The area
Ojochal is a village of a few hundred people with a French restaurant scene.
It sits on the Costa Ballena, the stretch of Pacific coast between Dominical and the Osa Peninsula. Twenty minutes from a national park that humpback whales visit from both hemispheres. Far enough south that the tour buses have thinned out.
Everything here is written from the house. Drive times are measured from our gate.
Getting here
The drive from San José, whether you need all-wheel drive, and the two things nobody warns you about.
Whale season
Two seasons a year, which almost nowhere on earth gets. When to come, what a tour costs, and which months are genuinely best.
Where to eat
A village of a few hundred people with a French restaurant scene. Our four picks, and why.
Things to do
Waterfalls, sea caves, turtle releases and mangroves — with the honest version of how hard each one is.
When to visit
Dry season, green season, and the one downside of green season that nobody else will tell you about.
From our gate
How far is everything, really.
Most sites quote drive times from “Ojochal”, which is a village spread across a hillside. We drove these with the clock running, from our own gate.
- Playa Ventanas12min
- Citrus restaurant, Ojochal12min
- Uvita20min
- Ojochal waterfall24min
- Dominical36min
- Nauyaca Waterfalls49min
Worth the drive
Marino Ballena National Park
20 minutes
The whales, and the Whale's Tail sandbar — a kilometre of sand that appears at low tide in the shape of a fluke.
Playa Ventanas
12 minutes
A small dark-sand cove named for its sea caves. Walk to the northern end at low tide and you can go inside them.
Nauyaca Waterfalls
49 minutes
Two falls, one 45 metres and a stepped 20-metre drop into a swimming pool. The best-known waterfall on this coast.
Reserva Playa Tortuga
10 minutes
A nonprofit sea turtle research reserve, in Ojochal itself. When there is a hatchling release, you can be there for it.
Ojochal waterfall
24 minutes
Closer, quieter and far less known than Nauyaca.
Dominical
36 minutes
Surf town. Eco Feria farmers market every Friday morning, and El Fuego Brew Co — a genuine treehouse.