Santa Teresa
Santa Teresa is four kilometres of dirt road with one cash machine, no petrol station and the highest prices in Costa Rica. The country's conservation began at the end of it, in 1963.
Santa Teresa in a nutshell
Santa Teresa: what to expect
Behind this are 87,000+ stops planned across Costa Rica on Stippl.
Santa Teresa is one unpaved road about four kilometres long, running behind four beaches in a row. Mal País, Playa Carmen, Playa Santa Teresa and Playa Hermosa sit south to north, with surf shops, yoga studios, boutiques and coworking spaces along the length of it. Hermosa is the sandy-bottomed beginner beach. The Mal País tide pools fill with warm and cold water at low tide, and Cabo Blanco at the tip of the peninsula was Costa Rica's first protected area, declared in 1963.
Santa Teresa is barely a Costa Rica trip at all. Fewer than half of the trips carrying it stay inside the country, the lowest share we measure here, and one in five also carries Mexico or Guatemala: this is a stop on an overland Central America run. It holds people longer than anywhere else too, with one stay in six running five nights or more, against one in twenty at the next destination.
Treat 3 nights as a floor, because getting here is a ferry and most of a day each way. Beginners want the dry months, when the wind blows offshore and the waves are smaller, and everyone else wants the green season swells. Skip it if you are watching money, because it is the most expensive town in the country, and skip it for wildlife, which is thinner here than anywhere else you will go.
Für wen sich Santa Teresa eignet
Surfers, in the right season
Beginners in the dry months, everyone else in the green
People staying a while.
Yoga studios, coworking spaces and weekly rates exist because the town is built for it
On the Central America route
More than half of Santa Teresa's trips leave Costa Rica
Not for a short stop.
The typical stay is three nights, our sources recommend at least three, and getting here costs the best part of a day each way
Not on a tight budget
even by Costa Rican standards. Sources call it the country's most expensive town
Not a wildlife destination.
Go to Cabo Blanco or Montezuma for that
Not for swimmers.
The currents that make the surf make the swimming
Wann du nach Santa Teresa reist
Dry
December–April
11–65 mm a month, offshore winds, small clean surf, the busiest and priciest stretch.
Green
May–November
196–417 mm, the southwest swells, far fewer people. Our weakest six months
The booking peak
December–April
54.4% of trip starts against a national 49.8%
Add your Santa Teresa dates and we'll flag the weather
Stippl shows the season, crowds and prices for every stop on your route.
Beschreibe deine Reise und erhalte in Sekunden eine Route für Santa Teresa
Alles in diesem Reiseführer ist bereits in Stippl. Sag dem Planer, wie viel Zeit du hast und was dir gefällt: Er baut die Route, die Tage und die Reisezeiten, und du änderst, was du willst.
Was du in Santa Teresa nicht verpassen solltest
Photo by César Badilla Miranda via Unsplash
Photo by Luis Diego Aguilar via UnsplashLearn to surf, or keep surfing.
Playa Hermosa for beginners: sandy bottom, no rocks, Playa Carmen and Playa Santa Teresa for everyone else. Lessons are booked in town or online
Yoga.
Multiple studios along the strip run drop-in classes and week-long retreats, several of them open-air and facing the sea
Sunset on the beach
which is a nightly event here: coconut sellers, snack carts and a crowd on the sand
The Mal País tide pools at Playa Mar Azul.
At low tide the rocks fill with warm and cold pools you can sit, with fish and urchins brought in by the last high tide. About fifteen minutes by bike, check the tide table first
A day trip to Montezuma
thirty minutes east: a smaller bohemian town, a three-tiered waterfall and a calmer beach. The road is unpaved and hilly
Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve
at the very tip of the peninsula: Costa Rica's first protected area, established in 1963, 3,070 hectares. The trail to the beach at the point is about three kilometres each way and a five-hour outing, [tws, commercial: entercostarica.com, twoweeksincostarica.com, costa-rica-guide.com]
Die Viertel von Santa Teresa
Playa Santa Teresa
first-timers, surfers
The middle and busiest stretch: most of the restaurants, most of the accommodation, the main surf beach and the most traffic on the road
The main surf beach, with most of the town's restaurants along the road behind it.
Mal País
long stays
Four kilometres south: a separate village with its own restaurants, quieter and more residential, and the tide pools
The tide pools at Playa Mar Azul fill with warm water at low tide.
Playa Carmen
quieter stays
The southern end where the road from Cóbano meets the coast. Quieter, a handful of good restaurants, the area's only bank and ATM, and a rockier beach
The area's only bank and cash machine, plus a handful of good restaurants.
Playa Hermosa
beginners, families
North of the centre, the sandiest and gentlest water, where the beginner surf lessons happen, and the part being built on fastest
The sandiest stretch and the gentlest water on the strip, with no rocks.
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Wo man in Santa Teresa übernachtet
Book well ahead in the dry season
Playa Santa Teresa
The middle and busiest stretch: most of the restaurants, most of the accommodation, the main surf beach and the most traffic on the road
Mal País
Four kilometres south: a separate village with its own restaurants, quieter and more residential, and the tide pools
Playa Carmen
The southern end where the road from Cóbano meets the coast. Quieter, a handful of good restaurants, the area's only bank and ATM, and a rockier beach
Playa Hermosa
North of the centre, the sandiest and gentlest water, where the beginner surf lessons happen, and the part being built on fastest
Was du in Santa Teresa essen solltest
Acai or granola bowls, the town's signature morning food
Locally roasted coffee
An all-vegetarian menu built around the surf-and-yoga crowd
Italian-style pizza
Casual Italian dishes from a container-cluster food hall
Asian-inspired dishes
A drink on the sand at sunset
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Santa Teresa customs and what not to do
The town runs on surf time
Early mornings, an afternoon lull, sunset on the beach
Pick horse operators with care
which one source makes a point of when recommending one
The dust is a fact of life
and everyone jokes about it; keep a cloth for your gear
It is an international town
a large foreign resident and long-stay population shapes the food, the prices and the language you will hear
Pura vida
is used as greeting, thanks and goodbye
Tagesbudget für Santa Teresa
Budget
≈€47–75
Dorm bed or budget cabina, casual meals off the main road, a bicycle rather than an ATV, one paid activity every other day
Mid-range
≈€105–170
Surf-town mid-range hotel, restaurant dinners, a surf lesson every few days, an ATV
High-end
≈€300+
Boutique hotel or villa with a pool, private surf lessons and yoga, dining out nightly
Track what you actually spend
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Wissenswertes über Santa Teresa
Costa Rica's first protected area is at the end of this road. Cabo Blanco was established in 1963, before the national park system existed
A four-kilometre dirt road with no petrol station and one cash machine is the country's most expensive town
The dry season here is genuinely dry: 11 mm in February against 417 mm in October, a 38-fold swing and the sharpest anywhere we cover
The longest stays in Costa Rica and the only fat tail. 3.37 nights average and 17.0% staying five nights or more, against 0.8% at the tightest destination
The least Costa Rican destination in Costa Rica. 55.5% of its trips leave the country; one in five carries Mexico
And the latest-decided. 65 days of lead time against a 80–86 band everywhere else here
Lokale Tipps für Santa Teresa
Clearance, not 4×4
You do not need a 4×4, but you want ground clearance. The road is partly unpaved the whole way in and through the town
Fill up in Cóbano
There is no petrol station in Santa Teresa and the nearest is thirty minutes away
Book the ferry ahead
Reserve the Puntarenas–Paquera crossing before you travel. If you have not collected the rental car yet, put "rental car" in the plate field and correct it at the port
Bicycles over ATVs
Bicycles are the sensible way around town and far cheaper than an ATV
Good surf, bad swimming
Do not swim where the surf is good. Playa Carmen has strong currents and rocks in the water; the beaches generally are for surfing rather than swimming
Not alone late at night
Do not walk alone late at night or in the small hours
Santa Teresa questions, answered
As a block at one end rather than a stop in the middle. Getting here is six hours from San Jose including the Puntarenas ferry, or a short flight to Cobano and a half-hour drive. Travellers planning it on Stippl book about 65 days out. Put the ferry times into Stippl.
Three nights at least. Travellers planning Santa Teresa on Stippl give it 3 nights, and given how long the journey in takes, anything less is not worth the ferry. The town is one dusty road along the beach and it works on you slowly.
It carries 5.0% of everything planned in Costa Rica on Stippl, which is a great deal for somewhere this awkward to reach. That is what a six-hour trip down a dirt road tells you: people who come have heard something specific about the surf, the sunsets or the food.
Not strictly, but ground clearance helps. The main road through town is unpaved and is either dust or ruts depending on the season, and the side tracks up to the hotels are steeper than they look. A small car manages in the dry months; in the wet, take the clearance.
All year, which is unusual. December to April is smaller and cleaner and suits beginners; May to November is bigger and more consistent and suits everyone else. The trade-off is rain, and the wet months are also when the town is emptiest and the rates come down.
Yes, and it has a reputation as the priciest town in Costa Rica, which takes some doing. Everything arrives by ferry or over a dirt road, and the crowd it draws can pay. Eat at the sodas rather than the beach clubs and it comes back to something reasonable.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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