- The signing · Hilton is bringing its ultra-luxury collection LXR Hotels & Resorts to Costa Rica with Maravé Manuel Antonio.
- The site · 40 acres, roughly 16 hectares, stretching from the rainforest ridge down to 650 feet of Pacific beach near Manuel Antonio National Park.
- The capacity · 173 accommodations in total · 57 hotel keys and 116 branded residences.
- The timeline · opening announced for 2029.
A first hotel brand for Manuel Antonio
Manuel Antonio is one of the best-known names in Costa Rica, famed for its tiny national park boasting exceptional wildlife density, where sloths and capuchin monkeys can be observed just a few metres from the trail. The destination has long thrived on nature tourism, yet it has never welcomed an international hotel brand.
Maravé Manuel Antonio will be the first branded address to establish itself there, and the country’s first five-star property under the LXR flag. The estate spans approximately forty acres, around sixteen hectares, from the forest ridge down to a beach stretching nearly two hundred metres along the Pacific.
A timber frame as a structural choice
Design is led by Costa Rican firm Carazo Arquitectura, partnering with Chicago-based studio Curioso for the interiors. The project features the integration of Costa Rica’s largest mass-timber structure · a choice that is not purely aesthetic, as laminated timber sequesters carbon whereas concrete emits it during production.
Interiors will favour natural stone and local wood essences, with large openings designed to blur the boundary between indoors and outdoors. On a sloping, canopy-covered terrain, the primary challenge lies in positioning the volumes without clearing the forest that makes the location so valuable.
En images
Faites glisser pour parcourir · cliquez pour agrandir
The true engine of the project is real estate
The distribution of the 173 accommodations deserves a careful read. The hotel proper will feature only 57 keys, including around fifteen bungalows equipped with their own plunge pools facing the sunset. The other 116 units are branded residences, sold to private owners: 66 three-bedroom villas, 46 apartments starting from approximately 130 square metres, and 4 penthouses exceeding 370 square metres.
This model has become commonplace in high-end beach destinations · residence sales fund construction, while hotel operations provide the brand, services, and resale value. Buyers also secure Hilton Honors Diamond status in the process. For the traveller, the practical consequence is simple: hotel availability will remain scarce, with fewer than sixty keys spread across a sixteen-hectare estate.
| Location | Manuel Antonio, Pacific Coast, Costa Rica |
|---|---|
| Estate | ≈ 16 hectares · ≈ 200 m of beach |
| Hotel | 57 keys, including ≈ 15 bungalows with private plunge pools |
| Residences | 116 units · 66 villas, 46 apartments, 4 penthouses |
| Design | Carazo Arquitectura · interiors by Curioso (Chicago) |
| Opening | expected by 2029 |
Beach club, local dining, and hidden bar
Resort life will centre around an oceanfront beach club and its swimming pools. Two signature dining venues will highlight the catch of the day and rainforest produce, a fitting repertoire for a destination whose main selling point remains nature. A discreet cocktail bar, the Maravé Speakeasy Bar, a full-service spa, a fitness centre, and a kids’ club will complete the offering.
Where does LXR, Hilton’s most discreet collection, stand?
LXR remains the least known brand in the group’s luxury portfolio, far behind Waldorf Astoria and Conrad. It brings together independent properties that retain their own names, operating on a collection model rather than a chain. By the summer of 2026, it counts seventeen open hotels across nine countries and territories, totalling around 2,825 rooms, with twenty-five additional projects in development · an expansion pace that outstrips its current size.
Costa Rica is among these ongoing projects. The establishment in Manuel Antonio confirms the collection’s focus on hard-to-reach natural settings rather than capital cities, where scarcity of land justifies the pricing positioning.
Three years of waiting, and an unknown variable
The 2029 timeline leaves room for adjustments, and Costa Rican projects of this scale must contend with strict environmental constraints · the country has built its tourism reputation on protecting its ecosystems, and permits are won slowly.
This is precisely the core challenge of this project: placing 173 accommodations on the edge of a national park renowned for its wildlife density without harming what draws visitors in the first place. The timber structure and the preservation of the canopy are steps in the right direction. The final verdict will be delivered on-site in four years’ time.
