One of Costa Rica’s prettiest and long-restricted beaches — Playa Blanca, near the Punta Leona resort in the central Pacific area of Garabito — is now open to the public around the clock after the municipality removed a control gate that for years limited who could drive in.
The Municipalidad de Garabito sent crews on Thursday to dismantle the “aguja,” or barrier arm, at the entrance to the Punta Leona complex in what Mayor Francisco González described as enforcement of a 2001 court ruling declaring the access road public. The municipality says Playa Blanca is now open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and that it will run patrols to guarantee free passage and public use of the shoreline.
The move ends, at least for now, a dispute that has simmered for years. Punta Leona rejected the operation as an arbitrary intervention on private property, arguing the road and entrance structures sit on duly registered private land. The resort had previously won precautionary measures that kept the gate in place; the municipality says one such measure was thrown out the Tuesday before the gate came down. The removal led to a confrontation between resort staff and police; accounts of the number detained vary, with La Nación and Delfino reporting three and Monumental reporting two.
González invoked Costa Rica’s Zona Marítimo Terrestre law, under which beaches and the first 50 meters above the high-tide line are public, and said it is unacceptable for visitors to have to ask permission to reach the coast. He predicted a surge in visitation now that access is open, though he noted the route is meant mainly for people arriving on foot rather than driving all the way to the sand. A security booth staffed by a resort employee reportedly remains at the entrance but is no longer blocking passage.
For those in the area, the change opens a postcard-quality, calm-water beach that had effectively been the preserve of Punta Leona members and nearby condominium owners. Visitors should bear in mind that the situation is ongoing and the legal fight may not be over, that driving to the sand is not guaranteed, and that this is a walk-in beach day with no public services — so respect private property within the complex and come prepared.
