Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica

Same resort, same name

Plenty of Guanacaste hotels have changed names since we first wrote about them in 2013. The Four Seasons isn't one of them. It opened in January 2004 at the far tip of the Peninsula Papagayo, a finger of dry forest that juts into the Gulf of Papagayo, and it's still run by Four Seasons today, with 199 rooms, suites and villas spread over the hillsides between two beaches.

For an angler, the important neighbor is Marina Papagayo, on the inner side of the same peninsula in Culebra Bay, where the charter fleet ties up.

Fishing from the resort

The resort's water sports team arranges deep-sea fishing on the gulf and supplies the gear. Its own list of targets reads like a Guanacaste greatest hits: marlin, sailfish, dorado, wahoo, grouper, roosterfish, amberjack, mackerel and big tuna. Sailfish and marlin are catch-and-release by Costa Rican law.

Booking through a resort like this is about convenience: the concierge handles the boat, the transfer and the timing, and you don't have to vet captains yourself. If you'd rather pick your own crew, Marina Papagayo's charter fleet and the boats at Playas del Coco, farther south, are the alternatives. Either way, ask which boat you'll be on, how long the trip runs and whether your fishing license is included.

In the windy months, roughly December to April, the Papagayo winds can make the open gulf choppy. Crews often fish closer in or plan around the wind, so keep a spare day if offshore fishing matters to you.

Everything else

The resort is built for families and couples as much as anglers. There's an Arnold Palmer golf course, a spa, snorkeling off Playa Blanca with free gear, surf lessons, kayaks and paddleboards, and a 47 foot catamaran for snorkel trips and sunset cruises on the gulf. That mix makes it an easy sell for a group where only some people want to fish.

Getting there

The resort's address puts it 26 km north of Liberia, home of Guanacaste International Airport, so the transfer from the airport is short. The front desk is on +506 2696 0000, reservations on +1 800 781 5700 and the concierge at concierge.costarica@fourseasons.com. See the Guanacaste section for more fishing on this coast.