On Peninsula Papagayo, the Holidays Now Start at the Park

Four Seasons' festive calendar opens in the third week of December with a mercadito, oysters, a wine festival and Christmas Eve tables. The peninsula's first holiday date this year comes almost four weeks earlier, on a Tuesday evening in November. It's an open-air screening of Trolls 3 at Papagayo Park with popcorn, and it costs nothing.

That's the change for the 2026 season. Papagayo Park opened in December 2025, so last year it joined a holiday season that was already underway. This is its first full one. Its published festive program begins on November 24, and seven of the ten events on its highlights list are complimentary. Four Seasons' festive program runs from December 20 to January 1. On the shared peninsula calendar, the park now covers the weeks before the resort programs begin, and much of the time after.

A Park Built as the Peninsula's Common Ground

Peninsula Papagayo announced the opening of the $26 million Papagayo Park on December 3, 2025, and named members and guests of Four Seasons, Andaz and Nekajui as its users. Members got the first look at soft-opening events in late November 2025. The current park page says the first 10 acres are open.

Here is what those acres hold, because the holiday calendar uses nearly all of it:

• Racquet Center: two padel courts, six pickleball courts and four Rebound Ace tennis courts
• Family area: a splash pad, a playground, two water slides and a poolside climbing wall, with a separate three-lane lap pool
• Espira: an open-air shala for wellness classes and evening events
• Art studio, pump track and basketball court
• Patio Social for casual dining and Cono Loco for ice cream and sweets

The art studio runs instructor-led and open sessions in ceramics, sip-and-paint, printmaking, illustration and mixed media. On the festive schedule, shared studio sessions cost $50 per person. A private session costs $595 for up to six people, plus $65 for each additional person.

Thanksgiving Week Comes First

The park's Festive Happenings calendar opens its special events in the last week of November. All four special events that week are complimentary:

• Tuesday, November 24, 6:00 PM: Movie Night with Trolls 3. Popcorn is included, and Cono Loco and Patio Social sell food and drinks.
• Wednesday, November 25, 5:00 PM: Sunset Sound Journey at Espira, a performance of acoustic instruments, electronic sound and video projections.
• Thursday, November 26, 9:00 AM: Kids Carnival, with bubble shows, clowns, henna, water challenges, scavenger hunts, slides and a sensory bar where children make their own dough.
• Friday, November 27, 6:00 PM: Padel After Hours, with rotating matches, games, light bites and a live DJ.

The other three highlights are paid, and two of them run every week alongside the free events. The Sunset Wellness Series at Espira meets Wednesdays at 5:00 PM for $45 per person and rotates among vinyasa, sound healing, meditation, breathwork with stretching, and Ashtanga. The Cacao Experience runs Thursdays at 5:00 PM for $89 per person. It's a 75-minute session that pairs a cacao ritual with shamanic drumming and a sound journey. The daily grid around these events is full of smaller standing classes. It lists Kids Relay Rally most mornings, Pump Track Basics most afternoons, and Surf Foundations, Mat Pilates, a Padel Clinic and a Teen Meetup for basketball or mejenga, the Costa Rican pickup soccer game.

Prieta Reopened for the Same Weeks

The other shared venue on the peninsula reset its timing to match. The Clubhouse at Prieta Beach reopened to Members on November 1 with new menus at every outlet. Peninsula Papagayo described the changes in its October 16 article on the reopening. Breakfast and lunch at Olas remain Member-Only, served daily until 5:00 PM. The renovated Beach Bar near the activities center added six high-top seats and a new drinks list with zero-proof cocktails, an updated wine selection and a Monteverde Brewery craft beer on draft. The former Manglar Bar is now the Pool Bar, serving from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM. The Manglar and Al Fogón beach dining area has moved beside the Beach Bar.

The weekly Al Fogón dinner gets a new barbecue grill, and Peninsula Papagayo says lunch and dinner pop-ups will run "during peak periods." At Manglar, a new family-style chef's set menu is built for sharing regional dishes.

The produce comes from closer to home. More of it now comes from Las Huertas, the home-gardens program Creciendo Juntos started during the COVID-19 pandemic to support local families. Blue Mountain, a local organic supplier, fills the gaps. All fish will be locally caught, and all beef will be Certified Angus Prime. Peninsula Papagayo's article quotes Creciendo Juntos Director Elsa Bonilla on what the partnership means for the growers:

"Las Huertas began as a response to a very difficult time for our community. A reliable partner can help these families build a steadier source of income, and we hope this is just the beginning of what we can grow together."

Where the Hotel Tables Fit In

The resort festive programs start later and work differently. Nearly every hotel event is a ticketed dinner, and the park keeps its own events going in between.

Nekajui, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, holds the first major hotel date. On November 28, Chef Diego Muñoz hosts a Four Hands Dinner at Puna with a guest chef, priced at $380 per person with wine pairing. That lands two days after the park's Kids Carnival, in the same week as its first Movie Night.

Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica closed in September for enhancements led by a redesign of Nemare, its Latin American steakhouse. Peninsula Papagayo's August announcement described the new Nemare as drawing on Guanacaste's Sabanero, or cowboy, culture, with curved leather banquettes, outdoor communal tables and an expanded terrace. Four Seasons' festive season announcement adds visiting practitioners Rebel & Muse and acupuncturist Dr. Chen, along with yoga, acoustic music, sound healing and a wellness concert.

Here is how the two calendars line up from mid-December on:

1. December 18: Glow-in-the-Dark Pickleball at Papagayo Park, 6:00 PM, complimentary. Neon or white athletic wear is encouraged.
2. December 20: Four Seasons' Mercadito, and in the evening the park's Neon Klaus Fest at 6:00 PM, complimentary, with Santa, Mrs. Claus and The Grinch, crafts, face painting and a dance to close the night.
3. December 22: Oysters & Tonics at Four Seasons, and Movie Night with Klaus at the park at 6:00 PM.
4. December 23: Four Seasons Wine Festival.
5. December 24: Noche Buena at Four Seasons. Nekajui serves Christmas Eve dinners at Puna and La Plaza.
6. December 25: Christmas Brunch at Four Seasons, a seafood lunch at Niri Beach Club at Nekajui, and Christmas Pickleball at the park at 4:00 PM, complimentary, with holiday attire welcome.
7. December 27: Vinyls & Classics at Four Seasons, and the second Sunset Sound Journey at Espira.
8. December 28: The Street Fair, which appears on both the Four Seasons festive program and the park calendar. At the park it starts at 5:00 PM, with food, Costa Rican crafts, live entertainment, a makers' market, pickup games, the pump track and the water slides after dark. It costs $115 for ages 13 and up and $50 for ages 6 and up, and children under 6 attend free. It's the only paid one-night event among the park's highlights.
9. December 29: Latin American Asado at Nemare.
10. December 31: At Four Seasons, dinner at Armadillo with the Virador Beach Club after-party, or Nemare's six-course tasting menu, which includes after-party access. At Nekajui, the choices are Under One Sky on Casona Lawn, Puna, Niri or Paruro, priced from $300 to $600, with separate after-party-only entry at La Capilla.
11. January 1: New Year's Day brunch at Four Seasons.

Over the six weeks, the hotels hold a little more than a week of dated festive dinners, and the park fills the rest. The weeks of November 24 and December 18 through 28 have something on the park calendar most evenings, and apart from the Street Fair, every one-night event on its highlights list is free.

Who Gets Through the Door

Access is set venue by venue. Peninsula Papagayo limits community amenities to resort guests, homeowners and club members. Visitors from outside the community may enter only for dinner at select restaurants, with an advance reservation. Andaz includes Papagayo Park access in its resort fee, and court fees still apply for racket sports. Some member-calendar events are open to the community "with Park access" and complimentary for Golf & Sport Members, so terms vary by event. At Prieta, the reopened Clubhouse is a Members' venue.

The park calendar sends reservations to the concierge. At Nekajui, Puna, Niri Beach Club and Brisa take bookings directly through the Ritz-Carlton dining page, which also gives a phone number. Nemare's Four Seasons page has its reservation form and menus. If you're hosting guests in December, check with the concierge which events they can attend, and book a hotel table well before the dates above.

For homeowners on the peninsula, Papagayo Park, Prieta and the resort dining rooms are part of everyday life. The team at 2 Costa Rica Papagayo knows these calendars from the inside, and if you're weighing a home within reach of them, we can share private and off-market listings across the peninsula.