Santa Teresa, Costa Rica

Hotel Fermata

Price per night from$632.40

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD632.40), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Hotel Fermata Photos

Style

Swell rested

Setting

La Lora’s front row

Explore

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With La Lora breaking out front, Hotel Fermata has Santa Teresa’s surf rhythm down. Between sessions, pad barefoot between open-air spaces to restful rooms in seashell whites and sandy tones, layered with ceramics and well-chosen books. Yoga limbers you up for the next paddle-out; the saltwater pool and Mediterranean lunches pull you back in. Come sunset, gather on the beachfront lawn or catch one last wave before bedtime.  

Smith Extra

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A welcome drink and daily morning yoga session

Facilities

Photos Hotel Fermata facilities

Need to know

Rooms

35, including two suites.

Check–Out

11am, and check-in is at 3pm. Both are flexible, on request and subject to availability.

More details

Rates at Hotel Fermata don’t include the compulsory US$75 nightly resort fee, which covers morning and afternoon refreshments, beach bikes (subject to availability), WiFi, turndown and saltwater pool access. ​​Breakfast is US$30 each.

Also

There’s one accessible ​Casita with wide doorways, a level-access shower and bathroom, adjusted-height furniture and a position close to the public areas. Communal spaces and public bathrooms are accessible, but the pool isn’t adapted. Beyond the hotel, Santa Teresa’s uneven pavements make this stay better suited to guests who can comfortably manage rough terrain.

At the hotel

In-house surf school with surfboard hire, direct beach access, beach bikes, daily yoga classes, weekly ceramics classes, laundry service and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: air-conditioning, Marshall Bluetooth speaker, minibar, bathrobes, slippers and local organic bath products. Smart TVs are available in suites.

Our favourite rooms

All of Hotel Fermata’s rooms are within a minute’s walk of the sand, but the Oceanfront Casitas sit closest, with La Lora’s breakers as your after-dark soundtrack. That front-row position also puts them near the beach’s lively sunset crowd, so light sleepers might prefer a room towards the back for a little more hush. Families and groups have several good options, but the Two-Bedroom Villa is our pick for spreading out without scattering. Two king bedrooms, each with an indoor-outdoor ensuite, preserve a little privacy; the shared living area, covered terrace and kitchenette bring everyone back together. Two built-in twin day-beds take capacity to six, and there’s direct access to the beach.

Poolside

Framed by palms and loungers, the outdoor saltwater pool (open from 7.30am to 9pm daily) is a gentler alternative to La Lora’s waves. It’s unheated and child-friendly, but there’s no lifeguard, so younger swimmers need to be supervised.

Spa

Fermata Spa keeps post-surf recovery simple: its dedicated cottage houses a treatment room and delivers a menu of massages, facials and beauty rituals. Couples’ and in-room treatments can also be arranged.

Packing tips

Bring more swimwear than you think you’ll need, along with reef-safe SPF and insect repellent. A rash vest earns its place if you plan to surf; so does activewear if yoga appeals. Santa Teresa’s dusty roads are no friend to fancy footwear, so pack trainers or sturdy sandals and leave the heels at home.

Also

Start with a stretch during the daily yoga classes at 7am before swapping your mat for a surfboard.

Pet‐friendly

Hotel Fermata welcomes up to one dog (weighing under 50 pounds) a room for US$100 plus tax, per night. The hotel asks for the weight, breed and name of your hound in the notes section when booking. See more pet-friendly hotels in Santa Teresa.

Children

All ages are welcome. There’s no kids’ club, but babysitting is available for US$40 an hour and must be booked at least 24 hours in advance. Connecting King Rooms can be requested. King Rooms can take a travel cot or additional ​​twin day-bed on request.

Sustainability efforts

Hotel Fermata’s approach begins with the building itself, incorporating an unfinished structure already on the site and repurposing materials including brick. The gardens follow suit, leaving established trees in place and adding native planting — including fruit and nut trees — with lower watering needs; a drip system also reuses greywater for irrigation. Kitchen waste is handled locally: scraps go to a nearby pig farmer, while an NGO collects recycling each week. The hotel has also supported Santa Teresa Lifeguards and Casa CreSer, which provides a safe home and guidance for vulnerable adolescent mothers and their children. A mandatory US$15 nightly donation fee supports local non-profits that rely on private funding.

Food and Drink

Photos Hotel Fermata food and drink

Top Table

Ask for a table at the restaurant’s ocean-facing edge, where the Pacific breeze carries the sound of the waves, and surfers coming in from La Lora provide the people-watching. Time it for golden hour.

Dress Code

The official line is ‘casual chic’ or ‘beach elegant’: think a Matteau sundress and sandals, or a Frescobol Carioca linen shirt with tailored shorts.

Hotel restaurant

Fermata Kitchen draws Santa Teresa locals as well as hotel guests at dinner. Executive chef Olivier Palazzo was raised in the Ivory Coast, trained in Paris, and cooked in New York before bringing French technique to a Mediterranean menu made for sharing. Order for the table: crispy-rice sushi with tuna and sea bass, and fresh-catch crudo sharpened with zingy citrus. By night, pools of low light lend the open-sided dining room a cosy feel that belies its lack of walls.

Hotel bar

Folded into Fermata Kitchen, the tropical-spirited bar centres on a long counter lined with rattan stools and lit by simple white pendants. At sunset, take a spiced pineapple mezcalita — smoky and bright with a prickle of heat — to the beachfront lawn, where aperitivo unfolds to music and, occasionally, dancing. Fermata Beach House is where surfers pick up coffee, smoothies and beers between sets.

Last orders

Breakfast is served 7am–11am, lunch 11am–3pm and dinner 5pm–​9pm; weekend brunch runs 7am–3pm. The bar pours from noon until 9pm.

Room service

Room service is available from 7am to 9pm daily.

Location

Photos Hotel Fermata location
Address
Hotel Fermata
50 meters east and 50 meters north of Somos
Provincia de Puntarenas
60108
Costa Rica

Hotel Fermata sits on the beachfront in northern Santa Teresa, on Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula — home to one of the world’s original Blue Zones. It faces the La Lora surf break and is close to the town’s shops and restaurants.

Planes

The easiest route is via San José’s Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO), followed by a 30-minute domestic flight to Cóbano (ACO). Fermata can arrange the 20-minute transfer from there for US$60 each way for up to four people.

Automobiles

Santa Teresa’s roads can be rough, so plump for a 4x4 if hiring a car; ATVs are another popular way to get around locally. Shops and restaurants are walkable from Fermata, but a vehicle is useful for exploring the peninsula. Parking is free but limited; reserve a space in advance.

Worth getting out of bed for

Wake to the sound of La Lora’s waves at Hotel Fermata. Start with a morning yoga class, before booking in with the expert in-house Chorotegas team, who can pair you with the right board and instructor, whatever your surfing level, or add photo and video analysis once standing up is no longer the issue. Later, take a beach bike out for café-and-boutique hopping around Santa Teresa. 

Further afield, horse ride with local sabaneros at Hacienda Ario through pasture, jungle and mangrove, finishing with a gallop along Manzanillo beach; hike Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve; or join local environmental NGO Cirenas for birdwatching and sea-turtle patrols. There are other ways into the water too — snorkel around Cabuya Island to spot reef fish and eagle rays, paddleboard at low tide or take a sunset boat tour from Mal País with a sundowner in hand.  

Local restaurants

For a proper Costa Rican lunch, walk 10 minutes to Soda Tiquicia, an open-air soda beloved by locals. Order the fried red snapper casado or seafood soup, with a tart cas juice on the side. At Nami, a 12-minute walk away, fresh fish sits at the heart of a menu spanning classic and contemporary Japanese cooking; signature cocktails are treated as seriously as the sushi. Just a couple of minutes from Fermata, Muzza is an easy crowd-pleaser, turning out sourdough pizzas from its wood-fired oven alongside big salads, cocktails and a children’s menu. 

Local cafés

A 15-minute walk away, Café Social is an easygoing brunch stop for good coffee, pastries, sandwiches and salads. The Bakery is worth the short drive for its generous counter of house-baked breads and pastries, with breakfast and lunch substantial enough to justify the journey. 

Local bars

Practically opposite Fermata, House of Somos is part boutique, part café and part board-shaping studio by day; after dark, dinner, drinks and music take over, making it as convenient for a first drink as a final one. For a night built around the dancefloor, Tikiliano opens late from Thursday to Saturday, with reggae and dancehall on Thursdays, Latin and reggaeton on Fridays and electronic sets on Saturdays. 

Reviews

Photos Hotel Fermata reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this beachfront surf hotel in Costa Rica and unpacked their rash vests and sand-filled sandals, a full account of their Santa Teresa break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Hotel Fermata on the Nicoya Peninsula… 

Hotel Fermata is a surf hotel through and through, but one with its rough edges sanded smooth to feel polished without becoming precious. At the open-air bar and restaurant, the outside is already in. Reclaimed brick and thick timber beams lend the spaces warmth and substance beneath broad sweeps of thatch, while woven rattan, deep day-beds and low-slung sofas keep the mood easy. Pacific breezes and a Seventies funk soundtrack do the rest. 

Bedrooms are quieter in tone, pairing milky walls and oatmeal linen with sculptural ceramics, potted succulents and shelves of well-chosen books. Casitas save one of their best details for outside: redbrick-walled showers within earshot of La Lora. With the break just beyond the lawn, Chorotegas instructors match boards and coaching to every level; a palm-framed saltwater pool offers gentler immersion. By sunset, surfers and spectators reconvene on the beachfront lawn with something cold in hand. For all the good looks, sandy feet remain the house style. 

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Price per night from $542.40

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