Posted on January 27, By World Traveller Our time at the Westin Playa Conchal was divided between the resort area and the beach area. For our time spent at the beach area and areas around the hotel of the Westin Playa Conchal, please follow along here. For our experiences spent at the hotel area, please see the Westin Playa Conchal Resort. This post is one chapter on our trip to Costa Rica. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here.
For other parts of the trip, please see this index. The beach was a public area, with a public road access both north and south.
The hotel would bring down kayaks and beach chairs on request as included activities. It was made very clear by Westin through signage that the beach vendors were not associated with the hotel. The beach had several beach massage vendors — some there one day and gone the next. There were several local vendors on the beach selling somewhat reduced prices for souvenirs. We had brought our own snorkel gear with us but after 30 minutes of trying to find some fish, we were almost totally shut out.
The visibility was terrible for snorkeling due to the waves churning against the shore, and despite trying on both the beach areas and near some tidal pools we completely struck out. While we out on the Playa Conchal beach, snorkeling and looking for fish, I did interrupt an attempted theft of our shoes. I saw this from the water and charged after him. I asked him for the shoes which he pulled out of a bag he was carrying. I chalked it up to him being a broke person looking to re-sell the stuff.
It was quite obvious with the hotel towels and snorkel bags that the shoes were not abandoned. The weather was a little turbulent during our visit in late August and we had the opportunity to see the beach in both great weather and sour weather. After the 5th day, we ventured off property again via the road on the Playa Conchal and walked up the beach to Playa Brasilito in search of the real Costa Rica.
