{"id":66621,"date":"2022-10-24T19:58:51","date_gmt":"2022-10-24T19:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=66621"},"modified":"2022-10-25T21:39:33","modified_gmt":"2022-10-25T21:39:33","slug":"nayara-tented-camp-redefines-luxury-eco-tourism","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/nayara-tented-camp-redefines-luxury-eco-tourism\/","title":{"rendered":"Nayara Tented Camp Is Redefining Luxury Eco-Tourism"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Nayara Tented Camp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I got into my car at San Jose International Airport, the driver, Ron, warned me about two things: the Costa Rican \u201crollercoaster\u201d and the boa constrictors \u2014 the former, a winding mountain pass that some passengers find unsettling, the latter, well, definitely unsettling. The two-hour drive turned out to be perfectly pleasant, with Ron excitedly pointing out local plants, trees and birds along the way. The ride was a great first taste of the famed Costa Rican \u201cPura Vida\u201d hospitality to come.<\/p>\n

Pulling up to Nayara Tented Camp<\/a> in Fortuna, I spotted the breathtaking Arenal volcano in the distance. It\u2019s frequently obscured by a thick cloud covering \u2014 the resort is in the heart of the Costa Rican rainforest, after all \u2014 so I was lucky to get such a perfectly clear panoramic view. I found out the best time to have a chance to see the volcano is during the fall rainy season when I visited. This stunning welcome was just the start of what turned out to be an unforgettable getaway.<\/p>\n

Part of the Leading Hotels of the World portfolio, the Nayara Tented Camp, which opened in late 2019 and recently debuted its latest expansion, is divided into three distinct yet connected experiences: Tented Camp, Nayara Gardens and Nayara Springs (the resort\u2019s adults-only section.) Guests are zipped around on golf carts so they can easily take advantage of everything the 62-acre property has to offer, from the wonderful Mi Cafecito espresso bar for a morning pick-me-up to lunch and dinner at on-site restaurants and evening drinks at the cozy bars. For wellness needs, there are spa facilities, a fitness center and an open-air yoga pavilion.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Nayara Tented Camp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The team at Nayara Tented Camp makes sure the entire operation is run in an eco-friendly way that honors both the natural surroundings of the resort and the rich Costa Rican culture. Inspired by the luxury safaris offered in other parts of the world, the property reopened this summer with a host of new additions that includes a stunning reception tent; a lobby bar, Henry\u2019s; Ayla, the Mediterranean-influenced eatery that\u2019s helmed by Israeli chef Yanir Elnasi; and a relaxing swimming pool surrounded by cabanas and a fire pit.<\/p>\n

The Tented Camp is the epitome of luxury eco-tourism, with rooms and suites all featuring a private plunge pool filled with natural thermal water, private decks (an ideal spot to enjoy room service breakfast), indoor\/outdoor showers and, of course, those gorgeous unobstructed volcano views.<\/p>\n

The two new private residences, Casa Paloma and Casa Dana, can comfortably sleep eight adults and four small children and they come equipped with a fully stocked kitchen, living area, large TV, oversized pool, fire pit, and an outdoor dining area with lounge chairs and umbrellas. There is also a personal concierge on hand to help plan activities, make reservations, and arrange special experiences.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Nayara Tented Camp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is no shortage of things to do at Nayara Tented Camp. The property provides daily yoga and meditation sessions and the Tented Camp\u2019s selection of seven hot spring pools nestled in the rainforest is the perfect setting for the bartender on hand to mix up locally inspired cocktails.<\/p>\n

Guests who want to get out and go can choose from a coffee and chocolate tour, a mixology experience, lava field walk, bird watching, horseback riding or even a frog watching night tour. During a nature walk at the nearby Mystic Hanging Bridges, I trekked for two miles over six suspension bridges stretched over the rainforest\u2019s vibrant canopy of trees.<\/p>\n

No trip to Costa Rica would be complete without at least a few wildlife sightings, and I was treated to plenty. I witnessed howler monkeys frolicking in the trees as well as a blue jean frog, more birds than I could count and \u2014 much to my chagrin \u2014 a fuzzy tarantula hiding in a hollow tree trunk. For a less wild way to experience the natural habitat at Nayara Tented Camp, there is an on-site armadillo sanctuary. And nature expert and \u201cSloth Concierge\u201d Juan Carlos updates guests on the whereabouts of the property\u2019s 15 resident sloths that live in its 1,000 Cecropia trees.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Mis Amores restaurant at Nayara Springs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe are all about luxury and sustainability, as well as the overall experience, which I didn\u2019t find anywhere else on the Latin American continent,\u201d owner Leo Ghitis tells GRAZIA USA<\/em>. \u201cAs a kid I used to camp with my father, but that was really roughing it. I have traveled a lot through Africa and Asia and love the safari and tented camps and found it interesting that there was not really anything like this in Latin America.\u201d<\/p>\n

To remedy the issue, Ghitis decided to bring his vision to life despite encountering some big obstacles along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came up with this concept based on those African and Asian experiences,\u201d he says. \u201cBut those tents are generally built for dry climates so we needed a product that would work in a rainforest with lots of rain and wind. We needed a consistent high-end product.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another hurdle was the land itself, which Ghitis explains was purchased eight years ago with an eye toward future use. \u201cThat whole mountain had been decimated by cattle ranchers and there was nothing but mud,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI wanted to cry \u2014 no butterflies, no birds, no sloths or monkeys, not even grass.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Ghitis had this \u201ccrazy dream\u201d of bringing the area\u2019s rainforest back to life. \u201cAt first, we failed miserably. Then I found an Australian landscape artist who is one of the foremost experts in the world on reforestation. We needed green trees that grow in the rainforest and ended up having to buy another piece of property just to grow them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Nayara Tented Camp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since the project started, there have been close to 40,000 new trees and plants added to the land that lies near the Arenal Volcano National Park. \u201cWe were able to bring it back,\u201d Ghitis says. \u201cIt’s not a mature rainforest but it\u2019s full of wildlife which is incredibly rewarding and important.\u201d<\/p>\n

This focus on eco-friendliness hardly means eschewing the creature comforts of a five-star resort, however. Nayara Tented camp goes above and beyond when it comes to service, thanks to the friendly staff \u2014 many of whom come from the immediate surrounding area.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hire a vast majority, 99% of employees, from the local community,\u201d Ghitis explains. \u201cMany have been working on farms or cattle ranches and come to Nayara with limited experience in the service industry. Many have never met anyone outside the local community or any foreigners. So, we provide training, along with growth opportunities for those employees and take care of the communities where we operate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Nayara Gardens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The hotel is always at full capacity thanks to those same employees, Ghitis boasts. \u201cWe have the best team in the world, and we are very aware of that. We treat everyone as family and in return the hotel does very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to Costa Rica, Nayara also has properties in Panama, Easter Island and Chile with additional locations, including Nayara Residences, to come. As Nayara Tented Camp puts the finishing touches on this phase of the expansion, it\u2019s clear that Ghitis and his dedicated team are on to something \u2014 the union of environmental stewardship and tourism at its finest. \u201cNayara is a sustainability project,\u201d says Ghitis. \u201cIf we humans make an effort, we can reverse the damage done for many years now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28100,"featured_media":66691,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[38,16,6511,2723],"yoast_head":"\nNayara Tented Camp Redefines Luxury Eco-Tourism in Costa Rica<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nayara Tented Camp is dedicated to providing excellent service and protecting the environment at its idyllic Costa Rica property\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/nayara-tented-camp-redefines-luxury-eco-tourism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nayara Tented Camp Is Redefining Luxury Eco-Tourism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nayara Tented Camp is dedicated to providing excellent service and protecting the environment at its idyllic Costa Rica property\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/nayara-tented-camp-redefines-luxury-eco-tourism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Grazia USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-10-25T21:39:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/10\/featured.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/nayara-tented-camp-redefines-luxury-eco-tourism\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/nayara-tented-camp-redefines-luxury-eco-tourism\/\",\"name\":\"Nayara Tented Camp Redefines Luxury Eco-Tourism in Costa Rica\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-10-24T19:58:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-25T21:39:33+00:00\",\"description\":\"Nayara Tented Camp is dedicated to providing excellent service and protecting the environment at its idyllic Costa Rica property\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/nayara-tented-camp-redefines-luxury-eco-tourism\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/nayara-tented-camp-redefines-luxury-eco-tourism\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/nayara-tented-camp-redefines-luxury-eco-tourism\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Nayara Tented Camp Is Redefining Luxury Eco-Tourism\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/\",\"name\":\"Grazia USA\",\"description\":\"Driving tastemakers in Fashion, Beauty and Culture\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Nayara Tented Camp Redefines Luxury Eco-Tourism in Costa Rica","description":"Nayara Tented Camp is dedicated to providing excellent service and protecting the environment at its idyllic Costa Rica property","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/nayara-tented-camp-redefines-luxury-eco-tourism\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Nayara Tented Camp Is Redefining Luxury Eco-Tourism","og_description":"Nayara Tented Camp is dedicated to providing excellent service and protecting the environment at its idyllic Costa Rica property","og_url":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/nayara-tented-camp-redefines-luxury-eco-tourism\/","og_site_name":"Grazia USA","article_modified_time":"2022-10-25T21:39:33+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/10\/featured.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/nayara-tented-camp-redefines-luxury-eco-tourism\/","url":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/nayara-tented-camp-redefines-luxury-eco-tourism\/","name":"Nayara Tented Camp Redefines Luxury Eco-Tourism in Costa Rica","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-10-24T19:58:51+00:00","dateModified":"2022-10-25T21:39:33+00:00","description":"Nayara Tented Camp is dedicated to providing excellent service and protecting the environment at its idyllic Costa Rica property","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/nayara-tented-camp-redefines-luxury-eco-tourism\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/nayara-tented-camp-redefines-luxury-eco-tourism\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/nayara-tented-camp-redefines-luxury-eco-tourism\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Nayara Tented Camp Is Redefining Luxury Eco-Tourism"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/#website","url":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/","name":"Grazia USA","description":"Driving tastemakers in Fashion, Beauty and Culture","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Grazia USA","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/66621"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}