Casa Limonal — San José, Costa Rica

The place

The house was built in 1912 for a coffee-growing family, in Caribbean pine brought in on the Atlantic railway. The floorboards, the louvred shutters and the painted ceilings are original. The rooms open onto the veranda or the garden.

Breakfast — fruit, gallo pinto, coffee from the Central Valley — is served on the veranda, facing the lemon trees.

The neighbourhood

Barrio Amón keeps its wooden and brick houses from the 1900s. Morazán Park is a five-minute walk, the central market twelve. The galleries and cafés of Avenida 7 can be covered in a quarter of an hour.

Good to know

• 7 rooms, all on one level, set around the garden.
• Breakfast served from 7 to 9:30 am on the veranda.
• Juan Santamaría airport thirty minutes away by car, outside rush hour.
• Three parking spaces in the enclosed courtyard.
• No air conditioning; ceiling fans and cool nights at 1,150 m above sea level.