The Waldorf Astoria’s first Costa Rican resort opened in May 2025 on the Punta Cacique peninsula in Guanacaste, and it announces itself with geography: the whole property cascades some 300 feet down a cliff above Playa Penca, ocean on one side and mountains on the other, with a multi-level pool tracking the descent to the shore. It launched with 148 rooms and 40 suites, plus two and three-bedroom villas, and it is built with a single, clear intent, to make you want to stay put. Our stay was hosted by the resort.
The suites make the case. An Ocean View Suite with Plunge Pool has a proper dining area and living room before you reach the bedroom, an outdoor tub at one end of the terrace and a plunge pool at the other, and enough space to spend a whole day without heading anywhere. Even standard rooms keep the free-standing soaking tub on a furnished balcony and the floor-to-ceiling windows. It is genuinely restorative rather than restless: the pacing, the private beach and the layout all pull you towards stillness.
The spa is the spine of the experience, named Costa Rica’s Best Resort Spa at the 2025 World Spa Awards, with sound-healing sessions and massages that open with a herb brushing and close with burning sage. Dining spreads across seven outlets, from the signature La Finca and the Peacock Alley lounge to the pool bar, cafe and ice-cream stop, enough range to eat differently every meal. Liberia airport is only 25 to 40 minutes away, which makes the seclusion easy to reach. For a low-key, spa-led reset rather than an excursion-packed itinerary, few new resorts do it better.
