Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: Where to Stay, Eat, and Spend Your Days
Chris Hemsworth spent part of his summer in Santa Teresa. He surfed, he took photos with locals, he stopped for ice cream in town like anyone else. And no, we did not run into him. Believe us, we looked.
But the Hemsworth trip says something real about this town beyond the celebrity headline. Santa Teresa has become the place people travel a long way to reach precisely because it stays unbothered when they get there. Nobody makes a scene. That is the whole appeal.
We took our family there recently. Here is what we actually loved — and what we would do differently.
1. Start With the Beach
Begin with a morning beach walk. That is the single best piece of advice we can give anyone arriving in Santa Teresa. The sand is soft, the tide pools open up at low tide, and the waves are genuinely dramatic — this is a Pacific beach with real power to it, not a placid bay.
The town is built around surf. There are surf schools, lifeguard training programs, board rentals, and instructors working every stretch of sand. Whether you have never stood up on a board or you have been surfing for twenty years, there is a break here that fits.
Worth knowing before you go: the beach shifts character with the tide. Sections that are rocky at high tide open into wide, walkable sand a few hours later. Ask your hotel for the tide chart on arrival and plan your swims around it. Do not assume the stretch in front of your room is the swimming beach — in many cases, the good swimming is a short walk away.
2. Where to Stay
Hotel Nantipa
We stayed at Nantipa, right on the beach, and it earned every bit of its reputation. The pool sits in the trees at the center of the property, the rooms are modern without feeling corporate, and the whole place manages the trick of being genuinely luxurious while still feeling like Costa Rica rather than an international resort brand dropped onto a beach.
Two things worth knowing. First, upgrade to a bungalow with a private plunge pool if the budget allows. Thank us later. Second, morning yoga is included, and it is not an afterthought — the wellness program here is real, with daily sessions in an open-air setting in the gardens.
The property sits on roughly six acres of oceanfront with direct beach access, and it is walkable to most of town. One honest caveat that comes up consistently in guest reviews: the beach directly in front of the hotel is rocky, and the swimmable stretch is a short walk down the sand. That is a Santa Teresa characteristic, not a Nantipa problem, but it is better to know it going in than to be surprised.
3. Where to Eat
The food in Santa Teresa is disproportionately good for a town this size. It is the single thing that most surprises first-time visitors.
Katana
Have dinner at Katana. It is Asian fusion served in an open-air garden strung with lights, set into the jungle, and the atmosphere does as much work as the food — which is saying something, because the food is excellent. The pad Thai, the gyoza, and the sushi rolls are the dishes people talk about, and the cocktail menu is as considered as the kitchen.
Reserve ahead. This is not optional advice. Katana books out nightly in high season, and walk-ins either wait a long time or get seated in a way that feels rushed. It is dinner only, opening in the early evening.
Koji’s
Next on our list, and the one we did not get to: Koji’s. It is the upscale sushi institution in town, run by chef-owner Koji Hyodo, who combines fresh local seafood with imported Japanese ingredients. The setting is a covered garden up a hill, lit with hanging lights.
It also carries a long-standing reputation as the spot where visiting celebrities turn up. We will let that stay in the realm of rumor — what is not in dispute is that people who care about sushi consider it the best in the area. Reservations are essential here too, and it is worth checking directly before you go: some Santa Teresa restaurants close for a stretch during low season.
4. Shopping
Make time to wander the little boutiques along the main road. Santa Teresa has developed a genuine retail personality — easy, beachy pieces, linen and swimwear, locally made jewelry, and a handful of surf-adjacent shops that are considerably better curated than you would expect from a town at the end of a long dirt road.
This is best done in the late afternoon, after the beach and before dinner, when the heat has come off the day.
Getting There, Honestly
Santa Teresa is the hardest of the great Costa Rican beach towns to reach, and that difficulty is exactly why it is still what it is. Plan for a longer travel day than you expect, and consider a 4x4 depending on the season and where you are staying. Nobody who has been here regrets the drive.
If you are weighing Santa Teresa against the other Pacific beach towns, our full guide to the best beach towns in Guanacaste compares eight of them side by side — including which ones are easier to reach and who each one really suits.
Thinking Beyond the Trip?
Santa Teresa has a way of turning a one-week vacation into a search for property. The town has grown quickly, the rental market is strong, and the same remoteness that preserved its character also shapes everything about owning here — road access in green season, water and power reliability, and the real difference between a beachfront lot and a hillside one with a view.
Contact KRAIN if you want to talk it through. We work across this coast and the wider Nicoya Peninsula, and we are happy to give you the unvarnished version of what buying here actually involves.
