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Four Seasons Resort Peninsula Papagayo, Costa Rica


Peninsula Papagayo, 5000 Carillo, Guanacaste, Costa Rica


The reigning best large luxury resort in Costa Rica for two decades, the Four Seasons boasts a secluded location with two beaches and an Arnold Palmer championship golf course that is the finest in the country.

review of Four Seasons Peninsula Papagayo

The Papagayo Peninsula in Guanacaste is getting more crowded, with a huge Ritz-Carlton on the way to join the existing Andaz and splashy new homes dotting the landscape, but the Four Seasons keeps improving and remains the prestige place to vacation in Costa Rica. Set on a woodsy peninsula of its own that has beaches on two sides, it's blessed with gorgeous sunrises and sunsets. With 250 acres of hills to hike and small bays to explore by kayak, paddleboard, or guided outrigger canoe, the resort can please a wide range of ages and interests.

The seven–kilometer driveway snakes along the undulating peninsula, slithering past forest–framed fairways and views that set the stage for what's to come. Dropping down through screens of bamboo, guests arrive at the hotel's curvy entrance, which is always bustling with bellhops ready to whisk your luggage off to your room and excursion departure drivers taking guests on exploratory trips. Riverstone pillars, a bamboo ceiling, and earth tone decor mark the airy lobby where check-in is usually a sit-down affair with a cold washcloth and a welcome drink.

To the rear, the atrium lobby opens below to the Añejo lobby bar and restaurant, accessed by a travertine staircase. Two other restaurants are nearby, three pools offer sea views, and a turn left or right leads to two beaches with lounge chairs, one with a beach club restaurant and bar.

Four Seasons Costa Rica pool

If your main goal on vacation is to claim a lounge chair by a pool or lapping waves and relax, there are plenty of choices here. The main pool that's the center of the property is the largest and is open to families, as is the one closest to the bay beach a bit further down one side. On the Pacific beach side is an adults-only pool with daybed and cabana rentals that has a dedicated wait staff just for that section. All received a complete rebuilding recently and are looking brand-new.

Another recent addition is the expansive Virador Beach Club, a snacks and seafood restaurant facing the white sand that is open-air and casual, with Costa Rican craft beer on tap and items meant to please the kids and adults. With basket lamps, bamboo, and wood plank floors, it's an upscale beach bar experience that will certainly make you feel like you've arrived in the tropics.

Two of the other restaurants are also open to the environment, with one of them getting a visit from a monkey while I had breakfast. That would be Bahia, with its open kitchen featuring a wood-fired grill, a buffet breakfast to the back in the mornings, and a menu that transitions to lunch and dinner later. Most of the dishes take inspiration from Costa Rica and Mexico for lunch and dinner, though there are some Caribbean items, simple grilled seafood specialties, and a kid's menu to please the unadventurous little ones.

Four Seasons Costa Rica Anejo bar

The main lobby bar is Añejo, showing off its high-end bottles or rum and tequila on the wall and mixing up some colorful cocktails, but it is also a restaurant with high tables made from polished and heavy wood planks, with fans circulating overhead to keep a breeze moving. It serves healthy juices and smoothies to go in the mornings, Asian dishes and tapas for lunch and dinner, and then becomes a party space complete with DJ in the evenings. Off to the side is an air-conditioned room hosting various educational tastings on the activity schedule, such as rum or chocolate.

The Pesce Italian restaurant is true to form, with a variety of dishes from different regions of Italy and pizzas from a wood-fired oven. Naturally there's an excellent wine list and with its elegant contemporary furniture and sculptures and pottery on shelves, it feels like an air-conditioned urban restaurant until you walk back out the door at the end.

I tried a variety of dishes over the course of two days: an eggplant parmesan and pistachio pesto linguine from Pesce, oatmeal and egg dishes for breakfast and grilled prawns at Bahia, and a Thai salad and basil chicken dish at the tapas bar. All were beautifully presented and flavorful, using ample regional ingredients, though as I've found nearly everywhere in Costa Rica, the cooks tend to have a heavy hand with the saltshaker. Every menu makes note of which items are vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, and nuts-free, making it easy for those with dietary restrictions to order properly (plus the hostesses and waiters always ask about restrictions to be sure).

The Nemare restaurant at the golf club was part of the most recent revamp and offers a typical steakhouse experience in the evenings only. It also hosts some special events outdoors on the grounds, such as an Argentina-style asado barbecue presented by a Costa Rican rancher and a six-course tasting menu under the stars.

Nemare restaurant Four Seasons Costa Rica

The full–service spa is a calm and minimalist enclave with various steam and sauna options joining long open–air whirlpools flanked by jungle greenery. A full range of treatments includes options for both sexes, including a manly sports massage that's great after a round of golf. I got a deep-tissue massage on this visit that got rid of a nagging laptop-related knot around my shoulder blade and the massage therapist even took the time after to show me some daily stretches that would help in the future.

The fitness center is one of the best in the country, with a wide range of the best equipment on two levels, including Peloton bikes and free weights. There are regular fitness classes included in the daily schedule of activities or you can hire a personal trainer for customized workouts. A new yoga pavilion with a view is new for 2024.

The Four Seasons Peninsula Papagayo is very popular with families and once you're here, it's easy to see why. There was a s'mores night at sunset after I arrived the first day and there's a long list of activities for kids. The newly revamped kids club is one of the coolest I've ever seen, however, with interesting jungle-themed nooks and appropriately sized furniture that can be moved around, with a kiddie pool and playground outside. Teens have their own hidden club space with a rec room feel inside—with video game consoles, foosball, and movies—then outside there's a basketball court and mini soccer field.

best golf course Costa Rica

The golf course here has no rival in the region and is a big draw for its dramatic scenery—including water views from more than half of the holes in the dry season. With five sets of tees, it's a fun course for golfers at all levels. Service here is top-notch as well, with circulating staffers bringing cold towels and a drink cart at regular intervals. There's a driving range, full-blown pro shop, bar, restaurant, and set of locker rooms. There's also a tennis center with pickleball and a bar.

Rooms at Four Seasons in Costa Rica have gone through several changes over the years and the last round of renovations brought the visual volume down, trading prints and bright colors for neutral earth tones and lots of natural materials. Most of the furniture sports clean lines and is made from wood, with cushions in neutral tones. Abstract art is on the walls and instead of curtains there are sliding wood doors with shutters that do a good job of blocking out the early sunrises. Furnished tiled balconies or terraces with a daybed and two chairs supply extra space and the bathrooms have sliding partitions that open up to make the rooms feel larger or supply a bathtub view.

rooms at Four Seasons Costa Rica Papagayo

Bathrooms are ample and sumptuous, with double marble vanities, separate showers with two nozzles and space for two, and an array of pampering toiletries, mostly in refillable jars. Robes and slippers are standard, as are beach bags, Bluetooth music player, capsule coffee maker, a smart TV, and nightly turndown service. The Wi-Fi works well and there are ample charging outlets, including USB ones by the bed.

For those who can swing it, especially families, the spacious suites and villas here are well worth the upgrade. They go from large to "house–sized," the biggest having several separate bedrooms and baths. Many have their own plunge pool on a private deck, an outdoor shower, and in some cases, a full kitchen. The suites are mostly in separate buildings on hillsides, which makes them more private, but they do require a golf cart pickup to get to the beaches, pools, and facilities. The top one is a full-blown three-bedroom villa with its own pool, private lawn, and a wall of glass. If that's not enough, several Residence Estates are large owners' homes that are available as part of the resort offerings.

Four Seasons Papagayo beach club

Concierges here combine traditional face-to-face help with a modern app in delivering extra services, whether that's booking an excursion, setting up transfers in a hydrogen-powered SUV, or arranging a car rental with a pickup outside the lobby doors. Activities range from a fun outrigger canoe trip through the mangroves I took, complete with dozens of parrots in the trees, to surf lessons, nature hikes, and guided kayak trips.

While the hotel still presents a few mixed messages on preserving the environment—such as pushing bottled water transported across an ocean in some of the restaurants—it does far more things right than most large luxury hotels, even by Costa Rica standards. The golf course is a model for sustainability in how water is managed and there are no" single-use plastic bottles in the rooms or elsewhere. Two-thirds of the food served is sourced regionally, straws are made from bamboo, foods waste is composted, and 100% of the wastewater gets recycled for landscaping. The Four Seasons directly supports children in local schools in Guanacaste and contributes used items to communities rather than tossing them.

There are very few things to quibble about here unless you care about food and beverage prices that are the highest in all of Costa Rica. If you don't flinch over a $12 Red Bull, an $18 bag of potato chips, or a $40 airplane bottle of Scotch from the minibar, for example (plus 15% service charge), then you'll have a fantastic vacation in an ideal environment. In a country where service is often best described as "laid-back," the bilingual staffers at Four Seasons Peninsula Papagayo deliver a high level of attention that goes beyond expectations and the renovated rooms and public spaces are a delight.

Web Address: www.fourseasons.com/costarica or book online here.
Total Number of Rooms: 178
Published rates:  $1,400 to $32,000 plus 12% mandatory resort fee and taxes

Review and photos by Timothy Scott


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