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Costa Rica holds 6.5 percent of global biodiversity on 0.03 percent of Earth’s surface — and its luxury eco-resorts, certified restaurants, and protected wilderness areas make it the world’s most compelling case for responsible travel.
No country makes a stronger case for the relationship between conservation and tourism than Costa Rica. Despite occupying just 0.03 percent of the planet’s surface, it is home to an estimated 6.5 percent of global biodiversity — a figure so disproportionate it sounds invented. More than a quarter of the country’s land mass is formally protected across 28 national parks, 58 wildlife refuges, and dozens of biological reserves and wetlands. Forest cover, which dropped to a catastrophic 21 percent by 1987, has been reversed to 59.4 percent through one of the most successful reforestation programs in history.
Nearly 98 percent of the country’s electricity comes from renewable sources, basic water supply services reach 98 percent of the population, and the Nicoya Peninsula — on the Pacific coast — is one of only five designated Blue Zones on earth, where residents routinely live past 90. The country’s pura vida philosophy of low-stress, community-rooted living is credited as a central factor. These are not marketing statistics — they are the architecture of a country that decided, decades ago, to build its economy around what it refused to destroy.
That bet is paying off. Tripmasters, an online travel company specializing in customizable multi-destination packages, reports demand for Costa Rica vacation packages rising more than 90 percent year-over-year between 2024 and 2025. The country recently earned second place in the Wanderlust Readers’ Travel Awards, ranking among the most desirable destinations on earth. “Costa Rica proves that a small country can deliver an incredibly big travel experience,” Rafael Checa, CEO of Tripmasters and a resident of Costa Rica’s tourism sector, said in a statement. “In a single journey, travelers can go from Arenal Volcano adventures to the slower rhythm of pura vida. What makes that experience truly seamless is local expertise, which is why Tripmasters’ Costa Rica-based concierge team supports travelers every step of the way.”
The country’s Certification for Sustainable Tourism, or CST — a rigorous government program launched in 1997 and recognized internationally by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council — provides the credibility check travelers need to sort serious operators from greenwashing ones. Properties are rated on a one-to-five leaf scale across environmental, economic, and social impact criteria. Level five, the highest designation, is rare. The hotels below either hold it or are defining new terms for what luxury with a conscience looks like.
The standard behind the scenery
The CST certification system is what separates Costa Rica’s sustainability story from other destinations that use the language without the infrastructure. A Level 5 rating — the ceiling — requires verified performance across physical-biological parameters, plant and animal management, air quality, wastewater treatment, and community relations. It is audited, not self-reported. For travelers, that distinction matters: it means the eco-credentials on a hotel’s website have been tested against something real. In a country that has staked its entire tourism identity on conservation, the standard is not a differentiator. It is the minimum expectation.
“Costa Rica proves that a small country can deliver an incredibly big travel experience,” Checa says. The numbers, and the forest cover, and the 6.5 percent of all life on earth that finds refuge here, suggest he is right.
Where to stay
Nayara Springs
Nayara Springs, a Relais and Chateaux property at the base of Arenal Volcano, is the most-awarded resort in Central America — and the setting makes that easy to believe. Its 35 villas each include a private plunge pool fed by natural mineral hot springs flowing directly from the volcano, four-poster beds, a private garden, and dual indoor-outdoor rain showers. The spa, yoga deck, and jungle trails complete an experience that feels restorative in the most literal sense.
The resort has achieved carbon neutrality and received the Costa Rican government’s Four Leaves Award for Sustainability, its highest environmental distinction. “Our underlying philosophy and mission at Nayara is to go beyond sustainability towards regenerative travel — that means not just slowing environmental impacts but actively restoring nature to its previous glory through reforestation projects and investment in the local community,” owner Leo Ghitis said in a 2024 interview.
Andaz Peninsula Papagayo Resort
The Andaz Costa Rica Resort at Peninsula Papagayo occupies a hillside above the Pacific on the Guanacaste coast, its 152 rooms and 25 new Andaz Residences designed in a modern treehouse style with access to three private beaches, four pools, and ONDA Spa — 11,000 square feet of wellness programming spanning ocean-view treatment rooms and an aquatic circuit.
The resort holds the maximum Level 5 CST designation, operates hydrogen-powered airport transfers, and sources more than 600 pounds of vegetables weekly from local community gardens. The broader Peninsula Papagayo destination earned two global sustainability honors in 2024 and released an impact report that year documenting a 51 percent reduction in its golf course water footprint and the diversion of 107 tons of organic waste following the implementation of food-tech solutions.
Lapa Rios Lodge
Set in the Osa Peninsula, which accounts for 2.5 percent of the world’s biodiversity, the Lapa Rios Lodge offers 17 open-air bungalows perched on sea-view ridges above 930 acres of protected primary rainforest — the kind of setting where howler monkeys are an alarm clock and the Pacific horizon disappears into cloud.
In 2013, Lapa Rios placed a permanent conservation easement on its reserve in partnership with the Nature Conservancy, becoming the first Central American business to do so. It bans single-use plastics, heats water via solar, runs exclusively on organic and biodegradable cleaning products, and supports the Dock to Dish sustainable fishing program. The onsite Brisa Azul Restaurant serves seasonal Costa Rican dishes from a 360-degree open-air thatched hut overlooking the Golfo Dulce and waves of forest canopy below.
Where to eat
Delicious, fresh food is omnipresent in Costa Rica — make time for local coconut or fruit stalls whenever possible. For more formal dining, Farm to Table Escondido in Monteverde has been nationally recognized as a model for sustainable gastronomy. The restaurant draws almost entirely from its own organically certified, regenerative on-site farm — managed through permaculture principles — and the menu shifts based on what the land is producing. It sits within the Valle Escondido reserve, meaning guests eat surrounded by hiking trails, waterfalls, and the cloud forest it helps conserve.
Brisa Azul at Lapa Rios earns its own mention because the dining experience — open-sided, elevated above the treeline, catching the Pacific breeze — is as much about place as it is about plate. Ingredients are sourced exclusively from local suppliers: organic produce, local protein, and sustainably caught fish via the lodge’s Dock to Dish partnership. It is as close to a closed-loop meal as a restaurant can achieve.
What to do
The Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve is one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet, housing more than 400 bird species, 100 mammal species, and roughly 2,500 plant species in a span of roughly 10,500 hectares. Canopy walks and hanging bridges put guests above the forest floor at the height of the canopy, where the concentration of life — orchids, resplendent quetzals, keel-billed toucans — is staggering. It connects naturally with the Arenal Volcano region for a multi-destination itinerary that Tripmasters has built a signature guided package around, combining the thermal landscape of La Fortuna with the cloud-wrapped biodiversity of Monteverde in a single seamless trip.
Corcovado National Park on the Osa Peninsula is what naturalists mean when they say Costa Rica. National Geographic once called it the most biologically intense place on earth. Accessible only by boat or on foot, it hosts jaguars, tapirs, scarlet macaws, and four species of sea turtle across 424 square kilometers of primary rainforest. Lapa Rios serves as the ideal base, with guided park excursions that leave at dawn before the heat settles in.
Arenal Volcano National Park remains the country’s most iconic adventure destination — hiking trails with active lava field views, rope courses through the jungle, and an entire ecosystem of natural hot springs fed by geothermal activity below the surface. The springs here are not a resort amenity: they are a feature of the earth itself.
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