The Best Hotels Near Punta Islita, Autograph Collection, by the Record
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A fifty-foot thatched palm ceiling covers the restaurant, and a curving black sand beach sits a few hundred feet below the hillside rooms, each with a hammock aimed at the Pacific. This secluded Costa Rican eco-resort is four hours from San José by land (four-wheel drive required, nighttime arrival discouraged), though a short charter flight is the move if you'd rather arrive intact. Casitas have plunge pools; villas have full private pools and, presumably, the solitude you came for.
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The name comes from the Hebrew word for fire, and the hotel commits to the bit: lava-stone soaking tubs, blackened wood furniture, and a fireplace where guests are invited to cast their intentions into the flames. It holds a Michelin Key. This rainforest retreat outside Nosara offers jungle baths, canopy-level balconies, and a three-tiered pool, with a shuttle to Guiones Beach for anyone who runs out of excuses to stay put.
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Gallery-white walls and warehouse windows sit a hundred paces from Playa Guiones, one of Costa Rica's most-surfed stretches of coast. This 25-room boutique hotel holds a Michelin Key, and the rooms run more polished than the beachy surroundings suggest, each with a private balcony or open-air living room and an outdoor shower. A fitness studio, yoga programming, surf school, and an open-air restaurant rounding out a setup that treats wellness as a floor, not a marketing word.
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Jim Banks surfboards come with every suite, which tells you a lot about who this boutique hotel near Playa Guiones is for. Each of the nine residences has two bedrooms, a full kitchen, and a washer-dryer for the beach towels, but al fresco breakfast and a rooftop infinity pool mean nobody actually has to cook. Toucans show up in the trees outside the living rooms. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.
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Perched on a hillside above Playa Guiones with views that earned the name "Tierra Magnifica" fair and square, this 13-room boutique hotel sits just far enough from one of Costa Rica's most famous surf breaks to feel genuinely removed from it. Rooms lean minimalist but never austere, and everything opens toward the canopy and the Pacific breeze. The yoga pavilion and the restaurant terrace reinforce the idea that walls are optional here.
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Santa Teresa's La Lora surf break is practically in the front yard, but Hotel Fermata leans boutique rather than backpacker, with villas, casitas, and suites done in warm neutrals and organic materials that feel effortless without trying too hard. The open-air restaurant and bar is the social hub, where a New York and Paris-trained chef runs a Mediterranean-leaning menu. The Pacific breeze does its part; the place handles the rest.
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Each villa comes with its own plunge pool, a hammock, and an ocean view, which covers most of what you flew to Costa Rica for. This boutique resort on the Nicoya Peninsula keeps things blissfully self-contained: canopied king beds, patterned textiles, tropical flora framing the terrace, a kitchenette, and in-room spa treatments if the hammock somehow isn't enough. The main pool has a waterfall. Nearby Mal País, still more fishing village than tourist trap, rewards an ATV.
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A rooftop saltwater pool overlooking Tamarindo Bay sets the tone at this small eco-hotel on Costa Rica's northwest coast. Fourteen rooms lean luxurious without abandoning the plant-based, heal-yourself brief, and the in-house restaurant, Off the Grid, runs a seasonal, entirely vegan menu. A yoga and healing studio sits just off the pool deck. The crowd tends to arrive with a reusable water bottle and a genuine intention to use it.