Buena Vista Beach Club

Servers bring tropical drinks straight to your lounge chair on the sand here. Nothing fancy, just genuine Pura Vida beach bar magic that consistently earns the rave reviews.

Sloths and monkeys occasionally wander by while you eat fried snapper across from Playa Espadilla, which is a very Manuel Antonio kind of interruption to an otherwise reliably good meal.

Surfers walk straight off Playa Dominical with boards still dripping and order a round before the wax is dry, the horseshoe-shaped bar and the Basil Passion Fruit Margarita have quietly become local legend.

Dominical’s only real craft beer destination, Fuego brews on-site for surfers and expats who wanted something beyond the standard cold Imperial, and everyone from travel writers to locals agrees they nailed it.

Thatched roof, picnic tables in the sand, and bonfires overlooking one of the South Pacific’s best surf breaks, El Vaquero is the kind of sunset that makes canceling your flight home feel entirely reasonable.