Living in Costa Rica WIth Kids. Learning to play tennis and golf at Hacienda Pinilla

By Rob Goodell

I have said it before and I will say it again, kids rule in Costa Rica! This weekend I took the family to Hacienda Pinilla and we had a total blast.

Pinilla is a large, upscale beach community about a 20 minute drive south of Tamarindo. Saturday morning we woke up and walked down to the tennis courts where I had my 4 year old set up for his first tennis lesson.

The instructor was excellent. He was able to keep all the kids engaged for the full hour with a combination of exercises, games and obstacle courses the were designed to help the kids learn how to keep there eye on the ball and to get them accustomed to running around with a racquet in their hand.

It was my first time seeing my son in a organized sports environment and it was all I could do to not be one of those annoying Dads shouting instructions from the side lines but I did manage to behave myself, somewhat. Now we are signed up for weekly lessons at only $10 a pop. What a bargain!

Next we headed over to the beach club for a bite to eat, some swimming and a surf session. The pool there is awesome with its lagoon style infinity edge that seems to melt right into the blue Pacific Ocean. Lunch in the new outdoor restaurant was excellent. My wife had a giant quesadilla, I had some cheeseburger sliders and Jimmy had some delicious Mahi Mahi.

After we sat in the shade for a while and let our lunch settle, we took a dip in the pool. The kids were going crazy! Then Daddy snuck out for a little surfy surfy. Good times! As a surfing Dad, you could not ask for a better set up. Where else can you have the family have all the comforts they need while you surf a perfect right point break directly in front? Not many places that I know of…

Around two o’clock it was time for a nice nap in the cool a/c of our suite at Villa Tranquila. After we charged the batteries, we all met up with a couple other friends with kids at the golf course. Guess I am going to have to learn how to golf because son really, really enjoyed learning how to putt and whacking that little white ball with the wedge.

The kids then did what any normal kid living in Costa Rica would do and made a game out of pretending the balls were turtle eggs then buried them in the sand trap! It was a perfect end to a perfect day. After a wonderful sushi dinner we all slept like logs. I guess I could get used to this kind of “resort style” living…