The Iconic Costa Rican
Luxury Resort Gets a Makeover

Fully refreshed, the Four Seasons reveals amenities aimed at showcasing and connecting guests to its incredible natural surroundings.
by Serena French
An aerial view of a beach and a luxury resort. The beach has white sand and turquoise water. The resort complex includes several buildings with red tile roofs, palm trees, and a swimming pool in the center. In the distance, there are lush green mountains.

The low tone of the metal singing bowl washes over a small group of guests lying down within an open-air bamboo sculpture overlooking the jungle and distant ocean. Mexican-based Arquitectura Mixta channeled the Guanacaste winds to conceive the space, a new highlight of the wellness program at Four Seasons Resort Peninsula Papagayo, Costa Rica (fourseasons.com). The hilltop Wellness Shala, introduced following a closure last summer and subsequent reopening in November, serves as the headquarters for the resort’s enhanced embrace of nature. Conceived as a gateway for guests to reconnect with the ocean, plant life, fresh air, and themselves, the sacred space hosts yoga and meditation classes (some with sunset or sunrise views), as well as Rooted Hatha (a grounding practice to connect with nature) and a traditional, indigenous cacao ceremony. Newly expanded, the wellness program will be hosting residencies throughout the year with happiness coaches, allopathic medicine practitioners, mobility specialists, breath work instructors, acupuncturists, and energy healers. A newly added, 90-minute astrology reading at the beach club adds insight and practical advice to your stay. But it’s the extension of the spa that is the renovation’s proverbial cherry on top. Book a treatment to gain access to the facilities that include hot and cold plunge pools and canopied relaxation areas serving teas, treats, and elixirs.

An overhead view of a large, curved outdoor swimming pool surrounded by lounge chairs and bright green palm trees. In the foreground, there is an additional pool area with a wood-covered area with lounge beds and a wooden deck with additional umbrellas and lounge seating.

The addition of Virador Beach Club has transformed the sunset side of the resort’s narrow peninsula. There, the adults-only pool is more glamorous and selfie-ready than ever. The Cabanas (all-day bookings include a bottle of Champagne, internet, and an afternoon spa treatment) now surround the infinity-edge pool facing the ocean and an adjacent restaurant and lounge replaces the former cocktail beach shack. At the edge of the sand, an Eastern Mediterranean restaurant by Israeli chef Khaled Natour features recipes from his family’s cookbooks (mezze platters of tzatziki, baba ganoush, hummus, and Jerusalem seeded bagel rolls).

You can work off the meal playing the 18-hole, par-72 Arnold Palmer course; the driving range has benefited from sustainability improvements, a facelift incorporating more teeing, 12 acres renewed with more vegetation, and less bunkering for better playability. SurfX, the resort’s in-house school, has set up shop beachside at Playa Blanca, where class members meet to take the boat out for a lesson. Novices enjoy the thrill of getting up on the board for the first time and watching giant sea turtles on the boat ride home. There’s also the Outpost in the Palmares Conservation Area where climbers ascend 30 feet into a 100-year-old jungle canopy to hang at eye-level with the white-faced capuchins and zip-line through the trees.