Brasilito, Costa Rica is an excellent beach in Guanacaste to experience a laid back, small local beach town. It is right next to Playa Conchal, the famous beach with white shells instead of sand but with astonishingly different characteristics.
Though it isn’t as beautiful as Conchal, Brasilito has the only public entrance to Conchal beach. With an authentic Costa Rican town feel, Playa Brasilito offers a low key atmosphere and serves as a great anchor location to other destinations.
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Location and Directions
Playa Brasilito, Costa Rica map
Brasilito is 62 kilometers (39 miles) from Liberia International Airport, about a 1 hour drive. Brasilito is 259 kilometers (161 miles) from San Jose International Airport, about a 4 hour drive.
Driving directions from Liberia Airport to Brasilito
From Liberia International Airport, take a right onto the main road, Route 21 and continue for about 25 kilometers until you reach an intersection to turn right onto Route 155. You will continue on this road for about another 20 minutes or so until you turn right onto Route 180 in the town of Huacas. Continue on this road for about 5 minutes and you will cross a bridge. You are now in Brasilito town.
GPS apps like Google Maps and Waze work for Brasilito. The road is completely paved.
Bus
You can take the bus from Liberia to Playa Flamingo and get off at Brasilito. There is a bus every day at 430 AM, 6 AM, 8 AM, 11 AM and 6 PM from the Transportes La Pampa in Liberia.
Flying
The closest local airport is at Tamarindo. You can fly to Tamarindo and from there, take a taxi or pick up your rental car. Tamarindo to Brasilito is about 25 minutes driving (Get our Skyway discount to save 10% and get an extra 10 lbs of luggage on your local flight).
Brasilito Beach
You may have heard about Conchal beach which has shells instead of sand but despite being right next to it, Brasilito has normal brown sand with blue grey waters. These two beaches are the best examples of the stark contrast of beaches in Costa Rica. You have a white sand beach right next to a dark sand one!
This beach is fairly long and stretches over 1 kilometer. The waves are generally quite calm.
You can walk the whole length of Brasilito beach and enjoy the beach all for you. Most tourists skip Brasilito beach and go to Conchal instead which is understandable since Conchal is much prettier. A lot of locals like to go to the north end of Playa Brasilito, so if you want to experience more local life, you can drive through town to get to that end of the beach.
If you walk up the hill at the entrance of Conchal, you can get a nice view of both Brasilito and Conchal. Be careful in rainy season because the trail gets super overgrown.
Weather
Brasilito is in Guanacaste, one of the hottest areas of Costa Rica. This area experiences typical tropical weather with dry and rainy seasons. Rainy season is from end of April to beginning of December and dry season is from December to April. Average temperatures in dry season range from low to high 90s F (35 C). The rainiest months are October – November.
Brasilito Town, Costa Rica
The town of Brasilito is nothing fancy, nothing to brag about. It’s a modest town with a few local restaurants, small hotels, the church, the school, a field and a couple or small markets. It is a small local community but all the beaches in the area are very close to each other so Brasilito is in an excellent location for a home base in Guanacaste. Especially if you’re looking for someplace quiet and not as expensive as Flamingo or Conchal.
The town is so small, you can drive throughout the whole thing in about 10 minutes!
Although there isn’t much at Brasilito and the beach isn’t the prettiest, the location makes it very convenient for tourists. To reach Conchal (not going through the Westin resort), one must cross Brasilito beach. This leisurely 15 minute walk has beautiful views and sunsets here are breathtaking. You also need to drive through Brasilito to get to Playa Flamingo and Playa Portrero.
Brasilito is kind of the hub for people who want to stay in this area but not want to be in the ultra luxury condos/resorts of Playa Flamingo or at the Westin Resort at Conchal. This is the best beach to stay at if you want to experience more local life, especially if you don’t have a huge budget.
You can see what Brasilito town looks like in this video!
Playa Brasilito, Costa Rica Hotels
There aren’t a ton of hotels in Brasilito but there are a few budget and mid range options. Brasilito is the only other path to Conchal so guests who do not want to stay at the Westin can stay in one of the accommodations offered in Brasilito.
- Westin Conchal: all inclusive resort on Conchal
- Hotel Brasilito: Good budget option by the beach
- Conchal Hotel: Cute little B&B style hotel on Brasilito
- W Costa Rica: New chic upscale resort on the same Westin Conchal property
You can also find quite a few vacation rentals and Airbnbs in Brasilito. Since there aren’t a ton of hotels in Brasilito proper, definitely check out the vacation rentals.
Brasilito, Costa Rica Restaurants
Our favorite place to eat at Brasilito is a soda (local Costa Rican restaurant) called Playa Brasilito, right by the little alley where you drive to get to Conchal. The soda next to it is not bad either (Soda El Coco). Both are family run and serve very good local food.
Other good restaurants are Camaron Dorado and Ander’s Restaurant for seafood.
Things to Do in Brasilito
This beach town is in a good location to explore the beaches in Guanacaste and to visit natural attractions and national parks since they aren’t too far away.
Here are some popular things to do in Playa Brasilito (and nearby beaches).
Deep sea fishing
Playa Flamingo near Brasilito has a large marina where visitors can go off and in shore fishing.
ATV Tours
You can find ATV rentals at Conchal beach and they take you through Brasilito and around Flamingo for some nice view points.
Horseback riding
We saw some locals on the beach with horses for tours. They are usually around $35-50 USD for a 2 hour tour on the beach and mountains.
Sunset sailing
There is a sailing tour out of Playa Portrero called Panache that is nice. Go out on the catamaran in the afternoon and sail back under the sunset. For a more exclusive experience, check out the private Flamingo snorkeling and fishing tour.
Scuba Diving
The Catalina Islands are not too far from Brasilito and they are an excellent place to go scuba diving. You can see sharks, manta rays, turtles and fish. Most scuba diving shops leave from Flamingo.
If you are in Brasilito in February, you can check out the local parties or fiestas civicas, usually on the two middle weekends. You can play, gone on rides and watch the bull riding.
You can read more ideas for things to do in Brasilito and Conchal in this post.
Day trips from Brasilito
Here are some popular day trips from Brasilito. You can visit all these places on your own or you can book with a tour company who will pick you up at your hotel.
Guachipelin adventure tour
Guachipelin is a hacienda (farm) up in the Rincon de la Vieja area (about 1.5 hours away) and they have lots of activities on their property. The most popular activity is their combo adventure tour where you go ziplining, horseback riding, white water tubing and to the hot springs. It’s around $160 USDper person with transportation from Brasilito or if you have a car, you can drive yourself and it’s $98 USD per person. About a 1.5 hour drive.
Gulf of Papagayo snorkeling and beach hopping
If you want to see some beautiful white sand boat access only beaches, head to the Gulf of Papagayo to go on a beach hopping and snorkeling tour. The best option is to go on a private boating tour in Playas del Coco. A 1 hour drive.
Barra Honda National Park
This national park protects dry tropical forest and caves so you can go hiking and do a cave tour to explore the mysterious caves of Costa Rica. About a 2 hour drive.
Surfing lessons Tamarindo
If you want to learn how to surf, head to Playa Tamarindo, the best beach for beginner surfers in the area. The best surf shops are Witch’s Rock, Kelly’s and Iguana Surf.
Palo Verde National Park
If you want to see wildilfe, go on a boat ride down the river in Palo Verde National Park. This river is filled with iguanas, monkeys, birds, crocodiles, caimans and many other animals so it’s one of the best places to see wildlife in Guanacaste. Another option is Hacienda El Viejo which also runs boat tours down the same river as Palo Verde National Park. They also have their own cultural tour, traditional house and rum tour so it offers more activities for a full day of Guanacaste fun. Get 7% off and read more about El Viejo in this post. About a 1.5 hour drive.
Diamante Adventure Park
If you want to do a fun zipline, head to Diamante Eco Adventure Park. They have the longest ocean view zipline in Costa Rica! They also have ATV tours, horseback riding tours and an animal sanctuary so you can see sloths, jaguars, monkeys and toucans up close. Get 10% off any tour, read our post on Diamante Eco Adventure Park to get the discount!
You can also do day trips to Arenal Volcano, Monteverde Cloud Forest, Rio Celeste and Ostional Wildlife Refuge.
Read about other beach towns in Costa Rica below!
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Lee Bullard says
How far is it from San Jose airport to Brasilito I want rent a car how long will it take are the roads good
Sammi says
About a 4.5 hour drive, all on good roads
Val-This Way To Paradise says
I am loving all of your beach posts!! I went to Costa Rica, but only scratched the surface. There’s still so many places I want to visit.
Sammi says
Thanks Val! You’ll have to come back and see more! I will say you are definitely the queen of paradise, I want to visit everywhere on your blog!
Dusty says
I detect a recurring beach theme in your posts. Summer is just around the corner here and looking forward to it.
Sammi says
😀 can never get enough of beaches!