A special new video made by our friend Dylan Haskin tells the history and story of Ylang Ylang Beach Resort and highlights the many wonderful aspects of vacationing here in Montezuma. We hope you enjoy it!
Ylang Ylang Beach Resort, Montezuma Costa Rica has a special history. The story of this beautiful getaway begins in 1981, when the owners, Lenny and Patricia Iacono acquired the property. They moved to Costa Rica with the intention of living off of the land. They built their home on the property and lived a quiet life. Montezuma at the time had no electricity, water services, and only 2 other businesses. Making a living at that time was a challenge, so they began drying fruit in the sun and created a dried fruit leather called Cocozuma.
The property originally had been used for cattle grazing, so Lenny and Patricia quickly began planting many trees and plants, which has turned into the lovely lush gardens you see here today. They slowly built winding garden pathways and bungalows.
In 2004, Lenny and Patricia transformed their home into the yoga studio and restaurant that you see today. From their beginning, healthy and high quality food has been incredibly important. We use fresh and organic produce as much as possible. We offer a variety of foods including seafood, chicken, vegetarian, vegan, gluten free and raw foods.
The Ylang Ylang Spa was added in 2009. This relaxing and healing sanctuary offers a large number of different treatments including massages, scrubs and facials. Twice a day, we offer yoga classes in the beach front yoga studio.
What we repeatedly hear over and over again is how special our staff is. Many guests come back year after year to visit our Ylang Ylang family and we really are a family. Many of the people working here have been with us for a number of years. The staff learns our guests names and treats them as friends. We are proud of our unique staff members that love what they do and love to share this beautiful country with our guests. Ylang Ylang continues to be a family run business. We all put a great deal of love into what we do here everyday.
An important part of our mission, has been to support a local non-profit ecological association called ASEPALECO. This organization manages and protects a major part of the watershed for the Nicoya Peninsula. We make many efforts to reduce our own impact including solar panels, water treatment systems, safe water filtration, planting trees and cleaning up the local beaches.
Montezuma is unique because it offers so many activities. We really think that you can get many of the wonderful aspects of Costa Rica here in one place. Montezuma is not easy to get to, but that’s part of the charm. It’s a hidden gem and once our guests arrive at Ylang Ylang, they say it is most definitely worth the trip.