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Where To Go With Your Tax Refund: Costa Rica

Where: Costa Rica
April 2, 2013 at 1:58 PM | by | Comments (0)

Tax day is coming, and you're probably excited...but not because you look forward to sifting through receipts and credit card statements. You're excited because you're getting a fat refund. Probably. The economy may be on its way back up, but you should try to stretch that tax refund as far as you can...like with a little "you did a great job last year" trip—a Tax Refund Vacation.

Whether you're into eco-travel, surfing, zip lining, hiking, swimming/snorkeling/Scuba, hanging out with exotic animals (like the Coati), learning Spanish or just lazing on a sandy beach, Costa Rica can make it happen. Regardless, you're in for sun and warm temperatures.

If you're interested in the Caribbean side with all its eco-tourism or you'd like to scratch a visit to Arenal volcano off your bucket list, fly into San Jose International Airport. For trips to the Pacific side's beaches, surf spots and giant national parks, Liberia International AIrport is the best bet (and it's got a brand-spanking-new terminal).

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How to Chase The Mavericks in Northern California This Fall

October 26, 2012 at 2:17 PM | by | Comments (0)

Today, Chasing Mavericks starring Gerard Butler hits theaters and, if nothing else, is sure to inspire quite a few moviegoers to hit the waves, too.

The movie tells the true story of legendary surfer Jay Moriarity who made a name for himself surfing the Mavericks at California's Half Moon Bay but sadly died in a free-diving accident at 22.

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An Awesome Day on Bali: Bowing to the Surf Gods on Bingin Beach

April 26, 2012 at 2:51 PM | by | Comments (0)

BALI. For some, the word conjures up images of infinity pools, surfing beaches and tropical temples. For others, it's a nightmare of topless tourists and sweaty sightseeing. Well, we just got back ourselves and we, with the help of tips from friends and locals, did something in between...something that turned out to be awesome. Put on the SPF, hire a car* and join us this week as we reveal an An Awesome Day on Bali (Jaunted-style).

Our awesome day on Bali continues with some surf-spotting on Bingin Beach, recommended by our own contributor Max Graham.

If you've been following along on our recommendations for an awesome day in Bali, we've reached afternoon, post indulgent fresh seafood lunch. Resist the food coma siren song to chillax right there on Jimbaran Beach, and instead pile back into your private car* for a short drive further south, in the direction of Uluwatu.

It's here, along the coastline between Jimbaran and Uluwatu, that you'll find a strip of prime surfing beaches at the base of cliffs. Dreamland is the first major one for which you'll see signs, but just below is Bingin Beach and believe us that it's worth the extra few minutes driving.

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Three Warm Weather Sports It's Not Too Late to Start Learning

March 19, 2012 at 10:39 AM | by | Comments (0)

1. Surfing: If Lady Gaga can learn it, then surely you can too. To surf, you're got to be hitting awesome breaks, places that likely also come with stunning sunsets, seafood barbeques and sand in between your toes.

So how long does it take to learn to surf? Not that long, actually, especially if you head to a surfing boot camp, like Surf Simply in Costa Rica. Wanna start a little lighter, a little closer to home? There's also stand-up paddleboarding, at these three prime Cali locations.

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The Moneyball of Surfing is in Costa Rica, at Surf Simply

February 29, 2012 at 11:17 AM | by | Comments (0)

Moneyball may have gone home empty handed at the 2012 Oscars, but sabermetrics are alive and well and not just on the baseball field.

Ru Hill is the owner/operator of Surf Simply, a boutique surf coaching resort near Nosara, Costa Rica, and he has been collecting surf data for more than ten years, all the while instructing thousands of surfers in England, France and Indonesia. Since 2007, however, his home base has been just up the dirt road from Playa Guiones in CR.

Every Saturday Ru and his team of ISA-trained surf instructors, chefs, yoga instructors and masseurs welcome a new group of travelers who, while varied in surfing ability from none to plenty, all have a common goal—to become immersed in surf while on vacation. While there are plenty of surf camps, surf instructors, and surf boards in Costa Rica, you would be hard pressed to find one as detailed and systematic as Surf Simply.

While Saturday night starts with a low-key dinner at the basic yet boutique 14-guest surf resort, by Sunday morning 8am, the travelers are ready to get in the water.

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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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Lady Gaga Takes Time Out to Learn Surfing Before Sunday's VMAs

August 23, 2011 at 1:16 PM | by | Comment (1)

Lady GaGa finally took some time out from shooting videos, performing live, and appearing on TV last week to have a little fun in the sun in in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. So what does a groundbreaking pop star do on her summer vacation? Take surfing lessons of course! Gaga tweeted a photo of herself surfing with the caption "yeah thats me. no heels baby."

But what's more shocking than seeing that GaGa actually does have normal, human feet, is how she paid for her Mexican hotel room. Some reports claim she spent more than $7,000 a night for a luxury suite.

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The World's Nicest Taco Bell Can Be Found in Pacifica, California

March 9, 2011 at 10:51 AM | by | Comments (0)

We might not have ordered a Chalupa, Gordita, or Crunchwrap Supreme, but we’re pretty sure that the Taco Bell in Pacifica, California is definitely serving up only 100% real beef on their menu. That’s because it’s the best Taco Bell—maybe even one of the best fast food restaurants—that we’ve ever seen.

Sitting not too far outside the hustle and bustle of San Francisco, this somewhat-sleepy, somewhat-surfy town of Pacifica is a great place to enjoy the waves and sand. More importantly it’s also a nice spot to enjoy some of life’s crunchy, cheesy, and beefy treasures. Our favorite Taco Bell—and apparently Yelp’s as well—is located on the right side of the parking lot that sits within Pacifica State Beach.

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