Dominical used to be one of those Costa Rican coastal villages that was the talk of surfers and travelers that managed to disregard their GPS settings.
However, that started to change in the mid 2000s when private enterprises started to promote the kick-back town as Costa Rica’s newest and hottest tourist attraction.
Dominical is unique because it has mountains rising behind and around it, beaches to the front and sides, and beautiful jungle terrain making up much of the immediate surroundings – walk a 1/2 mile inland and one is in Tarzan country. The Río Barú (Barú River) empties into the Pacific Ocean at Dominical, and along the banks, you will find ecologists enjoying and studying the local species.
Even if Dominical is considered on Costa Rica’s Central Pacific coast, it is also the gateway to the Southern Pacific becoming the last outpost before heading south to places like Osa Peninsula, Puerto Jimenez, and the Golfito area. With Manuel Antonio National Park to the north, Dominical has become the town of choice for a centralized vacation spot.
Five reasons why Dominical has become one of thee places to visit.
1) Paved Road – With the long awaited completion of the paved Costanera Highway it now is only a 3-4 hour car ride from San Jose; before one could expect 6 plus hours, thus becoming a major hurdle in attracting tourists. Try and explain why the 28 mile ride from Manual Antonio usually took 2.5 hours. Now a drive from Dominical to Manuel Antonio takes a mere 20-30 minutes. Shuttles now ferry going and coming passengers about every two hours to Quepos for its world-class fishing and marina and sparking white beaches of Manual Antonio. It gives a new meaning to, Day Trip.
2) Surfing – The beaches has become a World-class surfing spot and are like Playa Hermosa, unprotected, and generally, their waves can be rough and big, which attracts surfers from around the globe. Oh yes, you can also swim and sun worship on them to.
New 50-bed Hospital de Osa has modern facilities and equipment
3) Hospital – The new 50-bed, 80,000 sq ft medical complex (Hospital de Osa) in nearby Puerto Cortés de Osa brings a reassuring sense of modernity to the area. Costa Rica is world renown for its high quality and affordable healthcare and the hospital gives the current residences and travelers a sense of medical security. It has state of the art facilities and equipment, emergency room, general surgery, laboratory, 24 hour pharmacy, orthopedic, pediatrics, and gynecology doctors.
4) Development – Unlike the Northern Pacific and places like Jaco, where real estate development went hog-wild a few years ago, the real estate boom in Dominical has been slow and in some cases it has become a matter of who-can-hold-out-the-longest, so there are a lot of good property deals everywhere. A few years ago (before the market collapse) real estate agents and developers mass promoted its eco-environment, wellness centers, and recreations like swimming, surfing, sunbathing, whale watching and long strolls on the beach to encourage want-to-be investors and expats to buy. Dominical still remains somewhat of its old-world culture and has not been corrupted by greedy developers … well as of yet.
5) Festival – Probably one of the biggest draws is the Envision Music Festival, which is held in the first week of March. The Festival features music, workshops, performance art, and other activities. The three-day festival aims to create a convergence of different levels of consciousness and draws a mixture people from around the globe who gathered to share an elevated experience of culture, spirit and community in stunning raw nature. The village suddenly becomes a town and hotels, bars and restaurants love the income it generates. If you like to people watch, this is the place to be.
While Dominical hotels are not 5-star rated, many do offer amenities such as Wifi, pools, room service etc. You will be surprised at how affordable the rates are; you can generally expect to pay no more than $85 a night even during the peak season.
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