Puntarenas means “sandy point”, and it is both the name of a Costa Rican province and its largest coastal community. Home to Costa Rica’s main port, Puntarenas is alive with friendly locals and a diverse array of vacationers from all over the world.

To visitors, the area is home to awardwinning Blue Flag beaches and ecological preserves. But to those in the know, Puntarenas’ finer points extend beyond its reputed natural beauty and charm to its welcoming culture and festive traditions.

This quaint city features a variety of restaurants and shops with facile oldworld architecture that reflects its citizens’ laid-back vibe. You can find just what you need in Puntarenas’ shopping district.

The city’s biggest attractions are its annual festivals. Costa Ricans and tourists alike gather every spring for Carnival, the most celebrated of these festivals. Carnival explodes with free-spirited fun for 10 days of cultural displays, parades, music, dancing, and sporting events. This is one event that is not to be missed! And fun abounds on Puntarenas’ Pacific Coast, where you can partake in myriad waterbased activities.

South Puntarenas is one of the world’s top surfing hotspots, and serious boarders come here to compete in the area’s surfing competitions as they revel in riding some of the most exhilarating hollows and the third-largest left break on Earth.

Daily snorkeling and diving excursions allow the adventurous to experience life underwater as they explore biotic reefs. Anglers come from all over the world to fish the waters off the coast of Puntarenas. And private catamaran tours to Isla Tortuga, Costa Rica’s consummate tropical island, allow visitors to enjoy the simplicity of the isle’s gently swaying coconut palm trees and immaculate white-quartz sand as they relax away the day basking on its sun-kissed shores.