Best beaches near San Juan del Sur
How to choose between the town bay, Maderas, and the Tola and Popoyo coast without wasting a swell day.
The bay in town is the swimming and first-lesson beach. Maderas, Marsella, Remanso, and Hermosa, just north, are why people bring a board. Farther up, Popoyo, Colorado, and Santana are a different day: more wind, more reef, and a taxi or a lodge shuttle rather than a walk. Gigante faces another bay and is as much a fishing and boat coast as a surf one. Go early, leave when the onshore wind turns the surface to chop, and do not treat every beach as a swimming pool. Reef breaks punish a straight beginner. If you have one day and you do not surf, take the bay in the morning and a boat or a horseback hour in the afternoon.