Las Catalinas: Guanacaste, Costa Rica

Las Catalinas is a town on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, it looks like any Spanish town in the new world with a twist-this place is brand new, founded in 2008, about 500 years after the Spanish first set foot anywhere near here.

Built to attract wealthy tourists, Las Catalinas is a real estate development on Danta Beach about twenty kilometers north of the well known surfing town of Tamarindo, or an hour drive from the airport in Liberia.

You can surf here, swim, do various watersports and walk around the town. They sell condos for long term investors and hotel rooms for the night. Prices range from $400,000 USD for a smaller unit with a mountain view to the millions for larger properties on the sea shore.

The town has been steadily expanding for years now and while it is expensive, they have done a very good job making it look like somewhere to spend a luxury holiday or a relaxing winter in retirement.

We did not stay here but broke the rules and walked around the private zones. As long as you aren't being noisy it shouldn't be a problem, it was relatively empty and we were here in early January when the rest of Costa Rica was full of tourists.

We liked the car free aspect of the village, and drove here twice to just walk around and take in the sea breeze. There is everything a tourist would want and if you're lucky, there is limited free parking. The drive getting here, while not too far, takes a while because the road hugs the hills, ocean and crosses many streams on one way bridges.

It seems like they spend hundreds of millions or even a billion dollars to bring this project to fruition. Selling units naturally funds the construction and the ongoing rents from restaurants, shops and hotel rooms. The residents would have to pay management fees as well and the property would likely have a monopoly on vacation rentals.

Walking in and around the gardens was a pleasure, the shade was a nice break from the hot mid afternoon sun. This could be why it wasn't very busy, we were between lunch and dinner, people would either be at the beach or hanging out in their rooms.

The architecture and design is impressive. They did such a great job making it look old and unplanned. In general, styles don't match, they didn't do bulk orders of tiles and pain things the same, even minor details like path widths, doors, levels, colours and materials are different to give the impression that this is an authentic village.

They don't keep it too clean, not that that would be an easy job in the tropics which ads to the charm. Unlike many hotels, this place isn't sterile.

Everything must be on purpose, if you don't constantly trim and maintain the jungle here, it will quickly take over. This is more of a garden then an actual jungle and staff were working on the project and cleaning rooms.

It takes a small army to maintain this village and we passed busses filled with workers as they changed shifts in the late afternoon.

We walked for about an hour before the tropical heat got to us and didn't get to see the entire place. It is built on a hill and there are alleys to explore everywhere.

They are working on expanding Las Catalina's to the left of the main road and from this view you can see that it is a real work in progress. I'd like to come back here in ten years and see how far they've got to making this vision a reality.

Thank you for reading and have a great weekend!

All the pictures were taken with an s24 or an iphone 15 pro and are unfiltered.