A Costa Rican Surf Gem With Waves That Sort Out A Crowd

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4 days ago

The drive from the airport started with cash and ended in a thunderstorm. It was a two-plus-hour trip from Liberia to Nosara, a coastal town in Costa Rica's Guanacaste province. So I settled in and got to know my driver, Jonathan, who became quite animated while educating me on his favorite local foods.
Gallo pinto, casado, chifrijo and ceviche, he explained it all with a smile as he wheeled his Chevy SUV down the narrow and uneven roads as only a born and raised Tico can. With my stomach only holding one airport sandwich over the last 12 hours, his descriptions slowly killed me. Later in the drive, Jonathan pointed out a classic motif of Costa Rican towns: a school, soccer field and church all next to each other, almost without fail. A kind of building trinity. Where there is one, there are two others.
By the end of our journey, however, one thing was on my mind — the storm. It arrived in earnest when we were a few kilometers out from Nosara. Lightning splattered the sky and thunder pressed on eardrums like cannonfire. The streets had nearly flooded by the time I arrived at my destination, the Gilded Iguana Surf Hotel.
I've done the dirtbag thing. Slept in a car at an Australian beach, tucked into a sleeping bag on Baja sand, and couch surfed on pillows of varying degrees of softness for waves in Hawaii. But this trip was something different. A chance to try accommodations further up the luxury spectrum. One with a pool, a bar, spa, cold plunges, yoga classes, a smiling staff and clean sheets. And of course, warm waves.
No doubt about it, Nosara is busy and getting busier. Housing and groceries and fuel are getting more expensive for visitors and locals alike. Many places will charge American prices. But it's still cheaper than going out in Los Angeles. Here, with the jungle assaulting your senses and dripping Pura Vida, it's easy to understand why people can't get enough of this place. According to the last census here in 2011, Nosara had 5,000 residents, but I'm told it's likely double that now.
When it comes to traveling for waves, some surfers seek cultural immersion, others just want to maximize wave count. Ideally, neither route should harm or displace the local community, which is what longtime residents of Pavones are fighting against right now. Compared to other tourist hotspots in Costa Rica, Nosara appears to be relatively frugal in limiting rampant development. I heard one Gilded Iguana guest tell another he'd been coming to Nosara for a decade, and though the town has grown a lot, it's still tucked away enough to have some distinct character.
It's not Santa Teresa or Tamarindo. There are no buildings on the beach, as a lush nature preserve the length of Playa Guiones buffers the town from the sand. You're more likely to find crew doing yoga or surfing in the morning than binge drinking at night. There are numerous shops and markets concentrated in certain areas, but most of the roads remain unpaved. Take an ATV or bike tour into the countryside and you'll be slapped silly with the amount of wild, green land.
'I think it's a mix of people who have helped develop the town and creating a lot of opportunities to work,' said Adrain Suarez, a skilled surfer who since 2012 had run a killer locally owned surf shop and guiding business at Agua Tibia Surf School, right in the middle of Playa Guiones. 'There's coexistence. A lot of people know each other. It's a small community.'
Like much of Costa Rica, Nosara has a bounty of multi-million-dollar homes and luxury hotels. But there are still pockets of difference. Adrian runs a great hostel, Hostel Nosara, one of the few left in town, right next to his surf shop. As a surfer looking for adventure and convenience to fall back on, Nosara has all that. Is it watered down? From the rough and tumble days, certainly. But it still tastes just fine.There are a couple of options for waves in Nosara, but the most convenient is Playa Guiones, the sprawling four-mile-long beach exposed to swells from the north, west and south. Waves of varying quality break here year-round. During the week I stayed there in late May, I saw south swells that made the center and north side more consistent than the southern end. Mornings are the window score before the onshore wind picks up, but there are sometimes evening glassoffs.
One day at Guiones, I met an American expat living in Nosara named Mark, who loved the wave's consistency and the town's culture. He told me that he embraced yoga for the first time when he moved to Nosara, and his surfing, which he'd been actively doing for 40 years, has noticeably improved as a result. He's retired and surfs every day, sometimes twice a day.
'You look this place up online and you'll read it's one of the most consistent waves in the world,' said Mark, his facial expression acknowledging how ridiculous that sounds. 'It's like, come on. But actually being here looking at it, it's pretty damn consistent. It's not always good, but it's consistent.'
Due to the ample wiggle room available at Guiones, the lineup is remarkably laid-back. As long as you're not a knucklehead and smile at the locals, you'll get waves. Sets break far out and reform into the whitewater on the inside, where the beginners and instructors usually sit. The smaller the swell, the more crowded it gets. I found that if you wait out the morning commute and the waves get bigger, the crowd will be halved, easily.
The Gilded Iguana's Surf Club, a small facility a short stroll from Guiones, has everything for a casual day at the beach or a shoulder-burning surf session. A friendly staff, lessons, lockers, showers, towels, board storage, bathroom, sunscreen, wax, and even a juice bar. It's open to the public, too, not just hotel guests. To get full access, you buy a membership or a pass for a single day, a week, a month, or year.
They say don't judge a book by its cover, but it's fair game to judge a surf biz by the quality of its rental boards. And the Gilded Iguana's quiver is legit. By my rough count, there are at least 150 boards available: Large soft tops, Donald Takayama longboards, hefty mid-lengths and slim, pointy thrusters. There are quite a few of the latter, as Channel Islands Surfboards is a club sponsor. You can bring and store your quiver at the club, but it's hard to beat the variety on hand.
While they're not my usual flavor, I found that midlengths between 6'6' and 7' worked great at shoulder high to overhead Guiones. The boards are big enough to save your shoulders as you hunt roaming peaks and small enough to put on rail. The current isn't bad at all, but it's the kind of place that tends to send a left onto your head as you wait for a right. The bigger waves are more sloping than steep, so foam is your friend here. If you're on a shortboard, prepare for a lot of paddling and scrambling to get into position.
For the first two days I was in Nosara, lingering storm energy rendered Guiones unridable. The long-period energy sent waves everywhere with frenetic energy. But it calmed down eventually, and I found glassy peaks in bathtub-warm water. In the subsequent days, the swell went from overhead to chest high, but it broke consistently despite 8-foot tide swings.
A Surf Club staffer named Josue frequently overlapped with me in the water before his shifts. With him being goofy and me being regular, we often split peaks. He was so jovial and eager to tell me which part of the beach looked best on the given day. Adrian was the same way. Standing in front of Agua Tibia, he eagerly explained how swell and sand flow from the rivers could turn Guiones from quick teepees to reeling lefts and rights. Hard to predict, but sublime when you find it.
It's not a perfect wave, and you do have to work for it. If Guinoes isn't your thing, ask the locals about points in Playa Pelada and Ostional to the north and Playa Garza to the south.
'The wave is so welcoming to beginners,' Adrian said of Guiones. 'The flat sand bottom is unique. It's maybe one of the only waves in the area you can surf on high and low tide. There's Ostional, but it's sucky barrels. You gotta be a pro to get up there.'
No way around it, the Gilded Iguana is a very nice place that caters to surfers and non-surfers alike. It opened in 1986 with a handful of rooms and is one of the oldest hotels in Nosara. Ownership has changed several times since, and it was fully remodeled in 2017. Today in the open-air restaurant, Nathan Florence's Slab Tour plays on TV screens while children run around in the yard and sunburned tourists suck down cocktails.
It's quite the property, but it doesn't look like other large monoliths I've seen in Costa Rica. It's tasteful with the barest hint of grit. During the rainy season, the power goes out almost nightly during dinner if there's a storm (They have a backup generator, so it comes on quickly). Still, eating shrimp and sipping an Imperial in the dark does feel kind of adventurous.
It's pricey ($250 per night in the low season for a two-bed room), and has the Rolodex of eco-tourism features that Costa Rica is well-known for. Yoga sessions, a restaurant, a pool (plus a bar), and spacious rooms. It leans family-friendly, and kids of all ages can be seen around the 29-room property. They'll even babysit kids for $35 a day. There's a reason Rob Kelly brings his family from New Jersey to "our new favorite spot in Costa Rica."
While I can't speak for Nosara's other hotels, I can vouch for the Gilded Iguana staff. I found them helpful and as courteous as can be. Whatever your interests, they go out of their way to make it happen. Their massages, in particular, were a real treat. As someone who surfs too much and stretches not at all, it was a revelation. The masseuse wrung tension out like water from a towel. She worked through knots like a seasoned sailor, but considerably more soothing.
Of course, the food is bountiful. The hotel restaurant is stocked, as are the surrounding businesses. Chase the meal with an Imperial or a cocktail. In Nosara, you can order both.A Costa Rican Surf Gem With Waves That Sort Out A Crowd first appeared on Surfer on Jun 3, 2025