Bodyboarding at Uvita
Summary
Cracking spot for beginners to do some bodyboarding or surfing along the long and wide Uvita beach. It also has the benefit of being in the Marino Ballena National Park, so you will likely see all sorts of wildlife while here
Whilst not on the normal list of places to visit in Costa Rica, its a good location to relax between Corcovado National Park and San Jose / Manuel Antonio National Park areas. The Flutterby House backpackers just off the beach is a great place to grab food, drinks and the boards, but my number one tip is to splurge and stay at the Hotel el Castillo that is around a 15min drive further down the coast. We travelled for 6months around Latin America and this was our favourite place to stay – the views are incredible, the layout gorgeous and the staff couldn’t have been nicer. The right way to relax after after sleeping in a jungle tent!
highlights
#1 The long wide Uvita Beach that allows you to enjoy some easy bodyboarding
#2 Sipping wine enjoying the sunset from the not-to-be-missed El Castillo Hotel
#3 Seeing the wildlife jumping above you in the canopy from the Marino Ballena National Park
#4 The local wildlife popping into your hotel to say hi
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Other beautiful beach spots around the world
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone