Arenas Del Mar

On a hillside above Manuel Antonio on Costa Rica’s central Pacific coast, Arenas del Mar occupies a private 12-acre site between Manuel Antonio National Park and the ocean, with direct trail access to the park’s beaches and a position among the trees of a secondary forest regenerating naturally on former agricultural land. The 40 rooms and suites are built in a tiered structure that steps down the hillside, with each accommodation level positioned to maximise views across the Pacific and the forested headland of the national park. The regenerating forest around the hotel supports a remarkable diversity of wildlife, including three species of monkeys, two-toed sloths, scarlet macaws, and hundreds of bird species that use the hotel’s garden as a corridor between the national park’s intact forest and the patches of secondary forest along the coast.

The hotel’s two restaurants draw on the Pacific seafood of the central Costa Rican coast and the agricultural produce of the Quepos region, with the beachside restaurant accessed via a forest path that itself provides wildlife viewing on the way to lunch. Kayaking in the sea caves of the headland, snorkelling on the coral reef off Biesanz Beach, guided wildlife walks through Manuel Antonio National Park, and whale-watching excursions during the humpback migration season are among the most distinctive activities available from this location. The national park’s famous tolerance for wildlife observation at close range makes it one of the most productive for guests with no previous safari experience.

Arenas del Mar’s position adjacent to a national park whose management has struggled with overvisitation means the hotel’s conservation contribution is partly expressed through its advocacy for controlled access protocols and its support for the park rangers whose work maintains the wildlife densities that draw visitors to this section of the Pacific coast in the first place.