Beach Chairs at Playa Jaco

A laidback bustling town, Jaco is one of the most popular Costa Rican beaches. Located in the North of the Puntarenas province along the country’s central Pacific Coast less than 2 hours from San Jose, Jaco has the reputation of being a ‘party beach’ with an excellent nightlife. However, the fun here is casual and relaxed, and the people here are nice and friendly. Catering mostly to a huge number of foreign tourists who want to enjoy a more tranquil lifestyle, Jaco has a nice clean beach that is especially popular in the summer.

In Jaco you will find accommodations to suit every budget, as well as good food, plenty of restaurants and a number of local sodas and stores. There are also plenty of tour operators in town that arrange everything from horseback rides on the beach, to some excellent off shore sport fishing and sea kayaking.

One of this town’s major attractions is the fantastic surfing here as the waves are consistently big and the breaks are very good. A yearly international surf contest is also held in the nearby Playa Hermosa that attracts a huge number of surfers from all over the globe to this beach.

Easily accessible by all, Playa Jaco is about 3 km long and is best reached by catching an International fight to San Jose and then driving out here. The areas to the north and south of Jaco are some of the most picturesque and cleanest, with stunningly gorgeous panoramic ocean views.

You need to be careful about swimming here, as riptides are quite common along the beach shore.