In this Daily: Guanacaste Day Trips to Las Catalinas | Creative Travel In Costa Rica
There are many ways to enjoy a day trip to Las Catalinas. Playa Danta and Dantita offer snorkeling, stand-up paddle, kayaking, and boogie boarding. The single-track trails race along coastal cliffs and down into 1000 acres of tropical forest, with hiking trails to panoramic views of Guanacaste. There’s a town full of intriguing restaurants, streets, shops, plazas, gardens, and people.
For day visitors, adding a basecamp to their adventure gives them the chance to just walk into town and get an idea of what living in here is like, where all amenities in their room or studio allow a comfortable day in a Costa Rican beach town.
Saturdays and Sundays are when town sees the most day visitors, and with a number of families stopping by to visit this morning, today was an interesting reminder that travel in Costa Rica can be done through some very interesting methods of transport.
The majority of visitors in Las Catalinas come by car, but there are many who find more interesting and sustainable ways to get into town for a day trip. With a place to recover and relax for the day, the experience of getting into town can itself be an adventure.
There are the expert mountain bikers who ride into town, followed by zipping right onto the trails. Some visitors arrive by kayak and paddle board, visiting from Sugar Beach and beyond by traveling in the early morning and around sunset — the two best times of day to be out on the water.
Then there are the travelers visiting from even further via the water. Looking out in the cove, on occasion you’ll spot an anchored small sailboat, turning Limonada into a swim-up beach restaurant. The ocean past Playa Danta is an exciting frontier to explore, but with a little innovation it can become another pathway for a visit.
Add in the possibility of air arrival to town via helicopter, and you’ve got a very diverse base for car-free ways to get to Las Catalinas, where you can explore the trails, streets, beach, shops, restaurants, and enjoy a comfortable basecamp for the day.