Costa Rican eco luxury: Reserva Conchal on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica's rural Guanacaste province mixes sophisticated accommodations with environmentally rich surroundings—and a few wild adventures - Travel Costa Rica

South Florida CEO, Oct, 2003 by James Broida

At 7 am the howler monkeys are already awake, making a racket in the hills behind the condominiums. The sound is unique--a deep, rasping bellow that marks their territory. The hills themselves are laced with streams of wispy clouds, rising from the wet jungles as the day begins to heat up. This is Costa Rica's northwest Pacific coast of Guanacaste--not far away by jet travel, but a world away from the South Florida experience.

The place where we are staying--the Reserva Conchal--is a verdant, 2,200-acre compound centered around a two-mile stretch of white, crushed-shell beach called Playa Conchal. On the grounds is the all-inclusive Paradisus Hotel and a handsome 18-hole golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr. On a ridge along the golf course are the Bougainvillea Condominiums, where we are staying.

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If you fly to Guanacaste after January 2004, the regional Liberia Airport will be serviced directly from Miami International Airport, so you may miss the commuter flight experience (we flew to Liberia from capital city San Jose on a small Samsa aircraft that provided a breathtaking jaunt over farms, rivers, jungles and volcanoes.)

Even with a direct link, the sense of adventure is not lost. During the 40 minute ride to Reserva Conchal, our cab driver spotted a troop of the mysterious howler monkeys perched in a cluster of trees overhead, and pulled over so we could exchange growls. It was our first taste of Coast Rican eco-tourism, soon to be followed by encounters with huge lizards, iridescent crabs, tiny beach snails, star fish, brightly plumed birds, a curious long-nosed agouti and, of course, more monkeys.

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New visitors to Costa Rica will find it an amazingly friendly country for Americans. Costa Rica has no standing army; instead investing in public education and health systems (the literacy rate is 94 percent)--one reason Intel chose it as the location for a major computer-chip factory.

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You won't find any manufacturing in Guanacaste, however, where income is produced by farming--fresh fruit abounds--and by eco-tourism. As a region, it has a high concentration of national jungle preserves, volcanoes (Arenal is active, sometimes spectacularly so) and surfer-friendly beaches.

In the midst of this rural province sits the Reserva Conchal. It was previously known as Playa Conchal, before its owners--a consortium of Costa Rican and Colombian companies--realized that what they owned was more than a resort beach waiting to be overdeveloped, but rather an environmentally rich treasure box. "You have to have golf in a place like this," says Courtney Gaw, senior sales manager for the property. "But people are here to experience Costa Rica." Gaw says the original development plans for the property were radically reduced, to less than half the number of dwellings first planned, with large swaths of land kept pristine. "We want to focus on keeping the monkeys, the lizards and the parrots. We think there will be more value if we keep what's essentially Costa Rica."

That essence of Costa Rica is still everywhere to be found, and easy to access. Tours and excursions to rainforests and volcanoes are plentiful, along with whitewater rafting and sport fishing, horseback riding and hiking. During our stay, we rented a convoy of ATVs (all terrain vehicles) for a race along the beach and into the jungles on wild and muddy trails. Enormous fun. We also chartered an inexpensive boat to snorkel the crystal waters just off the Reserva, in and around an outcropping of land know to locals as Punto Savannah. Visually stunning.

Perhaps most fun was an excursion in our rented car to the nearby town and beach of Tamarindo, a "surfer's paradise" where kids from across the US and Europe come to ply the waves. We went out with the instructors from the Iguana Surf School and learned why surfers wear baggy shorts (to protect their knees from the board) and why surfers have such good builds (paddling the board to catch a wave wears your arms out). We also learned that the only thing which approaches the Zen-like moment of standing up on a surfboard is, perhaps, a perfect gold shot on the Reserva's Garra de Leon golf course.

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What makes the eco-adventures of Costa Rica all the more pleasant, of course, is knowing that each one ends with a return to the comforts of the Reserva Conchal. In addition to its vast, free-form swimming pool, the five-star Paradisus Hotel (a Sol Melia property) offers an array of dining options: Asian, Italian and Caribbean restaurants, along with mixed buffets and snack bars. There is also a small casino and gaming building atop a hill in the middle of the property, and a nightly cabaret show.

Nothing, however, beats the sunset views from the Bougainvillea Condominiums, a series of interconnected two, three and four story buildings done in a Mediterranean style with terracotta colors. The view from our balcony was breathtaking, across the manicured golf course, past the Punto Savannah peninsula, and beyond that to the Pacific Ocean and the volcanic-made Catalinas islands in the distance. Each day ended with a palette of extraordinary colors--along with the muffled echoes of the howler monkeys, signing off for the evening.