Art Villas Hotel

Costa Rica

Combine the ‘turf’ of the rainforest jungle and the ‘surf’ of the Pacific Ocean in Costa Rica with an artistic retreat that truly lives up to its name for a whole new level of wellbeing experiences

Conquering the jungle is on many people’s wishlist now that lockdown is loosening up the world, and if you want to do it in style, you need to give Art Villas a second look. Each of the three bespoke villas, punctuated with the most artsy of artefacts from Nicaraguan tiles (among my favourite kind of tile) to hand-painted walls, to elements of jungle wood, is as a work of art that mixes up the indoor and outdoor space. One sits atop the rainforest in a royal canopy, another is seemingly immersed within it and a third is made up of wood-timbered pods. The experience is all about immersion and relaxing, with the jungle providing a soundtrack to the most soothing stay of your life, and the surf nearby, too, as Art Villas sits 300m above the Pacific Ocean, specifically Playa Hermosa in the Bahia Ballena (meaning ‘Beautiful Beach, Bay of Whales’).

Facilities include a Mayan sauna, and the offer of a wide range of health and wellbeing treatments. Top it off by taking cooking lessons with some of Costa Rica’s finest chefs: after our enforced travel sabbatical, if you’re going to go long (-haul), then why not go big while you’re at it?

Villas from £326pn. 00 506 8401 7042, artvillas.com

Words by Alex Mead.

This review was taken from the May/June 2021 issue of Food and Travel.

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