When Travelers Look for the Unique
In recent years, we’ve seen a noticeable shift in the preferences of travelers, with many seeking out the best accommodations that offer more than just a place to rest their heads. Enter the rise of quirky accommodations—unique lodgings that add an extra layer of excitement and novelty to the travel experience. Whether it's Tarzan-styling it in a treehouse or bedding down in an old aircraft, these unconventional stays can capture the imagination of adventurous travelers looking for something, well, weird and quirky. Or even eccentric.
The appeal of quirky accommodations lies in their ability to offer guests a one-of-a-kind experience that goes beyond the traditional hotel stay. And as we say, not many know weird and quirky like us. Let's take a look at some of our favorites.
Quirky Nature Immersion
Costa Rica is all about experiencing nature, and some hotels in Costa Rica offer out-of-the-ordinary ways to enjoy the rainforests, cloud forests, and other natural wonders that attract most people who come here. Why stay in a regular room when you can do something different?
Tree House Fun in Costa Rica
For a country with lots of trees, it's no surprise that it's possible to sleep in them. And we're not talking about the type of thing your parent knocked up for you when you were a kid. Some of the treehouse hotels available in Costa Rica are truly awesome and, although better than your dad's efforts all those years ago, will still bring out the inner child in you.
Places like this include the Hidden Canopy Treehouses Boutique Hotel in the cloud forests of Monteverde, where you can see the Gulf of Nicoya from your perch. Over towards Arenal, hidden deep in the rainforest, there's the more basic but comfortable Tree Houses Hotel, where you might well find yourself sharing your tree with a sloth or toucan. Northwest of Arenal, in remote rainforests close to the Rio San Juan and the Nicaraguan border, Maquenque Eco Lodge also provides access to nature, while deep down in southern Costa Rica, near Golfito, is the off-grid “treehouse community” of Finca Bellavista, where guests need, and we quote, an adventurous spirit.
And then there’s the Suitree Experience Hotel, a unique collection of pod-like units - what they call their “Magic Tree House Concept” set, for the most part, on stilts amid the treetops of the Guanacaste tropical dry forest with ocean views. These treehouse-style suites provide a luxurious, intimate escape for anyone seeking to surround themselves with nature in a secluded spot.
If you're visiting the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, the Tree House Lodge offers a variety of different accommodations, including a treehouse and a converted school bus, just steps away from the beach in Punta Uva—one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline in the country. Whether you're in their treehouse or not, this is a truly quirky and original hotel to spend your vacation.
Getting into Glamping
There's a relatively new concept of vacationing called glamping, which is short for "glamorous camping". Like your treehouse memories from your youth, your camping memories won't really have much in common with anything you find here. Sure, you might be sleeping under a canvas roof, but that's where the comparison ends.
When you're glamping, you're not bringing your own gear and setting up a tent. You're staying somewhere far more luxurious, with a real bed, private bathroom, and the comforts you associate with modern hospitality, all while enjoying some of the best parts of camping out, losing yourself in nature, and getting off the traditional paths.
For potential glampers in Costa Rica, we love Rafiki. The South African owners have created a safari-like experience along the banks of the Rio Savegre. Erected on sturdy, hardwood platforms, the tents come with bathrooms, fans, and patios. Another glamping option is Isla Chiquita, located on an island in the Gulf of Nicoya. Here, you'll get to feel like Robinson Crusoe, albeit with a comfortable king-size bed and proper plumbing.
And then there's Nayara Tented Camp in Arenal, which is the last word in luxury camping. How many other tents do you know that come with a private plunge pool? The Coco in Uvita in southern Costa Rica offers a particularly quirky style of glamping, too: “seed-pod” tents. And also down south but in the mountains near San Isidro, is Kinkara, which is more of a wellness retreat than a hotel, but is still all about the glamp.
Costa Rica's Signature Eco-Lodges
Costa Rica does ecotourism better than anyone else. In fact, Costa Rica's commitment to eco-tourism is one of the main reasons why people come here. To sum ecotourism up in a few words, it's basically a concept that emphasizes responsible travel practices aimed at minimizing environmental impact, an approach that extends to accommodations. But are all eco-lodges the same in Costa Rica?
If you're an eco-tourist, you should know that some eco-lodges are quirkier than others. Take Pacuare Lodge, for example. This place comes without electricity or WiFi and is only accessible if you're willing to indulge in a spot of whitewater rafting. Another great quirky eco-option for eco-tourists seeking physical activities to enjoy is Rio Perdido and its thermal rivers in Guanacaste.
Down in the far south of Costa Rica, on the Osa Peninsula and Piedras Blancas National Park respectively, Copa de Arbol and Playa Nicuesa are also only accessible by boat. When getting to a hotel is an adventure in itself, the quirkiness factor shoots up, although Cielo Lodge—also in the far south, near Golfito—gives these only-by-boat places a good run for their money as an offbeat, off-grid eco-lodge in Costa Rica.
Unique Stays in Repurposed Places
Aside from the glamping concept hotels we mentioned above, what do you imagine when we ask you what a hotel is made from? Regular buildings, constructed from concrete, bricks, or wood, probably spring to mind. But maybe you don't want that. Maybe you want to stay somewhere that displays a unique concept, maybe somewhere that was once something else, somewhere with a true quirky character.
Refurbished Planes and More
We already mentioned the Tree House Lodge, in Punta Uva on the Caribbean coast, which has a converted school bus as one of its eclectic selection of rooms. But Costa Verde in Manuel Antonio goes one better than that. While most of their accommodations are regular rooms and suites, seekers of the strange might be interested in the vintage 1965 Boeing 727 fuselage that comprises one of their rooms. The two-bedroom Fuselage Home, as they call it, is by far the most unique hotel suite in Costa Rica.
Costa Verde also operates one of Manuel Antonio's most iconic restaurants, El Avión , converted from a C-123 Fairchild cargo plane that the CIA secretly used to run weapons from Costa Rica to the Nicaraguan Contras in the 1980s. Fascinating stuff, and worth checking out for a meal or drink if you're in Manuel Antonio.
Staying on this concept, travelers to the Samara area on the Nicoya Peninsula will find La Caravana , which refurbishes vintage campers into quirky living spaces for beach lovers seeking something different.
Scientific Research Stations
While maybe not as exciting as converted aircraft, campers, and 1980's Central American intrigue, another repurposed place worth checking out is the Arenal Observatory Lodge. It's the only hotel in Costa Rica that was once a scientific research station, used in the 1970s and 80s by the Smithsonian Institute to study the volcano. When the Arenal Volcano National Park opened in 1991, they converted the station into a hotel, albeit one that comes with its own museum harking back to its time as a place of research and study.
Cultural and Historical Locations
The concept of older buildings now used as hotels is more common than planes or scientific research stations, but it’s equally interesting. While there's nothing strange or quirky about this in other parts of the world, particularly in Europe, Costa Rica’s history means it doesn't really have many old buildings. At least, not really, really old ones, so it's something more significant here.
San José
Travelers seeking a taste of history should check out the Hotel Grano de Oro in San José. Built in 1900, this hotel was once the private home to a prominent family and to this day, it still evokes a bygone era of the 19th century coffee barons who used to run Costa Rica. The Gran Hotel Costa Rica, in the heart of downtown San José, is an officially-designated historical monument, open since 1930. Both these places offer far more originality than the usual "business-class" hotels you find around the city.
Outside the Central Valley
There are also places outside the capital offering unique tastes of Costa Rican culture. Costa Rica is an agricultural society at heart, built on coffee and ranching. Hacienda AltaGracia, in the mountains of southern Costa Rica, is still a working coffee farm with its own stables, offering intimate insight into rural Costa Rica. Santa Juana Lodge, in the hills above Quepos on the Central Pacific, provides insight into the daily life of this area and is operated by the local community. Back in the Central Valley, outside the city of Heredia, Finca Rosa Blanca has a delightfully quirky collection of unique rooms, again on its own organic coffee farm.
The Best of the Rest: The Coolest Places To Stay in Costa Rica
We've looked at all manner of quirky places around Costa Rica in this article. To the best of our abilities, we've tried to put these hotels in different categories to cater to your interests. But sometimes a place is quirky for the sake of quirkiness and can't be put into a box.
For example, the Peace Lodge at the La Paz Waterfall Gardens, north of Alajuela, comes with the most amazing bathrooms—all rocky walls and waterfalls. Plus, of course, the fact that it has its own waterfall gardens and wildlife refuge to enjoy.
On the beaches of Esterillos, between Jacó and Manuel Antonio, Alma del Pacifico is full of quirky art and has a quirky, bohemian feel. And then there's the gorgeous Las Catalinas project, a new, car-free community on the Guanacaste coast built to the concept of "new urbanism". The whole place has a great, relaxed, and upscale vibe, so anywhere you stay here will work if that's what you're looking for.
Just down the coast from there, in Tamarindo, is Costa Rica's first plant-based hotel, one of only a handful in the world: step forward, Mother Earth Vegan Hotel! In Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean side, Le Cameleon has color-changing rooms, which makes its name apt as well as eligible for a quirky label.
Looking to stay in a dome? You’ll find a bunch of quirky domes in Costa Rica to rent through different listings, like AirBnB. And we’d be remiss if we didn’t highlight the Hobbit-hole-style domes at Green Moon Lodge near Montezuma, at the bottom of the Nicoya Peninsula. Or, similarly, the igloos at Igloo Beach Lodge in Manuel Antonio. Who would’ve said you could find an igloo in the tropics? In addition, the international hostel chain Selina offers a number of quirky, offbeat ways to sleep in Costa Rica, including their “tube rooms” at their Jacó location.
Are You Ready for Your Next Vacation?
When you look at all the varied, unique, and entertaining experiences all these places offer, it’s easy to see how original they all are. They all have their quirks, which make them appealing and set them apart from other places.
And it’s precisely those quirks that make them original, and a hotel boasting the best of its personality is certainly a big part of an unforgettable Costa Rica vacation. So, are you ready? Are you ready to step away from the norm? If so, contact us and one of our very own, very original, very expert travel consultants will be happy to help you.
