We're planning a big family trip over the holidays and think Costa Rica might fit the bill for everyone. Age range is 7 - 80. We don't want to move around - so we are looking for one spot to plunk ourselves down for the week. We have people that want the beach, rafting, canopy, zipline, hiking, sailing, diving, et, et.....and we have some that may not want to do much of anything. We are thinking that renting a big house will be cheaper in the long run, but have some that like the amenities of a resort. Are there any cool higher end resorts that also rent houses on the property?? (Like the Four Seasons - but that location seems pretty removed from everything)

Any advise is greatly appreciated. If you had to pick one spot to work out of - where would it be??? Thanks!

Look at Casa Tolteca in Manuel Antonio.

http://www.casatolteca.com

How many people?
Which holidays?

Thanks for the reply. I've already looked into the MA area and villa rentals. Not sure if that is the best option or not. One concern is leaving grandma alone at the house if she doesn't want to go ziplining. Which is why I was wondering if any of the resorts offer larger scale accomodations - so we could all be under one roof. We need 5 bedrooms total. Or 3 and a few rollaways for the kids. We like the idea of a villa type set up so we can all hang out and not have to go back our respective hotel rooms....but I still worry about leaving grandma alone in a foreign country

Does she wander off? Gosh, we're great grand parents and feel very comfortable in Costa Rica. I don't understand the concern (nor do I need to, I guess). Try some plannig. Divide your group in half on ziplining day. Half goes ziplining and the other half does the Damas Estuary. The next day, swap--except that Grandma does Damas twice. Or hire a (female) cook for a few meals and go ziplining while the cook is back in the villa, preparing a meal and keeping Grandma safe from giant pythons and flights of vampire bats.

Look at Buena Vista Villas in MA, the units are in a gated community and it's a mix of apartments and villas. They have a private beach and a free shuttle service within the property to take you to the beach/pool,restaurants, etc.

Buena Vista Villas would be a great idea! We stayed at Tulemar last year, in the Mot Mot villa, which shares the property with BVV and our kids loved it there. The views of the ocean are beautiful. The private beach is such a nice feature. And we saw a lot of wildlife right on the property. And Manuel Antonio has a lot of restaurants right in the area, as well as excursions you could do.