All photos by Allan Torp
I love the style of the hotel. The rooms are very affordable and
perfectly sized; most comes with its own balcony too. We had a view of the
courtyard, but were told that if you want the very best views, you should
consider the one of corner suites. Everyone can enjoy the stunning views from
the rooftop pool – make sure to make it up for at least one sunset.
Did we love Costa Rica?
Indeed. July is considered low season, which we really appreciating. Not too
many tourists anywhere. We really hadn’t planned much and only had one day trip
outside the hotel area, so a full on country review is pretty hard for me to
do. But I’ll say this: the country is a lot bigger than I thought, and with
relatively bad infrastructure, driving just takes longer than usual.
The entire resort is build like a little town, full of the cutest studio
apartments and seven-bedroom Spanish colonial-style houses with local artisan
shops and restaurants neatly packed in throughout the many cobblestone streets
– and the 45-room hotel Santarena is the newest addition.
To be honest, Costa Rica wasn’t on my bucket list, but I am so glad we ended up booking a 5 night stay this summer. It was sort of a very last minute, spur of the moment, situation. The initial idea, well… Mr. LA’s initial summer holiday idea, was for us to finally go to Mexico, to visit friends who was also there on holiday, and then go on to Chile. None of us had any idea how far away Chile actually is from LA, a direct flight is about 12 hours, and I was not prepared to do that for just 5 nights, especially with my upcoming flight to Copenhagen coming up too. After a bit of research, we came across the newly opened hotel Santarena, just an hour drive from Liberia, Costa Rica. We loved what we saw online and booked.
We enjoyed every minute, from the breakfast and dinner at the hotel
restaurant, to the kindest staff and great interiors.
Hotel
Santarena is a new hotel, just opened February 2019, in a newly developed area
called, Las Catalinas. Literally, a piece of paradise. Since 2016, an Atlanta
entrepreneur has been developing on the 1200 acres car-free resort town
fronting a black beach of the Pacific Ocean.