TripAdvisor’s Top Hotel in the World Is Home to a Sloth Sanctuary

Beautiful weather, lush rainforests, and white-sand beaches are just a few of the reasons why Costa Rica is well worth adding to your bucket list. But just in case you needed another excuse to travel there, it's home to one of the best hotels in the world—where you just might meet a sloth on your visit.

As Insider reports, Tulemar Bungalows and Villas in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica was recently named the best hotel in the world by TripAdvisor users. No doubt voters were swayed by the fact that the resort offers guests the exclusive opportunity to sign up for its “sloth walk,” an $18 guided hike led by researchers from the Sloth Institute Costa Rica. The tour gives attendees the chance to see plenty of sloths, colorful birds, and monkeys up close.

Since 2014, the Sloth Institute has been rehabilitating and releasing orphaned sloths back into the wild while also tracking wild sloths to learn more about their ecology. Although other wildlife centers in Costa Rica handle sloths, the Sloth Institute is one of the few facilities that releases the animals back into the wild—something that has traditionally been risky for the animals. (You can learn more about how researchers prepare them for life in the wild in Slothlove, the book Sloth Institute cofounder Sam Trull wrote about her work with sloths, as well as in our 2017 feature on Trull.)

Of course, the Tulemar resort probably received a Travelers' Choice Award for reasons other than sloths, too—its private villas, verandas overlooking the ocean, and large infinity pools are pretty impressive, too. It doesn’t hurt to have a few adorable two-toed and three-toed neighbors, though.

Not ready to head to Costa Rica? Hotels in Italy, Cambodia, Taiwan, and Austria also made the top five of Trip Advisor's list this year. As for U.S. hotels, users rated the French Quarter Inn in Charleston, South Carolina the top hotel in the nation and the No. 6 hotel globally.

[h/t Insider]