Tamarindo or Santa Teresa, Costa Rica?

Both are first-rate Pacific beach towns with sea around 28°C, but the beaches are very different. Santa Teresa has a long, wild stretch of pale sand with forest reaching almost to the tideline. It is a surf beach where open swimming is often risky, so careful swimmers head for the rock pools at Mal País at low tide.

Tamarindo's golden bay is gentler and part of the town, with quieter water at the southern end. Its real advantage is choice: calm Langosta, wild Playa Grande, Avellanas and Playa Negra for stronger surfers, and Conchal with its crushed-shell sand for snorkelling. Keep away from the river mouth at the north end, where crocodiles live.

You eat about equally well in both, and in much the same way: wood-fired pizza, poke, Argentine grills and smoothie bowls brought by foreign residents, with small sodas serving casados as the Costa Rican side. Santa Teresa's version is the more relaxed one, open-air places under thatched roofs on a dirt road with very good coffee. Tamarindo adds fish taco stands, fresh ceviche and a few more ambitious dinner places, though more of its menus are aimed at visitors. Neither has a market, and in both the choices start to repeat after a week.

Neither town has museums, monuments or historic buildings. Both grew from fishing villages into surf towns. What character they have is different: Santa Teresa's comes from its international, yoga-and-surf community and its setting, while Tamarindo is mainly a strip of hotels and surf shops. Anyone who wants Costa Rican heritage should treat sightseeing as a separate part of the vacation.

Tamarindo is the better place to go out. It is the party town of this coast, with sunset drinks leading to open-air bars on the main road and, on busy nights, a few dance clubs playing reggaeton and electronic music. Something is on most evenings, and young Costa Ricans join in at weekends.

Santa Teresa can also go late, but only on the right night of its small weekly circuit of DJ sets and beach or jungle parties. On other nights there is little choice, the roads between venues are dark, and many people turn in early for the morning surf.

Both are excellent for the outdoors and surfing, with beginner breaks in town and reef and point waves nearby, but the wildlife and landscapes differ. Santa Teresa leans towards forest. Howler monkeys and coatis come close to the hotels, Cabo Blanco, the country's oldest reserve, has a trail down to a remote beach, and there are the waterfalls at Montezuma and snorkelling off Isla Tortuga.

Tamarindo leans towards water and volcano. You can kayak through mangroves past crocodiles and herons, dive at the Catalinas Islands and join night visits to see leatherback turtles nesting on Playa Grande. With a full day spare, the fumaroles and mud pots of Rincon de la Vieja are within reach inland.

Tamarindo gives you more places to go. Guaitil, where families still fire Chorotega-style pottery in traditional kilns, is under an hour inland. Nicoya has one of the oldest colonial churches in Costa Rica, and Santa Cruz is the region's folkloric centre.

From Santa Teresa, the only real outing to another town is Montezuma, a relaxed little seafront village about forty minutes away. Cóbano and Tambor are working towns rather than sights, and going any further means a ferry and a long journey.

Tamarindo is clearly better for children. The town beach has waves gentle enough for children's surf lessons, Langosta is calm at low tide, and mangrove boat trips, zip lines and turtle nights fill the rest of the days. Families can stay at Langosta or Playa Grande, away from the late noise of the strip.

Santa Teresa suits older, outdoorsy children who will enjoy monkeys, rock pools and white-water surf lessons. For younger ones it is harder: the sea is often too rough to swim, quads use a road with no pavements, and medical care is basic and some distance away.

Neither is easy, but Tamarindo is the less tiring. The town is small enough to walk, golf carts and bicycles cover the short trip to Langosta, regional buses run to Santa Cruz and Liberia, and Liberia's airport is a little over an hour's drive away.

Santa Teresa stretches along one rough road with no public transport, so most visitors rent a quad or scooter. Getting there takes a car ferry to Paquera and a drive through Cóbano, or a small plane to Tambor and a transfer. A four-wheel drive helps in both towns in the rainy months.

Neither is a shopping destination, and both offer much the same surf brands, swimwear and linen boutiques. Tamarindo has a little more: souvenir stalls with Guaitil pottery and wooden carvings, plus a supermarket for self-catering. Santa Teresa is fine for a new board or bikini but has almost no local craft.

Both towns charge close to what North American visitors pay at home, but Santa Teresa is the dearer of the two. Its boutique hotels and villas set a high baseline, and the journey in by ferry or small plane, the quad most visitors rent, and the surf lessons and boat trips push the total up further.

Tamarindo is easier on the budget. It is a simpler drive from Liberia's airport, and its rates ease off in the wet season from May to November after the December to April peak, although shuttles and taxis still add up beyond the town. In either place, hostels, surf camps and shared surf houses, along with casados at the local sodas, keep costs in check, and the beach is free.

Neither has a theatre or a concert scene. Live music in both means acoustic sets in beach bars and fire dancers on the sand. Santa Teresa adds sunset drumming and DJs at its weekly parties. In Tamarindo, traditional Guanacaste folk music and dance happen mainly at festivals in nearby Santa Cruz, not in town.

Santa Teresa is the more restorative of the two. Yoga is part of everyday life there, with forest shalas, week-long retreats, breathwork and meditation classes, and hotels built around open decks and hammocks. The quietest places to stay are up the hill or at the ends of the coast.

Tamarindo has yoga studios, surf-and-yoga retreats and massage from beach tables to resort spas, but the strip is not restful, so calm depends on staying at Langosta or Playa Grande. It does have the volcanic hot springs around Rincon de la Vieja about two hours away. Santa Teresa has no thermal bathing at all.