Need to know
Rooms
25, of which two are suites.
Check–Out
11am. Check-in, 3pm. Both are flexible where availability permits and guests can otherwise store luggage and make use of the pool, restaurant and other common areas if arriving early or departing late.
More details
Breakfast isn’t included in room rates, but can be purchased at the hotel between 7am and 11am. Prices are around US$8 to $15 for food and US$8 to $10 for fruit juices and smoothies.
Also
Sendero has one fully accessible room with a private terrace that opens directly onto the courtyard for easy access to the pool, restaurant and other common areas. Admittedly, getting down to the beach may prove more challenging.
At the hotel
Surf school, yoga studio, bikes for hire, free WiFi, coffee stations with cakes and pastries from 6am to 11am daily. In rooms: air-conditioning, Bluetooth speaker, mini fridge, beach towels, local organic Aroma toiletries. Only suites have TVs.
Our favourite rooms
Light-filled rooms come with unfussy hacienda-style decor and honey-coloured stone floors. Chic pendant lamps, oversized rugs and cushions, and one-off art pieces by local artists add warm pops of colour to an otherwise cool palette. All rooms come with verdant views but none more so than the resort’s signature Jungle Rooms, where day-beds and outdoor rainfall showers are found on broad balconies that overlook the neighbouring 11-acre nature reserve. Potted plants help preserve your modesty while showering but may not deter the local wildlife. Fear not: you can draw the drapes across if curious coatis or peeping parrots get too close for comfort.
Poolside
Emerge from beneath great fronds of jungle vegetation to discover the courtyard’s saltwater pool, complete with wooden decking and comfortable day-beds. Sunrise dippers will also be delighted to learn that it’s open 24 hours.
Packing tips
If you can already surf like Swayze in Point Break, you may be considering bringing your own board. You’re welcome to do so, and storage facilities are provided, although there are plenty of board types available to rent here, too. You’ll want plenty of downtime in a place like this, so pack light reading material like Michael Crichton’s classic Jurassic Park. It’s set on a (fictional) island off Costa Rica, so the familiar jungle landscape combined with the occasional roar of a howler monkey are bound to make for an immersive read.
Also
Go full hippie with daily classes in the yoga studio, or try your hand at surfing at the resort’s surf school; the gentle waves, sandy seabed and relative lack of crowds at Playa Guiones make it a fine location for first-timers.
Pet‐friendly
A maximum of two pooches under 70lbs are welcome in rooms. Note, however, that dogs are the only animals permitted at Sendero, so you’ll have to leave Izzy the Iguana and Alfie the axolotl at home. A nightly fee of $50 applies for each dog. See more pet-friendly hotels in Nicoya Peninsula.
Children
Babysitting services can be arranged on request and suites can accommodate up to four guests thanks to the fold-out queen sofa-bed.
Sustainability efforts
Built with traditional haciendas in mind, using repurposed clay bricks and tiles and rapidly renewable woods from Costa Rican teak plantations, Sendero Hotel blends seamlessly into the coastal jungle landscape that surrounds it. Inside, bespoke pieces by local artists add colour to bedrooms (and are available to buy in the gallery). Hotel, restaurant and surf school staff are also all local residents, and the majority of ingredients used in the restaurant are organic and locally grown. A series of water-saving measures are in place in bathrooms, while rainwater and wastewater is collected, treated and redeployed to irrigate lush gardens that teem with native flora and fauna. Heck, even condensation generated by the building’s air-conditioning units is collected and repurposed.