Hotel Cristal Ballena is located in the south of Costa Rica, the hotel feature bar, restaurant, 19 fully equipped and spacious suites and a huge 400 square meter (4300 square foot) pool—is situated in a 12 hectare (30-acre) garden area on a hill between the Pacific Ocean and a rainforest-covered mountain.

Each room has breathtaking ocean views, and the area offers a wide range of outdoor activities.

At Cristal Ballena and Ballena Marine National Park you will find Between Piñuela Point and Uvita Point a marine abrasion platform has formed. It is connected to the mainland via a sandy bridge or tombolo, which took shape naturally through the diffraction of the waves on the rocky point. It can be visited easily at low tide. On Ballena island and the Las Tres Hermanas islets there are two species of reptiles: the green iguana (Iguana iguana), and the basilisk (Basiliscus basiliscus). Magnificent frigate birds (Fregata magnificens), white ibis (Eudocimus albus) and brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis) use these islands as a roosting site.

The coral reefs are made up of five of the 18 species recorded in the Eastern Pacific. In addition to the wealth of fish and the abundance of marine invertebrates in the park waters, it is possible to see common dolphins (Delphinus delphis), bottle nosed dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and, occasionally, humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), sometimes with their young and in groups of 2 to 3. Marine turtles lay their eggs on Ballena Beach.