Arenal Observatory Lodge began its life in the 1980s as a research outpost for the Smithsonian Institution's volcanologists, studying an Arenal Volcano that was then in near-continuous eruption. The lodge still carries that scientific DNA in its name and its Observatory Museum, even though Arenal has been quiet since 2010. It now offers guests the same thing it offered scientists then — an unobstructed, close-range view of one of Central America's most recognizable volcanic cones, inside a 352-hectare private reserve of primary and secondary rainforest.

This is honestly a rainforest property before it is a stargazing property, but the location is so breathtaking that we included it in the collection. Arenal's cloud forest climate means the volcano itself is invisible more often than not, wrapped in the same moisture that makes the surrounding jungle so dense. On a clear night, though, with no other development for miles inside the national park boundary, the sky over the lodge's open terraces and canopy tower gets dark enough for genuinely enjoyable viewing.

The lodge's Bortle class sits a step behind the desert and high-elevation properties in this collection, and its dry-season clear-night count is modest by comparison. What earns it a place regardless is a genuinely unique vantage — very few dark-sky lodgings anywhere let a guest watch a volcanic cone silhouette itself against the Milky Way from a private terrace.

STARGAZING AMENITIES: Observatory Museum and visitor center originally built for volcanologists, The Nest canopy observation tower, unobstructed direct views of Arenal Volcano from guest terraces, 352-hectare private nature reserve buffering the property from artificial light