The Best Hotels Near Pacuare Lodge, by the Record
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You can arrive by Jeep, but most guests choose to show up soaking wet after a whitewater raft through the jungle, luggage sealed in a dry bag. That's the tone Pacuare Lodge sets from the start. This remote eco-lodge holds nineteen suites and villas with canopied beds, tiled open-air bathrooms, and hammock terraces over the river. Wi-fi exists only in the lobby, which the staff frames as a feature. Dinner, if you like, is reached by zip line. Michelin awarded it 2 Keys.
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Exposed brick and parquet floors greet you in the lobby of this boutique-ish downtown hotel, which lends out bicycles and means it. A rooftop garden, Chesterfield sofas, and a vintage neon sign give it an industrial-chic feel without trying too hard. The 91 rooms run simple and clean upstairs. Breakfast is included, the fitness center is there if you need it, and the Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels. San José is often a stopover, but this one makes the stop easy.
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Perched above the Valle del Sol with city lights flickering in the distance, this boutique hotel sits a thirty-minute drive west of downtown San José in the mountains, which is most of its appeal. Rooms channel the golden age of Costa Rican coffee culture: leather chairs, Art Nouveau headboards, Indian cotton linens, and private terraces big enough to actually use. The Spanish colonial meets poured-concrete interior is an unlikely pairing that the place commits to fully.
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Fifty casitas tucked into 180 acres of hillside tropical forest, each with terrace views that make it hard to argue for doing anything at all. This Auberge resort leans into the mountain setting with farm-to-table dining across four venues, a 20,000-square-foot spa drawing on local traditions, and an all-inclusive structure that removes every excuse not to simply stay another day.