Tag: beach travel

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Kai Surfs Costa Rica: Budgets, Boards and Pura Vida

Where: Costa Rica
January 13, 2012 at 6:08 PM | by | Comments (0)

Kai MacMahon had lost himself to the urban life in NYC, taking up running but putting down the surfboard. That is, until recently when he bit the bullet and flew himself to Costa Rica to drive, sleep and surf wherever he damn well pleased. All this week, Kai will share his experiences on the beaches and the breaks, and how he made it happen.

Yesterday: Becoming a (surf) bum in Mal Pais

As you've probably guessed, Costa Rica is one of the most surf-friendly destinations on the planet. Surfers are welcomed here with open arms, and locals will go above and beyond to help you out. It is perfectly normal to see a massive board bag strapped to the roof of a taxi, to store your boards in your hotel room, and to set up a makeshift clothes line outside your door.

And just as friendly as it is, it's also easy. US Dollars are accepted just about everywhere and most people speak at least a little English, though no matter how bad your Spanish, an attempt to speak it will always go down well. ATMs are fairly easy to find, and most will have English as an option. The bigger bank ATMs even dispense dollars as well as the local currency, Colones, and any of the main hotels or stores will take credit cards.

Nonetheless, be careful of the foreign transaction fee charges that your US bank will tack on; look into a foreign transaction-free credit card if you travel abroad often. For myself, I tried to pay for most things in cash, only using plastic for purchases of $100 and up.

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Kai Surfs Costa Rica: Making It to Mal Pais

Where: Costa Rica
January 12, 2012 at 4:33 PM | by | Comments (0)

Kai MacMahon had lost himself to the urban life in NYC, taking up running but putting down the surfboard. That is, until recently when he bit the bullet and flew himself to Costa Rica to drive, sleep and surf wherever he damn well pleased. All this week, Kai will share his experiences on the beaches and the breaks, and how he made it happen.

Yesterday: Playa Negra and the rush of hitting the waves.

Mal Pais is a sleepy little surf down at the bottom of the Nicoya Peninsula. It’s about five hours' drive from Tamarindo (taking the sensible road), or many more hours drive than that taking the silly, but very picturesque coastal road. I say silly because the above is what sometimes passes for a road in Costa Rica.

Note that the photo was taken during the dry season. In wet season (May to November), or any time it’s been raining, roads like this become impassable to all but the sturdiest SUVs. You'll find that towns in Costa Rica usually have an old man who magically knows the conditions of every river within 20 miles of his location, but as I was not in possession of one of these wrinkly oracles in my passenger seat and didn’t feel like getting my SUV stuck in a river, I elected to take the boring, safer route.

Once I arrived in Mal Pais, the first thing I noticed was, well, not a whole lot really. Not much happens here, and that’s exactly what’s so great about the place. There are a couple of bars (that’s a couple more than when I was first there ten years ago), plus other mild activities like yoga, zip-line tours and so on, but the truth is you come to Mal Pais for one reason: to surf.

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Kai Surfs Costa Rica: Playa Negra and the Rush of a Single Wave

January 11, 2012 at 4:51 PM | by | Comments (0)

Kai MacMahon had lost himself to the urban life in NYC, taking up running but putting down the surfboard. That is, until recently when he bit the bullet and flew himself to Costa Rica to drive, sleep and surf wherever he damn well pleased. All this week, Kai will share his experiences on the beaches and the breaks, and how he made it happen.

Yesterday: Hitting the road to Tamarindo.

Standing on beautiful Tamarindo beach, with my board under my arm and looking out to sea, it occurred to me in a moment of mild panic that I was very out of practice. Was I making a terrible mistake? The ocean, for all its infinite beauty, is still a scary, powerful and potentially lethal thing.

You see, you can generally tell how good a surfer somebody is by watching them as they enter the water. Folks who know what they're doing look like they own it; they glide out on their boards and effortlessly get themselves beyond the break (to the calmer part of the water where you see surfers congregate). Surfers who maybe aren't so great will walk their boards out until the water comes up to their chests, then flail around every time a wave comes in, and they generally project an aura of terror.

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Kai Surfs Costa Rica: The Road to Tamarindo

January 10, 2012 at 5:13 PM | by | Comments (0)

Kai MacMahon had lost himself to the urban life in NYC, taking up running but putting down the surfboard. That is, until recently when he bit the bullet and flew himself to Costa Rica to drive, sleep and surf wherever he damn well pleased. All this week, Kai will share his experiences on the beaches and the breaks, and how he made it happen.

Yesterday: Making the decision to drop everything and go.

Touching down at Liberia Airport in northern Costa Rica was somewhat of an adventure in itself. The terminal itself is modest (OK, it’s a shack), and although there’s a shiny new terminal built and waiting to open, when I arrived they were still waiting for the paperwork to be complete [Ed note: the new terminal finally opens this Thursday!].

Within 30 minutes or so I’d gone through immigration (and some sort of weird security check where they scanned my bags as they came in to the country…why would they do that?), and was on the way to pick up my rental car. A word on this: driving in Costa Rica is not for the faint of heart. It’s not that drivers here are bad; certainly they’re no worse than you find in New York City. It’s just that the roads are—how to put it—somewhat unpredictable. You have to assume that there’s a horse in the road around every corner, because in many cases, there is in fact a horse in the road just around the corner.

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Kai Surfs Costa Rica: Setting Off from the City

January 9, 2012 at 4:54 PM | by | Comments (0)

Kai MacMahon had lost himself to the urban life in NYC, taking up running but putting down the surfboard. That is, until recently when he bit the bullet and flew himself to Costa Rica to drive, sleep and surf wherever he damn well pleased. All this week, Kai will share his experiences on the beaches and the breaks, and how he made it happen.

I used to surf a lot in my 20s. I even took a year out of my life to travel 'round the world on a combo surfing/snowboarding trip. At that time, I visited some of the world’s great destinations for these sports, taking in Central America, the Californian coastline, Hawaii’s legendary North Shore, and of course Bells & Bondi in Australia. I wasn't an expert per se, but I was reasonably competent on a board.

Eventually I settled in Southern California, with world class breaks on my doorstep, before making the move to NYC. In recent years though, my dearly loved 7' 6" funboard (hand shaped in San Diego, lovingly transported to New York City by your truly) has been more of an ornament than anything else. It's a beautiful '70s-style blue and white, and it's propped up against my living room wall, making me look all sporty and Californian to visitors that don’t know any better, but definitely not serving the purpose for which it was designed. The truth is, I had stopped being a surfer.

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From Central Park to Jurassic Park: JetBlue Flies from NYC to Liberia, Costa Rica

November 21, 2011 at 10:44 AM | by | Comments (0)


On the ground at LIR. Yep, that's actually the name of the plane.

So you want to go to somewhere warm this winter but you're not sure where? Get out a map right now and put your finger on the city of Liberia, Costa Rica because it just happens to be JetBlue's newest route and also is on special at $119 each way if you book before December 1 and travel before February 16, 2012. Not bad...not bad at all.

To understand why this town near the Pacific coast of Costa Rica is so hot, we tagged along on the inaugural flight last week. As usual, JetBlue likes to make a big deal out of their new routes, and so the whole flight was one big party; passengers heading down for birthdays, bachelorette parties or just for a relaxing weekend were treated to breakfast and cupcakes at the gate at JFK, complimentary Costa Rican Imperial beer onboard, in-flight trivia with entire vacation packages as prizes, and—perhaps the best perk of flying on an inaugural—plenty of space to stretch out.

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Live from T5: JetBlue Launches Direct Flights to Liberia, Costa Rica

November 17, 2011 at 9:30 AM | by | Comments (0)

Good morning from New York's JFK Airport! It's not the prettiest day here—46 degrees and gloomy/rainy as it is—but we'll soon be trading it for sun and 76 degrees down south...way down south. You see, today JetBlue celebrates the inaugural direct flight to their 70th destination: Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport in Liberia, Costa Rica, and we're hitching a ride.

Why Liberia, Costa Rica? Why the heck not?! JetBlue already serves the country's capital, San Jose, via direct flights from Orlando, but Liberia is closer to the surfing, tubing, beaches and volcanoes of the Pacific coast. Flying into Liberia instead of San Jose means cutting out a 4-5 hour drive to reach these, not to mention that JetBlue will have the only flights from New York-JFK to here. Oh, and today those flights are on sale for $119 each way.

One more thing: Liberia's Airport is having a celebration of its own with the opening of a brand spanking new terminal.

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Help Native Sea Turtles While Working on Your Winter Tan in Mexico

Where: La Paz, Mexico
October 12, 2011 at 2:07 PM | by | Comments (0)

For those of us hoping to soak up some sun while doing some good this winter, Baja Expeditions has put together a whale watching and turtle research excursion to Magdalena Bay in Baja, Mexico. This unique trip gives volunteers the opportunity to help local conservationists in their green sea turtle research and learn about gray whales as they migrate to Baja from Alaska.

The eight-day package includes six days camping on Magdalena Bay and two excursions each day, monitoring turtles and going whale watching. But it's not all work and no play, as there's also a daily happy hour with fellow campers at sunset and two days of shopping and exploring in nearby La Paz, which bookends the camping trip.

The Baja Turtle Research & Whale Watching Project is open to everyone and costs around $1500, which includes transportation to the camp site, accommodations and meals at camp. For more information, visit GoVoluntouring.

[Photo: govolunteering.com]

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The Three Most Dangerous Shark Attack Beaches of Summer 2011

August 19, 2011 at 11:19 AM | by | Comments (3)

Remember the summer of 2008? It's okay, we don't either. Regardless, some are finding that summer hard to forget as it was Shark Attack Fest '08 or something; climate change and swimmer naivete meant record numbers of shark attacks were reported, and we even mapped all the most dangerous beaches for you.

Then 2009's jellyfish invasion happened, and 2010 had that whole Gulf Coast oil issue...but the sharks are back with a vengeance in 2011. Make no doubt about it. Here are the three latest shark attack hotspots:

· Zheltukhina Island, Russia
Who the heck goes swimming off Russia's east cost, near North Korea? Well, Russian vacationers...and sharks. In the last few days, two men have been attacked in separate incidents, the first losing his arms after doing hand-to-fin combat with the maneater, and the second suffering series bites all over his legs. Both survived, but that hasn't stopped Russian authorities from posting signs at the beach with tips for fighting back (like you can fight back with a determined shark).

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Blue Water, Bikinis and Bahia Honda State Park in the Florida Keys

August 18, 2011 at 3:35 PM | by | Comments (0)

If you’re driving to the Florida Keys from pretty much anywhere else in the Sunshine State, you’re going to navigate the final stretch of US-1 for around two hours. Once you’re outside of Key Largo the turquoise waters start to show their true colors, but with your eye on a final destination at the end of the road you’re usually too focused to stop. However, if you’re going to pull off for a little time to splish and splash we have to recommend Bahia Honda State Park. Just pay attention to the mile markers, because if you blink you just might miss the entrance to the beach.

This state park sits at around mile marker 37 in the Florida Keys, and from what we saw on our recent stop, it might just be the best place to take a break between Key Largo and Key West. The park is open each and every day of the week form 8am until sunset, and admission will set you back $8 per vehicle under the assumption that your car is filled with passengers—it’s just $4 if you’re venturing in all by yourself.

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Ben Stiller, Julia Roberts and Reese Witherspoon Hang Ten in Hawaii

August 17, 2011 at 12:25 PM | by | Comment (1)

For celebrities, summer vacation means sand and surf and it looks like this year their beaches of choice are in Hawaii.

Just yesterday, Julia Roberts was spotted laying under a makeshift tent built out of branches and sarongs on the beach in Kauai, along with her husband, Danny Moder and their three kids, twins Hazel and Phinnaeus, and son Henry. The famous family went swimming, played on bodyboards and ate sandy sandwiches for lunch, just like the rest of us.

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Bora Bora Gets the Kim Kardashian Bikini Treatment

August 16, 2011 at 1:45 PM | by | Comment (1)

Love them or hate them, everyone has an opinion on the Kardashian family and their hit E! reality TV show, Keeping Up With the Kardashians. That's precisely what makes it so popular—the sweet hate or jealousy their shallow adventures inspire, or just the over-the-top glamor of it all; there's something for everyone. Truth be told, we only tune in when the whole Kardash-klan is packing up like twenty trunks to head out on vacation.

And now an announcement of immense importance: the big family trip this season was to Bora Bora in French Polynesia and those episodes—a 3-part series culminating in Kris' marriage proposal to Kim—begin airing this weekend.

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