Green Getaway in Costa Rica

Taking a holiday from the Holidays at a resort that encourages guests to explore the country.

WHEN I GOT my first real job in New York City, longer ago than I care to admit here, I had the good fortune of working for one of the sharpest editors I’ve ever known — a lifelong Manhattanite who took me out for multiple-martini lunches and schooled me daily according to her own rules to live by. “Never go anywhere that doesn’t have a Four Seasons” was her go-to travel advice, as she viewed the venerable hotel chain as evidence of an adequately civilized locale. Even though I knew she was at least partly being facetious, it was advice that I would think about for years, usually as I traveled to far-flung destinations without a Four Seasons in sight and tucked myself into a yurt, a roadside motel, or dusty bed-and-breakfast.

It was advice I found myself considering again when pondering a quick getaway from Brooklyn in an effort to avoid the planning and trappings of another long Thanksgiving weekend here in the city. With most of our friends away and with no desire to cook for ourselves, my partner and I latched onto the idea of doing something that felt like the opposite of a typical holiday here — preferably something sunny, green, beach-adjacent, and free from any decision-making or turkey. In a process only slightly less random than throwing a dart at a map, we opted for Costa Rica, a place neither of us had ever been.