Playa Negra

Welcome to the most consistently perfect waves in the world…

Nestled in warm and beautiful Playa Negra on the Pacific shoreline of Costa Rica is an “all-inclusive” realization of your dream surf trip. Tropical forests line many of the beaches and the dark sand holds a reef break that is ideal for the beginner as well as the expert surfer. 
We are different from other Costa Rica surf camps because we provide first class lodging, service, and over 20 years of local surf knowledge. Just show up with your quiver, and Real Surf Trips will take care of everything.

Perfect waves caught on camera and on video – you will never forget your experience!

Need or want photos or video of your surf trip? Professional photo and video packages are available through Tony Roberts Photography. Tony Roberts (TR) has worked with high profile clients such as: Surfing Magazine, Quiksilver, Sports Illustrated, National Geographic Extreme and others. Tony has lived in Costa Rica for over 20 years. He and his team know every detail of the surf breaks and how to document your surfing!

Los Pargos is the town where Playa Negra is located. Playa Negra offers several restaurants: famous Peruvian food at Cafe Playa Negra, French cuisine at Villa Deevena, Tex Mex at Jalepenos and Pizza at La Vida Buena. It has developed to be a small village catering to the active lifestyle featuring: a yoga center, adventure tours, several small shops, surf shops, surf rentals and various cabinas and hotels. The atmosphere in the streets feels peaceful and laid back, and maybe it’s the great surf of Playa Negra which puts this happy grin on the faces of most people you meet here.

Playa Negra may be a little harder to get to; and in some cases even find — by driving through local dirt roads without directional signs but worth the adventure, but dont worry, you are with us. Plus, we are strategically poised to go explore some of the lesser-known spots that will go nameless. Let’s just say they are close by and no one wants to show you where they are. We will take you there.

This trip is set up mostly around 17 surf spots in a 7 kilometer stretch of beaches each with different wind, tide, swell angle, and lighting. We are based in the WaveHouse overlooking the most consistent and perfect waves in the hemisphere: Playa Negra… a area that works on all tides and is still good even with onshore wind. Every other wave in the Guanacaste region is fickle and dependent on particular tide and wind conditions.

There are about 17 surf-spots close to Playa Negra, many spots are perfect — lonely waves that go unridden…

Playa Negra is an old coral volcanic reef break that is a perfect reeling right. All around Playa Negra are amazing spots, many still are not surfed. At high tide, Playa Negra is an easy wave with a dry-hair paddle out. At this tide it is common to see 20-30 surfers out — many beginners. At low tide a slamming barrel forms over a shallow reef leading to a ramp section. The paddle out (rock dance) at this tide looks frightening to beginner surfers (but is basic). At this tide and especially with a little onshore wind it is uncommon to see more than a few surfers taking advantage of these amazing waves.

Morning winds are light offshore and we are surfing beach breaks (some of the best in the world) with plenty of perfect peaks to choose from. The beach breaks only work with favorable wind conditions so we tend to focus on these spots when the wind is good (AM hours). One spot in particular faces south and is open to a lot of swell and wind making it one of the most fickle spots on the coast, but when it’s on it’s ON!. It can get crowded out but there are a lot of peaks to choose from. There are a couple other beach breaks that are rarely surfed, except by AST and Real Surf Trips — people just don’t know about them.

Every variance in swell angle opens new possibilities in where we surf, we have reef breaks for every swell angle and condition, from a wave very similar to Playa Negra (never seen more than 6 surfers out there) to outer reefs reminiscent of the Eastside of Oahu, to a perfect right left reef setup that comes to life when the swell is too far south for Negra (5 minutes away).

It seems every nook and cranny of this coast has a perfect wave and we have all the swell/wind/tide angle formulas worked out — of our 17 spots, only 4 get crowded!
Witches Rock, Ollies Point, Labyrinth and a couple other mysto spots are a couple hours up the coast located in Santa Rosa National Park. We have the best captain and his two boats available when we make the call. There are now limited park passes available and our captain has most of them pre-purchased.

Sparing no expense, The Real Surf Trips house was completed in May ’09 after two years of meticulous construction. Luxurious in every detail, our property is an expansive hacienda of 3,800+ sq ft and soaring 18-ft ceilings. Two full-service kitchens compliment five large bedrooms & four full baths complete with three large living rooms & four Satellite TVs — All separately programmable in English or Spanish. Air Conditioning is in every room with tons of ceiling fans ensuring a cool atmosphere. A swim-up pool bar stocked with your favorite cocktails (additional) provides a great way to wind down in the evenings. The house even has a work desk & with Free Wi-Fi internet. Stock the kitchen & keep between-session snacks on hand.

Our food is healthy and high in protein; focusing on nutritional balance while utilizing fresh local ingredients catering to meat-eaters and vegetarians alike.

We have accredited yoga instructors on hand as well as strength/conditioning coaches. We suggest using downtime to relax and stretch for the upcoming sessions. Tamarindo is about an hour away if you want to experience the night life, so you may want to plan ahead for a big night out. Playa Negra has plenty of restaurants and bars and we do have house DJ with equipment for a big last night celebration.

Private Rooms are available for an additional cost please ask your booking agent.

Arriving at Liberia International Airport

The best way to get to Playa Negra is to land at Liberia International airport. There are numerous regular flights from the USA landing at Liberia airport: Delta Airlines, American Airlines, Continental and our partner jetBlue Airlines all fly from major cities daily. Liberia airport is only a 1.5 hour drive from our location and our shuttle service will be waiting to pick you up. Please check with us for the best fares available. We stay on top of all airline deals and would be happy to keep you posted on the best fares available.

Arriving at San Jose International Airport

The other option (and not recommended) is to arrive at San Jose International Airport.
If you do, our suggestion is to get a connecting flight with a local airline (SANSA or Nature Air) to Tamarindo airport or take the bus to Guanacaste. Daily flights are available and about $100 each way, but book way ahead, flights are usually crowded.

WARNING: Be careful as there are board bag restrictions and not allowed on some flights. Take into consideration the amount of time it will take to make it to Playa Negra, you will lose a half day on either end. If you make the trek from San Jose our shuttle wll be gladly waiting for you! In all our experince we highly recommend flying into Liberia

There’s a package for everyone’s preferences, according to your needs, level and vacation expectation. Surf and /or adventure, beginner or experienced, in group or alone. Here’s just what you were looking for.