bicycle from Puerto Viejo toward Manzanillo, you pass a guest house or cottages for rent. In the extreme case, you can find a room for as little as $10 per night or snag a bare-bones cabin for $250 a month.
The combination of cheap lodgings and untouched natural beauty has made the place a destination for laid-back travelers of all nationalities. The weekends are especially popular, and during low season it's not uncommon for vacationers to drop in without reservations, going bungalow to bungalow until they find a vacancy - or for them to book a night and, the next day, tour the offerings until they find the perfect fit.
The options are varied. You'll find resort-style lodgings with air-conditioning and swimming pools only steps from cinder-block summer huts accessed by unpaved driveways.
About 4 miles outside of Puerto Viejo, pristine Playa Chiquita offers crystal waters. Here, some of the best bungalows and lodges are clustered along the road - advertised only by their signs and decorative front gates, because none have addresses.
Most can be classified as eco-lodgings, which means ceiling fans instead of air conditioning, mosquito nets over the beds, and nature all around. Howler monkeys gather in the trees overhead. Colorful birds waddle through the underbrush. As I lay in a hammock at Tierra de Sueños (tierradesuenoslodge.com) one afternoon, I watched an agouti - a quick little rodent related to the guinea pig, forage only feet away.
There are two high seasons: one from Dec. 15 through April, when northerners like me crave tropical breezes and coconut drinks, and another during July and August. The peak rate for a guest at Tierra del Sueños is $65, and two can share a bungalow for $75.
It's dotted with small businesses - Internet cafes, yoga studios, grocery marts - but the main attractions are the bungalows. Every few minutes as you bicycle from Puerto Viejo toward Manzanillo, you pass a guest house or cottages for rent. In the extreme case, you can find a room for as little as $10 per night or snag a bare-bones cabin for $250 a month.
The combination of cheap lodgings and untouched natural beauty has made the place a destination for laid-back travelers of all nationalities. The weekends are especially popular, and during low season it's not uncommon for vacationers to drop in without reservations, going bungalow to bungalow until they find a vacancy - or for them to book a night and, the next day, tour the offerings until they find the perfect fit.
The options are varied. You'll find resort-style lodgings with air-conditioning and swimming pools only steps from cinder-block summer huts accessed by unpaved driveways.
About 4 miles outside of Puerto Viejo, pristine Playa Chiquita offers crystal waters. Here, some of the best bungalows and lodges are clustered along the road - advertised only by their signs and decorative front gates, because none have addresses.
Most can be classified as eco-lodgings, which means ceiling fans instead of air conditioning, mosquito nets over the beds, and nature all around. Howler monkeys gather in the trees overhead. Colorful birds waddle through the underbrush. As I lay in a hammock at Tierra de Sueños (tierradesuenoslodge.com) one afternoon, I watched an agouti - a quick little rodent related to the guinea pig, forage only feet away.
There are two high seasons: one from Dec. 15 through April, when northerners like me crave tropical breezes and coconut drinks, and another during July and August. The peak rate for a guest at Tierra del Sueños is $65, and two can share a bungalow for $75.
At La Kukula Lodge down the road (lakukulalodge.com), a double room is $85. Rates hover around $115 at Namuwoki Lodge(namuwoki.com) and Shawandha Lodge (shawandhalodge.com). All of these include breakfast.
Once ensconced in your bungalow of choice, the true relaxation begins. The preferred mode of transport between Playa Chiquita and the provincial capital Puerto Limón is bicycle, and most lodges have bikes that can be borrowed.
The road is scenic and dotted with distractions such as bakeries, sodas (hybrid convenience stores and cafes) and the Jaguar Rescue Center (jaguarrescue.com). Despite its name, this animal haven has no jaguars, but there are sloths, owls, eagles and monkeys, all of whom have been orphaned or injured and are being reared or rehabilitated in the hopes that they'll be released into the nearby jungle. For $12 you get an hour-long tour, a useful primer on the area's venomous snakes and a personal meet-and-greet with the monkeys.
You could easily spend days exploring the small towns along the coastal road: Playa Negra, Cocles, Punta Uva, Manzanillo, Cahuita. In between, there are the beaches.
For those who require more activity than beaching and biking, the lodge concierges can arrange adventure activities nearby. In the area you'll find whitewater rafting, canopy tours and zip-line adventures, surfing, snorkeling and kayaking. Companies such as Gecko Trail Adventures (geckotrail.com, 415-230-0298) offer day and overnight packages, and will pick you up at your bungalow and return you afterward.
This corner of Costa Rica feels remote, and the most common way to get there is a four-hour bus ride from the capital, San Jose, so travelers may be surprised to find the wide variety of restaurants and hangouts.
Most of the eateries serve a mix of Costa Rican and Caribbean cuisine, but there's also Chinese, Italian and macro-organic vegan to be found. Common on menus are gallo pinto (rice and beans), seafood and jerk chicken.
In Playa Chiquita, La Biela has European menu items such as pasta carbonara and steak frites, and Jungle Love is reliable for takeout and eat-in. In Puerto Viejo, check out Loco Natural for slightly more upscale Caribbean fusion food and elaborate cocktails, and at Caribbeans they serve delicious coffee and ice cream, and the tables sit with their legs in the sand.
The lack of addresses can make these spots tricky to find, so they are satellite-mapped at puertoviejosatellite.com.
Play it like a local and go without too much of an itinerary. You'll enter a place where expat backpackers cool their heels sipping guaro, a sugar-cane spirit, and local beers Imperial and Pilsen.
Take an example from one of the animals in the area, the three-toed sloth: Along the Caribbean coast, there are no deadlines.
GETTING THERE
Round-trip tickets to San Jose (airport code SJO) can be had for under $400 - and that's without specials offered by airlines such as JetBlue, American and Lacsa. By the baggage claim, you'll find a taxi stand where you can be matched with an official airport driver (the cabs are bright orange).
Ask for Terminal Caribeños, the bus station for departures to the Caribbean coast. The taxi ride will be about $25, and a one-way bus ticket to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca is $9. Buses depart every two hours between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., and while the ride is long, the scenery includes misty mountain forests and farms, and there's a pit stop in Puerto Limón. Plentiful taxis await the bus in Puerto Viejo, and a ride to Playa Chiquita costs less than $10.
ALTERNATIVELY
If you wish to arrange private transportation to the coast, an excellent, friendly, air-conditioned option is Interbus (interbusonline.com) for $39 each way. Travel companies such as the aforementioned Gecko can help with booking.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
You don't need to change your money. Almost all Costa Rican businesses accept cash only - and American cash is okay. While the exchange rate fluctuates, the commonly accepted rule is that 500 colones equal a dollar. The main bank in Puerto Viejo has an ATM with fees lower than the ones in a New York City bodega.
Once ensconced in your bungalow of choice, the true relaxation begins. The preferred mode of transport between Playa Chiquita and the provincial capital Puerto Limón is bicycle, and most lodges have bikes that can be borrowed.
The road is scenic and dotted with distractions such as bakeries, sodas (hybrid convenience stores and cafes) and the Jaguar Rescue Center (jaguarrescue.com). Despite its name, this animal haven has no jaguars, but there are sloths, owls, eagles and monkeys, all of whom have been orphaned or injured and are being reared or rehabilitated in the hopes that they'll be released into the nearby jungle. For $12 you get an hour-long tour, a useful primer on the area's venomous snakes and a personal meet-and-greet with the monkeys.
You could easily spend days exploring the small towns along the coastal road: Playa Negra, Cocles, Punta Uva, Manzanillo, Cahuita. In between, there are the beaches.
For those who require more activity than beaching and biking, the lodge concierges can arrange adventure activities nearby. In the area you'll find whitewater rafting, canopy tours and zip-line adventures, surfing, snorkeling and kayaking. Companies such as Gecko Trail Adventures (geckotrail.com, 415-230-0298) offer day and overnight packages, and will pick you up at your bungalow and return you afterward.
This corner of Costa Rica feels remote, and the most common way to get there is a four-hour bus ride from the capital, San Jose, so travelers may be surprised to find the wide variety of restaurants and hangouts.
Most of the eateries serve a mix of Costa Rican and Caribbean cuisine, but there's also Chinese, Italian and macro-organic vegan to be found. Common on menus are gallo pinto (rice and beans), seafood and jerk chicken.
In Playa Chiquita, La Biela has European menu items such as pasta carbonara and steak frites, and Jungle Love is reliable for takeout and eat-in. In Puerto Viejo, check out Loco Natural for slightly more upscale Caribbean fusion food and elaborate cocktails, and at Caribbeans they serve delicious coffee and ice cream, and the tables sit with their legs in the sand.
The lack of addresses can make these spots tricky to find, so they are satellite-mapped at puertoviejosatellite.com.
Play it like a local and go without too much of an itinerary. You'll enter a place where expat backpackers cool their heels sipping guaro, a sugar-cane spirit, and local beers Imperial and Pilsen.
Take an example from one of the animals in the area, the three-toed sloth: Along the Caribbean coast, there are no deadlines.
GETTING THERE
Round-trip tickets to San Jose (airport code SJO) can be had for under $400 - and that's without specials offered by airlines such as JetBlue, American and Lacsa. By the baggage claim, you'll find a taxi stand where you can be matched with an official airport driver (the cabs are bright orange).
Ask for Terminal Caribeños, the bus station for departures to the Caribbean coast. The taxi ride will be about $25, and a one-way bus ticket to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca is $9. Buses depart every two hours between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., and while the ride is long, the scenery includes misty mountain forests and farms, and there's a pit stop in Puerto Limón. Plentiful taxis await the bus in Puerto Viejo, and a ride to Playa Chiquita costs less than $10.
ALTERNATIVELY
If you wish to arrange private transportation to the coast, an excellent, friendly, air-conditioned option is Interbus (interbusonline.com) for $39 each way. Travel companies such as the aforementioned Gecko can help with booking.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
You don't need to change your money. Almost all Costa Rican businesses accept cash only - and American cash is okay. While the exchange rate fluctuates, the commonly accepted rule is that 500 colones equal a dollar. The main bank in Puerto Viejo has an ATM with fees lower than the ones in a New York City bodega.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/travel/2010/11/12/2010-11-12_lifes_a_beach_with_cozy_costa_rica_bungalows_at_bargain_rates_.html#ixzz15GfeDyWN
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