The Changing Landscape of Costa Rica
By Jenny Peters
“I can’t believe how Costa Rica has changed,” said my traveling companion, a surfing addict who has been visiting this beautiful Central American country since the 1980’s, just as he got set to hit a towering drive straight toward the pin on Hole 4 of the Four Seasons Costa Rica golf course. That hotel, perched out on a finger of land at Peninsula Papagayo in the northwest corner of the country, is a stunningly luxurious place, with an amazingly scenic and challenging Arnold Palmer-designed golf course that offers numerous vistas of the azure blue Pacific Ocean. And he is right, Costa Rica truly has transformed, especially since the Four Seasons came to the Guanacaste province back in 2004, bringing a level of luxury and elegance to the area – and the whole
country, really – that never existed before. And with the stellar success of the Four Seasons here, it is no wonder that so many big hotel companies are following, with openings of a Ritz Carlton, a Mandarin Oriental, a One and Only, a Regent, and a Hyatt Regency (among others, and all with accompanying golf courses)hotel scheduled in the neighborhood in the next two years. That’s why Liberia Airport (LIR) has grown exponentially since 2004 as well, expanded runways and numerous daily nonstop flights coming from New York, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, and (during high season) Los Angeles.
Taking over an area that was previously uninhabited, the eco-friendly Four Seasons
