Rip Jack Inn Playa Grande

My wife and I stumbled across the Rip Jack and honestly based our decision to stay there solely on the website - which was one of the nicer ones we saw for Costa Rican lodging. We did not know what to expect, but were booked there for a week so we were hoping for the best.

The Rip Jack is located in Playa Grande, which because of the roads seems like a world away from Playa Tamarindo - but it is a much better world to be in. Playa Grande is an area of small hotels and inns connected by a few lovely dirt roads. After visiting Tamarindo we immediately knew we had lucked out in landing in Playa Grande.

The hotel is about 50 yards from the beach. It is a small boutique hotel that revolves around an upstairs bar/restaurant - Restaurante Pan. Let's start there since we seemed to spend a lot of time eating or sitting at the bar (the happy hour buckets of beer were great). A bonus is that the Rip Jack's bar/restaurant is on the second level and therefore you get a nice breeze most of the time - plus great sunset views!

We had the fortunate luck of landing at the Rip Jack during the slow - a.k.a 'The Green Season', so therefore the area was not as crowded as it can be. As a result, we got to spend a good deal of time with the owners Dave and Annie and also with some of the locals. I can't say enough about how accomodating Dave and Annie were to us and the rest of the guests. They are simply good people who love where they are at and what they are doing and it shows in how they treat people.

Food - The food at the Rip Jack as you have read in other postings is incredible. You walk up the stairs of this little surf hotel and are served a dinner, which is on par with a Four Seasons. Brett the cook works wonders in that small cooking area with two burners! But the good meals are not limited to dinner. The breakfast is so good, and so big, we usually just ate breakfast and dinner. By far the best breakfast in Playa Grande.

Rooms - The rooms were nice and clean. We did not see any bugs in our room the entire week, which in Costa Rica is pretty impressive.

If you are looking for a great place to relax, enjoy good drinks over good food, have great access to a gorgeous beach and be around great people than the Rip Jack is the place to go. We loved it and are already trying to figure out when we can head back down.

Last month I went to Costa Rica by myself. I spent a week at the Rip Jack Inn. It was a fabulous experience! Everyone there is very helpful and accomodating.

The rooms are basic, but very clean. I did not see a bug in my room one time.

The restaurant is amazing. I ate almost every meal there. I had friends staying in Tamarindo (a 45 minute drive each way due to road conditions) who drove to Playa Grande TWICE for dinner that week. That's 3 hours in the car for 2 meals.

Everyone ---from the owners, bartenders, servers, surf instructors, and maintenance people-- went out of their way to make sure I had everything I needed.

I'll definitely be back at the Rip Jack!

Words cannot describe how happy we were with our decision to stay at the Rip Jack Inn in Playa Grande. We were pleasantly surprised and undoubtedly will visit this hotel again in the future.

The people involved with the Rip Jack were a super friendly group that were very enthusiastic about our stay in Costa Rica. Because of this there was a plethora of information right at our fingertips.

The rooms were perfect....super clean...just the right size...couldnt ask for anything more!

If you need to stay at a place in Playa Grande, do not hesitate to stay at the Rip Jack Inn.

Thanks again Annie and Dave...we appreciate your hospitality and we will be back....PROMISE!!

Nick and Christy

This place is recommended for everyone, who likes to chill out and relax completely in an awesome friendly atmosphere!

Friendly people (and dogs&cats) all over the place.

Unbelievable brillant 5Star+ food made by Brett (el pan himself).

Joga classes recommended (from me, because of being a absolute rookie joga-taker) - was good fun.

Situated 50 metres from the beach, therefore no problem to check the surf 100 times a day :-)

Boardrental by Jeff. Experienced allrounder!

Consistent waves, beach totally clean and not too overcrowed (at least around end of August)

Tamarindo is just a 30 minutes walk away, just in case anybody needs anything more than provided in the RipJackInn.

But no need to do so.

Thanks to the whole crew (including the musicians)!!!

I will tell all my friends & definitely back at Playa Grande

Mucho gusto.

Bernd (el alemán)

We lucked out when we found the Rip Jack Inn on line. The inn was everything we were looking for - laid back, clean, friendly and peaceful. Dave and Annie did everything they could to make us feel welcome, and were able to arrange activities for us with a moments notice (massages, horseback riding, surf lessons) plus give us great advice for our next Costa Rica destination.

If you are looking for a non-touristy place to relax, meet some fine people, learn to surf and just chill, then this is it. We spent about half our time on the beach, and the other half just getting to know a really great group of like-minded people who either lived in Playa Grande, or were visiting like us.

It's about a 40-minute beach walk to Tamarindo, which is more touristy and has some more bars, and it's a 10-minute walk from Playa Carbon, which was virtually empty when we were there, except for the fishermen who fished by hand, and the odd stray dog.

Plus - food and drinks were WAY above expectations. Double thumbs up, and I will visit again if I make it back to Playa Grande.

My wife and I stayed at the RipJack Inn from August 18 to 21st 2005. We loved this place. It is run by 3 american partners, each bringing their passion to the table: a chef, a surfer, and a yoga instructur. The food is very good, the atmosfere is great, and the rooms are simple, well decorated, and CLEAN!

There are few rooms, I think 8 in all, and we stayed in the ones detached from the main building - cabinas style. Our room was newly decorated in a simple and tasteful fashion. This was one of the few places in Costa Rica where mold and bugs were not present. I was surprised to not find any insects crawling under our bed....it was impeccably clean!

The Inn is definately geared to the surfer crowd (as most places in tamarindo/playa grande), but neither of us are surfers and we still had a great time. Relaxing Yoga sessions are offered regularly.

The beach is just a 100 yards away and it is stunning. You can walk for miles without seeing anyone. We spent our time in Playa Grande, Tamarindo, and our favourite beach (for the non-surfers) PLAYA CONCHAL.

When you get to the RipJack Inn you are quickly welcomed by the numerouse super friendly pet dogs and cats that have now become part of the property.

We stayed in much more expensive hotels in Costa Rica such as the Tabacon Resort in Arenal and Villas Nicolas in Manual Antonio and found the RipJack Inn to be in such better shape. All the other hotels we stayed at had mold and insect problems, but that was not the case at the RipJack Inn.

I highly reccomend the RipJack Inn for both surfers and non-surfers. We stayed 3 nights here and if we were to plan the same trip again I would have stayed longer.

The Rip Jack Inn was a great place to stay. I enjoyed the food, atmosphere, people and location. I booked a vacation for my girlfriend and myself, and I was originally going to stay in Tamarindo at Witchs Rock Surf Camp but they screwed up my reservation big time. So I found the Rip Jack Inn. Thank God I found this place... We saved so much money and had a much more exciting time then staying in Tamarindo.

We went to Witchs Rock Surf Camp and was very glad we found Rip Jack.

The food was awesome and the people they attract are very friendly. This place seems to be booked solid during peak travel times. They have 8 cute rooms to choose from and one awesome restaurant. Beers are $1 a piece. The owners are very accomidating and helped us plan many side excursions. Rip Jack Inn is located in Playa Grande and not so traveled place but in walking distance of the bigger Tamarindo.

Good Luck on your vacation and try to make a stop at the Rip Jack Inn you will be very happy you did.

Bobby C

The Rip Jack Inn is a wonderful, well kept secret in Playa Grande. Just a 30 minute walk from the bustle of Tamarindo, it is a serene, picture perfect get away for those looking for surfing, relaxation and fabulous food.

The rooms are cute bungalo style w/private bath and window air conditioning units. Cleaned daily and supplied w/fresh sheets and towels.

The restaurant and bar upstairs is welcoming and serves some of the best food we had while in Costa Rica (for very reasonable prices). Great service by Johnny, the world's best waiter who learned our names the first night we were there and was at our side to take drink orders before we had even sat down.

The beach is 100 yards away and has a great break for surfing. There are lots of locals who flock to the area b/c the waves are bigger than they are in Tamarindo. We took surfing lessons while we were there. Private instruciton w/board was only $35 for 2 hours.

The beach is serene. You can walk to Tamarindo but there is an estuary that you have to cross. During the day locals wait around in their boats and will take you across for $1 per person.

We were thrilled to have chosen the Rip Jack Inn instead of staying in Tamarindo. Would recommend to anyone looking for a sanctuary a little off the beaten path.

We tried to stay at the Rip Jack Inn but they were book solid so we stayed at Hotel Bula Bula. Can't comment about the rooms but man the food was amazing. The are located in the "downtown area", right near the beach. We are foodies (will travel far for a great meal), and the meal we had at Restarante Pan was one of my all time favorities (top five for sure). Often one of the entrees in outstanding but the chef managed to wow us both. Menu changes daily. I had Tuna with wasabi and giger sauce and my husband had Mahi Mahi in a brown butter sauce. I would recommend a trip to Playa Grande just to eat at the Restarante Pan. Wow!

All I have to say is WOW. The food upstairs at the PAN restaurant was allways great and ever changing. No written down menu like a normal hotel ... there was a menu board with todays menu {except breakfast} Lunch and Dinner was great we started to pinch ourselves ...was this possible a little hotel {7-9rooms} run by two 30 something couples from San Fransico. We found out that the chef used to work at the FOUR SEASONS hotel in San Fransico so that explains the great food. They have just aquired the hotel/INN in august of 2004{it used to be called the EL Bucenero?} and are quickly getting a great reputation in the area...It is still hard to find even though they have a website it doesnt seem to want to come up on search engines yet so try your browser (---) with no space in between jack and inn. We walked and had to drive to some of the other hotels because they were so far from the beach to check them out and see what else there was by comparison to what we had at the rip jack inn. On all counts...we felt we got lucky to have chosen the ripjack via info gained by internet....because this was our first time to costa rica. It is admittedly a hard decision to choose a place to stay, when you have a family to think about...I like to surf my wife likes the beach to be close enough to walk to but cant stay at the beach all day she wants to see the country's sites and explore as I and my daughter and her freind also. We also enjoy eating good/great food and frendly people. We do care about the size of the rooms but its not that important since we only sleep there. You will most definetly need a room with A/C dont even think about staying somewhere without it you will regret it ..all of the rooms have A/C at the ripjack. We had 3 rooms all 3 had a ceiling mounted like turbo fan adjustable from small breeze to hurricane force and a A/C and one had brand new digital controlled A/C and a mini fridge they plan to have mini fridges in all rooms soon.They had good beds with a combo of queen and twin {to queen and 2 beds...a little cramped but great for 3 guys or girls..}With a full bath per room with coffee maker and coffee cups and maid service per day. If you like to go to bed early it might be a good idea to try and get one of the 2 rooms in the extra building 30 feet away from main bldg. since the upstairs bar scene and restaurant doesnt close down till midnite and the hotel is octagon in shape all 6 rooms are under a section of the bar so the moving chairs and dropped silverware can startle you from a slumbering dream....as it did me one extra long surf day had taken its toll from the usuall party man that I am.

P.S. just had to mention Johny he is the night waiter he was so nice and attentive got to know all of our names the first night wouldnt have had the same feel to the place without johny.

The relaxing town of Playe Grande is so nice compared to Tamarindo. Tamarindo reminds me of tiajuana mexico dirty stinky always half built bldgs all over with to many people and bugs every time we went to Tamarindo to shop or sight see we all came back with bites we pre sprayed with bug spray before going after 2nd time. We triied to find a sunset bar in Tamarindo and GOOD food/service good luck finding it without the occasional what the hell was that smell wafting by {sewage?}

We did find a new store for shopping that was more expensive but seemed to have some original type souvineers its called the green turtle? Its upstairs ocean side of the street halfway down the shopping road in tamarindo

The surf in Tamarindo pretty much sucks, too many people not enough waves. Playa Negra, Navelones, langosta, and playa Grande are only ones worth mentioning. Then by boat witches rock You must do the witches rock boat trip for no other reason than the adventure let alone great waves, bail on ollies Pt. breaks good 4 times a year.

The surf at Playa Grande was great for the 2 hours before high tide untill 2 hours after high tide then nothing and I mean nothing as it is in the entire area there is no low tide break within 100 miles. I can tell you this much the 2-3 foot wave at playa grande has the power and speed of a 5-6 foot day at newport beach ca. Watch out when you get a 6-7 foot day like we did.. it will pound you if you get caught inside...sometimes I was just inside the break 10-20 feet but you couldnt duck dive fast enough and paddle fast enough to not get drilled hard by the entire set. Thats because there is a sand bar and a real drop off to deep water so the waves break fast and all of a sudden. So we had a saying while we were there Tubular rapido...Fast tube/poundingwave... great barrel rides to be had.... rights and lefts. Then you can plan the rest of your day around the family/party etc. P.S. if you can time your trip around early morning high tides...like going high at 8 am...then you get that for sure 6 am to 10 am off shore winds for epic conditions. We really only hit good waves at playa grande and witches rock.

The owners of the Ripjack inn {Dave and Annie and lulee and the chef forgot his name}will find a boat for your witches rocks trip and any other activity you are interested in and confirm your times and give you directions to drive there. My wife took the rental car for a 2 hour drive to the rincon national forest to see the big waterfalls and the monkeys etc. no problems had a great time. They also went on the tree top cable tours through the big trees in the mountains on Daves rec. and every local there said the one he told us about was the best one in the area so that felt good he booked it at a discounted rate and gave us directions no big deal, no charge, all part of the service.

Cant think of anything else to say except dont miss the food at ripjack if you decide to stay anywhere in the area its worth the drive.