Four Seasons Peninsula Papagayo, Costa Rica — Hotel in Nacascolo

Trip Advisor||My wife and I recently returned from an absolutely amazing trip to the Four Seasons at Papagyo Peninsula. We were celebrating my 50th birthday along with some time for us without our children. Papagayo Peninsula really delivers with its culture, cuisine, wildlife and people. The Four Seasons is in an area with several other high-end resorts as well. The Ritz Carlton Reserve is nearby. All the resorts are very private and secure. Below are some of the highlights from start to finish. Hopefully you’ll have a great time as we did. We’re already thinking about making a return trip and we heard this FS has the most repeat guests in their chain. ||For starters, this FS property, we were told, ranked number one globally last year in 2024. The staff really respects that. They treat you with impeccable precision. Anything you need, you get. I would download the Four Seasons app before you go and utilize that to look at all that it has to offer and when you get there you can chat with an agent at the resort property 24/7 through the chat text feature. There is a dedicated agent on it all the time. If you literally text them through the app that you need water, they will bring it right to you. We flew direct from Miami since we’re based in south Florida. Our flight was about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. We flew straight to Liberia. It’s about a 30 to 45 minute car ride in. I would recommend getting transportation service through your hotel where you are staying. There are a number of taxis and vans available outside the airport. But like any country, those options come with a lot of solicitation for sightseeing trips and a lot of questions about who we are meeting and if we are traveling alone etc. We paid $100 for a one way taxi (mini van). The driver was nice but we weren’t totally comfortable I will add. On our return when we left we set up a private SUV with the FS and it was $230 one way. It had WiFi in the vehicle and completely worth the extra money. The FS also had a higher end mini van for $170 one way. So that’s a cheaper option. ||The resorts lobby is open air. Your greeted with coconut drinks in a coconut shell. It’s very warm and friendly. They’ll sit you down and go over your reservations and go over your stay. The lodging comes with many options. I would recommend looking on their website. You can get full houses with plunge pools up the mountain or you can get a variety of hotel rooms. The rooms were very nice. We were upgraded to an oceanfront suite. The area is very natural with habitat and wildlife so the view was obstructed with trees but you’re with nature and you’re with the culture and you’re with the wildlife absorbing it all around so it was actually nice. Permanent screens are in front on the balconies to keep the wildlife from getting to your balcony and inside your room. Specifically, the monkeys were told that can get aggressive. Most if not all rooms will have a screen enclosure up the entire time that’s non-removable. I would check with reservations to go over the level of room you want and the specific views. The full houses carry and incredible unobstructed view but they come with a higher price that can be split with multiple families if you desire. The rooms are very nice and come with espresso machines for the morning which is really awesome. All your amenities are set up in the room and housekeeping comes twice a day and puts a very special touch on it. The beds were out of this world comfortable. Hearing the roar of the ocean outside was just magical. ||There are three pools. Two pools for families and one smaller pool for adults only. The adult pool you can swim in freely but if you have to pay for lounge chairs. They are $75 a piece. I didn’t quite understand that. Everywhere else the lounge chairs are free. The pools are within yards of each other so we ended up keeping our towels and belongings at one of the family pools and then walked into the adult pool to relax in the water. ||The resort has two beaches. One comes with a variety of water sports and activities. You’ll want to look at the app or the website before you go to get familiar with that. Everything from surfing to fishing is available even volcano helicopter tours. All lounge chairs at both beaches are free. Snorkeling gear and stand up paddle boarding are complementary to guests. The beach on the sunset side is more of a relaxation beach adjacent to Virador Beach club.||The spa is amazing. My wife got a treatment. Several guests we spoke with got treatments as well and loved it. My wife’s deep tissue massage was one of the best she’s ever had if that’s any indication of its popularity. The best part about the spa, you can utilize their facility without having to get a treatment. That includes a steam room, a hot and cold plunge, showers and locker rooms. Again, you can utilize all that without having to get a treatment. I don’t think I’ve ever been at a resort where you can do that so it’s a huge plus for this resort. ||As for activities to do, I would recommend looking at the FS website or app and booking it through them. We did the Superman zip line and animal sanctuary tour for $1200. It was absolutely fantastic. You get your own private guide who begins with you at the resort. You take a boat from the FS about 40 minutes to a remote area where you’re picked up and taken to the zip line site. It’s so cool and adventurous and safe. The site is called Diamanté Eco Adventure Park. It houses the full zip line experience and animal sanctuary. It’s ranked one of the best in Costa Rica. Zip lines take you up extremely high. At the highest level you’ll travel a mile on one zip line at speeds up to 60 miles an hour. It’s a complete thrill. You do 4 to 5 zip lines and then you end at the animal sanctuary. It’s a wonderful habitat that really established the true essence and wildlife of Costa Rica. Your guide is with you the entire time giving you a lot of background. It’s a great educational experience. In total, it took about four hours from start to finish from when we were back at the hotel. Wear comfortable clothing and tennis shoes. The resort offers complementary mixology and coffee tastings. Their coffee is out of this world. It’s so good. All the tastings happen at La Reserva, which is right adjacent to Anejo. I’d do the mixology and one of the coffee tastings. Wil leads the coffee tastings. You will enjoy his education and then try some really solid coffees. He’s extremely knowledgeable. You’ll know how coffee in Costa came to be and which regions harvest the most. We also did sunrise meditation at the Shala. It’s a very tranquil mountaintop place for guests to enjoy. Yoga, sound and meditation are offered in there. It’s worth it. Meditation is complimentary. Each week the resort post its daily activities. Be sure to get that from the concierge. There’s also a display near Anejo. We never golfed but the course is really good and hard and has spectacular views which is also another excursion you can tour. We were told the course felt much hotter than the location of the resort. It’s not far at all from the property but something to keep in mind. We worked out everyday in the fitness center. It was really nice. They have a wide range of free weights and machines on two levels near the spa. We never made it to the teen center but it houses a basketball and pickleball court and games. ||The weather was rainy on the first day and then it was mostly sunny for the remainder of our trip. Again, we went in mid June. We went during the rainy season, but honestly, it didn’t impact us at all. Most days you’ll get sun and the last day it got really hot. We never really had an issue with mosquitoes. However, the bugs are there and you’ll want to protect yourself accordingly. They don’t have complementary mosquito spray so you will want to bring that with you in travel sizes. I would speak with the concierge before you go about your timing and the weather during that time so you can plan accordingly.||There are multiple dining options. Again check The FS website or app and take a look at all the restaurants and the menus. Not every restaurant is open every night so be sure to get reservations ahead of time. It’s very easy to do through the resort. I highly recommend that. Bahia is where you’ll eat breakfast every day. The breakfasts are fantastic. You can choose from a full massive buffet for about $50 per person or order from the menu for half the cost. Bahia also serves a wonderful latin dinner menu. It was one of our favorites. And their drinks are really good. Pesce was good. It’s their Italian restaurant. The fish was ok. Pasta was very good. Probably our least favorite and most expensive. Service was ok surprisingly. We never made it to the steakhouse Nemare. Anejo is the main bar just below the lobby. They have a fantastic menu of tapas. It’s perfect for lunch or dinner. A very chill cool vibe and the drinks are really good. Virador Beach Club is their Mediterranean restaurant. The resort just launched a very cool Friday night party called Sol De Fuego. We went to their inaugural event. Every Friday from 5:30 to 7:30 at the Virador Beach Club, you can enjoy beachside cocktails, curated bites and live music. You have to make reservations. The menu is solid but the music makes this party. The DJ is accompanied by Alejandro Molina, a really awesome saxophone player. He also serves as a hospitality attendant during the day servicing the pool and beach club. We met him the first day at the adult pool (which is adjacent to the beach club). He’s got a warm and friendly personality and always goes the extra mile to make sure you’re comfortable. I think people like this really set this Four Seasons apart. Another one was Lena Delouise, she’s the director of restaurants. We enjoyed complementary champagne, complementary gifts and extraordinary service from her during our stay, none of which we asked for. When you’re done, the complete experience really transforms your stay and makes it memorable. Dining. One thing to keep in mind, Costa Rica imposes a 13% government tax on every bill. Then resort adds a 10% gratuity on every bill. You can add more gratuity if you like but combined it adds $20-$30 for every bill you sign at the resort. They do take American dollars and credit. The bills are itemized in “Colon’s”, Costa Rican currency, so we had to convert it on our iPhones to properly add the total and make sure it was accurate. We did visit the Ritz Carlton Reserve near the FS for happy hour drinks at Ambar. It’s basically a teeehoise that has a cool bar perched in the trees with monkeys and and incredible sunset over the mountain. You have to make reservations but it’s absolutely gorgeous and stunning with likely the best sunset of our trip. I’d highly recommend that and you get to see another property as well.||If you’re up for it, take the trail and walk through the forest adjacent to the hotel. The path is clearly marked from the map at the concierge desk. It’s about an hour walk and it’s not for the faint of heart. We got an incredible workout. You climb an extraordinary amount of steps up the mountain and to another side of it. You can choose your path to a nearby beach and/or choose another path to end on the other side of FS resort. You are literally walking inside the forest with nature and it’s really spectacular but it’s very, very hard. So bring some water and enjoy the heck out of it. Be prepared to see a lot of wildlife while you’re here. We had the amazing opportunity to see a colony of monkeys climbing through the trees as they made their way past Virador Beach Club. They were white faced monkeys, just enjoying some playful time in the morning as they made their way. About 25 were in this group, but it was just so cool to watch and experience wildlife in the raw. You feel one with nature when you’re here it’s a really cool. ||In closing, this FS resort really takes you full throttle into an immersive experience of culture, cuisine, people and wildlife. While we were there as a couple, we met some fantastic families who were enjoying their stay. You never really feel like you’re outnumbered one way or the other. It’s a perfect blend and makes for a really fun time. We hope your experience will be just like ours and perhaps you’ll be plotting your next vacation back to Papagayo Peninsula at the...

The Four Seasons is definitely a luxurious resort. The entry way to the resort is all paved (once you turn off the main road) and winds for about 5 miles before you actually arrive at the resort; its pretty impressive. We saw lemurs drinking our of the sprinklers along the way! We arrived much earlier than our check-in time (we took a red-eye and arrived at 8am), but were greeted by a very friendly valet staff and Daniel met us in the lobby with open arms. We were served cold coconut water in a coconut shell and ice cold towels to cool off with. He extended an offer to go freshen up or change clothes in the spa area and to go enjoy breakfast while we waited for our room to be ready. The resort is stunning and beautifully landscaped. They provided us a text link that we used throughout our stay. It is a great resource to utilize and this made it much more comfortable for me to ask questions, plus they respond very quickly. You can use this link for reservations too.||Once our room was ready, our luggage was loaded onto a golf cart and taken to our room. We were in building 3, first floor facing the bay side of the resort; had a very nice view of the bay and could hear the waves crashing at night. The room was beautiful, bed comfortable, bedding extremely soft. We opted for comfort pillows instead of memory foam pillows...the comfort pillows were amazing! The room amenities were perfect and very nice quality...shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotion, bug spray, robes, slippers, coffee & teas, handheld steamer, iron and blow dryer. Twice a day they come in to make up the room in the morning and then at night set it up for night tea, yoga channel on, nice bottles of water bedside. It's pretty bougie!||We were celebrating a birthday and wedding anniversary. When we arrived to our room they had a small chocolate cake, chocolate dipped strawberries and a bottle of champagne chilling. So very unexpected but it added a special touch to our stay.||There are 2 family pools and 1 adult pool. We hit up the adult pool once and never went back. It was just an infinity pool long and narrow chest high water and people were just around in little circles holding drinks...not our things. Didn't feel like you could really chat with other people. However, we did spend a lot of time at the family pools, which we enjoyed very much and met a lot of really nice people. Pool attendants were fabulous. We had no problem getting lounge chairs or found people not to be "saving" areas when they were not there. If you went much later in the day most of the chairs could be in use though. They supply sunscreen in a 30spf and 50spf and an after lotion...don't forget to apply it often! There is a water filling station so if you bring your own water bottle you can fill poolside and they will bring you ice. There are outside shower located by the pool. They handed out popsicles and pineapple chunks poolside at random times. Please note the cement area around the pools are so very, very HOT! An improvement would be to have narrow rubber runners around the pool. Take your flip flops with you when you enter the pool and leave them near so you can put them on immediately after exiting the pool otherwise you WILL burn your feet! We never experienced a ton of kids running around the family pools to speak of. In fact, we were surprised as to how low-key it was being a "family pool." There was a really good mix of older couples, younger families, and young couples.||There is a very nice facility that has lots of activities for pre-teen/teens...basketball, pool table, pickle ball, soccer. ||We ate at all for restaurants on site. The food was very good; a bit pricy after they add 10% service charge + 13% for taxes and then the tip! There were not a lot options on the menu at any of the restaurants during evening dining for say a casual burger or pizza etc. (except on a child menu), that kind of food you could order pool side or room service. Speaking of room service, we ordered it one night while we where there and our server was great. The burger was good, the Cuban sandwich was decent, not the best, lots of fries and the key lime pie as wonderful.||They provide you a weekly schedule. Be sure to review it each day to see what complimentary activities are being offered. If there is a fee for the activity it is listed. We missed out on a lot of things because we failed to look at the schedule, unfortunately.||We never did any of the excursions, so I can't offer any information of that, but they do have lots of tours offered.||The bay side of the resort is where all the water sports are happening. I did the corral reef snorkeling thing with a guide for $16 along with two other couples. The water was not very clear, but I did see some sea life...sting ray, schools of fish and a turtle poked his head out of the water. Our guide Daniel was very attentive. I was expecting to see much more corral but instead he was showing us how they are regrowing corral on these cages on the bottom of the bay...it was interesting though. ||It's a 5-6 minute walk to the beach side. There are lots of lounge chairs and service available there as well. We spotted a iguana, an ant-eater, some howler monkey and a ton of various birds. There is constant chirping from the birds. We did not experience any real issues with bugs, but they do supply bug spray in your room in the closet.||We rented a car and took a day trip to Play De Coco about 50 minutes away just to see the surrounding area. Lots of bars, souvenir shops, pharmacy and restaurants. We were approached by street vendors several times and were a bit nervous about parking our rental car. The area was not trashy or anything. All the shopkeepers were very friendly. The beach area wasn't impressive really, lots of boats in the water, no real waves to speak of. ||Overall...Resort is beautiful, service amazing, good food; bit pricey., I'd recommend purchasing treats, soda and/or alcohol on the way to the resort. There was no fridge in our room, only the mini bar stocked with overpriced items! You are isolated a bit as there is not much around the resort even if you just wanted to run and pick up something at a store. There are a few shelves of treats in one of the shops, but they wanted $5 for a can of coke. Pretty much once you leave the airport surrounding area there aren't many places to stop along the way. There is a Marina that we did not explore and we did not utilize the...

This was our family vacation for the year and we were pleasantly surprised. We love the four seasons hotel as a whole and four seasons Costa Rica did not disappoint but far exceeded our expectations. We are a family of four with a four year-old and a one-year-old and the kids club was a wonderful amenity to enjoy. They also offer babysitting services in case you wanted to book an excursion, which my husband and I did or book the spa for a couples massage treatment which we did also. The staff is very attentive, caring and kind and it is apparent that they are passionate about what they do. At the front desk, we were greeted by Kevin who had coconuts ready for us and cute stuffies for the children. We had a plate full of fruits and bottled water sent to our room as a welcome amenity. We opted for the buffet breakfast and every day we had someone from the management team come up and ask us if we were having a good time and if we needed anything. we took the children to the beach and we had Karina that was very attentive to our needs, she was wonderful and very friendly. We also hung out at the swimming pool and the staff was also very attentive and kind. Every afternoon they would come around with mango or strawberry Popsicles that we looked forward to. the poolside menu is delicious and the mahi mahi fish tacos, a must try. The location was wonderful and in a quiet area of the peninsula. very luxurious very green and lush. I had a chance to go up to the Shala to experience what the ambience was and I wish I had booked a yoga/wellness Session while there but having two small kids that was difficult, maybe next time. The wellness Shala is in a great location up on a mountain where you can see the sunrise and the sunset and it is very serene and peaceful. The restaurants on site have delicious food and a very friendly staff, kids under 5 eat free. we booked the cultural experience blue zone tour and I would highly recommend booking that trip along with the zip line. Nestor, our guide who put this tour together is just amazing and full of information. We were picked up and driven in a comfortable air-conditioned SUV and visited Nicoya, Hojancha, and the Diria coffee farm. The families that we met with were very welcoming and warm and one even had a full lunch prepared for us. The coffee farm is a must. Dennis a third generation roaster educated us on coffee and now we feel like we’re not drinking the “right type of coffee”. The Virador beach club has stunning views of the sunset on the beach and is a perfect location. The cuisine is Mediterranean, which is outstanding. the manager there is also warm and welcoming, and we ran into him a few times in other areas of the resort, but he remembered us and greeted us warmly. Our favorite from in-room dining was Mr. Felipe, who is very attentive to our needs and delivered that old-school hospitality. We were so lucky to meet the hotel manager himself, Mr. Pierre, and it is evident that he exemplifies the four seasons service/motto. He was so wonderful and sent us off warmly and we are sure to return again. Costa Rica truly left an impression on us. Pura Vida! We must mention all the ladies at the kids club, and the following: Karina Felipe Mike Ivan Kevin Majo Nina and...