12 Best Luxury Resorts in Costa Rica for Your Next Trip

Tumbling waterfalls, dense jungles, winding rivers, smoldering volcanoes, and secluded beaches make Costa Rica an idyllic destination for travelers trying to immerse themselves in nature. What’s more, over the past few many years, Costa Rica has prioritized protecting its natural beauty in a rustic that when had a number of the world’s highest deforestation rates. Today, Costa Rica continues to paved the way on sustainability: Nationwide, it runs on 98 percent renewable energy and is working to decarbonize its economy by 2050.

Sustainable practices have taken hold on the country’s best hotels and resorts. These retreats offer travelers unforgettable experiences in protected natural areas, and so they go the additional mile to operate responsibly inside their environments and communities.

As a part of Afar’s Hotels We Love series, we’ve chosen the 12 best retreats across the country. Whether you favor a safari-style tented camp with volcano views or a beachfront paradise with decent swells, these Costa Rican retreats deliver sublime experiences in nature while offering something for everybody.

Casa Chameleon

• Location: Las Catalinas
• Why we adore it: A nature escape for gourmands
• Loyalty program: World of Hyatt (via Mr. and Mrs. Smith)
• From $1,160
• Book now

As a member of the culinary-focused Relais & Châteaux hotel collection, Casa Chameleon is recognized for its commitment to sustainability, personalized service, and exceptional cuisine. Set on a hill overlooking Las Catalinas, a coastal town north of Tamarindo, the hotel features panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean. The 21 contemporary-feeling private villas each feature an infinity-edge saltwater plunge pool.

The culinary options listed here are truly impressive. Casa Chameleon’s Sentido Norte Restaurant showcases Costa Rica’s food heritage and flavors in an open-air setting with uninterrupted ocean views. Grotto 12 is the most recent restaurant, offering a collection of global wines in a wine cave with only 12 seats. The Green Home is an intimate dining spot that celebrates Costa Rican cuisine with dishes created from ingredients grown on-site. Meanwhile, La Pampa Grill features slow-cooked sea- and farm-to-table feasts, including fall-off-the-bone ribs prepared on the open-fire barbecue.

El Silencio Lodge & Spa

• Location: Bajos del Toro
• Why we adore it: People trying to immerse themselves in Costa Rican culture
• Loyalty program: World of Hyatt (via Mr. and Mrs. Smith)
• From $540
• Book now

El Silencio Lodge is about inside a 500-acre cloud forest reserve on the slopes of Poás Volcano, about halfway between La Fortuna and San Jose; a gurgling creek runs through the grounds. The retreat’s 24 spacious suites and villas face the nearby Poás Volcano, the most important lively volcano in Costa Rica. The on-site Esencia Spa is a real sanctuary, designed to channel the Costa Rican cloud forest’s essential energy. The spa offers treatments that highlight local ingredients, like a chocolate massage, a volcanic clay wrap, and a fruit flake facial.

A personal trail results in the property’s three waterfalls, paths for horseback riding and mountain biking, and an adventure park for ziplining and rappelling. The resort also offers cooking and mixology classes, bird-watching and night frog walks, coffee and wine tastings, tree planting, and traditional oxcart painting classes. After an extended day, guests can drink and dine at Las Ventanas Restaurant and Toro Bohemio Bar, which use vegetables and herbs from El Silencio’s 5,000-square-foot organic greenhouse, fresh eggs from resident free-range chickens, and trout from on-site ponds, where guests may even fish for his or her foremost course.

Finca Rosa Blanca

• Location: Central Valley
• Why we adore it: A retreat built for coffee and food obsessives and travelers who desire a dose of farm life
• From $499
• Book now

Costa Rica is known for its high-quality coffee beans from eight growing regions, which produce only one hundred pc Arabica. And for a glimpse on the growers of those coveted beans, Finca Rosa Blanca is the place to remain. Situated within the highlands, an hour’s drive outside of the capital city of San Jose, this family-owned coffee plantation practices sustainable, organic agriculture. The inn occupies a constructing that was the family’s original home in 1974, and today the interiors have fun local art and culture as much as coffee and food. The 14 individually designed suites feature hand-painted murals by Oscar Salazar, a neighborhood artist. Accommodations also feature free-form hot tubs, wood furnishings crafted locally, and in fact, all of the coffee you may drink—much of it grown on site.

The hotel’s farm-to-table restaurant serves such dishes as coconut milk soup with root vegetables and braised beef tenderloin with stewed plantains. Ingredients often come from the property’s fruit orchards and organic vegetable and herb greenhouse. The organic coffee tour and cupping is a must: Guests can learn all about coffee making from plant and fermentation to roasting and drinking. If you’re not caffeinating, linger by the chemical-free infinity pool; it’s surrounded by a garden full of orchids, bromeliads, and palms and has views of Costa Rica’s green Central Valley and its two lively volcanoes.

4 Seasons Resort Costa Rica at Peninsula Papagayo

• Location: Peninsula Papagayo
• Why we adore it: Top-notch service on the beach, with accommodations ideal for multi-generational groups
• From $1,440
• Book now

Situated on the Pacific coast, within the northwest corner of Guanacaste Province, the 1,400-acre Peninsula Papagayo is straightforward to access: It’s only an hour’s drive from Liberia Guanacaste airport. And in the case of lodgings, the 4 Seasons Resort Peninsula Papagayo is the peninsula’s crown jewel. The 182 enormous rooms, suites, and personal residences are equipped with contemporary furnishings in natural hues, while floor-to-ceiling windows let in ample light. Guests can loosen up by any of 4 pools or in a cabana on the beach at the brand new Virador Beach Club, which encompasses a restaurant and lounge, infinity-edge pool, and personal cabanas, all set against the scenic coastline.

Younger children have access to the Kids for All Seasons club, recently renovated to reflect the world’s wildlife, while teens can try the Tuanis Teen Center—a rarity within the resort world with a basketball court and social spaces for meeting latest friends. Other family-friendly on-site pursuits include browsing lessons with the resort’s women-run SurfX surf school and golfing on the 18-hole Arnold Palmer–designed course, which recently updated several features, including a precision irrigation system that reduces water use by 20 percent, a bigger teeing area with 12 acres of native vegetation, and a latest golf pro and tennis retail shop. The spa added a latest Wellness Shala, an indoor-outdoor structure inspired by the Guanacaste winds, that hosts yoga, meditation, and other health workshops.

Head off property on a rain forest tour to identify the three local monkey species, traverse the swinging bridges, rope obstacles, and zip lines of the nearby Palmares aerial park, hit the water on a water bike or paddle through a mangrove forest, or go off-roading on a UTV across the Palmares estuary. Guests may also join a coral restoration project where they assist clean, catalog, and restore the world’s fragile coral reefs. From $1,440

Hacienda AltaGracia, Auberge Resorts Collection

• Location: Pérez Zeledón, Nicoya Peninsula
• Why we adore it: An idyllic escape for wellness seekers
• From $1,800
• Book now

The soothing views of the green Talamanca Mountains from the private plunge pools and terraces of Hacienda AltaGracia’s 50 one- and two-bedroom casitas feel like a wellness experience unto themselves. That’s not surprising, on condition that nature-based wellness is the main focus of the 180-acre property. It is perhaps experienced via freshly squeezed juice or coffee with ingredients from the resort’s farm. Or choosing a horse from the stables and riding through the green hills nearby. Or climbing to the highest of the rainforest cover by rope.

Hacienda AltaGracia also features Casa De Agua, a wellness spa with thermal experiences that harness the facility of water, heat, and steam. Off property, the resort can arrange a visit to an Indigenous Boruca village or a rafting trip on the Pacuare River. To not be missed: A gathering with a neighborhood family for a glimpse at life on their farm within the Nicoya Peninsula, considered one of the world’s five Blue Zones—where persons are healthiest and live the longest.

Hotel Nantipa

• Location: Santa Teresa, Nicoya Peninsula
• Why we adore it: A sustainable retreat in a UNESCO-designated Blue Zone
• Loyalty program: Hilton Honors (via Small Luxury Hotels)
• From $385
• Book now

The Nicoya Peninsula is considered one of the five Blue Zones, designated areas around the globe where people live the longest and are healthiest. It’s where travelers will find Nantipa, a boutique hotel that’s shaded by trees and faces an idyllic beach. The hotel consists of 27 suites and bungalows. The 2 latest beachfront villas have three bedrooms, kitchens, and indoor-outdoor living areas with private pools.

Nantipa is home to the Numú Wellness Center, where guests can participate in various healing and fitness classes and workshops like sound healing, life coaching sessions, and Ayurvedic therapy. Meanwhile, Manzú Restaurant, right on the beach, serves dishes with each international and Caribbean influences.

When not on the pool or on the beach, guests can go on excursions, including rainforest hikes, browsing lessons, horseback riding, fishing trips, and a ship tour to Tortuga Island to identify marine wildlife. In February 2023, the hotel was awarded a Certification for Sustainable Tourism by the Costa Rican Tourism Institute, due to such policies because the omission of single-use plastics, gray water irrigation, and solar-heated water. The property can be a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World’s Considerate Collection of actively sustainable luxury hotels.

Kurá Boutique Hotel

• Location: Uvita
• Why we adore it: A romantic getaway within the green Osa Peninsula
• Loyalty program: World of Hyatt (via Mr. and Mrs. Smith)
• From $880
• Book now

This adults-only, eight-suite retreat on the Pacific Coast north of the Osa Peninsula is owned by a Costa Rican architect and biologist who envisioned a hospitality experience that’s each stylish and sustainable. The furnishings are created from responsibly sourced teak wood, and also you won’t see any single-use plastic. The resort sits on a hillside overlooking Marino Ballena National Park and its famous Whale’s Tail sandbar, where migrating humpback whales can often be spotted. Accommodations feature floor-to-ceiling windows and two-person hammocks on open-air verandas (4 suites have private pools).

Kurá’s most alluring attraction, other than its beach-meets-rain forest setting, is its infinity pool, complete with an underwater sound system. It’s surrounded by a bar and restaurant serving ingredients sourced nearby, like seafood and grass-fed meat from local farmers. Some produce is grown within the property’s organic greenhouse, and the resort composts all food waste on site. Off property, the hotel offers a complimentary shuttle to the village of Uvita and the whale coast, and it may well arrange for waterfall hikes, paddleboarding and snorkeling, and horseback riding.

Lapa Rios Lodge

• Location: Osa Peninsula
• Why we adore it: A super base for lively travelers searching for each the ocean and the rainforest
• Loyalty program: World of Hyatt (via Mr. and Mrs. Smith)
• From $1,350
• Book now

Lapa Rios Lodge offers each rain forest and ocean adventures in considered one of the last remaining coastal lowland tropical rain forests in Central America. The posh lodge on the wild Osa Peninsula is adjoining to biodiverse Corcovado National Park, and it has preserved greater than 1,000 acres of rainforest because it opened in 1993. The 17 bungalows feature hardwood floors and huge private verandas with their very own plunge pools. Guest activities include volunteer work to assist restore Golfo Dulce’s coral reefs, bird-watching walks where macaw and toucan sightings are common, and waterfall hikes.

Sustainability tours offer a behind-the-scenes take a look at the renewable constructing materials used to construct the lodge, in addition to a tutorial on how the 240 solar panels, 10 water turbines, and 48 energy storage units provide renewable energy and purified water. Guests also visit the lodge’s organic gardens and pig pens, where food waste from the restaurant feeds the resident pigs.

Much of the food grown within the gardens finally ends up on the menu at Brisa Azul Restaurant, which offers a menu with entirely plant-based dishes and one other featuring sustainably sourced meat, dairy, and seafood.

Nayara Tented Camp

• Location: Arenal National Park
• Why we adore it: A family-friendly, safari-style adventure in Costa Rica
• Loyalty program: Leaders Club (Leading Hotels of the World)
• From $1,221
• Book now

This tented camp within the La Fortuna area couldn’t be farther from roughing it. The 37 spacious glamping accommodations of Nayara Tented Camp include private hot-spring-fed pools with views of the lively Arenal volcano, king-size beds, massive bathrooms with deep soaking tubs, and indoor and outdoor showers. This newest retreat by Nayara is positioned on the identical 62-acre rewilded estate as sister properties Nayara Gardens (fully renovated as of 2025) and Nayara Springs. The camp offers several multibedroom tents which might be especially convenient for traveling families.

Activities that appeal to varied age groups include naturalist-led bird-watching, frog-spotting walks, and visits to the farmers’ market in La Fortuna town and to the wildlife-filled Arenal Hanging Bridges Park. Find out about Nayara’s sloth habitat protection efforts through an on-property experience called the Secret Lifetime of Tony the Sloth, where guests find out about a sloth that has called Nayara home for a few years. Several sloths continue to exist the property, due to the resort’s reforestation efforts that planted greater than 1,000 cecropia trees, which the mammals rely upon for food.

Post-adventure, enjoy considered one of the resort’s six cantilevered hot spring pools within the jungle, dine at the brand new on-site Mediterranean restaurant Ayala, or visit the treetop spa and yoga platform at Nayara Springs.

Nekajui, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve

• Location: Peninsula Papagayo
• Why we adore it: Treetop chic with a concentrate on local elements
• Loyalty program: Marriott Bonvoy
• From $2,400
• Book now

Occupying a peaceful corner of Costa Rica’s biodiverse Peninsula Papagayo, Nekajui, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, lets travelers commune deeply with nature and native culture. Escaping into nature can often mean forgoing high-end creature comforts, but not so at this property, which translates to “lush garden” within the local Chorotega dialect. That is the world’s eighth Ritz-Carlton Reserve—Marriott’s ultra-luxurious collection of resorts in distant locales that concentrate on nature and culture—and it’s the primary within the Central and South Americas. Nekajui celebrates its environs from all angles, whether architecturally or in its thoughtful cuisine. Read Afar’s full review of Nekajui, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve.

Origins Luxury Lodge by Mantis

• Location: Bijagua
• Why we adore it: An off-the-grid rainforest estate
• Loyalty program: World of Hyatt (via Mr. and Mrs. Smith)
• From $1,175
• Book now

Visitors are drawn to the quiet town of Bijagua for access to Tenorio National Park, home to the lively Tenorio volcano, the Rio Celeste waterfall, and resident wildlife, including tapirs, howler monkeys, and sloths. Here, the Origins Luxury Lodge by Mantis, which sits along a hill in an adjoining 111-acre rain forest estate, offers a stay that’s each luxurious and eco-conscious. The resort, reachable via private heliport or a roughly two-hour drive past small villages, consists of six circular one-bedroom luxury lodges and one three-bedroom treetop villa. Accommodations mix into the landscape, due to green roofs and natural materials like wood, bamboo, adobe, and stone. Each lodge has its own private hot tub, cover bed, and an indoor-outdoor shower.

Guests will notice other eco-friendly initiatives: You won’t find single-use plastic anywhere, and the big on-site organic garden and 25 beehives supply ingredients to the spa and restaurant. Meanwhile, fragrant organic bath products are made with wild ylang-ylang growing on the property. Behind the scenes, the hotel operates its own composting stations, solar water tanks, and a treatment plant for soapy water that’s reused for watering plants. One among the highlights of a stay here’s a naturalist-led walk on the wildlife-rich property—keep your eyes peeled for tree frogs and toucans.

Silvestre Nosara

• Location: Nosara
• Why we adore it: Luxury residences with a boutique hotel feel
• Loyalty program: World of Hyatt (via Mr. and Mrs. Smith)
• From $1,150
• Book now

Set on Costa Rica’s peaceful Pacific coast, Silvestre Nosara brings together the sensibility of a non-public residence with the convenience of a luxury hotel. Each of the nine apartment-style suites houses two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a totally equipped kitchen. Guests even have the amenities of a typical hotel, including a rooftop restaurant and bar, a gym, and an infinity pool. The property opened its doors within the spring of 2024. Since then, it’s been successful with families. Even higher, Silvestre (“wild” in Spanish) is near top-of-the-line surf breaks in all of Costa Rica, and guests can book lessons through an in-house surf concierge.

This text originally appeared online in December 2023. It was updated with latest reporting by Chris Dong in August 2025.