Easily accessible, if somewhat commercial. For more of a traditional village atmosphere and for exquisite pottery, the small town of Guatil near Santa Cruz in Guanacaste province is the place to go. Here, artisans have their pottery booths on the side of the road so you can drive by and literally pick the piece you want, thus avoiding the hassle of loading and unloading wheelchairs and transferring in the 90 deg heat. Now I think of it, those stop signs and soldiers stationed in the middle of nowhere on the highway did seem a little odd. Ask for directions as often as you have to.
Tamarindo is all relatively accessible and everything is connected by dirt road.
My travelling companion,Tamara, went off to do some scouting around and came back with the news that a local American named Tom made the best meals in town. His Tico friend Edwin would get me down on the beach the next day to see the turtles lay their eggs. The next day we decided to drive to Playa Grande and Las Baulas National Park to checkout beach access. Around 80 leatherbacks, some weighing over a ton, come every night to nest on the beach at Playa Grande from October through February, making it one of the most important nesting sites in the world. Although there is an ongoing battle between developers and conservationists, the area has only one hotel and Costa Ricans are learning to protect the turtle by allowing very limited harvesting of the eggs.