Punta Islita Airport
Punta Islita — Nicoya Peninsula. 5 min to Hotel Punta Islita.
Book your private flight to Punta Islita
Punta Islita — Costa Rica
Punta Islita is a single cove on the Pacific side of the Nicoya Peninsula, backed by dry forest hills, with one significant hotel, a village of a few hundred people, and an airstrip. There is no town in any meaningful sense, no strip of restaurants, no nightlife. That is the entire proposition, and for a certain traveller it is worth a great deal.
The road in explains why the airstrip exists. Punta Islita sits in the section of the Nicoya coast where the coastal route effectively gives up: unpaved, river-crossed in places, and slow enough that the 40 kilometres from Sámara can take well over an hour. Approaching from San José or Liberia by road is a half-day commitment.
Runway 03/21, 800 metres by 12 metres, asphalt, at 2 metres elevation. ICAO: MRIA. Coordinates: 9°51′22″N, 85°22′15″W. Daylight operations.
Eight hundred metres by twelve is a short, narrow strip on flat coastal ground immediately behind the beach. It handles the Cessna Caravan class, imposes real weight and baggage limits, and — like every field of this size in Costa Rica — is flown visually in daylight only. Declare weights accurately at booking; on a strip this length it is a performance calculation, not paperwork.
Punta Islita Airport — Getting there
The Liberia number is the one that decides most itineraries. Guests arriving on an international flight into LIR face three and a half hours of road, the last stretch of it unpaved, or thirty minutes in the air. For a property whose appeal is arriving somewhere very quiet very easily, the arithmetic is not close.
Connections. Punta Islita connects by charter to San José (~36 min), Liberia (~30 min), and along the coast to Nosara, Tamarindo, Tambor and Cóbano.
When to fly
Nicoya's dry season runs roughly December to April and is emphatic — sun, dust, offshore winds, brown hills. The green season, May to November, brings afternoon storms and a landscape that transforms. September and October are the wettest.
The unpaved coastal road tracks the rainfall exactly, and river crossings south of Islita can become genuinely impassable. In the green season, flying is not a convenience here so much as the reliable option.
Punta Islita Airport — Frequently asked questions
What is the runway length at Punta Islita (PBP)?
800 metres by 12 metres of asphalt, runway 03/21, at 2 m elevation. Daylight operations. ICAO: MRIA.
How long is the flight from Liberia to Punta Islita?
About 30 minutes, versus roughly three and a half hours by road, much of it unpaved.
What is there to do at Punta Islita?
The beach and cove, the open-air community art museum in the village, Camaronal wildlife refuge and its turtle nesting programme, and Playa Carrillo and Sámara to the north.
Is there a town at Punta Islita?
No. It is a small village with one significant hotel. Sámara, about 40 minutes north, is the nearest place with a range of restaurants and services.
What turtles nest at Camaronal?
Olive ridley, leatherback, hawksbill and Pacific green, in a protected refuge a few minutes from the airstrip.
Are there baggage limits on flights to PBP?
Yes. The 800 m runway and aircraft type impose real weight restrictions; soft bags are preferred and weights should be declared accurately.