Stay in the highlands of Panama

Lucero sits in the Chiriquí highlands near Boquete, below Volcán Barú, Panama’s highest peak. At this height the climate stays mild all year, the gardens are always in flower, and the forest is full of life: thrushes and warblers at first light, butterflies drifting across the fairways, and on a clear day a view that reaches all the way to the Pacific.

Days here find their own shape. Coffee first, from beans grown on the property, followed by a round on the course, a long walk on the trails, or an afternoon by the infinity pool with the valley falling away below. In the evening the light turns gold over the ridges, and dinner at Seasons is made from what was picked that day. There are only 11 treehouses and suites, so the quiet is part of the stay.

Seasons, in the clubhouse, is where the day tends to end. The menu is globally inspired and rooted in the property: fruit from our trees, vegetables and herbs from the garden, eggs from our free-range chickens, and bread, granola, ice cream and desserts made in house. Tables on the veranda and front deck look out across the valley, and no one is in a hurry to leave.

Between meals there is the infinity pool, three clay tennis courts, landscaped gardens with sweeping views, and more than six miles of forest and valley trails. Boquete, about 20 minutes away, is Panama’s Valley of Flowers and one of the world’s great coffee regions, with the Caldera Hot Springs, the Quetzal Trail and Volcán Barú close by. Boca Chica’s beaches are about an hour away.