Filadelfia Coffee Resort & Spa, Guatemala

Sitting on a working coffee plantation of over 130 years comprised of 750-acres of coffee, ecological reserve in a mountain of 8,000 feet high, Filadelfia Coffee Resort & Spa captures Old-World charm while providing modern-day comfort.

Filadelfia Coffee Resort & Spa offers a unique Guatemalan and Central American experience. The coffee plantation proudly produces some of the best coffee in the region, and the hotel would like to share the tradition of life on a coffee plantation with its guests.

Rooms are spacious and decorated in warm hues and creams evoking Guatemalan elegant simplicity and feature very comfortable beds prepared with Egyptian cotton sheets. Most rooms offer a panoramic view of the Agua Volcano and the pool side garden. Contemporary lifestyle luxuries include iPods with sound bases, large televisions and WiFi connection.

Pergaminos Restaurant serves international, beautifully presented gourmet dishes, and Cafetenango Restaurant offers delicious local dishes. The specialty, coffee-based drinks, are prepared with beans harvested from the hotel's own award winning coffee plantation.

While staying at Filadelfia, you can enjoy the Coffee Tour, Mountain Adventure, Canopy, Mule and Horseback riding, tennis courts, fitness center or just relax in the temperature controlled swimming pool and jacuzzi.

At Filadelfia Coffee Resort & Spa, guests can experience this tradition, while enjoying the comforts and services of a luxury boutique hotel with all amenities.

Filadelfia Coffee Resort & Spa, Guatemala

Discover Costa Rica’s Eco-luxe Spas - The Harmony Hotel

While the multi-hued tropical sunsets of Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast will force you to slow down each night and take in the vibrant, natural beauty of this Latin country, expect to marvel at the variety of remote yet luxurious hotels and spas that dot its far reaches, forging an amenable partnership between nature and human architectural prowess.

From a quiet “green” haven in the hip surf outpost of Nosara, to a glorious enclave high in the lush Gaia reserve, here is the first of five unique eco-luxe spa-hotels that harmonize local, indigenous knowledge with state of the art amenities and treatments highlighting Costa Rica’s natural beauty in an ecologically sensitive manner, while offering the discriminating traveler a unique vacation experience.

The Harmony Hotel

Luxury meets laid back at Harmony Hotel, a low-key yet glamorous eco resort, cradled on the ocean’s edge in the sleepy Pacific Coast village of Nosara, where you may spot Susan Sarandon sipping a raw green smoothie beside you at the coconut palm-roofed raw-bar, just a few steps away from the chlorine-free, salt water pool.

Fit surfers as well as weekend wave warriors make up much of Harmony Hotel’s clientele and deep-tissue massage to ease those tired surfed-out muscles such as the intriguingly named “Octopus Massage,” where four hands work their expert magic on you, are bestsellers at the hotel’s Healing Centre and Spa.

Ostensibly, you cannot go wrong with anything on Harmony’s Spa menu, especially since ingredients such as the fresh papaya, avocado and bananas utilized in the whole body skin-fitness treatments such as “Banana Bliss” and “Papaya Delight” are grown right on the hotel property and laced with essential oils harvested from a Costa Rican perma-culture farm. And if you want to push your spa sustainability sensibilities, you can also harvest you very own scrub-loofah from the loofah plant in the spa’s herb garden, and après treatment, take it home.

Expect not just to connect to, but tango in tune with your natural rhythms at the Harmony Spa.

Harmony Hotel: Room Rates from $135/night
Massage rates from: $90 - 90 minutes, $75 - 60 minutes
Body Treatments: $75 - 90 minutes
All prices in $USD.

~Insiya Rasiwala, Spas of America
When not writing about the benefits of health and wellness, Insiya is a bliss promoter and practices and teaches yoga in Vancouver, Canada: YogueStyle. Article previously published in www.luxurylatinamerica.com.