Playa Sámara, about 15 kilometers south of Garza, is a popular budget destination for Ticos, surfers, and travelers in search of the offbeat. The lure is its relative accessibility and attractive horseshoe-shaped bay with a light-gray beach.

Sámara can be reached directly from Nicoya by paved road (Hwy. 150) via Belén. The village is in the center of the beach. A cattle finca divides it from Cangrejal, a funky hamlet at the north end of the beach.

Playa Sámara extends south about two kilometers to the small ramshackle fishing community of Matapalo, where the most enormous strangler fig tree (now dead and decaying) you’ll ever see stands in the sands!

Sports and Recreation

Jesse’s Surf School (tel. 506/656-0055, whiteagle [at] racsa [dot] co [dot] cr) rents surfboards and offers beginner’s lessons, as does C&C Surf School (tel. 506/656-0628). And Pura Vida Dive (tel. 506/656-0273) offers dive trips.

Tio Tigre Tours (tel. 506/656-0098) has a dolphin spotting tour ($65), Delicial Fishing (tel. 506/656-0495) can take you sportfishing, and Wingnuts (tel. 506/656-0153, http://samarabeach.com/wingnuts, $55 adults, $35 children) has a canopy tour. You can book all these and more through Skynet Tours (tel./fax 506/656-0920).

Entertainment and Events

The Tutti Frutti disco at the Hotel Playa Sámara is a smoke-filled, sweatbox place and produces a fair share of local drunks, but it’s the happenin’ dance scene. More upscale, and worth the drive, is the Perche No disco, south of Playa Carrillo. A more mellow spot, favored by the local Rastafarian crowd (!), is the rustic yet always packed La Gondola (4 p.m.–2 a.m. daily) the bar of choice in town, seconded by the Sol Azteca video-music bar (5 p.m.–2 a.m. daily). The Hotel Villas Playa hosts the Black Marlin Casino.

Getting There

Sansa (tel. 506/656-0131, www.flysansa.com) and Nature Air (tel. 506/220-3054, www.natureair.com) fly daily to Playa Carrillo.

Buses (Tracopa Alfaro, tel. 506/222-2666 and 685-5032, tracopa [at] racsa [dot] co [dot] cr) depart San José for Sámara from Calles 14, Avenidas 3/5, daily ($5.50, five hours). Buses depart Nicoya (Empresa Rojas, tel. 506/685-5032; three blocks east of the park) for Sámara 13 times daily.

Interbus (tel. 506/283-5573, www.interbusonline.com) operates minibus shuttles from San José ($29) and popular tourist destinations in Nicoya and Guanacaste.