Ojochal sits between rainforest and the Pacific in Costa Rica's southern zone — quieter than Manuel Antonio, greener than Guanacaste, and known well beyond its size for its food.
Playa Tortuga sits at the mouth of the Térraba estuary, good for a walk and turtle nesting in season. Twenty minutes north, Parque Nacional Marino Ballena reveals the whale's tail sandbar at low tide; humpbacks pass through from July to October and again from December to March.
Catarata El Pavón is a short drive and a shorter hike, with pools to swim in. Nauyaca Waterfalls, up towards Dominical, needs more of a day. Closer to the village, the back roads are full of scarlet macaws, toucans and troops of white-faced capuchins that treat the treeline as a highway.
French and French-Canadian families settled here in the 1990s, and a village of a few hundred people ended up with a genuine restaurant scene. Exótica opened in 1998 and has been serving Cuisine du Monde ever since — French technique, Pacific ingredients, on a candlelit terrace beneath a thatched roof.
Book before you come. The room is small, and in high season dinner fills up days ahead.
Pick a date and party size and send us a WhatsApp message in one tap.
Reservations are confirmed on WhatsApp only. No WhatsApp? Call our landline +506 2786-5050.