Across one connected estate, all open to guests of any of the three Costa Rica resorts.
Wine, cooking, coffee, mixology, and rum, each a skill you carry home.
The culinary tourism market by 2033, growing nearly 22% a year. One in five travelers now book trips for the food.
La Terraza de Arenal: volcano views from every table.
Forest to Table: Three Kitchens, One Arenal Rainforest
In short: Nayara Resorts in Arenal boast six restaurants, five bars, and five culinary classes, all open to guests of the three connected resorts. The range runs from al fresco family dining at La Terraza, to the adults-only seven-course tasting at Amor Loco, to open-fire Mediterranean at Ayla.
Imagine the intimacy and privacy of your own secluded hotel, with access to the culinary world of three world-class properties.
That is what awaits at Nayara Gardens, Nayara Springs, and Nayara Tented Camp in Costa Rica's Arenal region. Each property keeps its own character and quiet, yet guests share one ecosystem of dining that turns a stay into a journey through a single magical rainforest. You are not choosing between three hotels. You are choosing one interconnected destination where culinary excellence is at every turn. For how the wider estate connects, see three hotels, one rainforest.
The culinary tourism market, valued at $16.1 billion in 2025, is projected to reach $76.4 billion by 2033, and nearly one in five travelers now book trips specifically to explore food. At Nayara, food is not a service. It is a vocabulary, spoken across six restaurants, five bars, and five immersive classes. Browse every menu and reserve a table on the Nayara Gardens dining page.
Where It All Begins
La Terraza is the open-air family restaurant, serving local and international cuisine with Arenal volcano views from every table, only local produce and fresh fish and meat, hundreds of wines, and live music nightly. At the adjacent Bar Azul, the bartender invents tropical drinks on the spot.
Asia Luna is a culinary crossroads, pairing Costa Rica's fresh produce with Asian technique. Try the signature Nayara Roll with sweet plantain, or the grilled yellowfin tuna, at an intimate spot with an outdoor terrace and an inside sushi bar.
Nostalgia Wine Bar pours Latin American and European vintages through an Italian dispensing system, in a warm room of leather, wood, and candlelight. A certified sommelier leads tastings that illuminate terroir and vintage, always in service of pleasure, never pedantry. Gardens is the family flagship of the estate; read its full family guide.
Elevated Dining
Amor Loco, the signature restaurant at Nayara Springs Relais & Châteaux, is an adults-only, reservations-required journey: Executive Chef Gianluca Re Fraschini and his team serve a seven-course tasting across Costa Rica's provinces, fusing French and Japanese technique through a Costa Rican lens.
Mis Amores showcases Northern Italian cooking from old family recipes, wood-fired pizzas and a live-cheese pasta finished tableside, with Arenal framed from every outdoor table. For a private occasion, Besame Mucho sets a candlelit table in your own dining room, with a dedicated chef and server.
And at Mi Cafecito, the journey runs from cherry to cup, tracing Costa Rica's 200 years of coffee heritage and the bright, chocolatey, smoky notes of Arenal's beans.
Fire, Earth, and Open Air
At Nayara Tented Camp, Ayla serves modern Mediterranean cuisine with a Middle Eastern touch, and it is here that cooking with fire reaches its fullest expression. The open-fire grill is central: meats slow-cooked over native hardwoods, vegetables charred to sweetness, even desserts touched by smoke.
Lamb kofta, grilled octopus, flatbreads from the wood-fired oven, and mezze for sharing arrive in an elegant open-air tent above the infinity pool, with the volcano beyond. Afterward, Henry's Bar next door offers a fireplace, a library, and a well-made cocktail while time slows. It is the adventure base of the estate; see adventures around the Arenal Volcano.
Gelato by Day, Cocktails by Dark
Lyla's Gelato at Nayara Gardens is handcrafted in small batches with Italian technique and Costa Rican ingredients: guanabana, cas, local Caribbean chocolate, churned fresh daily. It is perfect for families, where a child tasting guanabana for the first time turns dessert into discovery.
When the sun sets, the bars come alive. Cielito Lindo, the swim-up bar at Nayara Springs, serves cocktails, house specialties, and wood-fired pizza without leaving the pool. Lapas Bar at Nayara Tented Camp is the poolside swim-up spot for signature cocktails and exceptional views, while Henry's Bar leans intimate, with Costa Rican spirits, guaro, rum, and coffee liqueur, mixed beside the fire.
Lyla's Gelato: churned fresh daily with Costa Rican fruit and chocolate.
Five Classes That Transform
Why simply eat when you can learn, create, and carry the experience home? Five signature classes go deeper into Costa Rican culinary culture.
Wine Tasting at Nostalgia moves through five to seven wines, each with a paired bite. The Cooking Class at Ayla teaches open-fire technique and Costa Rican-Mediterranean fusion, hands-on and family welcome. The Coffee Class is a two-hour journey from cherry to cup, and you take home beans you roasted yourself. The Mixology Class makes you a bartender for an afternoon. The Rum Tasting moves through five rums aged from two to twenty-three years. They are invitations to understand a culture through its flavors, and a favorite for families at Nayara Gardens.
The hands-on cooking class at Ayla: open-fire technique, family welcome.
At Nayara, food is not a service. It is a vocabulary.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best restaurants near the Arenal Volcano?+
Can guests dine at all three Nayara resorts?+
Is there fine dining at Nayara in Arenal?+
Is the dining family-friendly?+
Do you need reservations, and can non-guests dine?+
- Nayara Gardens: dining venues, menus, and reservations
- Three Hotels, One Rainforest: the shared estate and its experiences
- The Best Family Resort in Costa Rica: Nayara Gardens in full
Taste It All Near the Arenal Volcano
Stay at one of the three connected Nayara resorts and dine across all of them.
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