Best things to do in Nosara

When guests ask what there is to do in Nosara, the honest answer is: less than you think, and exactly the right things. This is not a town with a hundred attractions and a checklist. It is a handful of genuinely great experiences and a lot of space to breathe between them. Here is what we build most weeks around, in roughly the order people fall for them.

1. Learn to surf, or get better

Playa Guiones is one of the most forgiving places in the world to learn, a long sand-bottom beach break that works most days of the year. We match you to the right instructor and the right tide for your level: a first lesson for the kids, a video-review session for someone chasing a better bottom turn, or a dawn patrol for the surfer who came for exactly this.

2. Spend a day offshore

Through our sister company, Monkey Head Adventures, we run boats out of the Garza harbor for half and full days on the water. Offshore you are looking for marlin, sailfish, tuna, and mahi. Closer in, it is rooster fish and snapper. The crew cleans your catch, and the villa chef can cook it for dinner that night. Not fishing? The same boats run snorkel trips and sunset cruises.

3. Snorkel the pink island

A short boat ride from Garza, Isla Rosada sits in water that turns a color you do not see from shore. It is the easy, joyful half-day: masks on, kids in the water, fruit and cold drinks on the bow, home by lunch. It is usually the photo people send first when they get back.

4. See the Ostional arribada

If your dates line up with a nesting event, less than twenty minutes up the coast you can watch tens of thousands of olive ridley turtles come ashore at once. It is seasonal and it runs on the moon, not on a schedule, so we watch the windows and tell you honestly whether your trip is likely to catch one. A certified guide is required by law, through the Wildlife Conservation Association, and we handle the booking.

5. Find a waterfall

Behind the beach, the hills hide swimming holes and waterfalls most visitors never reach. We arrange the ATVs or the four-wheel-drive, a guide who knows which roads are passable that week, and a picnic if you want one. It is the best way to see the inland half of the peninsula.

6. Take a sunset cruise

Cold drinks, the light going gold, and dolphins on the way home more often than not. In season you may see whales. It is the simplest evening we plan and one of the ones people talk about longest.

7. Spend a morning on wellness

Nosara has been a yoga town for decades, and the teachers here are the real thing. We set up shala classes or private sessions at the villa, plus massage, sound healing, and breathwork when you want them. A slow morning here resets the whole day.

8. Eat at the villa with a private chef

The best dinners in Nosara do not happen in a restaurant. A chef cooks in your kitchen with fish landed that morning and produce from up the road, around whatever your group is in the mood for. Welcome dinners, a long table for a birthday, a quiet plant-based night, kid menus that actually work.

9. Watch the wildlife

You barely have to try. Howler monkeys over the pool at dawn, toucans and parrots through the day, and a naturalist guide for the morning if you want to go deeper into the reserve. Bring binoculars. The kids will use them more than you expect.

10. Do nothing at all

This is the one we quietly protect on every itinerary. A day with no plan: the pool, the beach, a book, a long lunch, a nap. Nosara is a Blue Zone, and the doing-nothing is not wasted time here. It is the point.