The people

A house with owners, not a listing with a manager.

When you write to us, you get us. There is no booking desk, no agency, and nobody between you and the people who know where the spare fuses are.

Alan and Viveka

We bought it to live in, and we still do.

We spend about four months a year at Casa Rosa Blanca. The rest of the year it is yours, which is a different thing from a property someone bought as an investment and has never slept in.

It shows up in small ways. The kitchen has the knives we cook with. The art came from the Wednesday market in Uvita, piece by piece, over ten years. We know which bedroom is coolest in April and which corner of the terrace the toucans prefer at seven in the morning, because we have sat in it.

Alan spent more than thirty-five years building businesses and running teams in technology before turning that same attention to this house — which mostly means things get fixed properly and nobody has to chase us for an answer.

We answer every enquiry ourselves, usually within a few hours, and we would rather tell you this house is wrong for your trip than take a booking that ends badly for both of us.

A turtle etched into the glass bar top at Casa Rosa Blanca, lit from beneath by colour-changing LEDs — a nod to Casa Tortuga, the house's original name
The turtle etched into the bar glass, lit from below. A nod to Casa Tortuga, the name the house was born with.

Jan and Sonia

Your concierges, twenty minutes away.

Jan and Sonia are Canadian, they have lived in this part of Costa Rica for decades, and they look after the house when we are not in it. They meet you at the gate, they answer the phone, and they know which restaurant is worth the drive on a Tuesday in low season.

Guests mention them by name in review after review, which tells you more about how a stay here actually goes than anything we could write about ourselves.

Read what guests say about them

What that means for you

Three things worth knowing.

  1. 1

    You get a straight answer

    Ask whether the house suits a toddler, or whether the road is passable in October, and we will tell you honestly. We have turned bookings away over both.

  2. 2

    Nothing is outsourced to a script

    Arrival directions and restaurant advice come from people who drive those roads and eat at those restaurants.

  3. 3

    Problems get solved the same day

    Something breaks, you message Jan and Sonia, and it is dealt with. That is the whole system, and it is why it works.

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