Large vacation rentals in Costa Rica for groups of 12 to 28

How to choose

Three questions that pick the estate for you

1. Which airport are you flying into?

This is the question most groups skip and later regret. Costa Rica has two international airports four to five hours apart. Bella Vista is 80 minutes from San José (SJO); Johnny's Beach Bungalow is 90 minutes from Liberia (LIR); the Majestic Lodge sits in the middle, about three hours from either. If half your group lands at SJO late at night, a mountaintop 80 minutes away beats a five-hour drive to the coast.

2. Do you want to do things, or be somewhere?

The Majestic Lodge is a base camp: zip lines are six minutes away, hanging bridges ten, hot springs and La Fortuna waterfall within half an hour. Groups there are out every day. Johnny's is the opposite — the beach is three minutes on foot and most days start with surf and end at the pool. Bella Vista is the balance: four private courts, a pool with a view people photograph all week, and beaches, rivers and waterfalls within 35 minutes.

3. How big is the group, really?

For 29 to 33 guests, the Majestic Lodge is the only one of the three that fits everyone under one roof — ten en-suite bedrooms and 13 bathrooms. For 20 to 28, all three work. If your group skews toward couples who each want a private bathroom, Majestic and Johnny's have an en-suite for every bedroom; Bella Vista spreads people across four separate homes, which families with small children love.

Mountains · Bella VistaSee every home and bed at Bella VistaMain house, guest house, treehouse and tiny house — sleeping arrangements for 28.

Open →

Volcano · Majestic LodgeTour the Majestic Lodge's 10 roomsHummingbird, Jaguar, Waterfall and seven more en-suite rooms.

Open →

Ocean · Johnny'sThe large-group beach house at Johnny'sSix suites, the tiki hut and how 28 guests sleep three minutes from the sand.

Open →

Why a whole estate beats a hotel block for a big group

A hotel can sell you twelve rooms. It can't give you a kitchen where the whole group eats together, a pool nobody else is in, or a host who knows your kids' names by day two. With a large vacation rental the common spaces are the point: the deck where 30 people eat dinner at one table, the courts at 7 AM before it's hot, the living room where the grandparents hold court.

It's also usually cheaper. A group of 24 at one of our estates pays roughly $52–$63 per person per night for lodging — including breakfast at two of the three — which is less than a single room at most of the resorts those guests would otherwise be split across.

Bella Vista's team has written more on that comparison in Costa Rica hotel vs private resort.

Can you book two or three estates on one trip?

Yes — and for trips of a week or more it's what we recommend. Because one team runs all three, we hold the dates together, quote the whole trip at once, and line up the vans between estates. The most popular routes are volcano → beach in 7 days and mountains → volcano → beach in 10.