Playa Carrillo: the palm-lined crescent 15 minutes from Sámara

Why is there nothing built on Playa Carrillo?#

Because the road runs behind the palms rather than in front of them, and the strip between the two is protected. Everything — hotels, restaurants, the airstrip — sits up the hill or along the road, and the beach itself has a row of coconut palms, a line of picnic tables and nothing else. It is the reason photographs of this beach look the way they do, and the reason it stays quiet even when Sámara is busy.

Is the water safe?#

It is the calmest water within an hour's drive. The bay is a closed crescent with no river mouth and no gap in the headlands, so there is no permanent rip and, on most days, no surf either. The east end under the headland picks up a current on a big swell; the rest of it is as close to a swimming pool as this coast gets.

When should you go?#

Midday, which is the opposite of the advice for every other beach here. The palm row throws real shade from about eleven, and Carrillo is the only beach on this coast where you can sit out the hottest three hours without a tent. It is also worth timing against the tide: at low water the sand roughly doubles in width, and at high water the sea comes up to the palms in places.

Carrillo has carried a Bandera Azul rating, Costa Rica's audited beach standard for water quality and sanitation. There are toilets and showers at the western end, sodas up on the road, and nothing else — bring what you need. For a proper meal, the restaurants in Sámara are fifteen minutes back up the coast.