Upscale tourists hunger for 'eco-luxurious' experiences

PENINSULA PAPAGAYO, Costa Rica -- A herd of tan cattle ambling down a sparsely traveled, newly paved road creates what locals call a "Costa Rican traffic jam."

Howler monkeys roar in rosewood trees outside $2,000-a-night suites with plunge pools at the Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica at Peninsula Papagayo, where servers shuttle drinks to Rolex-wearing loungers on beaches that a decade ago were cooling-off spots mainly for locals or occasional backpackers.

Guanacaste Province, a remote and once-impoverished region in northwest Costa Rica near the Nicaraguan border, is bidding to be the next luxury hotspot.

Igniting a hotel building boom: thousands of acres of undeveloped Pacific beachfront property, Costa Rica's reputation as a peaceful eco-destination and a thriving international airport outside the province's capital city of Liberia with three dozen non-stop flights from the USA a week in high season. Saturday, Delta launches one from New York's JFK airport.

Hotel chains are eager to emulate the success of the 4-year-old Four Seasons, which is filled almost to capacity during the winter and spring high season. The least expensive room can cost $1,000 a day.

Among more than a dozen resorts being built or on the drawing board, most are within an hour from the Liberia ("LEE-bare-ia") airport:

•The JW Marriott Guanacaste Resort & Spa is due this year.

•Construction is about to start on 650-acre Cacique, Costa Rica, spearheaded by former America Online chairman Steve Case. It will include the first Miraval spa resort outside the USA and a One & Only hotel from Atlantis magnate Sol Kerzner. There'll be an Andre Agassi/Steffi Graf tennis center and a discovery center headlined by Philippe Cousteau, a grandson of the French aquatic explorer. Phase 1 is due in 2010.

•At least two more hotels — brands yet to be announced — are expected to join the Four Seasons on the 2,300-acre Peninsula Papagayo by 2010, says peninsula developer Alan Kelso. One will be at a marina for luxury yachts, with condos, shops and restaurants, which is under construction.

•The Mandarin Oriental, Costa Rica is expected in 2009.

•Rosewood Hotels & Resorts plans to open the 80-suite Rosewood Costa Carmel by the end of 2010, says CEO Bob Boulogne.