A Look Inside Costa Rica’s Most Luxurious New Vacation Homes
Eco-tourism is one of the world’s fastest growing travel niches. With eco-conscious travelers choosing locations where their tourism will do
Ivy Griffith
Eco-tourism is one of the world’s fastest growing travel niches. With eco-conscious travelers choosing locations where their tourism will do the best perceived good, an entire industry is growing around offering developing nations and vulnerable locations a way to take advantage of this fast-growing trend. While Costa Rica has, in recent decades, made the shift more from developing to developed, it’s still a country that benefits from the eco-tourism industry.
And places like Peninsula Papagayo are designed to bring in vacationers looking to travel in eco-luxury, boost the local economy, and enjoy some tropical time away in their own place. Peninsula Papagayo is expanding the offerings on their exclusive and private peninsula, and buyers looking for the perfect vacation should pay attention. CELEB looks at all of the new offerings from Peninsula Papagayo and we’re ready to take you on a tropical journey to choose your next vacation home.
Costa Rica’s Coast-to-Coast Locale and History
Like much of Central and South America, Costa Rica has strong Spanish and Catholic architecture and cultural influences from its colonized history. Ticos, as the people of Costa Rica are called due to the colloquial habit of replacing the diminuitive -tito with -tico, are the source of the Pura Vida phrase—the “pure life” concept that Americans have adopted amid a turbulent and fast-paced society. The country boasts rich and prolific farming in the heartland, with some of the best coffee in the world.
Along the outer regions of the country—the tourism-heavy coasts—Costa Rica also boasts a steady output of bananas, mahogany, cedar, and pineapples, which has resulted in one of the healthiest and most stable economies and democracies in the region. The country has some of the greatest biodiversity on the planet and draws biologists from all over, from sandy beaches and bluff coastlines, to mountains interiors and rolling farm plains. Animal and plant life is richly varied and unique. Much of the country’s fertile land is owed to its volcanic history, with the last eruption of note in 1968.
San Jose is the only city of size in the country, and it has grown to encompass surrounding smaller towns. The bustling metropolis stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic if one includes the entire incorporated urban region, and contains nearly 1/4th of the country’s entire population. That leaves the other 3/4 of the country to sparsely populate the remaining regions, offering significant advantages to outsiders looking to purchase some space to breathe in the beautiful tropical country.
Tree Houses in Paradise
As a surge in demand for residential ownership occurs in Costa Rica’s tropical exterior, places like Peninsula Papagayo are rising to the challenge. The 1,400-acre private and elite resort has announced two different sections of residential locations for buyers.
One of the most intriguing concepts for a vacation home belongs to the Peninsula Papagayo’s Andaz branded luxury treehouses. While not treehouses in the strictest sense of the word—they aren’t built suspended amongst the branches—they are as close as a luxury version can get. The Andaz treehouses sit like graceful swans amidst the lush greenery of the Papagayo’s foliage. From the serene decor to the breathtaking views, anyone owning a piece of one of these treehouses is going to feel suspended, dream of being among the clouds and drifting slowly along with the luxurious sensation of being the only people around. Papagayo announced the opening of 25 of these unique units, with 2 and 3 bedroom designs available for purchase, starting around $1 million.
In a statement, Andaz announces, “Designed by Costa Rican architect Ronald Zürcher, the residences range in size from 2,400 to 3,400 square feet of combined indoor and outdoor living, including spacious private outdoor living spaces and private plunge pools. Integrated pedestrian paths will link the resort and residences providing convenient access to an expanded fitness center and spa, outdoor workout station, multiple beaches, pools, restaurants, and nearby Marina Papagayo. Fully managed by Hyatt, future owners will enjoy in-residence dining, daily housekeeping, valet, dry cleaning, laundry, grocery provisioning and off-site transportation and optional rental program.”
If you can peel yourself out of the lux, relaxing, serenity of your mountainside residence, you’ll find no lack of activities right at your fingertips with Papagayo’s specially curated entertainment and activity offerings.
Peninsula Living Offers Many Benefits
If lounging among dreams of clouds and feeling a bit like a treetop millionaire isn’t your style, don’t look away yet; Papagayo may still have exactly what you’re looking for. Alongside the 25 treehouse residences, the resort announces it’s adding 13 private family residences nestled along its stunning bluff, prices starting around $6 million.
The bluffside Bahias residences are designed by celebrated architect and visionary Antoine Predock. While the treehouses lounge among the trees and dream of the clouds, the Bahias bluffside homes will take a more ambitious stab at touching the sky by draping themselves across Papagayo’s bluffs, offering bay-to-bay views and the promise of a glittering ocean vista framed by the lush green of the island around them.
Designed to feel like part of the cliffs while confidently retaining their own design, the Bahias homes will offer 8,500 to 10,500 square foot of combined living spaces and include private infinity pools, spas, glamping rooms and more.
“‘In Costa Rica, nature is a dominating force,’ said Predock, founder and principal of Antoine Predock Architect, in a statement. ‘When you come to Papagayo, you are not merely looking at nature, you are in it. We wanted to create a fully immersive experience that would honor the cultural landscape—not to bring something predetermined, but to derive our design out of the place itself.’”
Costa Rica is a Lush, Tropical Land—And the Home of ‘Jurassic Park’
Whether you’ve got your sights set high at the Andaz treehouses, or even higher at the Bahias cliffside mansions, Papagayo is certain to be the place to settle your away-from-home hearth. With all the peninsular resort has to offer, there’s no reason to need to go anywhere—everything you need is close at hand, including paradise.
Costa Rica has developed beyond its struggling roots in the past few decades and now boasts a healthy and stable democracy. Americans are turning to the Central American country more and more as they look for out-of-US locales for their vacation homes. Peninsula Papagayo is in the right place at the right time to offer this unique and elite set of vacationers and travel-lovers a place to call a second home.
And for those who are unaware, the Northern Pacific Coast of Costa Rica where Peninsula Papagayo calls home is the same general location where parts of ’90’s mega-hit Jurassic Park was filmed. If you’ve ever gazed at the vistas in the film in awe and wonder and thought “if only I could live there”—minus the dinosaur rampage—Peninsula Papagayo has some good news: They’re ready for you.
It’s not just jetsetters and dinosaur dreamers looking to live in Costa Rica—celebrities are increasingly buying a stake in the beautiful country. Mel Gibson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Britney Spears, and Gwyneth Paltrow are all among the Hollywood royalty said to grace the shores of Costa Rica—either with vacation residences or on short trips.
So if you’re looking to laze among the stars—both those in the sky and those from the City of Angels—Peninsula Papagayo is the perfect blend of the ethereal and the earthly. With eco-conscious designs, breathtaking biodiversity, and an endless variety of entertainment options on the resort property itself, Papagayo offers a little bit of everything. If you’re ready to call Papagayo your second home, don’t wait too long; with only 38 residences to purchase, you’ll have to buy now and dream later. But you can do the dreaming in your very own slice of paradise. The budget may be a little restrictive for the casual vacationer, but for some this is exactly the chance they’ve been waiting for.