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Once kids arrive at the room, a chocolate chip cookie with gummy bears as well as a bean bag lizard, stuffed turtle, octopus or other plush toy welcomes them. Young kids also find their name spelled out in sponges in the bathtub. Ages 12 to 16, either in the room or at check-in, receive a water bottle or a baseball cap and a T-shirt sporting the Tuanis teen center logo, and the words "Pure Vida" (Pure life). That's Costa Rica's slogan for "life is good."
Guest accommodations are in three buildings near the pools as well as in suites and private villas lacing the hillsides. In the rarified realm of luxury resorts, bad rooms are nearly non-existent. This is the case at the Four Seasons Costa Rica where even the standard garden room with its view of trees and lawn come outsized and dressed up with marble bathrooms, deep tubs, separate showers as well as double vanities and seductively soft comforters, cozy bathrobes and designer soaps and shampoos. At 603-square feet, including a terrace large enough for a couch plus a table and chairs, the Four Seasons standard rooms offer plenty of space. Most rooms, except for the garden rooms, which are located on the first or second floor, come with water views thanks to the resort's isthmus location with beaches on two sides.
The canopy one-bedroom suites and the villas do even more to bring the outside in. You enter these through a freestanding archway that leads to the path to your room. Walk through this threshold and you feel as if the plants, flowers and ocean views belong to your room. The suites have a large covered outdoor patio with lounge chairs and some also have their own plunge pools.
Most of the two and three bedroom villas have plunge pools as well. The Four Seasons Costa Rica is the first property at which we really used the plunge pool and that's because it was heated. No matter how hot the temperature outside, jumping into a cold, shaded pool is as inviting to us as a frigid bath. But at this resort, my daughter and I looked forward to late afternoons at our villa when we relaxed in the plunge pool and enjoyed the spectacular view of the beach and the water below.
The villas, as they say are "to die for." Two bedrooms are nearly 3,000-square feet and three-bedroom units are 3,572 square feet. Cleverly designed, the master bedroom and bath, living/dining area and full kitchen are on one side of the covered breezeway with its plunge pool and another, equally large bedroom and bath is on the other side of the breezeway. The three-bedroom units have an additional bedroom and bath downstairs. This arrangement works well for multi-generational families and parents traveling with older kids and teens who want privacy. For young kids, a bedroom across a breezeway may feel too distant from their parents' room.
Cribs are complimentary as are baby bathtubs, lotion, oil, baby powder, bibs and bottle warmers.
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