DESTINATION WEDDING
Nekajui Is Redefining the Costa Rica Destination Wedding
On Costa Rica’s Peninsula Papagayo, Nekajui, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve brings a distinctly considered approach to the destination wedding. The setting is immediate: protected forest, Pacific views, open-air architecture, and a sense of privacy that allows a celebration to feel removed from everything beyond it.
Opened in 2025, Nekajui is the first Ritz-Carlton Reserve in Central and South America. Its arrival introduces a new kind of wedding weekend to Guanacaste, one shaped less by a fixed package than by the couple’s own priorities. Ceremony, dinner, time with family, adventure, and restoration can all be designed as parts of one connected experience. That combination of place and highly personalised service is what makes the resort compelling for couples and planners. Nekajui is not simply a backdrop. It gives each gathering a rhythm rooted in Costa Rica, with genuine care supporting every detail.
Celebrations Designed Around the Couple
Every wedding at Nekajui begins with the couple rather than a preset formula. The property’s lawns, terraces, courtyards, chapel, and indoor-outdoor dining spaces can move from intimate vows to a larger reception while maintaining a clear sense of place. Personalised planning and cuisine allow the celebration to reflect how the couple wants their guests to gather, not simply where each event will happen.
That flexibility is especially valuable for a multi-day destination wedding. A welcome evening can feel relaxed and social, the ceremony can draw on the landscape, and dinner can become a highly composed experience of candlelight, music, local ingredients, and pacing that stays with guests long after they leave.
Privacy, Personalization, and Genuine Care
The Reserve experience is built around discretion and intuitive attention. Dedicated Manzu butler service can coordinate itineraries, dining preferences, activities, and special requests throughout the stay, giving couples and planners a consistent point of support. Guests receive care that feels personal without interrupting the ease of the weekend.
For a wedding, that continuity matters. It helps transform a series of scheduled events into one cohesive stay, with room for private moments, spontaneous gatherings, and time to reconnect between formal celebrations.
Naku Spa & Wellness
Accessible via a suspended walking bridge through the jungle canopy, Naku Spa & Wellness spans 27,000 square feet and sets an immediate tone. Its name reflects the idea of a bridge between realms, where the spiritual and material meet, energy is cleansed, and the soul is guided. Treatment cabanas are built into the hillside like modernist treehouses, each with a cinematic view of the Pacific framed by the surrounding forest. The hydrotherapy pool, Central America’s largest, anchors the spa’s restorative philosophy, alongside private spa suites, saunas with panoramic ocean views, and a movement studio for yoga and sound healing.
The treatment menu is deeply rooted in Guanacaste. Signature experiences include volcanic stone massage, a Guayacán tree bath ritual, marine salt detox using salt harvested from the Nicoya Peninsula, and bespoke journeys incorporating Chorotega pottery, volcanic mud and Juanilama essential oils. For a wedding weekend, Naku provides something genuinely rare: a spa that functions as a destination in itself, rather than an amenity. The morning before a ceremony spent here, or the afternoon after, transforms the rhythm of the entire celebration.
A Wedding Weekend Connected to Guanacaste
Nekajui’s appeal extends well beyond the ceremony and reception. The Outpost at Palmares Preserve — a 250-acre protected sanctuary encircling the resort — offers guided nature walks through trails dense with birdsong and wildlife, including the howler monkeys and scarlet macaws that are part of daily life on the peninsula. The suspension bridge connecting the resort’s upper levels to the jungle floor and beach below has become a defining experience in itself.
On the water, guests can paddleboard, sail, surf, snorkel, or join a sunset boat excursion along the coastline. The resort’s 18-hole Arnold Palmer golf course offers some of the most dramatic fairway views in Central America. For those who prefer the pace of the peninsula rather than a structured activity, Niri Beach Club provides the unhurried alternative: Ibizan-inspired dining, private beach access, and the Pacific stretching open in every direction.
The result is a wedding weekend with genuine dimension. Celebration and restoration are not competing ideas here. They sit naturally side by side, giving guests the freedom to share meaningful time together and experience Costa Rica beyond a single event.
Recognition for a New Costa Rican Landmark
Although newly opened, Nekajui has already earned significant international recognition. TIME included the resort in its World’s Greatest Places 2026, while the MICHELIN Guide awarded it Two MICHELIN Keys, recognising an exceptional stay. Those distinctions reflect what the property delivers at its best: modern hospitality with a strong, genuine sense of place.
For couples considering a destination wedding in Costa Rica, Nekajui offers something precise and rare. It is a private world designed for connection, supported by thoughtful service, and grounded in the beauty and culture of Guanacaste.
A Place to Gather, A Place to Return
Explore weddings and celebrations at Nekajui, or follow @nekajuireserve for a closer look at life on Peninsula Papagayo.
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