"All-out action in the mountains Ensconced in the Pérez Zeledón canton, amid the Brunqueña and Talamanca mountains of southern-central Costa Rica, Hacienda AltaGracia’s casitas gaze into the hilly wilderness of the San Isidro valley. The resort occupies 178 acres—so large that a morning walk with Bagheera, the resident dog, might be the best way to get the lie of the land. Rather than provide a base from which to explore the area, Hacienda AltaGracia, relaunched by Auberge Resorts Collection in 2021, concentrates on bringing the area to guests. Apart from the three restaurants and spa, there’s hiking, biking, rafting and ziplining, plus a serious stable complete with a traditional tack room and sand school, where vaqueros are on hand to lead trails. Abseiling meets nature-spotting 100 feet up in the canopy, as guide Luis Diego Alvarado Mora points out turkey-tail mushrooms on the forest floor over a snack of banana bread and pineapple juice. Then it’s time to abseil down a carboncillo tree. Some nights, competitions unfold between rodeo riders, while chefs Arno Janse van Rensburg and Liezl Odendaal, who work with women’s cooperatives to source ingredients from tacacos to arracache, rustle up magic over a coconut-husk fire. —Anna Prendergast" - Catherine Fairweather , Anna Prendergast, Juliet Kinsman
