Sometimes a place is so special, you can’t capture it with words or images. As I sit on my balcony at the Hidden Canopy Treehouses Boutique Hotel – sipping mint tea, listening to the wind whooshing through the leaves and the trickling waterfall and the birds whistling and chattering to each other, watching a coati at eye-level scurry across the limbs of the cloudforest canopy – I struggle to convey this feeling.

New Yorker Jenn King broke ground on this property in 2006 and has since transformed the cleared pastureland into an idyllic, leafy oasis. Her gorgeous lodge welcomes guests into a spacious area with stone floors, tasteful wood paneling and huge windows that look out at a hummingbird garden, lush forests, distant mountains, and the Gulf of Nicoya. Jenn and her “better half,” Gary, live upstairs. Her sweet boxer, Gazoo, greets visitors at the door, and her coy cat, Bear, occasionally allows us to scratch his head.

Breakfast is a glorious treat with traditional gallo pinto (rice, beans, fried plantains), eggs, fruit, homemade bread and cakes, and a tasty surprise each morning (banana pancakes, savory potatoes, French toast …), as well as locally grown coffee.

Tea time at 5 p.m. brings guests to the dining room, greeted by friendly attentive staff, twinkly lights, delicious snacks, drinks, and a gourmet dessert. So far, we haven’t felt the need to go out to dinner afterwards.

It’s easy to stay busy here. Guided hikes (day or night), canopy bridges, ziplines, rafting tours, art galleries, coffee plantations, chocolate producers, sugarcane tours, and attractions for lovers of bats, hummingbirds, butterflies, reptiles, monkeys, and well, everything related to Costa Rica.

However, it’s also easy to let it all go and sit on this balcony.

More shots from this magical place.

Jenn and Bear.

The main lodge.

Gazoo.

The coati who raids the hummingbird feeders in the garden and who is likely the same visitor who cruised through the trees by my balcony earlier.

The reception area, open kitchen, and sitting room.

The dining room at tea time.

Evening view from the dining room.

Johanna, my favorite staff member, and a gorgeous sunset on our last night here.

Our treehouse, called Rising Sun.

A lovely little waterfall runs down the hill through the property, forming several ponds.

On the trail behind the lodge.

I wish I could live here forever!

Another sweaty but happy yoga practice on Saturday morning. Another delicious breakfast. And then we were off. Although it was only about 18 miles to our destination as the crow flies, we’re no crows. That meant we had to drive 65 miles around Lake Arenal, the largest lake in Costa Rica. Tony drove for the whole twisty, turny, steep hilly, muddy, potholey, narrow bridge-y, rather scary but beautiful three-hour journey. He was pretty tense when we finally arrived.

Fortunately, when we pulled into the parking lot at Hidden Canopy Treehouses Boutique Hotel in the early afternoon, Jenn, the owner, welcomed Tony and me with a diet Coke and a beer. She gave us the run-down and showed us to our treehouse. We returned to the lodge for tea time, but then we were too pooped to head out to dinner, so we crashed early, ready for a full day of cloud forest exploration tomorrow.