There’s a moment that happens to almost everyone who visits Guanacaste, Costa Rica for the first time.

It’s not at the airport. It’s not at check-in. It’s usually sometime on the first full day. Maybe you’re watching the sun drop into the Pacific from a terrace, or you’re on the water before 7am with nothing on the agenda but the tide. And something shifts. The decompression that usually takes three or four days happens in about six hours.

That’s not a coincidence. It’s the destination.

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Guanacaste, Costa Rica’s northwestern province hugging the Pacific coast, has a particular quality that’s difficult to articulate and almost impossible to forget. It moves differently. The pace is intentional. The beauty is immediate. And unlike a lot of places that market themselves as escapes, Guanacaste actually delivers on the promise.

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We were on the ground there recently, scouting properties and walking the communities that are new to our portfolio. What we found confirmed what the data has been suggesting for a while now: this is one of the most compelling second-home destination markets in the Western Hemisphere, and most buyers are still a step behind the curve.

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The Numbers Behind the Feeling

Let’s start with the market, because the lifestyle alone doesn’t tell the full story.

Costa Rica’s real estate sector has seen sustained appreciation over the past decade, with luxury coastal markets in Guanacaste leading the charge. The province has recorded consistent year-over-year price growth in the 8–12% range in premium communities. Driven not by speculation, but by fundamentals that tend to hold: limited coastal supply, increasing international demand, and infrastructure investment that keeps compounding.

Foreign direct investment in Costa Rica reached over $3.9 billion in 2023, with tourism and real estate among the top contributing sectors. The country welcomed more than 3 million international visitors that same year (a record!) and Guanacaste’s Daniel Oduber International Airport (Liberia LIB) handled a significant portion of that traffic, with direct routes expanding from major U.S. hubs including New York, Miami, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and more.

That last point matters more than it might seem. Accessibility is one of the most underrated drivers of second-home value, both for personal use and long-term appreciation. A home that takes two connections and a regional puddle-jumper to reach is a home you use less, enjoy less, and eventually resent. Guanacaste solves that problem almost entirely. You land, clear customs, and within 20 minutes you’re on property. The friction of getting there is, by luxury real estate standards, almost nonexistent.

The hospitality sector tells the same story. The Four Seasons Peninsula Papagayo has anchored the region’s luxury positioning for years. The St. Regis Papagayo recently broke ground, bringing Marriott’s most refined brand to the coastline. When brands at that level make long-term capital commitments to a destination, they’re not betting on a trend. They’re validating a market thesis.

Guanacaste is still early enough to feel undiscovered, but it won’t be for long.

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What Pura Vida Actually Means

Costa Rica’s national phrase, pura vida, (literally “pure life”), gets used so often in tourism marketing that it’s easy to dismiss as branding. It isn’t.

It’s a posture. A cultural orientation toward simplicity, presence, and gratitude that shows up in daily life in ways that are quietly disorienting for high-achievers who haven’t slowed down in years. The person at the front desk isn’t performing hospitality, they mean it. The fisherman who waves from the water at 6am isn’t doing it for the photo, it’s just what you do. Things move at a pace that initially feels inefficient and eventually feels like the only sensible way to live.

Costa Rica consistently ranks among the happiest countries in the world on the Happy Planet Index, a measure that weighs wellbeing, life expectancy, and ecological footprint. It’s a country that runs on over 99% renewable energy. These aren’t footnotes, they’re the architecture of a society that has, for generations, made a different set of choices about what a good life looks like.

That ethos permeates Guanacaste. The pace isn’t slow because nothing is happening. It’s intentional because the people here understand something that takes most visitors a few days to absorb: the point isn’t to optimize the trip. The point is to actually be in it.

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A Day That Doesn’t Need an Itinerary

Part of what makes Guanacaste genuinely different from other luxury markets is the breadth of what it offers within a single day’s reach, all without the logistics overhead that usually comes with it.

Mornings can start on the water. The surf breaks along the Nicoya Peninsula and northern Pacific coast are world-class, drawing serious surfers from around the globe while remaining accessible to beginners. Sport fishing in the Pacific here is among the best on the planet. Blue marlin, yellowfin tuna, roosterfish, and operators run charters that range from half-day to multi-day offshore expeditions.

Afternoons take you inland. The province sits at the edge of some of Costa Rica’s most remarkable natural geography. Active volcanoes, cloud forests, wildlife reserves where howler monkeys and scarlet macaws are background noise rather than bucket-list sightings. Zip-lining, white water rafting, and ATV trails through jungle canopy are available within an hour of virtually any property in the region.

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Evenings slow down. Oceanfront dining that ranges from open-air ceviche bars to multi-course tasting menus. Sunsets over the Pacific that, without exaggeration, stop conversations mid-sentence. And that signature Costa Rican rhythm that makes it very easy to stay for one more drink, and then another.

This isn’t a place you exhaust in a long weekend. It’s a place that reveals itself over time, which is exactly the kind of destination that rewards ownership over visitation.

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Two Ways to Own It

When we evaluate destinations for the GoForth portfolio, we’re not just asking whether a place is beautiful. We’re asking whether it’s a place families will actually use consistently, year after year. Whether the experience deepens with repeat visits or plateaus after the first one. Whether the market fundamentals support long-term value, not just short-term appeal.

Guanacaste answered every question.

We’re bringing two distinct ownership opportunities to the portfolio, each offering a different way to experience the destination.

At the St. Regis Papagayo, the ownership experience is fully elevated and effortless. Five-star branded service, refined design, and true turnkey living. Everything handled, nothing left to manage. This is for the family that wants to arrive and immediately be in it, without a single logistical thought.

At Bahia Papagayo, the experience is more nature-integrated and immersive. It’s a community designed to exist within the landscape rather than impose upon it. Adventure-forward, design-conscious, and connected to everything that makes this coastline extraordinary. This is for the family that wants to feel Guanacaste, not just visit it.

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Two different approaches. The same underlying conviction: that this destination delivers the kind of ownership experience that compounds in value, financially and personally, over time.

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The Window Is Open. It Won’t Be Forever.

The markers that define an emerging luxury market; strong fundamentals, improving access, institutional validation, and a lifestyle offer that punches well above its price point, are all present in Guanacaste right now.

Markets like this have a window. The buyers who move early aren’t gamblers. They’re the ones who’ve learned to recognize the pattern before the rest of the market catches up: when the lifestyle is already world-class, the infrastructure is maturing, and the price hasn’t yet reflected either of those things,  that’s the moment.

Guanacaste is that moment.

Not because it’s trending. But because once you’ve been here, you understand why it was always going to be.