Pickleball in Costa Rica

Courts at Hacienda Pinilla are ten minutes north. Johnny's is where your group sleeps, eats and recovers — a whole private property three minutes' walk from the beach, sleeping up to 28.

Where you play

Hacienda Pinilla is a 4,500-acre resort community on the coast between Tamarindo and Playa Avellanas. Tennis and pickleball courts sit alongside an 18-hole championship golf course, a beach club, stables and mountain biking trails. It is the most straightforward place to play on this coast, and it is a ten-minute drive from our gate. Full guide to Hacienda Pinilla →

Court availability and fees are set by Hacienda Pinilla and change seasonally — we confirm current details when you book, and Alberto arranges court time as part of planning your week.

How a pickleball week actually runs

The rhythm that works here is built around the heat, not around the schedule.

• Morning — play at Pinilla while it is still cool. Vans leave after breakfast.
• Midday — back for lunch at the long table, then the pool.
• Afternoon — the beach is three minutes on foot. Some groups surf, some sleep.
• Evening — dinner on the covered deck. Nobody drives anywhere.

Alberto runs the vans, so there is no rental car to argue about and nobody is driving after a session.

Why a whole property beats a block of hotel rooms

A club group of sixteen in a hotel is sixteen room keys, four breakfast tabs and a daily argument about where to eat. Here it is one booking and one address.

• Sleeps 28 across 6 bedrooms, every one with its own ensuite bathroom
• Breakfast cooked every morning by staff who live on the property
• Lunch and dinner available as a meal package, so the group eats together
• Two 12-passenger vans for airport transfers and court runs
• Pool, gym and a covered yoga deck on site for the recovery days
• Golf at Pinilla too, for whoever would rather play eighteen

When to come

December through April is the dry season and the busiest. Morning play is comfortable year round because the heat builds later in the day, so the season matters less for pickleball than it does for most things.

September and October are the quietest and cheapest weeks of our year. Guanacaste is the driest province in Costa Rica, so green-season rain is usually a warm afternoon shower that has passed before dinner — and courts in the morning are unaffected.

Getting here

• Liberia airport (LIR) — about an hour and a half. We collect you.
• Hacienda Pinilla courts — 10 minutes
• Tamarindo — 30 minutes, for a night out mid-week
• The beach — 3 minutes on foot