Just 1 hour and 20 minutes away from Costa Rica’s capital city and 15 minutes away from Jacó Beach, you will get to Playa Mantas. This beach is inside a tourist complex but has public street access and even a public parking lot, so you can go whenever you want.
Related post: One day beach getaway from San José
A Costa Rica Hidden Gem
I always heard about a small “secret” beach on the north side of this beach with a small waterfall just a 5-minute walk away, a virgin place with usually no one there, the real secret gem of Playa Mantas. I talked to my best friends, Javier, Luis, and María, and we all went for the weekend to the beach and maybe to visit Sunday this “secret beach”.
After spending some delightful time on Saturday at Playa Blanca (one of my friends has access to Punta Leona’s facilities), we decided that we were going to get to this “secret beach” that we later found out’s named “Limonal Beach”.
There are few ways to get to this beach, maybe that’s why it’s considered a secret gem after all. There are no roads that take you to this beach, but there are some people that create their own and with a mountain bike or quad bike reach this nice beach through the mountain. Since we didn’t have any bikes or quad bikes, there was just one option left for us, through the ocean! The easiest way is with a boat or jet ski, the best option is with a kayak and the crazy way is with a paddleboard. Guess which option we took?
Punta Leona Touristic Complex rent kayaks and paddleboards. Also, there are usually people on the beach that rent this equipment and also offer tours to the beach by boat.
The Crazy Adventure
There were four of us and just two paddleboards. This made the adventure even crazier but at the same time fun. We checked on weather and tide conditions through the best option (asking local people) practiced a few of our balance skills and went on our way.
Halfway there we noticed that if we wanted to get there faster, we had to lie down the board and start paddling with our arms (the balance wasn’t a skill in any of us), and in fact, after trying that, we got there; it took us around 20 minutes to reach the beach.
The beach was amazing! Crystal clear water, white sand and there was no one there, we had the beach for ourselves! After swimming a while, having the Instagram photoshoot, and resting some time, we went to find the waterfall that we also heard about. We walked for just 10 minutes into the jungle and we discovered the waterfall. Even though it wasn’t that big, it was really refreshing to take a bath in the middle of the jungle with fresh water.
Adventure’s Tips
We went back to the beach, spent more time there, and after checking the time and noticing it was late (time flies when you are having fun) we went on our way back. Everything was great until the tide and wind changed, both started going against us, which made our way back harder than our way in. Every time we advanced 10 meters, the wind and tide moved us 20 meters in the wrong direction. It was really frustrating. After struggling some time with the tide and wind, we got back to the beach one hour later with a painful sunburn that lasted for a week!
Even though we had an amazing time in this secret gem, if you plan to make this crazy trip (try the kayak better), try carrying sunblock or maybe a long sleeve shirt and also keep and always an eye on changes in the tide and the wind so you don’t have to struggle as much as we did on the way back. Hope you find this helpful and have yourself a marvelous adventure near San José!
