Kalon Surf - The Luxury Surf Resort — Hotel in Savegre

What went well

Arrival / departure logistics are nice and smooth. It’s a 3hr drive from the San Jose airport. Long, yeah, but you know what you are signing up for. You are FAR from the beach. Everything feels private, quiet and is secure. We never locked our room, you know everyone by name. It’s nice to split a day into surfing (beach) and everything else (villa). The former starts with a 20 minute 4x4 drive and overall takes about 4 hours. Other activities will fill your day but definitely bring a good read as you’ll have time on your hands at villa (that’s not a bad thing). The room is spacious and clean. There’s no AC - you may get taken aback at first, but it never got too hot (the fan is strong, you actually need to dial it down at night). I enjoyed toiletries, argan oil brought nice memories from another surf country. No debate, dinner is outstanding. It’s a three course meal. Lots of variety from day to day. Presentation deserves appreciation. More than anything it’s simply delicious. Breakfast is awesome. You pick from 5 or so options the evening before. You are spoilt for choice (waffles, bircher, avo toast, to name a few). Coffee. One of the highlights of the trip for me personally being a fan of caffeine sensations. You make your own brew. Patience is a virtue. The beans are exceptional. Footage. Every surf is recorded, including drone angles sometimes. This forms basis for daily video analysis sessions. Videos and photos are shared with the group via Google Photos. No need for USB sticks etc. Wednesday is a day off surfing. There’s plenty of things to do. We stayed for two weeks so actually did two things: a local farm tour and horse back riding to Nauyaca waterfall. Both would be worth your time. Staff. Kind, always available and helpful. Everyone is genuinely nice towards you, without a drop of pretence.

What could’ve been better

Tide sensitivity. Tidal range is big in Dominical / Costa Rica. Not as dramatic as in some other places, but still big. Nearby breaks don’t work very well at low tide (or so we’ve been told, and I believe that). As a result there’s usually a fairly narrow window of opportunity, typically around 3 hours covering the peak of high tide. If the first window is too early in the morning, you end up surfing late afternoon, which can be windy (can glass off though), and you also have a surfless morning. It’s nice to chill and everything, but dawn patrols fans (I’m one of them) may feel a void. You are FAR from the beach. Don’t even think about hiking. If you really wanted to dawn patrol a low / mid tide, it’d have to be a private taxi ($60 or so) / free surf. Sand bottom. No question it’s generally safer and reef cuts aren’t a factor. At the same time, as you’d know, close-outs are more frequent and paddling becomes a constant challenge beyond a certain kJ level. Experienced surfers (not me) will probably revel in this environment. Intermediates (me) will likely struggle to find an open green wall to practice what they’d want to practice. Beginners shall be happy. OK, given the previous point, there’s probably higher quality / bigger consequence / more demanding waves around, but the group has never been split in our two weeks here, for better for worse. It’s just not the formula. Full disclosure: I didn’t even ask to surf separately from the main group. Did I want to? Yes and no. Yes, because I happen to know that there are better waves than a closing out beach break. No, because it’s nice to hang around with everyone, Pura Vida and everything. Surf coaching is fairly basic, as far as wave riding technique is concerned. I can be fairly independent in the water and so was happy to just surf (a gift on its own accord). No one paddled over to sit with / watch me or give specific instructions in / out of the water that I could find particularly useful to progress my surfing. You’d generally hear the usual “look where you want to go”, “chest up”, “legs together”. You probably wouldn’t hear “pivot off the fins”, “pressure on the...

Its hard to know where to start with this review as everything about our stay here from pick up to drop off at the airport was 5 star. I think my biggest takeaway was that upon saying goodbye it felt like I was saying goodbye to a family. The staff (all of them) were really that good. They were happy, always accommodating and just exceptionally nice. It was the best family vacation I have ever taken, hands down and I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

Now to the surfing... we were all beginners (my husband and I both 54 and our daughter 17). I had few expectations in regard to my ability to actually ride a wave. We are athletic people but had tried surfing in Hanalei, Kauai a few years ago and I just simply couldn't get it. With Kalon, they started you in the whitewater and gave you the feel for riding the wave, focusing on your balance and your stance and then you progressed to the green waves. It was methodical and very well done. Once you were out trying to catch waves, they had coaches out there floating ready to assist, picking waves for you if you needed it and then pushing you into it if you weren't going to make it, telling you when to paddle and when to get up. The ratio of coach to student was 1:1 or 1:2 max. Every staff member was ready to assist you with advice, a high 5, a cheer or just a smile. The water was so warm the 5 am wakeup the first morning was refreshing. Not all of our group were beginners but there were waves for everyone.

The resort is lush and beautiful and built up on one of the mountains. It has a gorgeous pool area with a beautiful view of the water from afar. Lodging was lovely, food delicious. Massage therapists were spot on. Concierge helpful with anything you needed. Grounds crew and cleaning staff made this a perfect oasis to call home.

We lucked out that the other guests at the resort were amazing! Between them and the staff we felt like we made friends for life. Our daughter was 20 years younger than any other guest and I haven't seen her smile that much ever.

Suggestions if you go would be to get more massages. If you don't normally surf you will be very sore. Go for the deep tissue massages. If you are from the states wiring money for payment is not that common, it's all good, easy and legitimate.

The last few things I'd say would be if you are on the fence, just go, you won't regret it. For anyone that has trouble clearing their mind of work and stress, this is a vacation for you. You have to make few decisions as the day is planned out and once you are on the water, your focus is there. It's meditative and addictive. Surrounded by intense beauty and loving people Kalon is the real deal and we can't wait to go back. It deserves every...

The Kalon experience was amazing and exceeded my expectations in every way. From the very start when I booked my trip, through the entire stay and preparing for my return home Jackie and the Kalon crew kept in constant communication. The process was so easy.

Personally my goals were to focus entirely on Surfing - both to improve and to have fun surfing. I’ve been a surfer for many years but I know I have many bad habits and wanted to improve. Mission accomplished, I came home with plenty of very actionable steps to continue growing.

Every day at Kalon was a full day. A good part of the day was of course hitting the surf. The surf coaches had a wide variety of boards and would help guide which boards we’d used based on personal goals and on their observations on what would be good for progression. During the session we’d focus on first on stretching and technique in the water.

When not in the water we had a wide variety of activities to grow and learn. Video analysis, pool sessions, and a focus on technique - pop up mechanics, body position and technique for generating speed, turns, etc. This was so valuable personally. The coaches are so positive and provide such specific instruction tailored to every surfer and helped guide all ranges of experience. Each day when we went back into the water we had really specific goals to apply in the water - even taped on our surfboard for reminder!

The other parts of the experience were so great. The rooms are amazing, the view beautiful and every team member at Kalon so nice and welcoming. We had Yoga sessions, the housekeeping staff kept the rooms and space feeling so nice and fresh - and the food was out of this world delicious. Seriously the best food I’ve ever eaten. And I highly recommend taking advantage of the massage sessions. The relaxing massage was amazing but I also opted for the deep tissue package and it was amazing and really helpful to keep me ready for surf.

I also really enjoyed meeting my fellow surfers and sharing the experience. I made so many new friends both at Kalon and with my surfing buddies.

Tips: Bring lip balm with sun protection built-in. The sun can get intense and chapped lips can be a problem. Also may consider your own brand of reef-safe sun-tan lotion. They do provide sun tan lotion at the beach but I found that it could tend to wash off and I personally prefer a stronger brand of protection with zinc.

Also consider your goals in advance but don’t stress to much if you don’t know what they are. The coaches will help. But if you have goals it can help provide a good starting point for focus and which boards you...