This wilderness camp with 20 bedrooms is only accessible on a raft. Or, for the more adventurous, you can travel in a cage along with your luggage and have it pulled across the river using a hand-pulley. Pacuare ranks as one of the best white-water rafting river in the world. The verandas offer a spectacular view of steep canyons, lush tropical forests, and toucans, oropendolas, and other birds. These low-impact lodges of tight thatch woven by the Indigenous Cabécar people are candlelit at night and air-conditioning-free. Some include spring-fed pool decks and the best suite features a suspension bridge over the gorge.
In the heart of 2,500-acres of primary rainforest, the sound of water is constant, whether it’s the roaring river or the fat raindrops pounding on the roof. Activities include ziplining through the jungle canopy, rappelling to waterfalls or swimming in crystal clear pools with hummingbirds and blue morphos. Pacuare Lodge, which began as a few tents in an open clearing two decades ago, has won a number of awards. sustainable luxury. The shoreline spa uses native herbs and wraps for healing and detoxification treatments; the restaurant brews its own beer and harvests vegetables from a garden on the side of a volcano; and the infinity pool is eco-tiled and chlorine-free. Suspended above the rapids like a floating pontoon, it is the most sensational man-made feature in a natural Eden. —Catherine Fairweather
