Time is the highest currency. It is finite — it cannot be bought, extended, or replaced. Once lost, it never returns. Unlike material things or traditional markers of status, time is shared equally by all. The best way to spend it is immersed in place, where nature and culture are inseparable. What Nayara offers is a true immersive nature experience, without ever compromising comfort — the traditional definition of luxury. But luxury has changed, and our family of resorts across Costa Rica, Panama, and Chile are at the forefront.
Whether you are Elon Musk chasing Mars, or a Costa Rican farmer chasing the perfect coffee bean, you still have the same twenty-four hours a day. How you spend them is what makes life — and travel meaningful.
While nature is at the heart of who we are, it is not nature alone that runs through our philosophy. Nature and culture together form place. Regenerative travel, wellness, and immersive experiences are all grounded in place. But the thread that ties them together is not nature. It is time. Time is the measure that gives them meaning. And sometimes, that thread moves slowly…very slowly.
Deadly Sin to Rainforest Royalty
Enter the sloth, the inevitable protagonist of our story—and of Costa Rica’s ascent as a global travel destination.
Biblically branded a deadly sin, this remarkable animal has staged one of the greatest PR comebacks in history. They've been reborn as rainforest royalty and, oddly enough, a kind of modern influencer. They’ve starred in movies, inspired yoga poses, and even earned their own hashtag holiday.
But beyond the memes lies something deeper. It turns out sloths aren’t lazy at all. They’re the ultimate rainforest strategists. At Nayara Tented Camp, our reforestation program created natural corridors where they and other wildlife returned to thrive. As a keystone indicator, it thrives only in a healthy rainforest. Its very presence proves reforestation has works
You might not expect them on a Caribbean island, but Nayara Bocas del Toro is home to a mangrove-dwelling variety of its own. This Machiavali of the mangroves proves that strategy, not speed, wins in nature’s game.
And in Chile — where no sloth has ever lived — the wisdom takes another form. If sloths move slow our ambassador doesn't move at all. At Nayara Hangaroa, it’s the iconic Moai, stone giants that have stood as silent guardians of culture and belonging for centuries. They outlasted empires and remind us that permanence is power.
Together, sloths and Moai teach us that true luxury is not speed, excess, or opulence. It is belonging fully to place and spending our most precious resource – time – meaningfully. This is the new luxury.
Together, sloths and Moai teach us that true luxury is not speed, excess, or opulence. It is belonging fully to place and spending our most precious resource – time – meaningfully. At Nayara, this vision comes to life through our pillars: bespoke experiences rooted in place, holistic wellness rooted in nature, and regenerative travel that goes beyond sustainability.
Of Sloths & Stars
In the summer of 1969, one small step for man changed the history of mankind. Yet long before Apollo 11—about four billion years before—the Moon had already been shaping our story, pulling the strings behind the curtain with its gravity. By slowing Earth’s spin, forming tides, and shielding us from debris, it made life possible.
On Earth, the Atacama Desert is the closest thing we have to another planet. Its barren valleys and salt flats make it so Mars-like that NASA trains astronauts there for future missions to the red planet. By day, it’s barren. By night, the quality of its stargazing is unrivaled. Dry air, high altitude, and zero light pollution make the heavens blaze with impossible clarity.
At our own observatory, guests can trace Saturn’s rings and other celestial wonders with the help of our expert astronomical guides. From sloth-gazing to stargazing, that same Moon connects every corner Nayara. On Rapa Nui, it once guided voyagers across the Pacific. In Panama, it glimmers above bioluminescent bays. In Costa Rica, it lights the rainforest, where frogs and other nocturnal inhabitants emerge on guided night walks with our on-staff naturalists.
These are immersive experiences rooted in place, shaped by the rhythms of nature, unique to each setting.
Trace the Moon’s path across desert, rainforest, & glowing ocean ↩️
Nayara by Night: of Moon & Stars
Beyond Sustainability
If the Moon governs reflection, the Sun commands action. And on October 2 of 2024, the island of Rapa Nui became one of the best vantage points for a total solar eclipse: a phenomenon that is only possible because of a cosmic coincidence—the Sun is 400 times larger than the Moon, but also exactly 400 times farther away.
At Nayara Hangaroa, the opportunity was literal. Our recently completed solar panel project harnessed the same power that lit the eclipse. Nayara Alto Atacama led the way two years earlier, transforming relentless desert light into clean energy, earning us an S-certification, Chile's highest standard for sustainability, in the process.
The story was different in Costa Rica, a nation that was green before green started trending. Here, solar panels weren't needed because the national grid already ran on clean energy—hydro, geothermal, and wind.
Instead, we turned to the land itself, replanting thousands of native trees on former barren cattle pasture. Cecropias grew, sloths returned, wildlife corridors were created, and with them, balance restored. This was just one of myriad factors that led to our Arenal resorts, Nayara Gardens, Nayara Tented Camp, and Nayara Springs, achieving coveted green globe status and full carbon neutrality.
Far away, on Easter Island, the story was more complex. One of the most remote inhabited islands on Earth, adrift in the Pacific 2,000 miles from the nearest continent, it's a place where culture, mystery, and landscape merge into something singular.
And nothing could be more singular than the Moai. Nearly a thousand of these stone giants—some weighing more than 80 tons—were constructed without metal tools, wheels, or beasts of burden, and then somehow moved dozens of miles across the island.
These ancient Moai builders went on to suffer centuries of colonization, disease, and near-extinction. Yet the culture persisted and today it is being reclaimed. At Nayara Hangaroa, we are proud to be part of that story, and we're even prouder to be partially owned by a local Rapa Nui family, the Hito, whose leadership continues to shape the island.
Like the Moai themselves, cultural preservation is about endurance. Protecting traditions is as vital as planting trees or building solar grids. It is what makes travel regenerative, ensuring communities and ecosystems alike are left stronger than we found them.
At Nayara, we believe sustainability is not an endpoint but a beginning. For us, the question is not just how to avoid harm, but how to leave each ecosystem stronger than we found it. This is the meaning of beyond sustainabillity.
Dive deeper into our sustainability initiatives ↩️
Sunlit Sustainability: Nature-Powered
The Nature & Flavor of Wellness
If community anchors us, wellness restores us. At Nayara, wellness isn’t a list of treatments on a spa menu—it flows directly from the environments that surround us. It is holistic by design, caring for body, mind, and spirit in equal measure.
A Caribbean archipelago of mangroves, reefs, and rainforest, Bocas del Toro is a place where the pace slows the moment your boat arrives. There are no roads, no cars, no background hum of modern life—only the sound of waves brushing the shore of the private island we call home. Here spa rituals happen on your overwater villa deck with the ocean stretching out below, or high in our new treehouse spa suspended 50 feet above the canopy, where wellness is elevated quite literally.
In Costa Rica, the rainforest and its most commanding resident, the Arenal Volcano, write the rituals. Mineral-rich hot springs heated deep underground soothe body and mind, while treatments use rainforest ingredients like volcanic mud and cacao. Open-air pavilions host sound healing and guided-yoga classes that flow with the rhythm of the forest unfurling below.
Science echoes what these landscapes have long taught. Time in nature measurably lowers cortisol, eases blood pressure, strengthens immunity, and improves sleep. Even twenty minutes outdoors can reset the body’s stress response, while natural soundscapes—birdsong, wind, water—lift mood and sharpen focus.
But wellness doesn’t stop with movement, silence, or hot springs. At Nayara, food is never just food—it’s a passport to place.
What’s on your plate tells you exactly where you are, what people made it, and the land or sea that provided it. This is the heart of our zero-kilometer philosophy: food sourced locally, rooted in place, and tied to tradition.
At Nayara Springs, belonging to Relais & Châteaux signals more than prestige—it’s a promise. Every plate must tell a story of its origin, crafted with both technical mastery and authenticity. Here, rainforest gardens provide herbs and tropical fruits that move straight from soil to kitchen. Coffee beans are roasted in-house at Mi Cafecito, where guests learn the heritage of Costa Rica’s most iconic crop.
Our culinary and wellness philosophy follows the same principle: respectful, rooted, and shaped by the landscape. It’s about drawing only what nature offers and transforming it with care, ensuring every experience feels both elevated and deeply connected to place.
How nature defines our wellness & cuisine ↩️
The Nature and Flavor of Wellness
The New Currency of Luxury
Taken together, these pillars – and the icons that embody them – define a new vision of luxury. Nature is not an accessory to our hotels – it’s the foundation, partner, and constant presence.
The sloth teaches us that life isn’t about speed. The Moai teach us endurance and cultural belonging.
Together, they remind us that true luxury is not found in excess, but in the deliberate choice to spend time meaningfully and in connection with place, people, and nature.
Now it’s your turn.
Witness the clearest skies on Earth, soak in your villa's private hot-springs plunge pool, enjoy a massage from your overwater villa’s floating deck, and finally check off “see the Moai” from your bucket list.
Sloths may move slowly and Moai not at all, but the time to start living fully doesn't.
And the adventure of a lifetime begins the moment you decide.
