Nosara

A low-rise yoga-and-surf town on the Pacific Nicoya Peninsula — barefoot, dirt-road, no neon.

Nosara is a deliberate counterpoint to Costa Rica's resort coasts: a Blue Zone community on the Guanacaste coast where building codes preserve the jungle canopy and roads stay unpaved. The "town" is really three beaches strung along a few kilometres — Pelada, Guiones, and Garza — anchored by the surf and yoga scene at Guiones.

• Playa Guiones — Costa Rica's best beginner-to-intermediate surf, breaks at every tide
• Playa Pelada — tide pools, a blowhole, and sunset cocktails at La Luna
• Yoga capital — Bodhi Tree, Nosara Yoga Institute, dozens of daily classes
• Ostional Wildlife Refuge — olive ridley arribadas (mass nestings) just up the coast
• Blue Zone — one of the world's five recognised longevity hotspots