Arenas del Mar Beach & Nature Resort
A carbon-neutral resort on Costa Rica's Pacific coast, woven into rainforest above two near-empty beaches, with a private nature reserve and naturalist guides.
Arenas del Mar is one of Costa Rica’s finest beachfront resorts, and also one of its most careful. The property is carbon-neutral, was among the first fully sustainable developments in the country, and holds the top Five-Leaf Sustainability rating: credentials it carries lightly, woven into how the place runs rather than announced.
The land tells the story. The resort’s built footprint covers less than a quarter of its site; the rest is kept as a private nature reserve, and some 7,000 native trees have been planted around it. Solar panels heat the water, rigorous recycling runs throughout, and the architecture is set into the surrounding rainforest rather than cleared from it.
The rooms follow suit: simple, elegant and natural in feel, hung with local art and opening onto generous private terraces. Beyond them sit a spa, two pools and two restaurants, both serving gourmet plates that manage to be nourishing without being austere.
The resort has access to two beaches, Espadilla and Playitas, where you can often walk the shore without meeting a soul. From there it is a short walk to Manuel Antonio National Park, or a surf lesson on the sand. Guests are each assigned a local naturalist guide, so the fauna and flora on the doorstep come with context rather than guesswork.
It is regenerative travel done quietly and done well: a stay where the setting is the point, and the resort knows it.
