Day Trip to Playas del Coco

The problem with moving to a country where tourism is so popular, is that the places that everyone raves about as “must visit” are so… touristy. I get it – most people are only here for a few days or a week. So those tourist-heavy places are great. But for us, we continue to find that it’s not our favorite.

Case in point: one of the cities in Costa Rica that we looked at moving to was Playa del Coco. So for our first full weekend in our new home, we decided to take a trip up to Coco to spend our Saturday.

Quick side note, the night before our trip, we went to the local brewery down the street from our house. Bosco charmed a couple of ladies at a table next to ours and we quickly got to chatting. They were both lovely and I’m happy to report we’ve made our first local friends! Nothing brings people together faster or better than beer and cute puppies!

So one of the wonderful women that we met told us about the Monkey Trail to get to Coco. Saturday morning we woke up and I did some quick Googling of the Monkey Trail. The articles I read seemed to point to the fact that this road was nothing to mess with – definitely not in rainy season (which we are in the beginning month of). So we decided to skip it this time. Perhaps our last four-wheeling adventure was too fresh in our memories…

Nikk put the city into Google Maps, we put the Sunrider top down on Chivo, and we headed out. The drive was so pretty! The day was warm, but we had beautiful blue skies and the sun felt great. A few miles from home, we turned onto a dirt road and traveled up winding roads with big green trees on either side of us. I tried to capture some pictures, but it was a bit bouncy.

The windy dirt road lasted about 20 minutes. There were some very narrow parts, and what Nikk would call “fun” mud puddles to drive through, but nothing crazy. Another 10 minutes on a paved road, and we were pulling into the town of Playa del Coco. We found a spot to park along the street, and started walking toward the beach and a restaurant we were going to check out for lunch.

The beach in Coco is lovely. Similar to our home beach back in Potrero, Coco is tucked inside a little bay, surrounded by trees which are all green thanks to the rainy season. The town itself was similar to Tamarindo, but on a much smaller scale – lots of souvenir shops, people selling wares along the beach, and tons of dining options.

Nikk wanted to watch the fútbol match, so we landed at Bambú – a great restaurant that faces the beach with a ton of seating and two levels of bars. The match was on all the TV’s, so we grabbed a spot at the bar and ordered a couple of Imperials.

We weren’t starving, but definitely wanted a snack so we ordered some nachos. WOW! These were amazing! I could have eaten about four plates of this myself, but decided to hold back since we were in public.

After devouring the nachos, I noticed that there was a beer in one of the coolers with the same name and logo as the restaurant – Bambú. As a craft brew lover, I just had to give it a try. Let’s just say that they should stick to nachos… it was definitely not my favorite.

After the first half of the fútbol match, we decided to head to Angry Goats brewery, which was just a few blocks off the beach. Angry Goats is inside of a popular restaurant/nightclub in Coco called CocoNutz. Yeah… glad we decided not to move to this town. However, their beer was fantastic!

As the fútbol match finished up, we decided that we were done for the day too. We drove back through the forest-lined windy dirt road. Wait… could this be the Monkey Trail?? As we drove home, I saw my first wild monkey!! It was crawling along some electrical wires, but it was a monkey clear-as-day! Poor Nikk is always driving (and thankfully concentrating on the road) so he didn’t get to see it. I also wasn’t quick enough to grab my camera, so this first monkey-sighting will live on in my very own private memory.

When we got home that night, we looked it up, and sure enough… we had been on the Monkey Trail the whole time! We’re not sure what all the hoopla was around it, other than to say that you probably wouldn’t be comfortable going on it in a Prius. We definitely will try it again, and I can see how lots of rain would make it muddy, but I think Chivo will continue to handle it like a boss.

Overall, Playa del Coco was lovely, and it was a short enough drive that we will be back for those nachos, but we continue to feel grateful that we found and settled into our sleepy little town of Surfside. Have you been to Coco? What’s your favorite Nacho topping? Share with us in the comments – we’d love to hear from you!