Costa Rica's most controlled coastal development, on a peninsula of protected bays.
The Papagayo Peninsula is a planned concession area, which makes it unlike anywhere else on the Costa Rican coast. Building density, height, materials and even planting are governed centrally, and large portions of the peninsula are held permanently as forest.
Practically, that means the views do not change. A house bought for its outlook across Culebra Bay keeps that outlook, because what sits between it and the water is not available to build on.
The bays here face west and south-west and are unusually calm — swimming water rather than surf. The peninsula is twenty-five minutes from Liberia airport, and the resort infrastructure means services, maintenance and staffing are straightforward in a way they are not in more remote coastal areas.
Papagayo Peninsula, Guanacaste
