This stunning beach, with rocky expanses that offer excellent tidepooling and wide, wonderful sandy stretches for sunbathing, is famed for having one of the best beach breaks in the country. It's a slow wave in fairly deep water, good for beginners, with four breaks that get hollow on a rising tide.

If swell is really big on a low to medium tide, there's a faster, intermediate level reef break between Madera and Majagual called Panga Drops, accessible by boat only, that offers an awesome ride before dumping you onto the rocky shallows. It gets choppy and you can be caught in the shore break, so watch the wind; it also gets sneaker sets, so stay alert. Waves get big - as do crowds, and it doesn't hold a crowd well.