For the entire family:

Meals
- 5 breakfasts
- 3 dinners
- Snacks at surf lessons

Transportation
- Round trip transportation from San Jose and back
- Shuttle service from San Jose hotel to arirport
- Airfare
- Cost of optional activities
- Transportation to optional activities
- Lunches
- 1 breakfast
- 4 dinners
What Guests Have to Say





Best surf school for the whole family
Bodhi Surf + Yoga is the place to visit if your family wants to learn how to surf. Alongside patient, experienced, and International Surf Association-certified surf instructors who also have First Aid and CRP, you will learn to surf in a safe and pristine classroom: Costa Rica's lovely Marino Ballena National Park. With a sandy bottom, shallow water, and spilling waves, our local beach "Playa Chaman" is truly the most optimal place for your daily surf lessons to take place.
At Bodhi Surf + Yoga, our surf curriculum focuses on fostering mastery and independence. All of our students start out on soft top surfboards and learn how to choose optimal waves for themselves. We have a 5:1 student to instructor ratio, and it is typical for children under 12 to have their own surf instructor to further highlight safety and personalized learning.
Learning and adventure
Our goals at Bodhi Surf + Yoga are to keep your family safe, engaged, and learning on your week-long surf camp. Costa Rica is an amazing natural paradise and the perfect place to have an adventure. Your surf lessons will occur in a natural paradise where it is not uncommon to see all sorts of marine animals: fish, crabs, sand dollars, sea stars, sea snails, pelicans, monkeys, and scarlet macaws, to name a few. We teach the fundamentals of surfing and highlight environmental awareness all while connecting your minds, bodies, and spirits.
At Bodhi Surf + Yoga, our biggest aim is to awaken purpose; to help your family have physical, mental, and spiritual “a-hah!” moments of inspiration and achievement; and to facilitate a truly soul-gratifying (perhaps even life-changing) family surf vacation! We delight in providing memorable adventures that facilitate learning, laughing, and growth.
Travel safely
Costa Rica is internationally recognized as being an excellent family vacation destination for its safety reputation, friendliness, and sanitation. Environmental conservation, public health, and education are staples in Costa Rican society which impacts the country as a tourism destination. Bodhi Surf + Yoga conducts surf lessons in a marine national park that has both lifeguards and park rangers on duty.
Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, Bodhi Surf + Yoga is fortunate to be uniquely positioned in a small, sparsely densely community that has both private clinics and hospitals nearby. We are able to provide a fun and learning family vacations while also complying with rigorous health and safety standards based on Costa Rican law and best practices from travel experts worldwide.
WHAT TO EXPECT
BEST FAMILY SURF CAMP EXPERIENCE
When you choose the Bodhi Family Surf Camp, expect a fun-filled, physically active, learning vacation for the whole family. Transportation and logistics are taken care of to reduce stress and promote relaxation and family bonding time. Your family will participate in daily surf lessons (except on the free day). Yet you will also have time to do other tours such as kayaking, canyoning, and bodysurfing, or add on private family yoga classes.
Also included: a tour of the community, a visit to the local waterfall, and delicious, healthy meals enjoyed family-style at the lodge. Even with all this activity, there will be plenty of time to relax and unwind, whether that’s relaxing around (or in) the plunge pool, lounging in the hammocks, playing board games in the common area, or wandering around the community!
HEALTHY & DELICIOUS MEALS
A legendary breakfast is included daily (except on your free day) as well as three dinners are during in your week-long surf camp in Bahia Ballena. Meals are made with love and are hearty, healthy, and have locally-sourced ingredients. We can accommodate dietary restrictions! Your other meals can either be prepared at the Bodhi Surf + Yoga lodge (every bungalow/room has access to cooking space) or you can support the local economy and learn more about its culture by sampling local fare by one of the many delicious restaurants in the area.
A TASTE OF BODHI FOR THE FAMILY
The Bodhi Family Surf Camp is designed for families who have different needs than groups of adults. This option has the flexibility to be just what you and your family need: it can be a relaxing vacation with a few activities but plenty of restful down time to ease your body, mind, and spirit, all the way to an intensive physical learning vacation that challenges you and your family in new ways, or something in between.
While you’re here, you will have ample opportunity to learn about the community of Bahia Ballena, including the town’s history, development, and challenges. The beauty of the Bodhi Family Surf Camp is that it provides a taste of Bodhi Surf + Yoga and plenty of time to see what our spectacular community has to offer!
RESERVE YOUR FAMILY'S SPOT!
SPACES ARE LIMITED TO 10 GUESTS PER WEEK
Family Surf Camp FAQs
Bodhi Surf + Yoga is a small, family-owned and operated business that offers a smaller, more intimate vacation setting. The owners (and their children) and staff are the ones that share in your Costa Rica surf experience with your family. Our lodge is located in a small town that is still relatively untouched by large-scale tourism, and we work together with our fellow community-members to keep Bahia Ballena beautiful and have it serve as a positive example. We are committed to sustainable tourism: community involvement and environmental awareness are part of your experience with Bodhi Surf + Yoga. Finally, we are the first ever surf camp in the world to earn B Corp certification!
One week of Bodhi Family Surf Camp includes:
- 5 surf lessons
- 6 nights of accommodation at the lodge and one night of accommodation in San Jose
- 3 dinners and 5 breakfasts
- Round trip transportation (SJO-Bodhi-SJO)
- A waterfall visit
- Local transportation to camp activities
- Snacks during surf sessions
- Guided walking tour of the community of Bahia Ballena
- National Park entrance fees for the days there are surf lessons
Click here for our Ultimate Guide to Preparing for the Bodhi Family Surf Camp week.
The food at the Bodhi Surf + Yoga lodge aims to check all of these boxes: filling, nutritious, healthy, locally-sourced, home-made, fresh, and delicious. The Bodhi Surf + Yoga team members are also avid foodies and strive to serve food that exceeds guests’ expectations — including kids! Bodhi Surf + Yoga is able to cater to specific dietary restrictions such as vegetarian, pescatarian, vegan, gluten-free, lactose-free, nut-free, etc.
The Bodhi Family Surf Camp is seven nights, yet it can be done back-to-back. If your family has the ability to stay for the full two weeks, it will offer you the best opportunity to really delve into surfing. After 7 days, students are just starting to catch green, unbroken waves, so dedicating another week offers a great opportunity to master that skill set. After a week, your family will have relaxed into the pace of life in this small, coastal Costa Rican town. Having another week allows you all to go deeper into the place you’re in, but also the vacation version of yourselves (AKA too blessed to be stressed!)
Check out our full packing list here.
There are a ton of activities and tours you can participate in — our area really is a playground for the adventurous and outdoorsy types — yet there are also plenty of cultural activities as well. Our area has so much to do for all budgets, travel styles, and levels of desired activity. You can read more about some of the most popular activities here. Needless to say, your family will absolutely not get bored here.
While it is not required to have a car for your stay at Bodhi Surf + Yoga, if you have very young children, or want to participate in tours and activities that will take you further than the Bahia Ballena - Uvita area, we would recommend renting a car. We would suggest you do that once here in Bahia Ballena, as transportation from the airport and back is included in your vacation package price.
Again, it is not required: transportation to all scheduled activities is included, and most everything else you need is accessible by foot (restaurants, shops, banks, etc.). Bike rentals and taxis are also available for those families for whom walking will be a bit too complicated.
There are many restaurants in the Bahia Ballena - Uvita area, with several delicious options within a 10-minute walk. There are also more places to eat popping up every year. If you don’t feel like walking, you can also look into renting bikes or take taxis.
The Bodhi Surf + Yoga lodge is located approximately 15-20 minutes walking-distance from either the Punta Uvita (Whale Tail) or Playa Chaman (Bodhi Surf + Yoga’s surf beach) park entrances. For surf lessons, we drive all together, which takes about 5 minutes.
Costa Rica is a very safe country indeed. As a more developed country than its other Central American neighbors, it does not struggle as much as its neighboring countries with issues such as poverty, crime, and other problems that often coexist with the development stage.
Costa Rica is a very safe and family-friendly country with plenty of family activities, child-friendly accommodations, and more. Moreover, it is very clean and the water is potable in much of the country (such as in Bahia Ballena!) which greatly helps prevent food-borne illnesses.
IS BODHI RIGHT FOR YOU?
Learn what makes Bodhi different from other surf and yoga camps