Nayara Tented Camp: With Canvas Tents and Infinity Pools, You Won’t Have to Choose Between Rugged and Refined in Costa Rica

Stay Here For

A luxury safari experience when Africa isn’t in the cards. This sprawling rainforest resort in Costa Rica’s Arenal Volcano National Park offers both creatures and creature comforts, no long-haul flights required.

Calling Nayara a “tented camp” is a bit like calling Hearst Castle a country house, or Buckingham Palace a London pied-à-terre. Sure, the suites and villas have nylon and canvas walls, but unlike other tents you may have stayed in, these have air conditioning, indoor and outdoor showers, and an infinity-edge plunge pool fed by thermal springs.

Set deep in the Costa Rican rainforest of Arenal Volcano National Park, the Camp offers a top-notch glamping experience, perfect for travelers who want to immerse themselves in nature without roughing it. It’s the newest and fanciest of three resorts on a sprawling 36-acre property that also comprises Nayara Gardens and the adults-only Nayara Springs. Guests have full access to the restaurants, spas and facilities at all three resorts, as well as an extensive schedule of complimentary activities, including morning yoga classes, bird-watching tours, nature walks with resort naturalists, greenhouse tours, tortilla-making classes and excursions to the Friday market in nearby La Fortuna.

But it’s the rainforest and its residents that are the real draw—and what makes Nayara so special. “Lush” is the easiest (albeit inadequate) way to describe this hilly Eden, where sloths hang from trees, private thermal springs supply several terraced pools and peccaries (wild pigs) regularly trot across your golf cart’s path.

The scent of rain-soaked earth hangs in the air, the soundtrack is tropical birdsong and the Arenal Volcano is visible from almost everywhere. While families with young kids spend mealtimes delightfully shrieking over sloth and gecko sightings, couples are just as happy here, canoodling in their canopied beds, lazing in the hammocks on their decks or taking dips in their private plunge pools. This captivating environment plus attentive, knowledgeable and friendly service combine to create a “camping” vacation that’s as elevated as those “tents.”

The Essentials

The Location

Nayara Tented Camp is about a three-hour drive from either San José (SJO) or Liberia (LIR) airports. Once at the resort, La Fortuna is a 10-minute drive away, and a must for visitors who want to go zip-lining, white-water rafting or swimming in the town’s famous waterfall. Arenal Volcano National Park, where hiking, hot springs and the namesake 5,479-foot-tall volcano (for many years, Costa Rica’s most active) are the draws, is 20 minutes by car.

The Rooms

Sitting on stilts above the undergrowth (all the better to maximize views and minimize impact on the forest floor) are 37 one- and two-bedroom tents in five neighborhoods: Sloth, Toucan, Titi, Colibri and Coati. Entry-level Nayara Tents work well for a couple or two adults and two children (who’ll bunk on twin mattresses in window niches, on either side of a netting-draped king bed), while Family Tents—essentially two Nayara Tents connected by a wooden deck—sleep six, in two queens, one king and one daybed. The resort’s two residences, Casa Paloma and Casa Dana (each a four-bedroom complex that can sleep up to a dozen people), are also great options for extended families traveling together.

No matter the room type, swooping sail-like canvas roofs, nylon-clad exterior walls and interior walls covered in cotton canvas instantly telegraph an old-school safari vibe. That aesthetic is bolstered by dark wood furniture, windows dressed with roll-up canvas blinds and a massive trunk-style leather minibar, its mirrored doors purposely left open when you arrive, to dramatic effect. Bathrooms feature both indoor and outdoor showers, a walk-in closet and a stand-alone tub, placed in the middle of the space under a glowing pendant lamp. And a spacious private deck comes equipped with a dining table, hammock, double chaise and jetted infinity plunge pool, fed by the warm waters of the resort’s private mineral springs.

The Bars and Restaurants

All-day restaurant Ayla serves a mix of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern fare, with dishes ranging from grape leaves and falafel to beef shawarma and catch of the day, cooked on a wood-fired grill and served with sides like mujadara rice and batata harra (Lebanese spicy potatoes). Come here for breakfast, lunch or dinner in a poolside dining room that’s open to awe-inspiring vistas of Arenal Volcano. Guests may also dine at any restaurant at sister resorts Nayara Gardens and Nayara Springs, including a tapas bar, an Asian-Latin fusion spot and a northern Italian bistro.

During the day, Lapas Bar, the swim-up pool bar, is a popular spot for a cocktail (try the tangy, rum-based Lychee Breeze Sour) with a volcano view. With its stone fireplace, cane furniture and whirring ceiling fans, intimate and elegant Henry’s Bar is the yin to Lapas Bar’s yang, a subtly safari-inspired spot for an aperitif or nightcap.

The Standout Feature

Treatments at Sukha Spa incorporate locally grown organic coffee, chocolate and volcanic mud.

Never has your skin felt smoother than after the hourlong DIY mud pit session at Sukha Spa. Start with a 15-minute soak in the thermal tub, then shuffle over to the outdoor mud pit, where you’ll daub white clay from Arenal’s slopes all over your body. Sit for 20 minutes, listening to distant birdsong and watching fat raindrops fall on banana leaves, before rinsing off in the outdoor shower. Spend the final minutes of the treatment relaxing on a comfortably curved rattan chaise. 

The Time to Go

Although there are almost daily showers year-round, it’s driest here between November and May. If you choose to go during the summer months, you’ll avoid the crowds, but you should expect heavy rain several times a day.

The Vibe

After a DIY mud pit session at the spa, rinse off in the outdoor shower.

What you’re packing: The Camp is sophisticated yet casual, comfortable and colorful. If there was ever a place to wear that flowy designer caftan or terry-cloth cabana shirt, this is it.

The design detail you won’t stop coveting: The only thing better than an outdoor shower is an outdoor shower big enough for two, with dual shower heads.

What you’re buying in the gift shop: Playful earrings from a local designer’s fruit-themed ceramic jewelry collection are impossible to resist.

The perfect spot for your social media post: You’ll have to wake up at sunrise for the best chance of seeing Arenal’s peak without clouds, but the photo of you in front of it, captured from the terrace at Ayla, will be so worth it.

The story you’ll tell when you get home: Take the complimentary Secret Life of Tony the Sloth tour and you’ll come back with a ton of fun facts about the slow-moving mammals.

Everything Else

Lead photo courtesy of Nayara Tented Camp.