Puntarenas is a small town, a peninsula that juts out into the bay on the western side of Costa Rica. Its name literally means “sandy point”, an apt description. It is best used as a starting point for one of the many excursions into the interior rainforest of the capital city of San Jose only one hour away. But if you don’t want to spend money on a shore excursion, it is possible to spend an enjoyable day exploring Puertarenas on your own.
The cruise ships dock at a relatively short pier in the center of the peninsula on the southern side. There is a tram that runs from the cruise ship to the start of the pier, but you can easily walk the length of the pier in less than ten minutes.
The beach in Puntarenas is not the most beautiful, although the potential is there. The sand was a very dark, almost black sand; very different from the white sands found in the Caribbean. Unfortunately, a lot of trash, vegetable debris, and large trees wash up along the shore. Unlike other tourist ports, we did not see a huge effort to clean up the trash and make the beach more attractive. Only the section immediately to the west of the pier was clean enough to swim in. The beach does continue to the east of the port, but the waves appeared more intense on that side.
The town of Puntarenas is only four blocks wide south to north. The restaurants are mostly on the main street running parallel to the beach along the south. There is a nice Paseo de Turistas, a sidewalk which runs all the way to the western point of Puntarenas, a distance of about 1.5 miles from the pier. Here you will find a park with benches and a small lighthouse.
There is also a resort, Punta Pirata, with a splash pool and sun loungers. A day at this resort starts at 8,000 CRC ($15 USD). There is an on-site restaurant with food for an additional fee. We saw a few families here, but it honestly did not look that attractive. The beach area at this end of Puntarenas was the dirtiest, so any swimming would be in the resort swimming pool. And if that is your goal, you’d be better off staying aboard the ship.
On the northern side of Puntarenas, you will find the working ships: fishing boats and ferries. The ferry travels to Paquera and Playa Naranjo. With some advance planning, it would be possible to take this ferry on your own, but the trip takes 1.5 hours each way. It cost only 810 CRC ($1.55 USD) per person. You will cross the Gulf of Nicoya, view some of the small islands inhabited only by seabirds, and be able to explore the beaches on the other side.
The northern blocks of the island were dedicated to private homes, schools, and a few local corner stores. Despite the smallness of the town, we did not see any other tourists in this area. We did see a few locals, a group of young adults and a few older men and women running errands. They were not particularly friendly and we made our way back to the main street.
Unfortunately, we were disappointed by our stop in Puntarenas. We had been excited to experience our first beach in the Atlantic Ocean, and to visit our first Latin American country other than Mexico. But we found the beaches to be dirty, the water murky, and the people not catering to tourists less than friendly.
