Twilight on Tamarindo Beach just in front of the El Diria Hotel. Of all of the places I've been in Costa Rica, I would have to say that the Guanacaste Coast seemed to have the better beaches (keep in mind that this is relative to Costa Rica as Costa Rica is not in my opinion your classic beautiful beach destination--more a surfer's destination). Tamarindo unfortunately has just been absolutely overrun with tourism and over-development. It's amazing how rapidly Costa Rica changed just in the span of a few years from when I was originally there in 2005 to 2009. Scary. The roads were so bad in 2005 that they made you really have to work to get anywhere in the country. I honestly wish that it was still like that because I enjoyed the challenge of getting to places that felt remote. Ahhhhh---those halcyon days! Anyway, if you are in Tamarindo, I would recommend that you hop in your 4x4 and head over to Playa Negra which is about a 30 minute drive south. There is not much development there (as of my last visit). And if you're looking for a place to stay, the El Diria is definitely the standout among the more well appointed options in Tamarindo if you like the almost semi-resortish type places--not quite but definitely on the border of being resortish.