ATV and Side-by-Side (UTV) Tours in Guanacaste: What to Expect

An ATV or side-by-side (UTV) tour in Guanacaste is a two- to four-hour guided ride on dirt back roads and mountain trails, with stops at a hilltop lookout and a beach or two. Expect to pay roughly $75–$160 per driver, to be 16 or older with a valid driver’s licence, and to wear a helmet throughout. The part that surprises everyone: you don’t ride on the sand — Costa Rican law prohibits driving on beaches, so tours stop at them instead.

You ride an ATV (a quad) like a motorbike: you straddle it, steer with handlebars, and on tandem machines a passenger sits behind you. A side-by-side — UTV or buggy, depending on the operator — has bucket seats, a roll cage and seat belts, so two to six people travel together and only one has to drive.

If half your group has no interest in driving, book a side-by-side. If everyone wants their own machine, book ATVs and put anyone hesitant on the back. Some operators run both together: the ATV and UTV beach tour from Tamarindo lets you pick either on the same departure.

The format barely changes between operators.

Two hours is the standard short tour; three to four buys more beaches, a snorkel stop or a monkey sanctuary. Groups stay small — Flamingo Adventures caps theirs at 14.

This catches visitors out, because “beach ATV tour” is how these rides are sold everywhere. In practice it means the route reaches beaches — often ones with no road access — and you park above the sand, walk down and swim. The ban is not fussiness: vehicles on the sand injure people swimming and walking there. Article 9 of the Maritime-Terrestrial Zone Law regulations separately bars motor traffic in the public beach zone without a municipal permit.

So read “remote beaches” as *access to* remote beaches. It is still the best part of the day — several of these north-coast beaches are hard to reach any other way.

There is no single national rule for guided tours, so each operator sets its own — and they differ.

Bring the physical licence, not a photo of it. If you’re travelling with teenagers, check the age before you pay — a 15-year-old who expected to drive will not enjoy the briefing.

Watch how tandem machines are priced: driver and passenger are charged separately. Flamingo Adventures lists Top of the World at $115 per driver and $59 per tandem rider, so a couple sharing one quad pays $174. UTV rates move with group size, so pick your date and party size to see the real figure.

The strongest area in Guanacaste for riding: the land behind the coast climbs fast, and beaches like Sugar, Danta, Prieta and Penca are hard to reach by car. Our direct partner Flamingo Adventures has run tours here since 2009, from an office on the main road in Playa Potrero near Hotel Bahía del Sol.

Booking through Viator instead? The ATV Beach and Mountain Tour and the Zip Line and ATV Adventure both run from this coast. See also our Playa Flamingo guide.

From Tamarindo the rides head inland through dry forest and rural villages, cross small streams, and come out at beaches between Tamarindo and Flamingo — Playa Minas, Playa Piratas, Puerto Viejo. Two hours is the norm, and both include a transfer.

Our things to do in Tamarindo guide puts this alongside surfing, the estuary and the catamaran sails.

Nosara has one ATV option in our catalog: the half-day mountain tour, four hours from $150, climbing to viewpoints over the mountains and beaches with lunch, ATV and helmet included. It costs the most per hour here and is the least beach-focused.

Different landscape, different ride. The La Fortuna ATV Adventure runs three hours on a private farm minutes from town: muddy trails, stream crossings, Arenal volcano views and a river mud mask, from $95 with transport inside La Fortuna, a guide and snacks. It has the lowest driving age here, at 14 — and it is a long way from the coast, so see our LIR to La Fortuna transfers.

Straight answer: we don’t currently list an ATV or UTV tour leaving from Playa Hermosa or the Papagayo peninsula. The nearest are the Flamingo and Potrero departures, about 45 minutes down the coast.

A guided tour is the right default on a first visit: someone who knows the trails leads, and you never have to guess where a dirt road goes. A rental makes sense if you’ve ridden before and want the machine for beach runs as well as trails.

More detail on our ATV rentals and side-by-side rentals pages. One caveat: self-drive rentals aren’t sold through Viator, so what we list is our partner’s inventory, not a marketplace comparison. If you mainly need to get around, a car is the better buy — see getting around Guanacaste.

Month-by-month detail is in our Guanacaste month-by-month guide and best time to visit Guanacaste.