Santarena Hotel at Las Catalinas

Las Catalinas is a car-free town on the Guanacaste coast, which means the Santarena Hotel is the rare Pacific resort you walk to from the beach rather than shuttle to from an airstrip. The architecture nods to colonial mansion style without going theme-park about it, and rooms come with balconies or gardens, some with sea views. A rooftop pool, a Mediterranean restaurant, a lobby bar, and a bakery make leaving optional, if not quite inevitable.

One honor, in evidence: