Photo: La Negra Surf Hotel, lanegranosara.com

Sample trip

Costa Rica: surf and yoga in Nosara, then Arenal

Ten days on your own in December: a week of surf lessons and daily yoga on Playa Guiones, turtles at dawn in Ostional, then three nights at the foot of Arenal volcano.

10 days, 9 nightsFor a solo travellerA surf hotel and a rainforest lodgeSurf and yoga

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Nosara is a small surf town at the end of dirt roads on the Nicoya peninsula, with one of the most forgiving beach breaks in Costa Rica and a yoga studio round every corner. This trip is built around a simple rhythm that suits a solo traveller: surf at dawn, yoga at eleven, a long lunch and the beach again at sunset, all on foot from a small surf hotel steps from the sand. In the middle of the week, a dawn trip to the turtle beach at Ostional; at the end, three nights in the rainforest at the foot of Arenal volcano.

Arrive in Nosara

Day1

Getting there

Fly into Liberia (LIR). A private shuttle takes about two and a half hours to Nosara, the last stretch on dirt roads through dry forest.

Where you're staying

La Negra Surf Hotel, a small surf hotel in Playa Guiones, a hundred metres down a jungle path from the beach, with its own restaurant, Lola, under the trees.

Six nights in a king room on the garden side
You can walk to the beach, the cafés and the yoga studios: no car, and none of the dust Nosara's dirt roads are known for
Rated 9.0 on Booking.com, location 9.8

Photos: lanegranosara.com

Evening

Sunset on Playa Guiones, where half of Nosara walks down to watch, then dinner at Lola.

First waves, first class

Day2

Morning

Your first surf lesson with La Negra Surf School, right in front of the hotel. Playa Guiones is one of the most consistent beach breaks in Costa Rica: a sandy bottom with no rocks and room for everyone, which is why people come here to learn.

Go early, before the onshore wind; the hotel books the instructor for you
A lesson in Guiones is about 85 US dollars in a small group and 115 private (estimate)
Rent a soft-top for the rest of the week and paddle out at every low tide

Photos: lanegranosara.com

Late morning

Yoga at the Harmony Healing Centre, a garden studio across from a pond at the Harmony Hotel, a few minutes' walk away. The 75-minute Harmony Yoga class starts at 11:00 every day, just as the sea gets choppy.

Drop-in classes, no booking needed; about 20 to 25 US dollars (estimate)
A free 30-minute meditation runs some evenings at 18:30

Photos: harmonynosara.com

Lunch

A casado at Rosi's Soda Tica: rice, beans, plantain, salad and the fish of the day, for a fraction of the café prices around it.

Surf and tide pools

Day3

The day

Dawn surf, then the tide pools at Playa Pelada at low tide and an afternoon nap in the heat.

Flagship day

Turtles at dawn, sunset on the hill

Day4

Day 4 · Tue 7 Dec

Dawn

One beach north of Nosara, the Ostional Wildlife Refuge is one of the few beaches in the world where olive ridley turtles come ashore in their thousands to nest, in waves called arribadas, mostly between September and December. Even outside an arribada, there are nests hatching at first light.

Only in a group with a local guide from the Ostional guides' association, about 10 US dollars a person; message them the day before
Leave Nosara at 4:30; no flash, no torches, no touching

Photos: Wikimedia Commons (Kshea19, CC BY-SA 4.0; Laranapeleona, CC BY-SA 4.0; Panegyrics of Granovetter, CC BY-SA 2.0)

Arribada

During an arribada, up to tens of thousands of turtles come ashore over a few nights. Ostional is the one place where the local community may legally collect some of the first eggs, which would be destroyed by later turtles anyway.

Morning

Back for a late surf, then the Tuesday artisan and organic market in Guiones.

Evening

Sunset drinks and dinner at Lagarta Lodge, a small hotel on a hill above the Nosara river mouth, with a view over the mangroves and the Ostional coast from the terrace.