Tamarindo

Tamarindo began as a small village of a few families who lived largely from fishing. Its change began in the mid-1980s, when a businessman from Texas bought land by the beach and started building cabins, and the surfer Robert August, star of the 1966 film The Endless Summer, later settled in the town. The opening scenes of The Endless Summer II, released in 1994, were filmed here, and the film is generally credited with starting the tourism boom. In 1997 the area had only about four places to stay and a couple of places to eat.

Tamarindo was made a district of the Santa Cruz canton on 27 November 1995, carved from the north of the district of Veintisiete de Abril because its population had grown. Another turning point came in 2003, when the airport at Liberia began handling international flights and put the town within a few hours of Miami. Hotels, surf schools and holiday homes followed.

Growth brought problems. In 2004 the beach lost its Blue Flag, the national award for clean beaches, because of pollution; it regained the flag in 2006 but lost it again a year later, when tests found high levels of sewage contamination in parts of the water. The town received a clean bill of health from the government in 2008, and after years of work is reported to have regained the Blue Flag in 2018. The estuary beside the town was declared a wetland of international importance in 1993 and is now part of the Las Baulas marine park.

Surfing made Tamarindo and still shapes it. Four surf spots are identified in Tamarindo Bay, from gentle beach waves for beginners to faster breaks for experienced surfers, and the town hosts national competitions sponsored by the Costa Rican Surfing Federation, including rounds of the national circuit. Boat trips to the well-known waves further north along the Guanacaste coast also leave from here, and running races and triathlons have been held in the town as well.

The other culture is the night. Tamarindo has a busy strip of bars and clubs, a night market, a food-truck park, a skate park and regular fire shows on the beach at night. It has become a stage for electronic dance music, including the Ocaso Underground Music Festival; The BPM Festival was held here from 2020, but its permits for Tamarindo were not renewed for January 2025. The town also has a small gay bar.

The town is international in character. Many foreign residents live here, and surfers, digital nomads and long-stay visitors give the streets a mix of languages; a high share of Costa Ricans in the town speak English as a second language. Guanacaste's own traditions — the sabanero cowboy, the marimba, the fiestas of Santa Cruz a short drive inland — sit alongside this newer beach culture, and the contrast between the resort and the inland villages is a real one.

Tamarindo district had about 6,400 people at the 2011 census, and an estimate for 2022 put it at about 7,100; the number in town rises sharply in the high season with visitors. Besides Tamarindo itself the district includes Villarreal, Santa Rosa, Hernández, San José de Pinilla and other villages. The town is small but densely built for a coastal place, with a degree of development unusual in a village that lived from fishing only a generation ago.

Tourism is the economy: hotels and holiday rentals, restaurants, bars, surf schools, tour and fishing boats, car-hire offices, spas, golf at the resort communities nearby and a great deal of building work. Many workers live inland in Villarreal, which has the area's schools, football pitches, church, police station and petrol station, and the farmers' markets in both places supply local kitchens.

The day starts early, with surfers in the water at dawn and work done before the midday heat, and ends with crowds on the beach for sunset. The questions the town argues about are those of fast growth: water quality and sewage, the pressure of building on the coast, and keeping the beach clean enough to hold its Blue Flag.

Tamarindo eats from the sea. Fresh fish is the staple of the beachfront restaurants: ceviche of sea bass or snapper marinated in lime with onion and coriander, whole fried fish with patacones, the flattened, twice-fried plantain slices, and prawns and lobster on more expensive menus.

Away from the strip, the sodas — small family diners — serve the Costa Rican everyday: gallo pinto, rice and beans fried together, at breakfast, and at lunch the casado, a plate of rice, beans, salad, fried plantain and a piece of meat or fish. Guanacaste's maize cooking turns up in tortillas, tamales and rosquillas, crunchy rings of corn dough and cheese eaten with coffee.

Because of its foreign residents, Tamarindo also has a wide range of international food, much of it found at the night market and the food trucks. The Saturday farmers' market sells tropical fruit — mangoes, papaya, pineapple — along with bread, prepared food and crafts. Frescos, fruit blended with water or milk, are the everyday drink.