My family vacation was a rainy-season disaster in the making - but then a miracle happened. It’s called the Arenal Springs Hotel.

It was clear that the Room2Board staff was giddy about its “boutique hostel,” and deservedly so: The place is well designed, sparklingly clean, and a coconut's toss from the beach. They have marketed themselves shrewdly – Room2Board caters to surfers and discriminating backpackers.

The standard Good Morning package (including breakfast) was $572, the cheapest room available. But, the resort fee per room is an additional $50, and the tax is $70, so if you only eat breakfast and stay in the smallest room, you’re looking at essentially $700/night/room. But hey, we were going to enjoy the heck out of that night!

We were concluding a tour of Guanacaste with Canadian guests and arrived the long way, through Santa Cruz and then a gravel road from Playa Naranjo to Paquera. We were hot, tired, and covered in dust.

The Zancudo Lodge, for two decades an exclusive fisherman’s haunt in the Golfo Dulce, is now reeling in guests who prefer fish on a plate to fish at the end of a line.

To reach Tenorio’s Door, I took an unmarked taxi up a rubble-strewn road in the middle of the night.

The newly erected El Mangroove, an Enjoy Group hotel, recently began offering a "soft opening" deal: $192 for the night, plus a $50 resort credit. So although the gym, spa and some units are still under construction, we packed our sun hats and headed for Guanacaste.

Peering at the monitor, beer in hand, all Zach Boyd can see is a small cottage, a pick up truck and clusters of trees. He is playing the game GeoGuessr, which shows players a street view image from Google Maps, then has them guess its location. Boyd and the other owners of Brewha Costa Rica in the Orosi Valley play it often.

In 2004, Banana Azul co-owner Colin Brownlee thought he’d be hosting backpackers. But Internet marketing brought him fancier guests, and he’s been upgrading the property ever since.