Dominical, Costa Rica
In 2005, my wife and I decided we needed to come to Costa Rica for a holiday to further explore the possibility of moving to the area of Dominical on Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast.
Dominical is located approximately two and a half hours from the Panama border and is more famous for it’s surf conditions than anything else. However we thought it might be worth considering even though neither of us were surfers.
We entered Costa Rica for our first visit in May of 2005 and immediately exited San Jose after arriving to head to the beach community of Dominical.
Upon arriving in Dominical for the first we were surprised to find that it was not at all what we had expected. Despite reading and studying information on the area for the months prior, we still were not prepared for what we saw when we arrived.
Dominical is comprised of two roads that run parallel to the Dominical beach. Both of which are gravel with crater sized pot holes preventing any driving speeds exceeding 5kph. Along the beach side road, local vendors sell their goods under the cover of palm leaf covered booths in the searing heat. You can find anything from coconuts poked with a straw (pipas) to sarongs with the famous toucan Costa Rica is known for.
Fancy hotels and restaurants are left to the northern sections of the country, Dominical is more for the laid back eco-type traveler looking to enjoy nature and the rainforest in its rawest form rather than being pampered poolside. It’s not uncommon to find monkeys and other exotic animals of the Costa Rican rainforest within the jungle around Dominical. Actually it’s quite common to see sloths, pizotes, toucans, monkeys and iguanas all around the area.
Some activities we enjoyed while on our vacation in Dominical were zip lining in the jungle canopy, waterfall tours, horseback rides on the beach and more. If you so desire, one can even enjoy paragliding above the Dominical beach!
Development in the area has been kept to a minimum unlike the province of Guanacaste to the north. Dominical in the province of Puntarenas, is strict on their Costa Rica property laws. While looking around Dominical for property to possibly purchase, we quickly learned of the many real estate laws preventing owning property close to the ocean.
Even though we ended up buying in the mountains above Dominical, I would still rate our first vacation to Dominical a 6.5 out of 10 for the average family vacationer. However I think this would steeply rise if the family was more in to the eco-tourism type holiday.
As we say here in Costa Rica….pura vida (pure life)
Tags: Costa Rica Vacations, dominical beach, Dominical vacation, pacific coast, rainforests
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