Origins Lodge
Rainforest roundhouses
Cloud-level canopy
Venture off-the-beaten-track, then a little bit further into the Costa Rican wilderness – and Origins Lodge will reveal its gravity-and-GPS-defying estate through towering bamboo plants and wildlife-filled foliage. Yellow-breasted toucans flit between the wooden roundhouses – where you can sleep with your head in the clouds on a canopy bed, and bathe in an outdoor volcanic-stone shower or valley-facing hot-tub. Garden-inspired mealtimes and guided-meditation sessions are set to a natural soundtrack of birdsong, jaguar roars, and tapir whistling – but the views of Lake Nicaragua and Tenorio Volcano are enough to make the loudest members of the animal kingdom fall silent, even just for a moment of hushed awe.
Facilities
Rooms
Seven suites, including a treetop villa.
Checkout
11am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.
More Details
Rates include an organic Tico breakfast made using freshly gathered ingredients from the estate’s vegetable garden, farm, and natural lagoons.
Also
Golf-carts are available to transport guests with mobility issues around the estate, but the jungle boardwalks and treetop nature of the lodges sadly make this hotel unsuitable for wheelchair-users.
Free Internet Access
Laundry
Pet Friendly
Pool
On-Site Restaurant
Room Service
Spa
At the Hotel
Organic garden, network of trails, yoga pavilion, wine cellar, carpentry studio, craft boutique, charged laundry service, and free WiFi. In rooms: fire-heated outdoor bath, private terrace, coffee machine, organic minibar, binoculars, walkie-talkies, raincoat, and hotel’s own organic bath products.
Our Favourite Rooms
Six standalone lodges cling to the hillside, ensconcing guests within the sights and sounds of the rainforest foliage – waking to a natural alarm clock of howler monkeys, and falling asleep to the pitter-patter of tropical rain. Wooden shutters on every rounded wall open your lodge up to the elements, allowing a cooling breeze to billow out your giant canopy bed. When the mist starts to set in across the cloud forest, retreat to your hot-tub (heated by the wood-burning stove on your terrace). As the estate’s only three-bedroom option, Three Bedroom Vertigo Lodge takes aerial living to new heights. This treetop-suspended stay feels adventurous yet cocooning, and is kitted out with lots of creature comforts – not to mention a fully-equipped kitchen and volcano-facing living room (who needs a TV?)
Poolside
Gently curving around the front of the restaurant, the natural infinity pool (open daily from 7am to 9pm) at Origins Lodge makes you feel as though you’re floating above the clouds. Swims are suspended at canopy level, with sweeping views across the rainforest towards Nicaragua Lake and the still-smoking Tenorio Volcano.
Spa
Fully immersed within the jungle wilderness, the thatched Laka-Tii Spa Suite (which translates to ‘earth’ and ‘water’ in the local indigenous Maleku dialect) grounds guests in the healing powers of nature. Plant-based treatments rooted in ancient traditions vary from volcanic stone and bamboo massages to facials, body wraps, and scrubs using medicinal herbs grown in the Origins garden (which also give the steam room its earthy aroma). Out on the tree-fringed deck, there’s a wooden hot-tub and loungers to relax in while listening to birdsong and the slow rustling of sloths in the branches above. Guided yoga classes, meditation sessions, and breathwork therapy take place in the shala, which is covered yet still open to the elements. Holistic wellness programmes are available on a bespoke basis, which include three organic superfood-packed meals a day, emotional release therapy, one-to-one time with the lodge’s healer, and health-focused activities.
Packing Tips
With all the outdoorsy activities on offer (and changeable weather), you’ll be changing kit several times a day. Sporty layers, a good waterproof, and sturdy footwear are all must-brings. And this isn’t the place to go style-over-substance on swimwear.
Also
The circular skylight in your lodge is inspired by pre-Columbian roundhouses, which welcomed positive energy at dawn and banished any negativity from the day at sunset.
Children
Babysitting is available on request; Three Bedroom Vertigo Lodge sleeps up to six across three treehouse-style bedrooms.
Gallery
Food & Drink
Top Table
You’ll have jungle surround-sound wherever you sit, but the volcanic views are best from the poolside tables.
Dress Code
Lean into your wild side with loud prints, or opt for a more minimalist, modern explorer look in cream linens and safari-style headwear.
Hotel Restaurant
From its rainforest-wrapped roost on the mountainside, El Salto restaurant plies hungry hikers with freshly baked pastries, tropical fruit jams and detoxifying juices for brunch, garden-grown salads and plant-based bowls for lunch, and organic sandwiches at afternoon tea-time. The French-inspired multi-course dinner menu is cooked in the open kitchen by a roster of visiting chefs (specially selected by Michelin-starred Jean-Luc L’Hourre). Ingredients are almost exclusively gathered from the estate’s gardens, farm, and lakes, supplemented by handpicked local suppliers who share the hotel’s farm-to-table ethos.
Hotel Bar
You can sit on the curved wooden deck of the Skyview bar (open 7am to 10pm) and dangle your feet in the infinity pool, as you sip sugar-cane cocktails and sommelier-selected wines from El Salto’s cellar. Colourful cushions in pineapple-yellow and lime-green are scattered on swing chairs and tree-trunk benches, and there’s a pool table and open fire pit to gather around on chillier evenings. Try your hand at mixing local spirits with fruits and herbs (you’ve picked yourself) in a private cocktail class, making your own all-natural tipples the Tico way.
Room Service
Nature’s bounty is at your beck and call between 7am and 9pm.
Planes
Liberia Guanacaste is the closest international airport (90 minutes by car from the lodge). Alternatively, Juan Santamaría Airport in San José is four hours by road. The hotel is happy to help with transfers from both airports, just ask their concierge ahead of arrival.
Automobiles
You’ll need to trust the GPS on the twisty-turny drive up to Origins Lodge, which takes you through the rural mountain village of Bijagua onto an unmarked road. Just keep going until you hit (not literally, we hope) a rock wall which, if you look closely, bears the letter ‘O’. There’s free onsite parking and valet service at the lodge.
Worth Getting Out of Bed For
Nature lovers can answer the call of the wild at Origins Lodge with a different activity for every hour of the day (and night). Biodiversity hikes, birdwatching, horse-riding, waterfall treks, lagoon fishing, and nocturnal nature walks are all available on the estate – as well as visits to the hotel’s farm (where you can milk Margaret, the friendly dairy cow) and organic garden (you’ll be talked through the medicinal herbs grown there by one of the botanists). The lodge is also well-connected with local guides and artisans, and can organise bespoke itineraries off-site – such as chocolate tours at a nearby cocoa farm, hikes to Rio Celeste (a magical waterfall in the Tenorio National Park), boat safari tours along the Rio Frio, wildlife-watching in the Tapir Valley Nature Reserve and local butterfly sanctuary, tasting wines made from sugar cane, rainforest zip-lining, water-tubing, kayaking, and river-rafting down rapids like Cascabel Falls.
Earn or Redeem Points with World of Hyatt
This Mr & Mrs Smith hotel participates in the World of Hyatt loyalty program. As a member, you can earn and redeem points and enjoy exclusive benefits for qualifying nights. .
