Adventure Days & Beach Town Nights: Catamaran Sailing & Río Celeste for Couples in Costa Rica

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

Lounging in a pontoon hammock as the catamaran turns toward open water. The color of the sea just before sunset, when everything slips into pinks and purples. A waterfall so vividly baby-blue it can’t be real, but you’re standing in front of it. The quiet walk back through Beach Town at the end of the day, when you’re tired in the best possible way and looking forward to a lingering dinner.

This is the version of Costa Rica that’s especially compelling from Santarena Hotel. Not a trip built around one headline moment, but one that drifts between spectacle and ease, between the kind of places you’ve flown across the world to see and the kind of evenings that knit your whole trip beautifully together.

As you look ahead to late summer travels, you’re planning with more intention and settling for nothing less than a trip worth the effort. What we offer at Santarena is not only access to unforgettable experiences, but a setting that makes them feel like part of a whole. Head out into something expansive, come back to somewhere authentic, warm, and walkable. The contrast works its magic.

The Afternoon the Water Turns Gold

The catamaran leaves in the early afternoon, when the day is still bright and the coast begins to open itself up slowly as you pull away from shore.

There’s something clarifying about being out on the water. The town recedes; everyday life is left behind. The horizon takes over. Your body adjusts to the rhythm of the boat, and all the usual static of daily life gives way to sea air, light, and motion.

The route carries you along one of the loveliest stretches of coast in the country, where cliffs, coves, and open water trade places with an almost effortless drama. Snorkeling gear is included if you want to get in the water, and so are snacks, soft drinks, and the simple pleasure of not needing to do much more than look out and take it all in.

It’s easy to understand why this becomes the kind of excursion you’ll keep talking about afterward. The marine life, the shifting coastline, the suspension of time that only really happens once you’re offshore, none of it needs much explanation. It simply works. And then the light begins to change.

This is the part that stays with you. Sunset on the water isn’t subtle; it’s cinematic in the best sense. The sea catches every tone, and the sky seems to layer itself from one color into the next without ever settling on just one. Even on a shared boat, it can feel strangely private, as if the world has narrowed for a moment to the person beside you and the horizon in front of you.

For couples wanting something even more personal, a private charter can be arranged in advance, but the core appeal remains the same either way. It’s the kind of afternoon that changes the mood of everything that follows. By the time the boat turns back, dinner is going to taste better, conversation is going to stretch longer, and the rest of the evening is going to feel shaped by what just happened.

The River That Looks Invented

The next day inland couldn’t feel more different – and that’s exactly the point.

Río Celeste is one of those places that seems to over-promise in photographs and then somehow exceeds all expectations in person. The color really is that bright. The waterfall really is that striking. And the forest around it only sharpens the effect, as though someone painted one impossible section of the landscape and left it there for the rest of us to find.

The day begins inside Tenorio Volcano National Park, where the trail leads first to the waterfall: a 98-foot drop that remains one of Costa Rica’s great visual rewards. On a clear day, you can even see Tenorio Volcano and its five inactive cones.

Later comes Los Teñideros, the place where the Buena Vista River and the Agria Ravine meet and produce the river’s famous light-blue water. It’s beautiful in the purest sense, but it’s also deeply satisfying to hear the science behind it from a guide who knows how to make the landscape feel more real, not less.

That’s part of what makes our Río Celeste experience so strong in the context of a couple’s trip. It isn’t just scenic; it’s absorbing. You’re moving through something with a strong visual identity, yes, but also with a sense of mystery, explanation, and surprise. It gives you something to look at now and something to talk about later.

And then the day keeps unfolding.

At Finca Verde, the mood shifts again. Lunch arrives and the second half of the experience takes you through a sloth reserve and butterfly garden on protected family-owned land, where the atmosphere feels more intimate and more alive in small, quiet ways. You may see red-eyed frogs, hummingbirds, toucans, and of course sloths, but beyond the wildlife, there’s something deeply satisfying about the change in scale. From one of the country’s most iconic landscapes, you’ve moved into a place that’s rooted, personal, and gently held.

That combination is what makes the excursion feel complete. Río Celeste gives the day its spectacle. Finca Verde gives it texture. Together, they turn the experience into more than a checklist stop and make it feel layered, memorable, and unexpectedly human.

Back in Beach Town

At Santarena, what we understand especially well is that a day like this doesn’t end when the excursion does.

You come back through Beach Town a little sun-tired, a little windblown, still carrying whatever the day gave you. Salt on your skin from the catamaran. The particular diluted baby-blue of Río Celeste still fixed somewhere in your mind. And then the hotel begins to do what it does best.

Dinner is close. The rooftop is close. The beach is right there if you want one last walk before dark. Nothing requires another transfer, another drawn-out decision, or another logistical effort. Or much effort at all, really. That matters more than it may seem on paper. It’s the difference between a trip beautifully composed and one that feels fragmented.

This is where we become more than your basecamp. Let Las Catalinas and Santarena give shape to the whole trip.

What Makes This Version of Costa Rica Work

Here, balance looks like an afternoon on the water, open to sky and sea, followed the next day by a walk through rainforest toward one of the country’s most extraordinary rivers. It looks like coming back from both to a beachfront hotel where the best thing about the evening is that nothing feels difficult. It looks like a stay that gives you awe, movement, beauty, and then a place to set all of that down.

That’s why August works so well for this kind of escape. Couples are planning ahead. You’re choosing more carefully. You aren’t looking only for a beach or only for a famous inland excursion. You’re looking for a trip that feels complete before you’ve even taken it.

That’s what this pairing offers: A catamaran to give your stay breadth, Río Celeste to give it depth. While we at Santarena give it continuity.

If that sounds like the kind of trip you want to remember as moment and memory, we’d love to help you shape it. Explore Santarena’s curated experiences and start planning an August escape where the days are adventurous, the nights feel beautifully placed, and every part of the trip has a reason to be there.