Think you know what a luxury hotel in Costa Rica looks like? Think again. This Central American country, crammed with five star eco lodges and stunning beach resorts, got a game-changing addition with the opening of Kura Design Villas in late 2012.

Four years ago owners and creators Martin Wells and Alejandra Umana, a young couple from Costa Rica, saw the property on a steep, jungle-covered hillside above the town of Uvita on Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast. Though they’d planned to open a humble surf shack on the beach they immediately saw a much, much grander project unfold along a stately ridge on the site.

It took three years of planning, designing and building but Martin and Alejandra pretty much created that initial vision. Martin is an architect who wanted a project in which he could...

Casco Viejo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the fastest changing neighborhoods in Central America, is experiencing a boom in meticulous and tightly-regulated architectural restoration and gentrification. Happily, many of the elegant buildings in this Panama City neighborhood have become wonderfully atmospheric hotels where feeling “at home” is more than just a sales pitch. Las Clementinas Chambers, Café & Bar is a standout among them.

Built in the 1930s as an apartment building by a woman named Doña Clementina Herrera (hence the hotel’s name), the building, like everything else in Casco Viejo, fell into ruin after this neighborhood was attacked by the US military as part of their search for Manuel Noriega and it ultimately succumbed to squatters and gangs.

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Ten years ago Gina Cronin fled the weather in Cleveland, Ohio in search of someplace where she’d never be cold again. She found it on a former cattle ranch near the miniscule town of Caldera, less than half an hour from the birding and coffee mecca of Boquete, Panama. Since she was nowhere near ready to retire (and still isn’t) she essentially “bought herself a job” as an hotelier.  Seven years ago she opened Rancho de Caldera and Madre Tierra restaurant with the goal of creating “a siesta for your soul.” She has succeeded.

Nine luxury suites have been built in three banks of three rooms each. Each bank includes a mega-room in the center with a truly full kitchen, a Murphy bed and an ample dining/living room. The two smaller suites that book end that larger room have kitchenettes including a...

On January 8, 2009 a 6.2 earthquake struck near the town of Vara Blanca in central Costa Rica. The quake essentially leveled the place and severely damaged the Poas Volcano Lodge.  Owner Michael Cannon was away from his lodge when the earthquake happened and by the time he made it back that evening his home, lodge and dairy farm lay in ruins. “The rubble was still creaking,” he remembers. He also remembers making a decision, along with his children who are shareholders in the hotel: did he want to walk away or did he want to rebuild? Not only did they choose to stay and re-build but they turned tragedy into an opportunity to completely re-invent the Poas Volcano Lodge.

After a two year top-to-bottom renovation, Poas Volcano Lodge is a 12 room retreat...