Tamarindo has no shortage of great restaurants. It does, however, have a big shortage of cheap restaurants. With a month to spend in Tamarindo, and a family of four to feed, we didn't want to spend a fortune on eating out. These are the best cheap eats that we found in Tamarindo on a budget.
This place has me so Pavlovian-conditioned that just saying Pizzaria La Buala makes my mouth water. Pizzeria La Baula is a home run: Amazing pizzas with high quality ingredients and a comfortable, casual, attractive place to hang out.
If you're craving anything other than pizza or salads...
Tamarindo is famous for its surf breaks, and almost equally famous for being a bit expensive and full of tourists. We spent a month in town enjoying the waves, and got a chance to track down some of the best cheap things to do in Tamarindo.
Boogie boarding on Playa Langosta. While Playa Tamarindo is the most famous beach in Guanacaste, Playa Langosta is just a short walk away. The waves at Playa Langosta are generally smaller, and better for families and newbie surfers. That said, we caught the waves at Langosta at high tide on a big swell day, and managed to smash a boogie board in two. Cost: One replacement cheap boogie board from Super Compro grocery, $10.
Zip lining at New Monkey Jungle Canopy Tours. Great from begining to end. New Monkey Jungle has seven zip lines and an awesome...
This winter we decided to make it a work season. We usually enjoy celebrating Canada's coldest season simply by not being here. Hockey lovers, skiers, snowboarders, snowmobilers, cross country skiing lovers and all those other winter pastime people are pretty much crazy in our minds. Sure, if you're stuck here anyway you should make the most of it and provided the weather is nice all of those can be quite enjoyable. We however, would much rather be just about anywhere else during the season of snowstorms, windchill warning days and "the greyness" as we like to call it.
Since we were trapped here for the winter and Micki's contract was scheduled until May we decided that a short warm vacation was in order. We never knew how much of an adventure we'd have before we even got on the plane though...
Before our kids and even before he was my husband, Charles and I spent a year traveling in South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. We dove the Great Barrier Reef, saw ancient Angkor temples in Cambodia, and watched wild orangutans playing in the Sumatran jungle.
We came out of that with a commitment: We weren't going to live a conventional life. It was travel for us; the open road and all that it offers. We were going to be digital nomads.
We made a plan: travel every winter, and come back to Canada in the summers to earn some money, enjoy the sun, and visit family.
And then we had children...
I wrote this post a few years ago, after we came back from an extended trip across South East Asia, New Zealand and Australia.
Some things have changed. Today, I have two great kids, and I've moved to British Columbia, Canada, one of the most gorgeous areas I've seen in my travels, and where I can see the mountains everyday. But I still struggle with that surreal juxtaposition of our adventurous, nomadic travels, and returning to our so-called normal, everyday life in Canada. And Cosmo still cuddles us at night.