Las Catalinas, A Unique Luxury Gated Community

Las Catalinas

Welcome to Las Catalinas, a Luxury Gated Community

We’ll come right out and say it: There’s nothing in Costa Rica, or perhaps all of the tropics, like Las Catalinas gated community, Guanacaste. Welcome to true master planning – with emphasis on the masterful! Las Catalinas gated community, Guanacaste real estate, and the community at large, is a true feat of architectural design, respect for natural topography, and a love of the great outdoors.

Las Catalinas gated community is a new and impeccably executed beachside gated community in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, located on Playa Danta (pushing into Playa Dantita), just north of Playa Potrero (3.75 miles/6 kms) and Playa Flamingo (5.25 miles/8.5 kms), and south of Playas del Coco (12 miles/19 kms). In other words, Las Catalinas gated community is both conveniently located and yet, just enough out of the way to feel like a secluded respite.

Las Catalinas gated community is also the country’s only car-free community. (Although you can own and park a car! There’s community parking and a valet, plus a few homes/lots have car access; see below, in the Amenities section.) Here, a masterfully intentional, compact Beach Town swaps cars and roads for footpaths and passages; every walkable street ends at a scenic overlook and almost every window opens onto a tropical view.

Think of Las Catalinas gated community as a walkable village in the style of the Old-World Mediterranean, only located in the tropics and designed for modern sensibilities, the tropical environment, and an active lifestyle that combines beach living and oneness with nature. If you are looking for a luxurious and environmentally conscious community in Costa Rica, Las Catalinas gated community should be at the top of your list.

Las Catalinas at a Glance

Perhaps Costa Rica’s most unique beach community, thanks to its car-free streets and picturesque location on Playa Danta (Danta Beach) and Playa Dantita (Dantita Beach), Las Catalinas, Guanacaste is both an impeccably planned community and an escape to the year-round great outdoors.

This is a Mediterranean lifestyle in the tropics, fronting two spectacular beaches and incredible ocean recreation, and accessible to 1,000+ acres of tropical dry forest, ribboned with world-class mountain biking, hiking, and running trails. In other words, paradise!

Las Catalinas Amenities

Beach Club

Restaurants

Beachtown Village

Cycling Trails

Previous slide

Next slide

Founded on the idea that the world (and all of us who inhabit it) need a new definition of “the good life,” Las Catalinas gated community, Guanacaste real estate has developed a genuine sense of community – that old-fashioned and must-missed truth that we are social creatures who crave connection to our neighbors and to nature.

The community’s amenities evolved in kind: a gorgeous Beach Club, nature trails, clean beaches, and a walkable Beach Town designed around human-centered, safe streets where you call out to your neighbors (who you know by name), walk everywhere, and connect with the wonders of nature – all, measured in walkable steps from your front door at Las Catalinas gated community.

Las Catalinas Beach Town Village (Downtown)

Anywhere else in Costa Rica, “downtown” is more a collection of commercial locales than a cohesive, relaxing central meeting point. At Las Catalinas, Beach Town Village (aka “downtown”) is a warren of car-free streets designed for wandering, for gathering, and for shopping and dining pursuits.

The beauty is that, no matter where you live at Las Catalinas gated community, you can step out your front door and meander through paths and passages to find your way downtown. Because here, all roads lead to Beach Town! And once you’re there, you’ll find gorgeous parks and plazas, ocean views and breezes to complement the more than half a dozen restaurants – including a corner deli and beachfront restaurant – plus shopping (home décor, design, clothing & more), a day spa, an outdoor exercise gym, and Pura Vida Ride, the Las Catalinas gated community’s outdoor outfitter specializing in mountain bikes, stand-up paddleboards, ocean kayaks, and other necessities for living at the beach.

Las Catalinas Beach Club

Perched high above Playa Danta and the Pacific Ocean – and with breathtaking views of each! – Las Catalinas Beach Club is the community’s gathering spot and social hub.

Designed for dining, healthy living, and entertainment, the Las Catalinas Beach Club offers the following amenities:

Swimming Pool: 25-meter (half-Olympic) lap pool with 4 swim lanes
Lounging Pool
Hot Plunge Pool
Kid’s Play Pool
Pool Lounge Furniture: Ample seating & lounge chairs
Beach Club Restaurant: La Taquería, a family-friendly eatery serving fresh eats and Latin-inspired meals
Cocktail Bar
Octagonal Pavilion for Private Events
Fitness Center: Weightlifting and cardio equipment

Nature Trails

Calling all outdoor enthusiasts! Las Catalinas, Guanacaste is home to one of Costa Rica’s best community trail systems: Traveling 26.1 miles (42 kilometers), these world-class hiking, mountain biking, and running trails roam through tropical dry forest, summiting hills and opening onto ocean views, as they run through habitats home to monkeys, coatis, deer, and other local wildlife.

The trails are classified by activity: multi-use trails for hiking, biking, and running, as well as exclusive hiking trails.

Mountain Biking Trails

Mountain biking is one of Costa Rica’s favorite pastimes, so the mountain biking trails at Las Catalinas bear separate mention. (Note: Their mileage is included in the above nature trail mileage.)

Las Catalinas welcomes MBXers to 13.7 miles (22+ kilometers) of world-class, single-track biking trails that are appropriate for beginner, intermediate, and advanced riders alike. Onsite Pura Vida Ride (located at Las Catalinas Beach Town Village) provides everything from bikes and tours to guidance and bike maintenance.

Community Parking Lot & Valet Drop-Off/Parking

If you’re wondering how a car-free community functions in practice, here’s your answer: Yes, you can have a car! (And you’ll want one, to explore nearby sites, beaches, national parks, and other attractions.)

All residents at Las Catalinas, Guanacaste have access to the community parking lot with valet service. Just in from the airport? Rainy afternoon? Big grocery run? The community’s valet service can deliver you (and your bags) directly home, then park your car in the lot. Note: Select properties Las Catalinas, Guanacaste real estate, both in Beach Town and El Prado, have car access via specific car-friendly access roads.

Car convenience and pedestrian living? It’s the real-world version of having your cake while eating it, too!

Residential Communities at Las Catalinas

Las Catalinas, Guanacaste real estate is currently available at the community’s two phases: Beach Town and El Prado.

In this sense, Las Catalinas is a unique gated community in Guanacaste, Costa Rica: Instead of developing many individual residential communities, Las Catalinas adheres to its sustainable and walkable community principles, to develop compact spaces of cohesive architecture and lifestyle amenities.

Las Catalinas Architecture

Las Catalinas Gated Community has an award-winning and unique architecture that is a blend of tropical and traditional styles, making it one of the most sought-after communities in Guanacaste. The town is designed to be pedestrian-friendly, with a car-free Beach Town that’s perfect for kids, and is a true masterpiece of architectural design.

Built around the community’s car-free Beach Town, Las Catalinas, Guanacaste is a pedestrian dream and kid-friendly community – a town in the Old World style (think the Cinque Terre of Italy) and yet, thoroughly updated for modern needs.

And, in fact, before even lifting a drafting pencil, the town’s architects and designers first studied Old World living in depth, modeling Las Catalinas after the best lessons and time-tested takeaways from around the world – the Cinque Terre, Eze, Havana, Cartagena, Morocco, and more – to blend this pedestrian approach with life in the New World tropics.

While every home at Las Catalinas has something to make it unique, the town’s architectural team applied timeless architectural principles, modern learnings, and the community’s varied topography to create a master-planned community of homes rooted in longevity, modern sensibilities, and construction methods and materials that can stand up to the tropics.

Their efforts have already been well rewarded. In 2020, Las Catalinas won two Urban Guild Design Excellence Awards: one for the town itself – “All elements are arranged to create a series of wonderful, walkable public spaces interwoven with nature. The architecture is adapted for outdoor living, a constant ebb and flow of residents and visitors enrich the scene, and every street leads to scenic overlooks.” – and the other for its Plaza Central Building, designed by Robert Orr & Associates.

Las Catalinas Sustainability

Las Catalinas’ award-winning architecture revolves around the community’s outside-the-box approach to developing what is arguably the most unique concept for a gated community in Guanacaste, Costa Rica.

Beach Town is built to be compact – in other words, it has been designed for people, not cars. And that’s what makes it so unique: While many of the world’s New Urbanist projects (ex. Seaside, Florida) are rooted in sustainability, they forfeit huge amounts of space to roads and traffic flow. Las Catalinas cuts that out, which as it turns out, is an unmatched move toward true and lasting sustainability.

Here, you swap the urban jungle for real jungle. You can walk or bike everywhere. Distance to the beach is measured in steps. And you can actually pop to the store (on foot!) to grab a last-minute ingredient.

Las Catalinas’s walkability is not only sustainable in its own right, but also creates a compact physical footprint that reduces the community’s carbon footprint and paves the way – or rather, unpaves the way – to preserve more of the rare tropical dry forest that makes Las Catalinas so biodiverse. Welcome home!

Welcome to Las Catalinas, a Luxury Gated Community

Las Catalinas at a Glance

Las Catalinas Amenities

Las Catalinas Beach Town Village (Downtown)

Las Catalinas Beach Club

Nature Trails

Mountain Biking Trails

Community Parking Lot & Valet Drop-Off/Parking

Residential Communities at Las Catalinas

Beach Town

El Prado

Las Catalinas Architecture

Las Catalinas Sustainability

Featured Properties

Remodeled Las Catalinas Home + 2B Studio, Steps to the Beach, Hear the Ocean!

Casa Isla Vista – Incredible Ocean-View Home at Las Catalinas

Brand New, Luxury Ocean-View Home at Las Catalinas

Casa Miraflores, an Ocean-View, High-End Home at Car-Free Las Catalinas

Oceanfront Elegance: Casa Blanca in Las Catalinas – A Luxurious Slice of Mediterranean Paradise

Luxury Seaside Condo in Las Catalinas – Ground Level, No Stairs!

ABOUT COSTA RICA

NEWSLETTER SIGN UP

MENU

CONTACT US!

FOLLOW US