There’s something wonderfully romantic about the belief that the person beside you as one year ends can help set the tone for the one that begins. It’s the thinking behind the tradition of a New Year’s midnight kiss, tied to the idea that who you’re with as the clock strikes twelve carries meaning...

By the time December arrives, you already know exactly what kind of holiday season you’d like to enjoy.

Some kinds of connection happen easily when you get away together. A romantic meal. A walk after dinner. A morning swim. A shared trail. A few hours on the water where the conversation comes and goes naturally because you’re doing something side by side.

Before the holidays arrive in full color, there’s often a small window of calm you can give yourself.

Routine is not the enemy. Most of the time, it’s what keeps life running. You wake up, make the coffee, answer the emails, figure out dinner, do the laundry, check the calendar, remember that thing you almost forgot. Then tomorrow asks for most of the same. That’s normal. That’s being an adult....

What if, even for just this once, you indulged in a little spontaneity? Imagine the freedom of stepping away from your agenda, from your calendar, from your everyday and just letting the day, your whims, and your time together lead the way.

December at Santarena Hotel, a beachfront boutique hotel in Las Catalinas, arrives with all due pomp and circumstance.

There’s a particular kind of December light at Santarena Hotel that catches in the greenery draped through town. It glows against white walls and tiled roofs. It lingers over Playa Danta just long enough to turn a late afternoon into something worth dressing for. By the time you’re walking down...

August in Las Catalinas arrives in full color. The hills are green – and not just green but GREEN. The flowers bloom brighter. The rivers are rushing. The whole landscape seems to lean outward, inviting you in.

¡Bomba!

There are August evenings in Las Catalinas that seem to begin before the sun has even set.

In early July, motion-activated cameras were placed throughout the nearly 950 acres of natural landscape in Guanacaste’s tropical dry forest zone at Las Catalinas, with the purpose of tracking native Costa Rican animals that live in the area. This project is part of a partnership with Guanacaste...

Some trips are remembered in flashes of indelible moment and memory.

Some places make movement feel like effort. Las Catalinas makes it feel like romance.

June and July reveal a side of Costa Rica seemingly made for two. The hills turn a deeper green. The light softens and lingers differently. The coastline is less a destination and more a place to share.