Over the last couple of decades, Tamarindo Beach has undergone an amazing transformation from sleepy beach town to a major real estate market and a haven for expats in Costa Rica. These days, Tamarindo Beach is known as one of the most attractive beach communities that make up Costa Rica’s Gold Coast, and a major reason for this distinction is that residents have easy access to many convenient services that cater to retirees and expats.

 

A recent Huffington Post article written by Jason Holland of International Living provides a succinct explanation of how Tamarindo Beach has been transformed:

 

[In] the late 1980s, [surfers] first discovered Tamarindo’s consistently good waves and sport fishermen found the abundant tuna, snapper, and billfish offshore. [Back then,] Tamarindo was small time. A couple of hotels, a bar/restaurant or two. Electricity was spotty, the roads horrible. There was one telephone in town.

 

Eventually, North American expats began to settle in Tamarindo Beach, a trend that turned into a wave of development:

 

A big advantage to this is the services that came with the expats. The Daniel Oduber International Airport, the second in the country, is about an hour from Tamarindo, making getting to and from North America very easy; there are daily flights on JetBlue, American Airlines, Delta, and United. And there is also a small private hospital, including a 24-hour emergency room, near the airport. It’s run by CIMA, which operates one of the top hospitals in San José.

 

The CIMA hospital is actually in Liberia, the main municipality of the Guanacaste province, but it is easy to access from Tamarindo Beach. CIMA is a prestigious facility that attracts many medical tourists to Costa Rica; a similar hospital is Clínica Bíblica, which also opened a branch in Liberia. Since these two hospitals specialize in medical tourism, they accept many foreign insurance plans and employ staff members who speak English.

 

Closer to Tamarindo is the 24-hour Beachside Medical Clinic in Huacas, with additional locations in Playa Granda and Playa Flamingo. The range of services offered by this clinic includes:

• dentistry
• dermatology
• gastroenterology
• gynecology
• internal medicine
• nutrition
• ophthalmology
• oral surgery
• orthodontics
• orthopedics
• otolaryngology
• pediatrics
• periodontics
• physical therapy
• psychiatry
• pulmonology
• reconstructive surgery
• urology

 

A few drugstores in Tamarindo Beach have a general practitioner or family physician that cares for walk-in patients who need prescriptions or minor treatments: Farmacia Conchal at the Conchal II shopping center, Farmacia Pacifico on the main street near the Diriá Hotel. Farmacia Tamarindo across from the Vista Villas Hotel, and Farmacia Fischel next to the Megasuper market. In the case of Farmacia Conchal, a doctor’s office is conveniently located next door for referrals.

 

If you are planning on moving to Tamarindo Beach and would like more information about medical services in the area, please contact RE/MAX Ocean Surf and Sun:

RE/MAX Ocean Surf and Sun
#1 Sunrise Center
Beach Road, Tamarindo
Toll Free: 1-866-976-8898
Local: 2653-0073 / 2653-0733
[email protected]