Located on Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast in Guanacaste Province, the region known as The Gold Coast is not actually represented on maps. Its boundaries are imprecise and open to debate among those who like to debate such things.

We know which towns fall under the aegis of this spectral area—Playa Tamarindo, Playa Flamingo, Playa Grande, Potrero, and Playa Negra, charming seaside enclaves peppered with locals and sprinkled with a healthy dose of assimilated expatriates.

While its physical borders are in question, the previously mentioned magic that suffuses the area is irrefutable—an invisible magnet that draws throngs of returning visitors and hordes of foreign transplants… We can’t explain it and we don’t try. As increasing numbers of people discover the Gold Coast, there is a trend towards accommodating the needs of these discerning arrivals. But although you can catch your favorite American TV show here, there is no mistaking that you’re “Not in Kansas anymore!”