The Non-Surfer’s Guide to a Week at a Surf Resort
Your non-surfing week at Lamangata Luxury Surf Resort near Dominical, Costa Rica, looks like this: a waterfall before lunch, sloths in the rainforest, yoga, a massage, adrenaline-pumping adventures, and an Experience Designer who builds every day around what you feel like.
Your partner wants to surf. You want a vacation where you don’t fall off a board 8,940 times in front of a beach full of strangers.
Countless adventures are waiting for you when you arrive at Lamangata Luxury Surf Resort. Plan your ultimate Costa Rica vacation before you fly, or take it day by day to see where inspiration takes you: maybe into the infinity lap pool, perhaps zip-lining through the jungle, or galloping on horseback along a palm-fringed beach as the sun dips below the horizon.
While your partner is in the water advancing their skills, you’ll be having your own adventures (not tagging along wishing you’d agreed on something else).
A luxury Costa Rica vacation designed around exactly what you want
Lamangata was designed by a mom and a traveler, so whether or not you want to surf, every stay here feels like a vacation, custom-curated with the adventures that make it the ultimate week for you.
You’ll have your own guide, your own driver, and your own plan for every day, and your partner’s surf schedule stays theirs. Your luxury rate covers every meal here, the non-alcoholic drinks, the adventures and the transport, with one night out in Dominical on your own tab. Your driver knows every turn of the road down to the coast, which means you can walk straight past the rent a car counter at the airport and hand the logistics of the whole week to somebody else.
You’ll have ocean views from your room, the infinity lap pool, a massage room and a studio on site, and countless adventures within easy reach of the gate, which is plenty to build the week you came here for. National Geographic Traveller’s Luxury Collection called this an escape to unplug and reset, and on your first afternoon that looks like a welcome drink in your hand before you’ve found your room.
We put the same care into the surfing, with the best surf coaches on this coast, waves ten minutes down the hill, and our own Pool-to-Ocean Method. If you’d rather stay dry all week, that works just as well here, because you should be flying home with memories of your own week.
Have a look at what a week here includes
Nine adventures you’ll choose from while your partner surfs
These nine adventures are included with your luxury stay at Lamangata. Choose the ones that make sense for your trip, and your Experience Designer builds them into your week.
Nauyaca Waterfall
You’ll be swimming beneath a 45 metre waterfall in cool fresh water with rainforest rising on every side, and it’s the destination everyone puts on their list before they come here. Nauyaca is a short drive from Lamangata and a morning you’ll describe for years.
Uvita Waterfall
Thousands of years of water have polished this rock face into a natural slide, and yes, you can ride it down into the pool. There’s a ladder to the top if you’re feeling adventurous, a green swimming hole at the bottom, and calmer pools downstream if you’d rather float and watch everybody else take their turn.
Ballena National Park
At low tide the ocean pulls back and reveals a one kilometre sandbar shaped exactly like a whale’s tail, and you’ll walk straight out into the Pacific with water on both sides of you, somewhere between 78 and 86 degrees. Humpbacks pass through from July into November and again from December into April, dolphins are here year-round, and the coral reef just offshore is worth a mask.
Rocas de Amancio
A hidden gem, and one of our favorite outings. The tide pulls back and opens a path across the sand to an island you can reach only between tides, and you’ll climb the rocks on the far side for spectacular views over the Pacific. Get back across before the water fills the path in again.
Hacienda Barú Wildlife Refuge
A guided walk through protected rainforest where sloths hang motionless in the canopy and your guide finds them long before you would. Monkeys move through the trees above the trail, and butterflies cross the path in front of you.
Dominical
Ten minutes down the hill, Dominical is a barefoot surf town that moves at its own pace. Wander the main street, browse the vendors, order lunch somewhere with the water in view, and stay long enough to watch the light go. One evening of your week is dinner out here.
Visit local beaches
The coast is a string of beaches, each with its own personality, and your driver knows which one suits the day: one for swimming, one for tide pools, one where you’ll have the sand to yourself. Pack a book and pick a different one every afternoon.
Chocolate tour or coffee tasting
Spend a morning watching a cacao pod turn into chocolate, or sit down with Hernan for a coffee tasting and learn why the coffee here tastes the way it does. Both end with you eating and drinking the results, and Hernan takes the photographs you’ll want to keep.
Surfing
Here if you want it, and easier than you think. Junior warms you up in the infinity lap pool before you touch salt water, films your session, and plays it back on the big screen that afternoon. Our Pool-to-Ocean Method is why 99% of guests stand up before the end of the week, including the ones who decided on a whim.
Not included, and easy to arrange: white-water rafting, zip-lining, horseback riding, a jungle ATV tour, canyoning and more. Tell your Experience Designer what you have in mind.
One of our solo travelers worked through her week exactly like this. Junior walked her into two waterfalls and out to the island between tides, Ana booked her a morning with the monkeys and the sloths, and she went home with photographs of all of it.
See the full list of adventures and pick your favorites.
Your week fills fast: a waterfall before lunch, a massage in the afternoon, and three plated courses while the color runs across the sky.
Morning yoga, a massage whenever you want one, and the infinity lap pool
Some of your best days stay right here at Lamangata.
You’ll practice in the teak-floored yoga studio with the side open to the trees, take a massage in the open-air room where the ocean breeze does half the work, and swim a lane in the infinity pool with the far edge sitting level with the water behind it, every single afternoon if that’s what you feel like. With only six rooms, the pool stays uncrowded and your favorite lounger stays free.
Sam told us before she arrived that she wanted a quiet place for reading and journaling, and she got a week of it. Rachel Myers said reading by the pool was the highlight, and that fresh snacks and drinks arrived between meals before she thought to ask. Take a look at the pool, the studio and the massage room.
Your room has glass doors that slide the whole wall open, so you can lie on 400 thread count sheets under vaulted ceilings and still be outside. You’ll wake to birdsong, butterflies work through the gardens, and the natural beauty here is 1,200 feet of rainforest dropping from your terrace to the water, with the light changing over it whenever you look up. The sunset finds you wherever you’re sitting.
Why non-surfers say the food is the highlight
Dinner here is an experience in itself, and much of what lands on your plate is picked on the property that morning, down to the edible flowers from the greenhouse and the ice cream the kitchen makes. Tell Chef Tony what you love and he’ll go out of his way to make the dining part of the experience, which is why most of our reviews mention the food as a highlight of the week.
Fruit lands on your table every morning, the kitchen brews its own kombucha, and Lola listed the farm to table food, the view and the butterflies in one breath. When one guest fell for the rambutan, Miriam, who looks after the rooms, heard about it and turned up with a bag from her own garden. Here’s what lands on the table.
P.S. Ask for the cooking class and Chef Tony will teach you empanadas or ceviche!
What your week looks like when one of you surfs and one of you doesn’t
Imagine this: Your partner heads out for a morning surf with Junior, who knows the surf spots along this stretch of the Pacific coast well enough to put them on the best waves of the week (SURFER Magazine files us under high-end surf travel, so their half of the trip is handled), and you go the other way entirely: to the waterfall, or the massage table, or a long lunch and a book with the ocean underneath you.
At dinner you’ll sit through some surf chat, and you’ll have your own stories to trade, and some weeks the table turns into new friends. You’ll keep your own pace all day and reconnect over dinner, and the memories you fly home with are your own.
If curiosity does get you midweek, one surf lesson is easy to add. The beginner-friendly part happens before the ocean, where Junior, our head surf instructor, warms you up in the lap pool and you practice the paddle and the pop-up in water you can stand up in.
With premium Firewire surfboards, you’ll feel comfortable and be catching your first wave in no time, with Junior lining you up and letting go at the right moment. Your session goes up on the big screen in the afternoon and he gives you the one thing to change, which is personalized feedback you can feel the next morning.
99% of our guests stand up before the end of the week, and the surf coaching scales all the way to a lifelong surfer sharpening a turn. Here’s how the surf instruction works.
Plan a surf trip you’ll both love
Tell us what you want your days to hold, or arrive with an open calendar and decide over breakfast. Stays at Lamangata start at only three nights and you can arrive on any day of the week.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is there to do at a surf resort if you don’t surf?
Surfing, a visit to Dominical, the Rocas de Amancio hike, Uvita Waterfall, Hacienda Baru Wildlife Refuge, a chocolate and coffee tasting tour, a visit to the local beaches, Ballena National Park, and Nauyaca Waterfall. You can decide each morning, since your Experience Designer arranges the day you pick.
Is a surf camp or a place like Lamangata better if you don’t surf?
What matters is what surrounds the surfing. At Lamangata, a surf camp week and a non-surfing week run side by side: lessons for whoever wants them, and waterfalls, wellness and food for you, with an Experience Designer holding both schedules.
Can one person surf while the other does other activities?
Yes! One partner surfs while the other hikes, swims or rests, each with their own guide and car for the day, and you’ll meet back over dinner.
Do I have to take a surf lesson on a surf trip to Lamangata?
Surfing’s optional on every day of your stay. Dominical has great surf only ten minutes down the hill, and plenty of guests fill the week with waterfalls, wellness and food, and if curiosity gets you midweek, one beginner session with personalized coaching is easy to add.
When can you see whales near Dominical?
Humpback whale season at Marino Ballena National Park near Uvita is from July through November, with resident dolphins in the area through the rest of the year. A second group of humpbacks passes through between December and April, so most of the calendar works for a whale-watching outing during a stay.
Do non-surfers get the same rooms and inclusions?
Yes. Every stay includes the same accommodation, an ocean-view suite with a private terrace and glass doors that slide the whole wall open, and the same meals, transport and access to every space on the property.
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