It’s best to think of Le Caméléon Boutique Hotel on the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica as a blank canvas. When so many of its neighboring hotels have focused on the thatch-roof-hideaway vibe or the Crayola-colorful-Caribbean beach bungalow look Le Caméléon has gone in a totally different design direction: clean, stark, modern and hip.

If you wanted to create your own hotel you’d also want to have the skills possessed by Charlene and Sherrill Broudy. The former is a designer and artist. Her husband is an architect. Their creation is Xandari Resort & Spa in the Central Valley of Costa Rica, where all of their talents shine.

Close your eyes and imagine a picture perfect Miami beach hotel. You’re probably seeing a white washed space with pops of color and plenty of light, which is what most South Beach hotels look like- and also part of the reason that seeing The Setai for the first time can be a bit of a shock. It’s a dark hotel but rather than being gloomy, the hotel feels like a sexy, soothing respite from the sun.

It could be that Rodrigo Carazo, President of Costa Rica from 1978 to 1982, was thinking of his legacy when he decided to build a hotel using traditional architectural techniques and protect more than 2,000 hectares of cloud forest around it, but that hardly matters.