The Drake Trail is wild, it’s the side of Costa Rica you were probably dreaming about when you first thought about visiting. You hike past endless pristine beaches and small coves, and the further you get from Drake town, the more remote they start to feel. If you’re looking for Robinson Crusoe vibes, this is your trail.
The tree tops are alive with Capuchin monkeys and Scarlet macaws soar overhead. We saw people at the beginning of the walk and at the end, but nobody at all on the whole 10km inbetween.
The Drake Trail offers a taste of the sort of scenery you’d see in Corcovado National Park, without the need for a guide and the associated hefty price tag. You won’t see as much wildlife as you would with a guide in Corcovado, but there’s no chance you’ll finish the trail disappointed.
Here’s what to expect on the walk and logistics for making your hike easier.
The Drake Trail
The stats
Distance: 8.5km - 11km one way (depending on if you want to get transport one way)
Elevation gain: 150m
Difficulty: Moderate
Summary: Whilst technically the trail runs for longer than the above stats, the two distances represent the natural turn around points for almost everyone that hikes this track.
Playa San Josecito (8.5km in) is where you can take a boat back to Drake Town and the car park near Poorman’s Paradise in Playa Rincon is where you can take a taxi (and depending on conditions, quad bike) back to town. This avoids walking the whole trail again, which can be brutal in the afternoon sun.
We did walk beyond Playa Rincon, but the trail deteriorates significantly a few kilometres later, and unless we took a wrong turn, actually gets a bit dangerous (think narrow loose paths on the edge of a cliff). Therefore we wouldn’t really recommend continuing on.
In terms of the trail itself, it’s relatively easy, with not too much in the way of elevation gain. The paths are pretty good for the most part. What makes this walk more challenging is the heat and humidity.
For this reason we’d recommend starting your walk really early, we left at 5.30am and felt this was about right for beating the heat and maximising our chances of seeing wildlife.
There are occasional signposts on the trail, but much of it is not signposted, so we’d recommend having an offline map downloaded. We’ll also try to detail a few bits where you might go wrong in the trail description below.
It’s worth noting that at the 7.4km mark (approximately) you’ll need to cross the Rio Claro. If it’s low tide you can wade, but if not you can blow the whistle attached to the tree and you will be picked up in a canoe to make the one minute river crossing with dry boots!
Starting the trail
The trail begins just outside Drake Town (full details at the end of the post) and you will immediately cross your first beach of the day. Just 250m later you’ll reach the end of the beach and see a concrete staircase leading up onto the path.
As with much of the Drake Trail, you can cross the beaches, or follow the path that is almost always running beside the beach if you tire of walking on the sand - though the most incredible views are always from the beaches!
The path passes a number of hotels and bungalows and a couple even had restaurants that were open at 5.30am which was a surprise!
The trail is very obvious along this section and takes you past a large bamboo grove before passing more lodges.
You’ll then come to a signpost with approximate times to get to various different points along the trail, including all the way to the San Pedrillo Ranger Station at Corcovado National Park, which is six hours away.
Forest paths and a swing bridge
The narrow path now heads into a patch of jungle and as it’s a dirt track, could become quite muddy in the height of the rainy season.
It was fine when we hiked after quite a few days solid rain, but I could see it being pretty slick when hit with the full brunt of the rainy season.
After roughly 300m along the jungle path you’ll come to a small rickety swing bridge and cross it to continue the trail on the other side of the river. It does sway a bit, but it’s got a proper metal floor and it feels pretty sturdy.
Following the bridge there is a 150m stretch of steep stairs (which are in good condition) before the path flattens and then climbs again but more gently.
Approximately 200m after the swing bridge you’ll pass La Paloma Lodge and the path is now concrete once again.
There were some beautiful flowers growing along this stretch of the track which reminded us of Australia’s gorgeous Waratahs. There were also some weird and wonderful looking crabs which we hadn’t expected to see this far from the beach!
There’s another signpost as you continue along the trail and 300m after passing La Paloma Lodge you’ll come to a gate and then head right, towards Cocolito Beach, which is signposted.
The path descends to the beach on well maintained stairs.
The beaches get wilder
You can make a quick (30 seconds each way) detour to a small but beautiful cove before continuing on the main path to Cocolito Beach (which is 1.8km into the walk).
It’s a very pretty beach with palm trees and a rocky shoreline, which combined with the fact there wasn’t a single footstep in the sand, created a truly wild vibe. From this point on you will begin crossing beach after beach and each one is a delight.
For the most part you can cross the sand and then exit back onto the main trail at the end of each bay, or you can simply use the main path that runs behind the beaches. Some of the beaches are more like tiny coves and some twin bays, but the one thing they all have in common is the fact they are just stunning.
My favourite of all was exactly 1km past Cocolito Beach and I’m not even sure it has a name - well not one I could find anyway!
By this point in our walk the sun had just begun to shine on the sand (prior to this all the beaches were in shadow) and that combined with seeing so many Scarlet macaws munching in the almond trees made it extra special.
Just 400m beyond my favourite beach (3.2km into the trail) you’ll come to Copa De Arbol Beach. There’s a resort behind the beach, but no one was around as it was still very early in the morning!
The next few beaches you pass also have accommodation, but again, we never saw anyone around, so though it wasn’t quite like passing the deserted coves, it was still very tranquil.
Roughly 4.3km into the walk there was a drinks stall, although it wasn’t yet open when we passed by. I think if you needed drinks along this stretch though you could probably pop into one of the hotels.
Walking through a Scarlet macaw paradise
We stuck to crossing the beach rather than taking the main trail and at the far end of the beach we picked up a little yellow sign for Playa San Josecito (the most famous playa in the Drake Bay area and where you are ultimately headed for).
We saw lots more Scarlet macaws flying overhead and their wild calls created an atmosphere I’ll never forget.
The next beach along had so many more squawking in the almond trees - I lost count of the number we saw on this trail!
You’ll pass more beaches and then head onto a jungle path. At the 5.6km mark we came to a series of steep, somewhat slippery, stairs and a rope handrail.
We later discovered that whilst you can use this path, it’s not the official trail.
We assume we missed a turning as you didn’t need to climb this hill, which actually takes you up to a resort before dropping you back down onto the trail again via another steep slippery staircase.
The upside to this little detour was the fact we saw so many Capuchins in the forest (beside the stairs if you want to look for them) - more than we saw on any other part of the trail.
We also saw two toucans at the top of the hill, so although we added in more uphill than we needed to, it wasn’t all bad!
Crossing the Rio Claro
At the 7km mark (which would no doubt be a little shorter if you don’t head up the slippery hill) you’ll reach another huge beach.
On our visit the high tide had created two biggish river crossings on the sand, so we took the rustic jungle path behind the beach.
It was a fun path, but more rocky and tree rooty than any other part of the walk.
The irony was that 400m later we reached Rio Claro, where the water was even deeper and therefore harder to cross than the beach would have been.
If the tide is out you’re supposed to be able to cross pretty easily and the water should be below knee height.
We could have easily swum across as it’s not far at all and there wasn’t a strong current that day, but as we had all our camera gear with us, we went for option two. Blowing the whistle attached to the tree!
It took a few attempts, but just before we gave up hope, we heard movement on the other side of the river bank and someone came along dragging a canoe!
The crossing takes about two minutes and costs USD $2 per person. The money goes towards sea turtle conservation in the area. On the other side of the bank you’ll also be able to buy drinks and snacks if needed.
Arriving at Playa San Josecito
Once you’ve crossed the Rio Claro, you are now just over 1km from Playa San Josecito. There’s a good path which crosses some fallen trees 450m from the river crossing, but these were quite easy to climb over and may be moved in time anyway.
Around 400m later there is one short rocky section up and then downhill, but after that you’ll be back on a good path again. We saw some curious coatis in the forest along this next stretch of track!
You’ll then continue along a flat path and soon arrive at San Josecito Beach. For us this was 8.5km into the walk, but if you don’t head up that roped hill then it will likely be slightly less for you.
There are a couple of bench seats in the shade behind the beach if you want to relax away from the sun for a bit (though if you have started early then you won’t really have been in much sun to this point and the UV is low in the early morning).
Playa San Josecito is a gorgeous beach and despite being the most famous one in the area, we were the only ones there.
The only slight downside was that though the waves didn’t look too big, they were actually quite strong, so you couldn’t really laze around in the water, which is what I really fancied by that point!
If you have organised a water taxi in advance, they would pick you up from this beach. If you’re organising a taxi, you need to walk further on.
Continuing on to Playa Rincon
When you get to Playa San Josecito you’ll see a sign for Sunset Restaurant, this is located on Playa Rincon, the next major beach along. The restaurant was just over 1km (9.6km into the trail) from the bench seats behind the beach at Playa San Josecito.
There is a good path all the way and it’s flat. The only downside was that by this point it had started to get quite a bit hotter and some of the trail was no longer in shade.
Still it’s easy enough and we saw yet more beautiful macaws and a variety of lizards before arriving at Playa Rincon and Sunset Restaurant. We bought drinks here and the owner helped us organise a taxi back to Drake Town, because although this was our plan along, we hadn’t taken into account we wouldn’t have phone signal to call for one!
We hadn’t wanted to book a taxi in advance as we didn’t know how long the walk would take, or how long we wanted to stop at each beach for - my pet hate is feeling rushed, especially on such a beautiful walk!
There isn’t a public road for a further 1.6km beyond Sunset Restaurant, so if you want to take a taxi rather than a boat, then you have to walk that bit further (2.7km further than Playa San Josecito).
We were also told that we might have been able to take a quad bike from Sunset Restaurant itself, but we think they later said that it wouldn’t work with the tides (our Spanish wasn’t good enough to know for sure).
The walk to the taxi pick up point keeps following the Drake Trail, so it’s very much still gorgeous, though much more exposed to the sun. The first 900m are all along Playa Rincon, which is a stunning beach which also has accommodation. We stayed there later in the trip which was was great if you don’t mind limited access to restaurants etc.
After 900m you can move onto the flat shady path behind the beach and this will lead you to the car park 700m later.
Going further still
As mentioned, we later stayed at Playa Rincon and decided to continue along the Drake Trail. We walked for a further 2.2km along the trail (one way).
The first 1.3km are still on a good path, and if you’re really keen to see more, worth doing. After this there were sections of the track which became narrow and covered in leaf litter.
One stretch has loose soil and was right on the edge of a cliff, which was unnerving to say the least. We then got to a steep down climb on a rough track with slippery leaf litter, before we lost the path and couldn’t see a way to continue. It’s possible we took a wrong turn but I’m not sure, it doesn’t seem like many people walk beyond Playa Rincon, so it’s hard to tell.
The first section from the parking area continues along or behind the beach before you get to a little creek crossing and walk through a dense patch of jungle.
The path is rougher and more rustic than it’s been to this point but still easy enough.
You’ll then come to a small cove, the trail runs behind the cove and is not overly obvious. There are a few slippery rocks around so you need to watch your footing.
Just 450m beyond the small cove you’ll come to a big beach and an abandoned hotel. Scarlet macaws were plentiful here.
It’s beyond this bit that the path either gets much rougher, or we went wrong. We crossed over the fallen tree at the end of the beach and then continued uphill into the jungle.
We reached a staircase 100m later which was relatively steep and had a lot of slippery leaf litter. There is a drop to one side.
You’ll then head onto a narrow path along the cliff edge, which had loose soil and this is where I started to question the wisdom of continuing. A little further along we came to the steep down climb on a rough track and couldn’t work out where to go.
We could very well have gone wrong, so if you do want to go beyond Playa Rincon I’d recommend asking your hotel or a local which the correct path is on leaving the abandoned hotel. If you do find it please let us know as we’d love to know if/where we went wrong!
Essential info about the Drake Trail
Using a taxi or boat service one way
If you don’t want to walk back, you can take a taxi one way from Playa Rincon to Drake town. The taxi journey takes 30 minutes. We paid USD $30 for the trip and we booked with Gato, who we would definitely recommend. His Whatsapp number is: +506 6213 8278.
You could also take a boat from Playa San Josecito, which we were told costs USD $20 per person and takes about 20 minutes. It needs to be booked in advance with the boat captain which is why we ruled this out as we didn’t know our timings.
Where to start the Drake Trail
The Drake Trail starts just outside of Drake town, you can see the location on Google Maps here. You can easily walk there from town, though as we were staying a little out the centre and feeling lazy, we used Gato for a lift to the start point which cost USD $5. He kindly agreed to pick us up at 5.30am which was much appreciated!
Drake Trail entry fee
It’s free! That’s right, one of the best hikes in Costa Rica is free and doesn’t require a guide! Long may it last!
Where we stayed in Drake town
Drake Lapas
We stayed at Drake Lapus. We would only recommend booking the Deluxe bungalow. We had to move to the other room after one night as the bungalow was fully booked and we missed the Deluxe bungalow!
It’s basic, but nice and private and has views directly into the forest. It’s lovely and quiet at night and has a kitchen and hammock on the balcony. They also have filtered water as you can’t drink the tap water in Drake Bay. The internet even worked pretty well by Drake Bay standards!
There is no AC, so it’s hot in the day, but at night it’s relatively cool as the windows are screened, so they are open all night. There’s also a fan if needed. It’s just a few minutes walk to town.
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