Costa Rica is a great place to experience nice clean beaches with some good waves. However, depending on your surfing experience level will probably depend on where you want to go for vacations.
It has nothing to do with the danger of surfing, but rather just the amount of people and the surf shops available in the areas.
For someone who is highly advanced in their surfing skills, it is almost always recommended by the locals to travel to the north shore of the country. You will find beaches like Guanacaste there which feature some of the best surfers in the world who live for the sport! The waves are going to be significantly bigger there as well and far fewer people who will get in your way. The best months to go surfing in Costa Rica are March through November. Even throughout the remainder of the months you will still find tourists coming in on the weekends to experience the waves in Guanacaste. However, October is probably the worst time to go because that is the rainy season where it will rain almost every day. This goes for just about any tourist activity in Costa Rica though.
Are you looking to be entirely isolated though? The Playa Naranjo beach is without a doubt one of the most secluded beaches in the entire world. The reason for this is because there are no smooth or paved roads that lead directly to it. In fact, if you want to go surfing on the Playa Naranjo you will have to a ten mile trip by four wheel drive to even reach it. The only other option would be to take a boat charter; there are a few local ones in Costa Rica that can take you by boat there. The trip will cost about $200 for five people though. This is a fairly high price, but should definitely be a unique experience.
If you are a fairly beginning surfer or just want to try your luck and want something fun to do while you are at the beach, then I would recommend any of the popular beach towns around Puntarenas. Many of them will have surfing equipment available to rent. There should also be several that will provide one-time lessons on how to surf. This is a really fun activity if you don’t have any experience and want to do something unique your companion. My wife and I tried this during our last vacations and we had a lot of fun. Surfing isn’t easy though! We still had some good laughs about our attempts.
