Restaurants, hotels, bars and wineries in Guanacaste from the En Primeur Club guide.
Accolades in Guanacaste
Bahia and Brisa in Peninsula Papagayo have wine lists. El Mangroove, Autograph Collection in Papagayo has two dining venues with locally sourced, organic ingredients.
Bahia is an all-day Latin American restaurant at Four Seasons Costa Rica in Peninsula Papagayo, with an extensive wine list. Locally sourced coastal cuisine comes from its wood-fired open kitchen.
A poolside al-fresco restaurant at Nekajui in Peninsula Papagayo, with a wine list, craft cocktails, and zero-proof drinks. It moves from light daytime small plates to Baja California-inspired coastal cuisine by night along the infinity pools.
El Mangroove, Autograph Collection is a beachfront boutique hotel in Papagayo, occupying 17 acres of forest, with suites overlooking mangroves and the ocean. Its two dining venues use locally sourced, organic ingredients in a farm-to-table program.
Chao Pescao is an open-air tapas bar in Península Papagayo with Latin American and Caribbean small plates. Café Rincón is a coffee and cacao café in Marina Papagayo, and Buena Nota Café is a resort café in Punta Cacique with chorreador pour-overs and coffee classes.
Chao Pescao is a restaurant in Península Papagayo with a standard wine program. Craft cocktails and beer accompany an a la carte menu of Latin American and Caribbean small plates.
Café Rincón is a coffee and cacao café in Marina Papagayo, serving Costa Rican coffee and cacao with international light fare a la carte. The wine program is minimal. Farm-to-cup drinks are served steps from the Papagayo waterfront.
Buena Nota Café is a coffee shop and bakery café in Punta Cacique, with craft cocktails and an a la carte menu. Pour-overs use traditional chorreador methods, and the café runs coffee classes.
Peninsula Papagayo is the neighbourhood for wine lists in our guide, at Bahia and Brisa. Punta Cacique’s café-led venues include Buena Nota Café, with chorreador pour-overs and coffee classes, and Copo y Cono, a resort shop for coffee, ice cream, and local juice.
Guanacaste has no Michelin-starred restaurants in our guide. Bahia and Brisa in Peninsula Papagayo have wine lists. Bahia also has an extensive wine list and serves modern Latin coastal seafood from a wood-fired open kitchen.
The wine lists are in Peninsula Papagayo, at Bahia and Brisa. Bahia has an extensive wine list. Brisa has a wine list, with craft cocktails and zero-proof drinks.
In our guide for Guanacaste, the citywide Wine Spectator Award of Excellence count is 1. The citywide total of those Wine Spectator Award of Excellence awards in Guanacaste is 1.
By Emmett Haley · Updated October 8, 2026 · Editorial standards
Guanacaste
Selected entries from the current guide for Guanacaste.
Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Bahia belongs to the resort-dining side of Guanacaste, where pool-level rooms, Pacific produce, and hotel logistics shape the meal as much as the plate. Its Peninsula Papagayo setting makes it more relevant as part of the region’s polished coastal circuit than as a standalone destination restaurant.
Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Brisa belongs to the Peninsula Papagayo style of Guanacaste dining, where the value of the table depends on proximity to Pacific seafood, tropical produce, and resort-calibre service rather than formal awards theater. The draw is the setting and sourcing logic: coastal Costa Rica expressed through a polished, destination-resort lens.
Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Buena Nota Café belongs to Guanacaste’s small-coast café culture, where beach-road addresses, produce-led cooking and casual daytime rhythms matter more than formal dining signals. With no public awards or price bracket attached, it reads as a low-key Punta Cacique stop to place alongside nearby restaurant, hotel, bar and experience planning rather than as a destination built on ceremony.
Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Café Rincón belongs to Guanacaste’s resort-corridor dining scene, where the strongest meals tend to read through produce, seafood, heat, and the rhythms of a dry-forest coast rather than formal tasting-menu theatre. Its Peninsula Papagayo setting makes it a useful reference point for travelers comparing casual Costa Rican cooking, hotel-adjacent restaurants, and ingredient-led regional tables across the province.
Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Chao Pescao sits on Peninsula Papagayo, where Guanacaste dining is shaped by resort polish, Pacific seafood culture, and the informality of Costa Rican coastal eating. Treat it less as a standalone destination restaurant and more as part of the peninsula’s wider hospitality circuit, useful for readers comparing meals across the region’s beaches, hotels, and marina-driven dining rooms.
Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Copo y Cono belongs to Guanacaste’s coastal dining circuit around Punta Cacique and Playa Penca, where proximity to farms, fishing communities, and resort demand shapes the table. Treat it as part of a regional food conversation rather than a trophy-room restaurant: ingredient origin, coastal pacing, and the day’s conditions matter more than formal accolades.
Guanacaste
Selected entries from the current guide for Guanacaste.
Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Central America's only Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star resort for six consecutive years, the Four Seasons Resort at Peninsula Papagayo occupies more than 1,400 acres of tropical dry forest above two private Pacific beaches in Guanacaste. Rates from $1,378 per night reflect its position at the upper tier of Costa Rica luxury, where individualized itineraries, an Arnold Palmer-designed golf course, and a renovated 18-room spa define the offer.
Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Among Papagayo Peninsula's upper-tier luxury properties, Nekajui sets itself apart as a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, the brand's most selective sub-brand, with 107 rooms, suites, and treetop tents perched on a clifftop above the Pacific.
Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Designed by Costa Rican architect Ronald Zürcher around the organic forms of cocoons and seashells, the Andaz Peninsula Papagayo sits on a protected 1,400-acre coastal development less than an hour from Liberia airport. The resort's 153 rooms, suites, and newly available Andaz Residences occupy a hillside above Culebra Bay, with four restaurants, three beaches, and a cultural programming strand that brings local artists, surfers, and coffee producers directly into the guest experience.
Guanacaste, Costa Rica
A boutique hotel on the Pacific coast of Guanacaste, El Mangroove sits on 17 acres of beachfront forest within Gulf of Papagayo, rated 91.5 points by La Liste (2026). Its 85 suites blend contemporary bohemian design with mangrove and ocean views, while two distinct dining venues anchor a farm-to-table programme built on locally sourced, organic ingredients.
Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Santarena Hotel at Las Catalinas sits within a purpose-built pedestrian village on Playa Danta, Guanacaste, earning Michelin Selected recognition in 2025. The property's Mediterranean-influenced architecture and car-free setting place it in a different register from the large resort complexes that dominate this stretch of Costa Rica's Pacific coast.
Guanacaste, Costa Rica
The Waldorf Astoria brand's first luxury resort in Central America, Punta Cacique sits on cliffside terrain above the Pacific in Guanacaste, thirty minutes from Liberia International Airport. Six dining venues draw on locally curated menus, while the spa ranks among Latin America's largest by scale. For those positioning a Costa Rica stay around genuine recovery rather than activity-stacking, this is the tier to consider.
Guanacaste
Selected entries from the current guide for Guanacaste.
Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Guanacaste
Selected entries from the current guide for Guanacaste.
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