Marino Ballena National Park protects the bay in front of Uvita and is open every day from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.; foreign non-residents pay six dollars to enter. The park's signature feature is the Whale's Tail, a natural rock-and-sand formation built by tidal sedimentation off Punta Uvita in the shape of a whale's fluke.

You can walk out onto the formation only at low tide — at high tide it is underwater. Check a tide table and start on a falling tide.

Uvita gets two separate humpback migrations each year, which is why the whale-watching window here is so long. Southern Hemisphere humpbacks arrive from Antarctic waters starting in July and linger through mid-November, with August and September the peak months; Northern Hemisphere whales arrive mainly December through March, with sightings possible into April. SINAC notes the whales come to these waters to carry out their reproductive cycle — mothers with calves are a normal sight in season.

Playa Uvita is one of the calmer beaches on this stretch of coast: the surf is moderate and safe for swimming, which is not true of every beach between Dominical and the park. The shoreline south of Punta Uvita — Playa Ballena, with Ballena Island and the Tres Hermanas rocks — is all inside the marine park, which runs from Punta Uvita to Punta Piñuela.