Photo: Playa Penca Carrillo, Guanacaste

Carlos Alpízar and José Pablo Alfaro decided to create a tool to help tourists that wish to explore the many Costa Rican beaches.

“It all started as a personal project, we both always liked visiting the different beaches. At one point in our life we thought we had run out of beaches, and ended up going to the same places because we didn’t have information on new spots”, explained Alfaro who is a sports journalist.

It took them about one year to collect information on the 206 beaches that are now included in their website, although the total beaches in Costa Rica is a lot more. The website includes information of beaches in Guanacaste, Central Pacific, South Pacific and the Caribbean.

The information is available on their website www.goplaya.cr where users can search by province, the name of a specific beach or selecting particular characteristics of their interest (the type of sand for example). The tool will display information including the activities that can be done at each beach, the species that can be found, and general information on the area where it is located, from typical food, to weather and traditions.

The location of the different beaches is provided through Google Maps or Waze; infrastructure and services available in each place are also detailed as well as schedules (in the case of beaches located in National Parks) and of course recommendations .

“Platforms like Google Maps and Waze offer the most common routes, but we went to each place and recorded the directions with the best views in order to offer users the best travel experience”, commented Alfaro.

Part of the objectives of GoPlaya is to provide information on beaches that are not as visited because they are not well-known or popular. This will help grow the number of tourists that reach certain communities.

In the case of beaches that are named the same, like the case of Playa Hermosa in Puntarenas and Hermosa in Guanacaste, the tool lists the differences between the two and the attractions each one offers.

The website is free and it also has a blog section that offers recommendations on restaurants and tours as well as a ranking of the best beaches and undiscovered destinations.