Uvita is a small village located in the south of Costa Rica on the Pacific coast. It is much quieter than in other busy coastal towns such as Tamarindo and Puerto Viejo. You can enjoy walking on the beach, practice surfing and visit the waterfalls nearby. A few days in Uvita is a wonderful retreat from the busy tourist spots in Costa Rica.
Uvita waterfall
The Uvita waterfall is definitely one of the nicest waterfalls in Costa Rica. You can easily visit it from Uvita itself. It can only be reached by 4×4 or on foot. The road to get there is quite bumpy. It is about a 10-minute drive, or a 30-minute walk from the center.
There are two ways to get to the waterfall. Through the main entrance you first pass a shop and the butterfly garden and you walk on to the platform and the waterfall. At this entrance you pay 2000 colones entrance. You can also continue to the restaurant further on. If you enter via this road you will immediately come to the waterfall and pay 1500 colones.
The waterfall itself isn't super big, but you can slide down it if you want to. There is also a platform that you can jump from. This platform is about 3 meters high. In addition, there are a number of natural pools where you can cool off. Besides visiting the waterfall itself, you also have access to a butterfly garden that you can walk through.
Uvita beach
Uvita Beach is located in the Costa Ballena National Park. It is known for its whale tail. The beach is shaped like a whale tail. When it is low tide you can walk it. Unfortunately you can't see much of it when you walk over it. It is best seen from the sky.
Because it is a national park you pay €9 to enter uvita beach. The beach is very nice and clean, because it is well maintained. If you are up for it, you can surf well here as a beginner. Renting a board will only cost you €10 if you go at the end of the afternoon.
Visit Dominical
Dominical is also a small coastal town near Uvita. It is just as quiet as in Uvita. It has 1 nice street where all the shops, hotels and restaurants are located. Because it is so close, you can easily combine these two places. There is a local bus between the two places, approximately every hour. But a taxi is also quite affordable.
Nauyaca waterfall
This waterfall is located in Dominical, but you can also easily visit it from Uvita. This is because the two are so close to each other. The Nauyaca waterfall is certainly one of the most beautiful and largest waterfalls in Costa Rica. You can read here more about this beautiful waterfall!
Our favorite addresses in Uvita, Costa Rica
A super nice hotel in Uvita is the Tucan hotel. This is very centrally located and close to a number of nice restaurants. It is also close to the bus station. There is a very nice atmosphere, and the host is very nice. Definitely a must if you are in Uvita. Look here whether there is still availability for your trip!
Le French Cafe
There are also a number of tasty and good restaurants in Uvita. For example, you can go to the Le French cafe for a delicious breakfast or lunch. Here they have delicious croissants, sandwiches, smoothie bowls, etc. This one is a bit on the expensive side, but certainly nice to eat something at least once.
Bar restaurant Los Laureles
For a delicious evening meal, head to Bar restaurant Los Laureles. It's part of a hotel, but you can eat there even if you don't sleep there. The food is authentic Costa Rican and super tasty. For example, you can eat patacones and Chi Frijo. If you're not into this, they also have tasty burgers and salads.
Aroma a Cafe
At Aroma a Cafe you can eat from breakfast to dinner. You can eat everything there. From tasty sandwiches with egg, pancakes, gallo pinto and yogurt with delicious coffee for breakfast or lunch. To patacones, rice dishes, salads and desserts for dinner. The food is super tasty and also very cheap.
How do you get to Uvita, Costa Rica?
From San Jose
From San Jose you take a bus that takes 4 hours directly to Uvita. This bus passes Jaco and Dominical and stops in Uvita. It only costs 3000 colones, about €4.90. You can find this bus at the Tracope bus terminal in San Jose.
From Dominical
A local bus runs approximately every hour between Dominical and Uvita and takes only 20 minutes. You can easily find these at the bus stops in the main street.
From Jaco
Also from Jaco you can easily take the bus to Uvita. This takes about 1.5 hours.
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