A staircase leads to the bedroom, which has 18-foot ceilings and a Jacuzzi. The Costa Rican chefs at Hotel Casa Turire specialize in traditional dishes. Fresh fruit and vegetables from the valley complement locally raised beef and fresh fish from the coast and river. Dining is either alfresco on a shaded veranda beside the swimming pool or in the covered terrace dining room. A mass of tropical plants surrounds the spring-fed pool and dining area and attracts hummingbirds and other colorfully feathered creatures.
Broad lawns surround the building, and rows of flowers border the walkways and entrance drive.
Nature trails lead along the lake and river. The hotel offers car and horseback tours of the plantation to see the harvesting and processing of whichever product is in season. They also will book tours to Guayabo National Park, the site of the oldest pre-Columbian ruins in the country, as well as volcano tours and mountain biking. The hotel offers a lot of activities, but we just soaked it in for our last two days, Mary said. We took walks, went swimming, played pool in the game room.