We were told, more than once, that this was one of the best hotels in Costa Rica. Hotels that get called “the best in the country” usually disappoint me. Nine times out of ten, reputation does more work than the hotel itself. Marketing teams and well-lit photographs carry the weight. So I arrived genuinely sceptical. Was it really the best?
Nayara Gardens sits at the foot of an active volcano in La Fortuna. Truthfully, it was absolutely amazing. Not in the vague, superlative way hotels usually earn that word, but in specific, repeatable ways I can point to. What impressed me most wasn’t any single feature. It was how consistently every part of the stay pointed back to one idea: you’re somewhere genuinely wild, and the hotel’s job is to help you notice that, not distract you from it.
This is what makes it different from most hotels wearing the same claim. It’s not the biggest, newest, or most photographed property in the region. It simply does fewer things at a higher level. The consistency surpasses almost anywhere else we’ve stayed in Central America.
Arrival
The first thing that gets you is the volcano. You can see it from the room. Waking up to it each morning is genuinely grounding in a way I didn’t expect. It’s humbling more than glamorous, which is unusual for a luxury property. Most resorts want you to feel impressed. Nayara Gardens wanted us to feel small in the right way. Small next to something genuinely ancient and enormous.
The second thing is how immersive the property is. Walking the paths between buildings, you move through dense tropical planting the entire way. It never feels landscaped so much as grown into. Nothing about the walk between your room and the restaurants feels like a hotel corridor. It feels like a path cut through a rainforest. The resort provides a small in-room guide for identifying plants and animals. It’s a thoughtful touch for a hotel that clearly wants you paying attention to where you are.
The property is home to resident sloths, though I didn’t spot one during this visit. What I did find on one path was a ginger shampoo plant. Costa Ricans have historically used it as actual shampoo. It’s a small detail, but it tells you something important. The gardens aren’t just decorative. They tell a story of the land they’re on. That storytelling approach extends throughout the property.
The Casita: Private Paradise
We stayed in one of the casitas, and it was absolutely beautiful. Ours had a private outdoor heated plunge pool. We also had a hammock and seating area, plus both an indoor and outdoor shower. In that humidity, you’ll use both far more than you’d think. The bed was properly comfortable. It wasn’t just styled to look good in photos. On a trip built around early starts for hikes, comfort matters more than people expect.
What made the casita work wasn’t any single amenity. It was how little reason we had to leave it. Most hotel rooms function as a base between activities. This one held its own as a destination. Sitting on the plunge pool’s edge in the evening, listening to the rainforest do what it does after dark, was as memorable as anything off property. There’s something deeply restorative about having your own private slice of paradise.
The room size struck the right balance for a jungle property. It was large enough that nothing felt cramped. The seating area and outdoor space doubled as usable square footage. Yet it didn’t lose the intimacy a rainforest stay should have. Natural materials and smart design kept the focus where it belonged: outside the window, not on the room competing with the view. This thoughtful approach feels obvious only after you experience it.
Should you upgrade to a casita? My honest answer is yes. The private plunge pool alone changes everything. You’re never waiting for a communal pool to clear out after a humid hike. It’s the difference between a room you sleep in and a room that’s actually part of the holiday.
Wellness and Recreation
Nayara operates three properties in the area. Nayara Gardens is where we stayed. Nayara Springs caters to adults only. Nayara Tented Camp houses the thermal hot springs. Here’s the smart part: guests staying at any property access amenities across all three. We enjoyed the thermal springs without booking a Tented Camp room. This matters when choosing which property suits you best. You don’t sacrifice the wildlife immersion of Gardens for the springs at Tented Camp. You get both.
The Thermal Springs Experience
Those springs are genuinely heated by the volcano. No boiler stands in for geology. Stepping in feels like sinking into a warm bath. The water is mineral-rich enough that your skin feels noticeably different afterwards. You’ll towel off noticeably softer. The temperature is perfectly calibrated. It’s warm enough to deeply relax you but not so hot that you can’t stay in for extended periods.
Fitness and Yoga
The resort offers daily yoga on property. The fitness centre is a genuine surprise. It has more equipment than most hotels bother with. Large windows showcase jungle surroundings from inside. It feels less like a hotel gym and more like working out in a covered clearing. If you normally skip the gym on holiday, this one might get used.
The Value Proposition
What tied the wellness side together was that none of it felt bolted on. The resort didn’t charge extra for these amenities. Between shared access across three properties, daily yoga, and the fitness centre, genuine choice abounded. You get more than the room rate alone would suggest. You don’t need to spend beyond what’s already included. It’s refreshingly honest about what wellness means.
Activities and Experiences
La Fortuna Waterfall Hike
The main excursion was to La Fortuna waterfall. It’s a serious hike: roughly 500 steps down and the same back up. Every step is worth it. You can get into the water at the bottom. It’s properly refreshing after that walk. We saw sloths along the trail. That made the trip to Costa Rica even more memorable.
You can book a waterfall excursion anywhere in La Fortuna. This one stands out because of the naturalist guide. His knowledge of the trail adds context you won’t get walking independently. If your time is limited, prioritise this excursion.
The Coffee-Making Class
Back at the resort, we took a coffee-making class. Genuinely, it was one of the highlights of the entire trip. Costa Rica is known for its Arabica beans. The class walked us through the entire process. How the beans are picked. How they’re dried. How they’re brewed. We learned tasting techniques and picked out different flavour notes. It ended with coffee paired against tiramisu. Perfect way to end the experience.
Book this early in your stay, not on your last day. You’ll find yourself thinking about coffee differently for every cup that follows.
Other Activities
The resort offers tons of other activities. Mixology classes. Rum tasting. There’s something for every kind of traveller here. The variety ensures that whether you seek adventure or relaxation, your interests get covered.
Dining
The food was some of the best I’ve had anywhere. I’m vegetarian, so that’s not a claim I make lightly. Clean, simple ingredients appear across every restaurant. Chefs handle them with real understanding of flavour and texture. Nothing felt like an afterthought. Nothing compensated for a weaker main dish with heavier sauce or garnish. That’s a trap many resort kitchens fall into.
Breakfast at La Terraza
Breakfast both mornings was at La Terraza. Service ran from 6 to 10am at leisure. The buffet offered wide variety. À la carte options completed the menu. I particularly loved their gallo pinto with fried plantains each morning. It’s comfort food done right.
Lunch and Dinner Options
Lunch on the second day was at Mis Amores. Timing mattered here. We went right after the waterfall hike, when you want a proper meal, not a snack. The authentic Italian pizza hit the spot perfectly after all that exertion.
Dinner the first night was at Ayla Restaurant. The second night took us to Asia Luna, which leans pan-Asian. It was a deliberate change of pace rather than repetition. The property’s Mediterranean, Italian, and Asian kitchens offered real range. Every single one handled vegetarian food seriously. It wasn’t an afterthought bolted onto a meat-forward menu.
Vegetarian Dining Quality
Are you a vegetarian traveller? If so, you’re used to a single, uninspired resort menu option. This property doesn’t work that way. Chefs clearly understand plant-based cooking as its own cuisine. They don’t treat it as a limitation.
Service That Pays Attention
Free laundry was a small perk. On a multi-day jungle trip, it mattered more than it should have. The humidity is intense. Hiking clothes need turning around quickly. But the nightly gifts revealed something more important. The hotel was genuinely paying attention.
These weren’t generic turndown treats. These were personalized gifts tied to what we’d actually done that day. We received coffee from a class we’d taken that same trip. It was a keepsake, not a sales pitch. You can’t fake this with standard operating procedure. Someone communicated across departments. Someone tracked our guest activity. Someone chose to act on it without being asked.
Compare this to what most resorts offer. A mint on the pillow. A folded towel animal. These gestures are pleasant but interchangeable. One hotel to the next, they’re all the same. What Nayara Gardens did required someone to know our itinerary. Someone had to act on it without prompting. That’s a meaningfully higher bar. Most properties at this price point don’t clear it.
The staff moved seamlessly between anticipating needs and respecting privacy. That balance eludes many luxury properties. Here, they got it right.
What This Hotel Gets Right
Most luxury resorts at this level compete on scale. More pools. More restaurants. More spa menu items. More square footage per room. Nayara Gardens competes on immersion instead.
Experience Over Excess
The plant and animal guide sits in your room. The coffee class actually teaches you something. The springs are warm because real geology heats them. Nightly gifts tie to your own itinerary. None of it feels bolted on for amenities lists. It all points back to one idea: you are here, specifically, in this rainforest, next to this volcano. The hotel wants you to feel that every hour.
The Real Differentiator
This matters most for anyone comparing Nayara Gardens to competitors in the region. Plenty of properties offer volcano views. Arenal dominates the skyline for miles around La Fortuna. It doesn’t matter which hotel you book. What fewer properties do is build every detail around making you notice where you are. They’re not treating the volcano as a backdrop for a standard resort experience underneath. The hotel doesn’t do that.
The actual differentiator isn’t the view itself. It’s what the hotel does with it. That’s the real difference here.
Who Should Stay Here
Couples wanting genuine privacy will find a casita works well. It does a lot of heavy lifting with its own plunge pool. Anyone wanting their Costa Rica trip to include real wildlife and nature will feel at home. It’s not a token walk past some planting. It’s the real thing.
It’s also a strong pick for vegetarians. Anyone caring about food quality specifically will appreciate how seriously the kitchens take it. Families deserve consideration too. Shared amenities across the three Nayara properties matter here. Springs is the adults-only option, not Gardens. Families aren’t restricted to a single, limited property within the group.
Perfect for Milestone Trips
Honeymooners and anniversary trips both make sense here. So much of the best of the stay happens in genuine privacy. You’re on your own terrace, not in shared spaces. Planning a milestone trip? Want somewhere that feels remote and immersive without sacrificing comfort? This fits that brief closely.
Skip It If…
Skip this one if you want a beach-forward trip. La Fortuna is inland rainforest and volcano territory, not coastline. If ocean views and beach clubs are your priority, this isn’t the right Costa Rica region. Hotel choice doesn’t matter if the location doesn’t work for you.
Also skip it if you want heavily programmed schedules. Activity packing with something new every hour won’t work here. The pacing rewards slowing down between headline excursions. Travellers needing constant stimulation may find the quieter stretches less suited to them.
Is It Worth the Price?
It’s not the cheapest option in La Fortuna. It isn’t trying to be. What you’re paying for is consistency. The room, the food, the excursions, and the small daily touches all sit at the same level. That’s rarer than it should be at this price point. Many hotels get one or two right. The others slide. Nayara Gardens didn’t give us a single stay element that felt underperforming.
The casita category is worth the upgrade if it’s within reach. Most of the stay’s best moments happened on our own terrace. They weren’t in shared spaces. For comparing against other volcano-adjacent La Fortuna properties, here’s the honest distinction: Nayara Gardens spends budget on experience rather than scale. Fewer, better touches rather than longer amenities lists competing for attention.
Would I return? Yes. I’d bring family next time. I’d test the property against a different trip than the one we had.
Verdict
If Costa Rica is anywhere on your list, save this one. You’ll want it when planning. I went in sceptical of the “best in the country” label. Such claims usually collapse the moment you arrive. I came out agreeing with it. I’d go back, family in tow. Few hotels make you feel both properly looked after and genuinely close to something wild. Nayara Gardens does both. It does so consistently. It never lets one undercut the other.
What stays with me isn’t any single postcard moment. Not the volcano view. Not the waterfall. Not even the coffee class, memorable as those were. It’s the sense that every part of the property was built by people who understand this specific rainforest patch. They wanted us to leave understanding it a little better. That’s genuinely rare for a luxury hotel. Most prioritise simple comfort instead. This property prioritised something better.
It’s a place that restores you. It surrounds you with genuine wildness all the while.
