Puerto Viejo town
10 minutes by bicycle
Restaurants, bakeries, the Saturday market, bike rental, dive shops and a lot of music. Busy in the evening in a way that Playa Negra never is.
The quiet end of Puerto Viejo.
Playa Negra is black volcanic sand, driftwood and coconut palms — and considerably fewer people than the beaches south of town.
Seven minutes on foot
Out of our gate, left along the lane, and you are on the sand. Most mornings there is nobody else on it.
Playa Negra is long, flat and good for walking. The water is open Caribbean, so it has a current and some days it has surf — swim where other people are swimming, and ask us about the day's conditions before you go in with children.
For calm, snorkel-clear water, ride south to Punta Uva. For the reef and the sloths, Cahuita National Park is north.
Worth the ride
Everything below is within an hour, most of it on a bicycle. We can arrange the tours and the taxis.
Jaguar Rescue Center
About 8 km south
A rescue and release centre for sloths, monkeys, snakes and birds. Tours run in the morning; book ahead in high season.
Punta Uva and Manzanillo
25–40 minutes south
The calm, turquoise, postcard beaches. Manzanillo is the end of the road and the start of the Gandoca-Manzanillo reserve.
Cahuita National Park
About 30 minutes north
A coastal trail through the forest with a coral reef offshore. Entry to the Kelly Creek gate is by donation. Sloths and howler monkeys are near-certain.
Wildlife without leaving
In the garden
Sloths, howler and capuchin monkeys, iguanas, toucans, and the blue morpho butterflies the place is named for. Early morning is best.
Afro-Caribbean Talamanca
All around you
This coast is culturally its own place — Afro-Caribbean and Bribri, with its own food, its own Spanish and its own English. Eat the rice and beans cooked in coconut milk.
Getting here
- By car from San José
- Roughly four and a half hours via Limón. There is free private parking inside our gate, so a rental car is easy here.
- By bus
- Direct services run from San José to Puerto Viejo several times a day and take about five hours. From the bus stop in town it is a short taxi ride to us.
- By air
- Limón airport is about an hour away; San José's international airport is the usual arrival point. We can arrange a private transfer either way.
- Finding the gate
- From Hotel Banana Azul: 500 m west, 500 m north-east, then 100 m west. Tell us roughly when you will arrive and we will make sure somebody is here.
Stay where the garden is.
Playa Negra at one end of the lane, Puerto Viejo at the other, and a pool in between.