Ensis Apartment for 6 in Playa Chiquita, Puerto Viejo, Limón, Costa Rica

Ensis is the only apartment designed for a group: three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and room for six. It has its own entrance and takes up the entire upper floor, reached by its own staircase, with all the privacy and breeze that brings.

Its two balconies are what everyone enjoys most. Both have a table and chairs, and the larger one adds a sofa and a TV with Netflix, so it ends up being the room where the group gathers in the evening. The main bedroom has its own spacious bathroom.

Two of the three bedrooms have their own air conditioning. The third gets cool air through a vent connecting it to one of them, though it stays a little warmer than the other two — worth bearing in mind when you divide up the beds.

The kitchen includes a microwave and a rice cooker. Fiber wifi, screened windows, cameras in the parking area, and laundry service.

We're in Playa Chiquita, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, on Costa Rica's southern Caribbean coast. The bus between Puerto Viejo and Manzanillo runs along the main road, and Cocles, Punta Uva, and Manzanillo are a few minutes by car. Just steps away there are restaurants, a mini-market, bike rentals, and a shop renting motorbikes and ATVs and organizing tours. And the beach is a five-minute walk along a natural trail where monkeys and sloths are a common sight.