While most of Costa Rica's black sand beaches are located on the Pacific coast, the Caribbean town of Cahuita has a small black sand beach. Cahuita is a small town with a vibrant culture, located just 27 miles south of Puerto Limon. Most of its inhabitants are of Jamaican decent. The black sand beach is right in front of the town. You can also find a white sand beach to the east in Cahuita National Park. Between visits to the beach, be sure to try the town's flavorful Afro-Caribbean cuisine.
Guanacaste is on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, about one and a half hours from Liberia or four to five hours from San Jose. The beach is especially popular among surfers, who come for the beach's large waves, but areas on the southern end of the beach are more sheltered and reserved for swimmers. Surfers and swimmers alike can enjoy the beautiful landscape of remote Guanacaste, with barreling waves crashing into the rock outcroppings and dark sand of the coastline.
Playa Esterillos is located in the central Pacific region of Costa Rica, about a two-hour drive from San Jose. While you can find lodging at Playa Esterillos, the beach tends to attract fewer crowds than Costa Rica's other Pacific destinations. Playa Esterillos is surrounded by lush fields of palm and almond trees, and the waters recede dramatically at low tide, fully revealing the beach's black sand. The beach also has very consistent and clean waves for surfers, although not the big breaks found at other destinations.
Literally meaning "beautiful beach," Playa Hermosa is located in the same central Pacific region as Esterillos, and is also about two hours from San Jose. A testament to Costa Rica's abundance of gorgeous beaches, there's another Playa Hermosa in Guanacaste, not to be confused with the black sands of this one. This Playa Hermosa is one of the most frequented surfing destinations in the country and -- while the waves are beautiful to look at -- strong tides make swimming or other water activities difficult and inadvisable.
