Eco Lodge Yoga Retreat in Costa Rica: Wellness in the Wild at Anamaya

Some places invite you to look at nature through a window. At Anamaya, nature tends to arrive before breakfast.

You may hear the howler monkeys long before you’ve opened your eyes. From the yoga deck, the Pacific stretches toward the horizon while the jungle drops away beneath you. Somewhere in the trees, a chachalaca is making enough noise to wake the entire peninsula. By afternoon, you could be swimming near a waterfall, exploring a quiet beach or sitting beside the pool, watching hawks circle on the rising air.

This is what an eco lodge yoga retreat in Costa Rica can feel like when the landscape isn’t an optional excursion. It’s part of the whole experience.

Anamaya Resort is a yoga and wellness retreat in Montezuma, on the southern tip of Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula. It combines the pleasures of a small, personal retreat with wildlife, waterfalls, ocean views, nourishing food, local adventures and a deep love for the place it calls home. You don’t have to be an experienced yogi or an avid naturalist to feel at home here. You just have to like the idea of spending a week somewhere beautiful, curious and alive.

Quick facts about Anamaya

• Location: Montezuma, southern Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica, overlooking the Pacific.
• Setting: Tropical forest, river gorge, ocean views and the three-tiered Montezuma waterfalls right next door.
• Waterfall access: Guests walk down to Montezuma Falls on Anamaya’s own private path.
• Wildlife: Howler monkeys, white-faced capuchins, coatis, iguanas and a remarkable variety of birds in the surrounding area.
• Wellness: Open-air yoga, spa treatments, breathwork, sound healing and optional modern wellness experiences.
• Food: A 100% gluten-free and dairy-free kitchen built around fresh, whole ingredients.
• Retreat format: Saturday-to-Saturday stays with accommodations and three meals per day; yoga, spa and other activities are selected separately.
• Recognition: Featured in National Geographic’s Best of the World 2026 wellness experiences and Travel + Leisure’s Top 5 Can’t-Miss yoga retreats.

What Makes an Eco Lodge Yoga Retreat Different?

An eco lodge yoga retreat brings two beautiful ideas together: the pleasure of being immersed in a natural place, and the chance to look after yourself while you’re there. At a traditional wildlife lodge, a good day might begin before dawn with a naturalist and end after a long hike. At a conventional wellness resort, it might revolve around classes, treatments and a carefully planned schedule. At Anamaya, those two kinds of day happily overlap.

You can join morning yoga and then go birdwatching. You can visit Montezuma Falls, come back for a massage and spend dinner talking with people you met only a few days ago. One afternoon might be full of adventure. Another can be gloriously unproductive. There’s room for both.

The word eco matters to us, but it shouldn’t be used as decoration. A property’s environmental character comes from choices made over time: how buildings fit the landscape, which materials are selected, how wildlife is treated, how local people participate and whether the guest experience encourages respect for the surroundings. You can learn more about those questions in our guide to eco lodges, eco resorts and wellness retreats.

Anamaya is a small retreat with comforts and a lively connection to the nearby town, beaches and community. That’s part of the appeal. You can enjoy nature without needing to organize an expedition every time you leave your room.

A Home Before It Was a Retreat

One of the nicest things about Anamaya is that it didn’t begin with a hotel developer’s master plan. It began with someone falling in love with a hillside.

Founder Geoff McCabe first discovered Montezuma in 2004. He and his then-wife Karen had traveled widely in Asia, particularly Bali, and dreamed of creating a home that could bring together the architecture they loved with the astonishing beauty of Costa Rica’s Pacific coast. They studied the property’s light and wind before building. Furniture was designed and sourced with care, including pieces fashioned from reclaimed teak, and the house became a gathering place for friends, artists and travelers.

Geoff explained the idea in an early account of Anamaya’s history: “Anamaya started as our dream home, but as fate would have it, our home is now yours.” It’s a sentence that still explains a great deal about the atmosphere here. Read Geoff’s original story of Anamaya.

The retreat business began in 2009, growing from a yoga deck and a handful of rooms into the small destination guests know today. What started as a home designed for friends gradually became a place where guests from around the world could share meals, stories, yoga, adventures and that extraordinary view. That progression matters. A building created for people to gather can feel quite different from one arranged around long anonymous hallways.

Geoff’s interests in ecological building and greener ways of living didn’t stop with Anamaya. He also founded nearby Rancho Delicioso, an eco-village whose focus on community and sustainable living belongs to the same larger story. These aren’t separate marketing themes dreamed up after the fact. They’re part of a long personal fascination with creating places where people can live well and tread a little more lightly on the land.

Ocean, Rainforest and Mountains in One View

There are beautiful hotels all over Costa Rica. What makes Anamaya’s setting unusual is the way several landscapes meet within a single glance. The retreat sits high above Montezuma, with the Pacific Ocean stretching across one side and green ridges, forest and the Rio Montezuma gorge creating the rest of the scene.

National Geographic noticed that quality when it included Anamaya in its Best Wellness Experiences in the World for 2026. The feature described Anamaya as a “jungle-meets-sea retreat in the heart of a blue zone.” It’s an unusually accurate shorthand for the place.

One direction offers an enormous, open horizon. Turn around and the forest feels wonderfully close. A collared aracari may visit a fruiting tree while a bird of prey sits high in the great guanacaste tree at the center of the property. Down below, the river has carved a steep, green valley on its way toward the sea.

The breeze changes throughout the day. Sunlight travels over different sides of the hill. In the green season, passing showers can make the forest glisten and the waterfalls thunder. In the drier months, the sky can stay clear for long stretches and the view seems to go on forever. Neither season produces quite the same version of Anamaya.

That variety also makes the property a lovely place to practice yoga. You can focus on your breath without losing your connection to everything around you. The deck doesn’t separate you from Costa Rica. It lets you notice it.

The Montezuma Waterfalls Are Part of the Neighborhood

A series of three beautiful waterfalls runs through the forest immediately beside Anamaya. Each waterfall has its own pool and personality, from dramatic cascading water to quieter stretches where the river gathers itself between rocks.

For many travelers, Montezuma Falls is a highlight of a visit to the southern Nicoya Peninsula. For Anamaya guests, it’s part of the neighborhood. You walk down from the property on Anamaya’s own private path, so the falls are a short stroll rather than a day trip. The waterfall and gorge also support a surprisingly rich little world of plants, birds and animals.

The experience begins before you reach the water. Trails pass through a changing tangle of roots, vines, huge stones and trees. You may hear the falls first. Then the sound grows until the forest opens and you see white water pouring into a dark green pool. On a hot day, the freshness of the gorge is its own reward.

Plenty of visitors climb behind the big fall and jump through into the pool, and it’s a favorite moment for many of our guests. If you’d like to try it, go with someone who knows the spots, check the depth first and take a look at the water level after heavy rain. Shoes with good grip make the walk more fun too.

If waterfalls are an important part of your trip, our separate Montezuma waterfalls guide covers the private path, the public trail, the seasons and the best swimming spots. We also have a map of the waterfall and surrounding trails.

The Wildlife You Can Actually Expect to Meet

One of the pleasures of staying in a small, forest-surrounded retreat is discovering that the other residents don’t follow the hotel schedule.

Howler monkeys are the obvious stars. During a week at Anamaya, you’re almost guaranteed to hear them, and seeing them is very likely. Their deep calls move through the hills in the early morning and around dusk. On some days they seem to call the rain in. Either way, the sound is extraordinary.

White-faced capuchins are another local species. They move differently from howlers, quick, bright-eyed and curious, often examining whatever is happening around them. Coatis may nose through the undergrowth. Agoutis, which look a little like long-legged guinea pigs, hurry along the ground with great purpose. Iguanas occupy the sunlit edges. At night, a kinkajou or another nocturnal animal may be moving through the canopy, mostly out of sight.

Birds are everywhere once you start paying attention. Aracaris travel in chattering groups. Motmots flash iridescent colors. Chachalacas announce the morning with a noise that seems far too large for a bird. Hawks, vultures and caracaras watch from high branches or float on warm air above the property. Kingfishers and herons spend time in the river corridor.

A few animals keep a lower profile. Wild cats live in the wider region but rarely show themselves, while sloths, spider monkeys and squirrel monkeys belong more to other parts of Costa Rica than to everyday life in Montezuma. That leaves plenty of room for surprises.

Our wildlife guide to Montezuma organizes animals by how likely you’re to see them, and our guide to Montezuma’s monkeys explains the two local species in more detail. Dedicated birders can start with our Costa Rica birdwatching guide.

A Day That Doesn’t Feel Like a Schedule

Imagine waking while the sky is still soft gray-blue. Before anyone has said good morning, you hear a howler calling across the forest. It’s not particularly musical, but it makes a surprisingly good announcement that you’re somewhere very far from your usual morning.

You wander outside with a cup of tea. The Pacific is catching the first light. A pair of aracaris crosses above the terrace, their long bills making them look like tropical cartoon characters. There’s a yoga class later, but right now there’s nothing you need to do.

After moving and breathing on the deck, you join the others for breakfast. The conversation drifts between yesterday’s beach trip, a bird somebody spotted and the mysterious question of how anyone could make breakfast fruit taste this good. A few people are heading to the waterfalls. Someone else has booked a massage. Another guest is thinking about taking a surf lesson.

Maybe you choose the waterfall, stepping into cool forest shade and listening for the river. Maybe you spend the afternoon with a book beside the infinity pool. At sunset, the hillside turns gold and the group gathers again. Dinner takes longer than you expected because the company is good. By night, the forest has become a different place, alive with insects, frogs and creatures you may never see.

Not every day will happen exactly like that. Some guests arrive exhausted and spend most of their first day doing almost nothing. Others want to see every trail and beach. A good retreat should make room for both. Anamaya’s magic is that nature gives the days shape without demanding that you fill every hour.

Yoga, Wellness and Feeling Better in the Natural World

Yoga at Anamaya isn’t a performance. It’s an invitation to slow down enough to notice how you’re feeling, move comfortably and enjoy the moment. The open-air decks make that invitation easier. There are no walls between the practice and the sounds of the tropical landscape.

Your retreat week can also include breathwork, sound healing, sacred cacao ceremonies, spa treatments and time for quiet reflection. Guests interested in modern wellness tools can explore offerings such as infrared sauna, cold plunge, red-light therapy and heart-rate-variability analysis, depending on the current program. You can make your experience gentle and restful, or curious and experimental.

National Geographic was interested in that combination too, describing a retreat that “blends traditional wellness with high-tech health analyses.” The distinction is useful. Anamaya doesn’t ask guests to choose between a barefoot morning walk and an interest in the science of well-being. Both can belong to the same holiday.

There is also growing research into how contact with nature may support mood and stress regulation. For example, a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the International Journal of Biometeorology found encouraging short-term results for forest environments and cortisol, while noting the limits of the available studies. That’s interesting science, but you don’t need a medical promise to value a morning surrounded by trees.

Our forest-bathing guide offers a simple way to experience the forest more attentively. If you’re curious about the connection between nature, movement and well-being, our mind-body wellness guides explore that subject further.

Food That Belongs in Costa Rica

Fresh fruit, herbs, colorful vegetables, beans, rice, plantains, locally sourced seafood when available and tropical flavors belong naturally on a Costa Rican table. At Anamaya, the kitchen uses those ingredients to prepare meals that feel generous and enjoyable, not like homework from a nutrition app.

The kitchen is 100% gluten-free and dairy-free, and we source locally as much as we can. The goal is delicious food made with care, with a strong preference for whole ingredients and dishes that feel right for the place.

That makes meals an especially comfortable part of the experience for guests who avoid gluten or dairy. Everyone shares the same dining experience rather than separating into different tables or receiving a plate that looks like an apology. Our guide to Anamaya’s gluten-free kitchen explains how the approach works.

Eating together has always been part of Anamaya’s spirit. Geoff’s original house was famous among friends for long dinners around a Balinese table. Today, shared meals still create that lovely moment when people who arrived as strangers suddenly find themselves swapping stories as though they’ve known each other for years.

Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula is also associated with the world’s Blue Zone longevity research. Traditional foods such as corn, beans and squash are a lovely cultural connection to that story. Our Blue Zone guide offers more context.

Small Choices, Real Environmental Values

Anamaya’s interest in ecological living comes from the people who created it and the land they chose, not from a new label added to the website. Geoff has long been interested in design, materials, biodiversity and the way human life can fit more comfortably within a living landscape.

One of the clearest examples began with a painful event. After a monkey was electrocuted on a transformer at Anamaya, Geoff investigated protective covers that could reduce the risk to tree-dwelling wildlife. He documented the problem and shared practical information so neighbors could request protection from the local electricity provider too. The story, including the difficulties and the actions taken, appears in Geoff’s article on protecting monkeys from electrocution.

We also choose building materials and household products with health and the environment in mind. Some rooms were designed to encourage natural airflow and reduce exposure to strong chemical off-gassing. We use eco-friendlier supplies, and we hire from the surrounding community whenever we can. We share an eco-friendly hotel products and suppliers list publicly because useful ideas become more useful when other people can copy them.

For us, it’s about caring enough to keep making better choices, year after year. Our sustainability page brings those decisions together, including what we’re working to improve.

Why the Nicoya Peninsula Feels Different

There is a reason so many people become attached to the southern tip of Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula. Montezuma is small, creative and wonderfully green. The beaches are wild and varied. The hills reveal surprising ocean views, and roads still wind through trees rather than straight lines across a map.

The region has an intriguing history. Much of its land was cleared for cattle decades ago, but steep ravines and difficult terrain preserved pockets of older forest. Regrowth has continued where land is allowed to recover, and the landscape includes a fascinating mixture of old trees, recovering forest, gardens and human communities. In a single morning, you can see the contrast between the open coast and deeply shaded river valleys.

There’s plenty to do without turning the week into a race. The small town of Montezuma is only a short drive below Anamaya. Beaches lead toward Cabuya and the entrance to Cabo Blanco, Costa Rica’s first protected reserve, established in 1963. In the other direction, Curú Wildlife Refuge offers a different combination of forest, coastline and wildlife, while Tortuga Island brings snorkeling and warm Pacific water into the picture. Browse our nature day trips from Montezuma to see how the experiences fit together.

If you’re choosing between different parts of the peninsula, our Nicoya Peninsula ecolodges guide compares Montezuma with Nosara, Santa Teresa and other places that attract nature-loving travelers.

Green Season, Dry Season and the Beauty of Both

Costa Rica’s Pacific coast changes noticeably through the year. From roughly November through April, drier weather and more reliable sunshine make it easy to plan beach days, hikes and outdoor classes. From May through October, rain returns, the forest grows lush and the waterfalls become especially dramatic. Afternoon showers can feel like part of the show.

In the green season, plants seem to expand overnight. The hills become a deeper green and the river gorge feels full of movement. There’s something lovely about reading in a hammock while rain crosses the canopy, then watching sunlight return and turn every leaf bright. One Anamaya guest described enjoying “the sounds of the jungle” and “the occasional rainstorm,” which beautifully captures the mood of the quieter months.

The drier months have their own appeal: long sunny afternoons, ocean views under clear skies and more predictable travel conditions. Neither choice is automatically better. The question is what kind of Costa Rica experience you’re hoping to have.

For a closer look, see the truth about Costa Rica’s green season and our best time to visit an eco lodge.

An Extraordinary Level of Personal Attention

When a property is small, you start to recognize the people around you. Breakfast becomes a conversation. Your teacher remembers that you have a sore shoulder. Someone at reception remembers which beach you hoped to visit. Those details build into something far more meaningful than a checklist of amenities.

National Geographic highlighted that intimacy when it reported an “extraordinary 1:1.5 staff-to-guest ratio.” It’s one of the reasons a stay can feel personal even for someone traveling alone. You arrive without knowing anybody and soon realize that you’re being greeted by name.

Travel + Leisure also named Anamaya among its Top 5 Can’t-Miss yoga retreats. Awards can’t tell you exactly how a place will feel, but it’s lovely when independent travelers notice the qualities we care about most.

That welcoming atmosphere is especially appealing for solo travelers. In a shared retreat week, it’s easy to meet people without feeling that every hour has to be social. Guests come with different stories and different reasons for being here. Some want adventure. Some want a new habit. Some just want a little more space to hear themselves think.

Is Anamaya the Right Eco Lodge for You?

Every eco lodge in Costa Rica has its own personality. Some are built around river rafting, some around a cloud forest, some around a famous surf break. Anamaya’s personality comes from yoga, food and a jungle hillside you share with monkeys, and it suits a few kinds of travelers especially well.

For Yoga Lovers

This is the heart of the place. There are daily classes on open-air decks that look straight over the forest to the Pacific, weekly yoga retreats led by visiting teachers, and a 200-hour yoga teacher training for people who want to go deeper. Beginners are welcome in every class, and experienced students tend to love practicing with howler monkeys as the soundtrack.

For Surfers

Anamaya is a yoga lodge first, but surfing is easy to add. Playa Grande, a beautiful beach about a 30-minute walk from Montezuma on beach and jungle trails, has small, consistent waves with no rocks, which makes it lovely for beginners. For bigger waves, Playa Hermosa just north of Santa Teresa has a point break and a broad, open beach, and Anamaya runs a weekly sunset outing there with an optional surf lesson. Professional instructors tailor lessons to your level, and boards are available to rent if you’d rather paddle out alone. Our surf and yoga retreat page and surfing guides have the details.

For Food Lovers

Meals here are a highlight, not an afterthought. Much of the produce, many of the eggs and especially the greens come from Rancho Delicioso, Anamaya’s own farm about five minutes down the road, and the fish comes from the waters in front of the resort. The chefs plate the food in the open main lodge kitchen where you can watch and ask questions, and there are weekly cooking classes. The kitchen is 100% gluten-free and dairy-free, it happily cooks for vegetarians and vegans, and it doesn’t serve red meat. Our gluten-free travel guides go deeper.

For Biohackers and Recovery Seekers

If you’re as interested in your nervous system as in the scenery, you’ll find an infrared sauna and a cold plunge on site, plus breathwork, massage and bodywork in the spa. Some retreat weeks focus specifically on detox and biohacking. The nice twist is that the recovery tools sit inside a living forest, so a sauna and plunge session can end with a walk down to the waterfall. Our biohacking guides and Blue Zone longevity guide explore the science.

For Couples and Solo Travelers

Small groups and shared dinners make Anamaya an easy place to arrive alone and leave with friends, and many guests travel solo. Couples get the quieter side: sunset on the deck, a massage in the spa, a morning at the falls before the day-trippers arrive. Our couples retreat page explains how a week here works for two.

How to Plan Your Eco Lodge Yoga Retreat in Costa Rica

Most guests begin with an international flight into San José or Liberia. From there, travel to the southern Nicoya Peninsula can involve a domestic flight to Cóbano, an overland transfer, or a journey involving the ferry across the Gulf of Nicoya. The best route depends on your flight times, luggage and appetite for a scenic drive. See our location and travel guidance before booking connections.

Anamaya’s retreat weeks generally run Saturday to Saturday. Accommodations and three meals per day form the foundation of the stay. Yoga, spa treatments and other optional activities are chosen separately, allowing you to shape a week that suits you. Check the current accommodations, rates and retreat calendar for the details that apply to your dates.

If you’re comparing Costa Rican ecolodges, think about how you want to spend an ordinary Tuesday. Do you want to be far from everything, following a naturalist into remote rainforest? Do you want a private villa and very little interaction? Or would you enjoy a clifftop retreat where a waterfall hike, an ocean-view yoga class, good food and a friendly dinner can all happen in the same day? Our guide to the best eco lodges for yoga and wellness can help you compare those choices.

For guests who love both nature and wellness, Anamaya offers a particularly appealing middle ground. The wilderness feels close. The beach is nearby. There’s a place for quiet and a place for community. And underneath everything is the feeling that somebody loved this hillside before it ever became a place to book a room.