15 Advantages of Living on the Beach in Costa Rica

I love the sea, since I have the use of reason. Why, I don’t know, but it tempts me every time I see it and I can spend a lot of time looking at it. So the very idea of ​​living on the beach, near the sea has always been on my bucket list.

A couple of years ago I managed to materialize that dream. I moved with my family to a local beach community in Costa Rica. I lie if I say that it was easy to adapt because, although it was one of my dreams, I left behind great professional opportunities, friendships and a hectic city social life.

The change, however, was worth it. I recognize that it is not a lifestyle that suits everyone because everyone has their preferences, but if the sea and the environment of sun, sand and salt is something that you enjoy a lot, it is worth considering living on the beach instead of just visiting it sporadically.

If you are still not convinced, I want to tell you about some of the advantages that I experienced living on the beach:

1 The Sunrises

They deserve a special chapter because they are magical. It is not only the beauty of being able to contemplate the sun rising over the sea (since some city apartments also offer that view) but the combination of elements. In the background you have the sound of nature, the birds and the tranquility (at least in this community it was) versus all the typical sounds of the city.

2 Less stress, more health and peace

Of course one can choose to stay calm even in the most chaotic and noisy place, but it requires high doses of concentration, focus and self-control. The beach, on the other hand, offers you a scenario full of peace, which facilitates the whole process for the mind and body. Living on the beach offers you the ideal setting to slow down and slow down the revolutions of stress.

3 Everything is near and if not, you still arrive quickly.

I don’t know in your city, but in mine, vehicle roadblocks are the order of the day. That implies that you must get up early yes or yes, to arrive on time even to the nearest places.

While I lived on the beach this was one of the points that I appreciated the most, zero roadblocks most of the year; In addition, almost everything is close or at a very reasonable distance, and even if it was further away, since you had a clear path, you would arrive very quickly. Really wonderful.

4 Being able to go to the sea whenever you feel like it.

I must confess that I did not go as many times as I would have liked. That was a simple choice because the opportunities were there every day. I could go for a walk on the sand whenever I wanted and not only go to the beach as we traditionally do, but dressed in the usual way to see the sea up close, feel the sand between my fingers and enjoy one of the most beautiful spectacles of nature.

5 Permanent contact with nature.

Some people have the advantage of living in cities surrounded by a lot of nature, but it is not the reality of the vast majority. In many places the trees and everything green has been displaced by large buildings. Living on the beach, nature is part of your daily environment, it is not possible to escape, which offers you alternatives and more spaces to stop to contemplate, listen and feel the environment that surrounds you.

6 Greater opportunity to do outdoor activities.

The environment in which you live lends itself to many more outdoor activities. Where he lived, there was not only the beach, but also a large number of trees and plants, a lot of green, so most of the meetings were outside on the patio with the sun or sometimes even a touch of rain. Natural spaces offer a great setting for meetings and it is definitely a different environment.

7 Higher quality of life.

Everything stated in the previous points is summed up in a better quality of life. You can get up a little later because you don’t have traffic jams or you can get up early and dedicate that time to your morning ritual and start the day differently.

In my case, I could drop off and pick up my son at his school without major shocks. In the city with the roadblocks, it was not possible for me, so I opted for the school bus service. Those short daily car trips turned into more time to share and talk.

8 Office with sea view.

This doesn’t apply to everyone, but I share it because it did apply to me. When we moved I gave up an excellent job and being on the beach I decided to launch myself into entrepreneurship (a great adventure with ups and downs that I will tell about in another post) so I worked from home.

Although my work area was in a room, I chose that every morning my office would be on the balcony to enjoy the view, the breeze and the natural environment. If you move to the beach and live in a house, you will still have a piece of green where you can have permanent contact with nature.

9 Greater facility for domestic tourism.

Usually the beaches are in tourist sectors, that was our case. The beach where we lived was only an hour from the city, in a sector considered part of the interior of the country. Therefore, we were surrounded by a large number of wonderful places (lakes, rivers, mountains, valleys

Every weekend we could choose to visit a different place and since it was close to us and we would not experience the big traffic jam on the way back to the city, we had the option of staying later and making the most of our family time.

10 Significant savings on some expenses.

This advantage varies in each case. In particular, by experiencing less vehicular traffic, the cost of fuel for the car fell. Despite the fact that we went to the city quite frequently, still our monthly expense was reduced by at least 25%.

We could get some vegetables and fruits at a better cost because there were producers in the area. It also applied to plants since there are nurseries in this sector.

And maybe this was fortuitous, but being away from the bigger stores and malls slowed down our shopping pace a lot. We no longer saw it as necessary to go buy things as before. We were really going to buy only if it was something important or essential.

11 A pace of life with fewer revolutions.

This relates to point 2. You learn to savor life more. It’s not that you become slow because you can still carry an intense work rhythm, it’s that you go from city mode to beach mode and the aggressiveness with which we often live in the city decreases.

The mere fact of not confronting roadblocks, spending hours on the street to go to a place that is a few kilometers away, managing stress because even if you left very early it is very likely that you will be late and there will be consequences for it, changes your perspective.

This affects your health and the 3 of us notice it. Despite the fact that we had moments of tension due to other situations (my entrepreneurship and its ups and downs, a failed family business and another couple of adventures) we lived with a sense of tranquility.

12 The sunsets and the full moon.

I separated it from advantage #1 because these are full stop. Both events seen near the sea are spectacular. The sunsets with all their nuances and the reflection of the sea frame a masterpiece.

And when there is a full moon night, it is a show worth being in the front row for. It seems that the moon comes out piece by piece from the sea and as it rises it reflects and draws a line of brightness on the water, it is indescribable.

13 You can exercise in a natural environment.

In the city, many people go to parks to walk and run because it is different to do it in a place surrounded by nature than in a regular street or avenue. If you live on the beach, I have already mentioned a good couple of times that nature is your permanent setting, so you can always exercise surrounded by trees, plants, flowers, natural sounds.

You have the option of walking on the sand along the entire coast or edge of the beach; For cyclists, it is a paradise because they have roads that are rarely traveled by cars. I chose to practice yoga and placed the yoga mat in a place where I had a view of the sea, the effect on my mind, body and emotions was extremely special.

14 Living surrounded by bright colors

Some will say that it is a very personal perception. For some reason, I find that some cities (perhaps due to subtracting so much green) are taking on a monochromatic hue (a lot of cement).Of course there are buildings or houses that stand out, some green here and there, shopping malls with bold designs and some flowers as accents.

In the beach communities the colors of nature shine, to the point of screaming. They are alive, they are striking and they are the majority, they surround you, they touch you.

For a visual person like me, this was a permanent stimulus for creativity. And I not only saw that effect on me, I noticed it on my husband and my son. They both brought out a lot of their creativity during our stay at the beach.

The other thing is the outfits, you don’t have to dress as formal as in the city. On the beach, the clothing is more casual (even for night events) and the color palette is broader because the clothing protocol is less rigid.

15 It rejuvenates your soul.

You live surrounded by air rich in iodine, you are exposed to nature in its maximum and colorful expression, you avoid city traffic jams, you live at a different pace, you can bathe in the sea every day if you like, which helps to activate your blood and lymphatic circulation. Each point adds up and weighs more than the disadvantages (of course, like everything in life there are) that you may have when living on the beach.