About two hours from Liberia airport on excellent roads, the trip to Sámara is smooth and particularly beautiful as it winds through little farming villages and past stunning mountain and valley landscapes. Life is even sleepier in this part of Guanacaste. The area has yet to become a focus for developers. So far, it attracts

The next cove north from Playas del Coco is Hermosa. The hillside that slopes down to the little bay and its long beach offers plenty of opportunity for great views, and both condo and single family home construction. Like Coco, the beach isn’t the prettiest you’ll find, but the great views make real estate in

Coco is not the most attractive beach town with a rather scruffy appearance. Les Nunez, a real estate broker and co-owner of First Realty in Hermosa, sees it changing, recognizing it more as a “town in transition.” Either way, Coco has always been a popular vacation spot for Ticos and, more recently, U.S. retirees living

These small villages and towns are all located within a few kilometers of each other, about a 30-minute drive from Tamarindo, and an hour from Liberia. Each little town has a grocery store and a few other shops, but not much else. Flamingo is a hilly peninsula of beautiful million-dollar vacation homes nestled among trees

This long white beach to the south of Tamarindo has, until now, been a low-key backpacker and surfer destination with just a few small hotels, residences, and surf schools. Although located adjacent to bustling Tamarindo, the natural barrier of an estuary means it’s only accessible either by a 30-minute drive through Villa Real, Huacas and

Tamarindo, or Tamagringo as it is known among some expatriates,  is the epicenter of northwest Guanacaste’s real estate boom. Most people seem to have a love-hate relationship with the town. A lack of planning and regulation and an easily corruptible former municipality have led to uncontrolled development that is now threatening the surrounding environment.  The

Quite a few local community and business groups are active in the area. Volunteer opportunities are many, especially because of the government’s lack of involvement. Below is a list of the groups the author came across during research. 1. Associación Pro Mejoras de Playa Tamarindo (APMT.) A community group that’s working extremely hard to control