Hacienda La Isla

Found down a side road off the main highway in the Sarapiqui region, the hotel is formed from a converted colonial Spanish cacao farm and boasts a swimming pool and fragments of rainforest, mainly along a stream, in which wildlife can be seen.

The rooms are all differently decorated and individually named.

The excellent Tico/fusion food is a particular attraction at the lodge, imaginatively cooked by the Belgian owner’s Tica wife using fresh local ingredients.

The separate La Selva rainforest reserve and research station can be explored on booked visits. This reserve encompasses more than 1500 hectares including a variety of ecosystems characteristic of the wet lowland tropical zone. It forms part of a much larger protected area that includes the Braulio Carrillo National Park and is particularly good for sightings of three- and two-toed sloths, spider monkeys, peccaries, toucans and macaws.