15 Things to Do in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: Surf, Waterfalls, and More
October 11, 2026
The first paddle out happens just after sunrise, when the water is still glassy and the beach is nearly empty except for a few early risers stretching in the sand. By the time the sun is properly up, Santa Teresa is already moving: bikes rattling down the dusty main road, a fruit stand opening for the day, the smell of coffee drifting out of an open air kitchen.
This stretch of Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula is famous for its waves, and for good reason, but the town around them has just as much going on. Here's everything worth doing in Santa Teresa, surfing included 🏄
How Many Days Do You Need in Santa Teresa?
Plan on at least three days if you're passing through, and closer to a week if you actually want to slow down and feel the place. Santa Teresa rewards a slower pace, and most people who plan for two nights end up wishing they'd booked more. If learning to surf is the real goal, staying a week or two also means you can join a surf camp in Santa Teresa, where lessons build over several days instead of being squeezed into one.
Good to know:
Three days: Enough time for one surf lesson, a sunset walk on Playa Santa Teresa, and a day trip to Montezuma for the waterfalls.
A full week: Add a Tortuga Island boat trip, a hike through Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve, a few yoga classes, and enough downtime to actually feel comfortable in the water rather than just trying it once.
One to two weeks: Real time to improve your surfing rather than sample it, ideal for a full surf camp program, plus room for the slower stuff, like a fishing trip or joining a beach cleanup.
The 15 Best Things to Do in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
Santa Teresa rewards people who mix it up. Start with the water, then work your way through the jungle, the reef, and the town itself!
1. Learn to Surf or Level Up
Santa Teresa is one of the most consistent beach breaks in Costa Rica, with rideable waves close to year round and enough variety that beginners and experienced surfers end up in the water at the same time, just at different peaks. It's a sand bottom beach break, which means it shifts with the tides and reshapes itself after big swells, so the best sandbar on your first morning might not be the same one by the end of the week.
If you've never stood up on a board, this is a genuinely forgiving place to try, the inside sections stay soft and slow enough to practice pop ups without getting worked. If you already surf, the takeoff zones get more serious the further you paddle from the main beach, and an early dawn patrol session is usually your best shot at fewer people and cleaner conditions before the wind picks up.
If you'd rather skip the planning altogether, joining a surf camp in Santa Teresa means someone else has already sorted it. Lessons run in small groups matched to your level, so you're not guessing which board to grab or where to paddle out, and your instructor already knows which peak is working that morning before you've even had your coffee.
Find the right surf package for you
2. Beach Hop Between Santa Teresa, Playa Carmen, Playa Hermosa, and Mal Pais
The coastline here isn't one beach, it's a run of them, each with its own personality:
Playa Santa Teresa: The liveliest stretch, closest to most of the cafes and shops.
Playa Carmen: Calmer, and better suited to a slower swim.
Playa Hermosa: A short drive north, with more space and fewer people.
Mal Pais: At the southern end, feels like the version of this coastline from a decade ago, quieter, slower, and worth the trip just to compare it with where you started.
3. Take a Day Trip to Montezuma and Hike the Waterfalls
Montezuma is close enough for an easy day trip and different enough to feel like a proper change of scenery, all narrow streets, waterfalls, and a slightly more bohemian energy than Santa Teresa. The main draw is the waterfall hike just outside town, a short walk that leads to a series of pools you can swim in, with the option to jump from the rocks if you're comfortable with heights.
Spend a day here and you’ll quickly see why this stretch of the Nicoya Peninsula became one of Costa Rica’s best known surf towns. After the slower, more relaxed rhythm of Montezuma, Santa Teresa feels all the more vibrant, with its surf culture, energy, and constant movement impossible to miss.
4. Take a Boat Out to Tortuga Island
Isla Tortuga is a boat ride from Santa Teresa and one of the coast’s best places for clear water and snorkeling. Its beaches are strikingly white and powdery, a sharp contrast to the darker sand around Santa Teresa, and the bright shoreline makes the turquoise water look even more vivid. It’s an easy choice for a full day on the water, with plenty of time for swimming, snorkeling, and soaking up the sun when you want a break from the surf without giving up the ocean.
5. Hike Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve
Costa Rica's first protected reserve sits at the southern tip of the peninsula, thick with jungle trails that lead out to a genuinely secluded beach. Wildlife sightings are common, think howler monkeys, coatis, and if you're lucky, scarlet macaws overhead, and the trail down to the water is a proper hike, not a stroll, so bring good shoes and water. Entry hours and access can change, so check the official reserve information before you go!
6. Spot Wildlife at Curu Wildlife Refuge
A little further along the peninsula, Curú is a quieter wildlife refuge with forest trails, mangroves, and its own stretch of beach. It’s known for relatively easy wildlife spotting, with white tailed deer, iguanas, and several species of monkeys among the animals you might encounter along the trails.
7. Rent an ATV and Explore
A lot of the best spots around Santa Teresa aren't really set up for a regular rental car, and this is where an ATV earns its reputation as the local vehicle of choice. Renting one for a day opens up beaches, viewpoints, and back roads that are a lot harder to reach otherwise, and it's simply a fun way to spend an afternoon.
8. Ride Horseback at Sunset
A sunset horseback ride along the beach is one of those experiences that sounds like a cliché until you’re actually in the saddle, watching the sun drop over the Pacific. Most rides are timed for golden hour, making it a relaxed way to see the coastline from a different perspective after a day spent in the water.
9. Slow Down with Yoga and Wellness
Santa Teresa has a genuine wellness culture built up alongside its surf scene, with yoga classes scattered through town, many practiced open air with a view of the jungle or the ocean. It pairs naturally with surfing, a lot of visiting surfers use it to loosen up sore shoulders and stay limber for the next session.
10. Go Fishing
Sportfishing trips head out in search of mahi mahi, tuna, and roosterfish depending on the season, with options ranging from a few hours close to shore to a full day further out chasing bigger sport fish like sailfish and marlin. Inshore trips tend to be calmer and better suited to a relaxed morning, while the offshore runs reward an early start and a bit of a stronger stomach.
11. Paddle Through Bioluminescent Water
On a moonless night, some of the calmer waters near Santa Teresa light up with bioluminescence when disturbed, tiny marine organisms that glow a pale blue every time the water moves around them. A kayak tour timed around the new moon is the easiest way to see it properly, every paddle stroke and trailing hand leaves a trail of light behind it. It's one of the more memorable things you can do here!
12. Watch the Sunset from a Beach Bar
Santa Teresa faces west, which means sunset is a daily event, not an occasional bonus. Most of the beach bars along the main strip fill up in the last hour before dark, locals and travelers alike claiming a patch of sand with a drink in hand and phones mostly forgotten. It's less about which one you pick than making sure you're facing the water when it happens, and more often than not the whole beach settles into a quiet hush right as the sun drops below the horizon.
13. Eat Your Way Through Town
The food scene has grown alongside everything else, from casual open air kitchens to food trucks parked along the main road, most of it built around fresh seafood and Costa Rican staples like casado and gallo pinto. It's worth eating your way through more than one spot rather than settling into the same place every night!
Top local dishes worth trying:
Casado: Rice, beans, plantain, salad, and your choice of protein, the everyday Costa Rican plate done right.
Gallo pinto: Rice and beans cooked together, usually with eggs, the most common way to start the day here.
Ceviche: Fresh local fish cured in lime, a natural fit for a beach town.
Fish tacos: Grilled or fried catch of the day, found at pretty much every food truck along the main road.
Batidos: Fresh fruit smoothies, mango, papaya, and pineapple are all easy to find.
14. Go Boutique Shopping
The main road through town is lined with small shops selling swimwear, jewelry, and locally made goods, most of it easy to browse on foot between other plans. It's a good rainy afternoon activity during green season, or a way to fill an hour before sunset.
15. Join a Beach Cleanup
Santa Teresa's popularity comes with a real responsibility to look after it, and the local community takes that seriously, with regular beach cleanups you can usually join as a visitor. Lapoint runs its own weekly cleanup from camp, and it's one of the more grounding things you can do here: an hour of work that leaves the beach better than you found it!
This is Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: A surf haven with relaxing wonders
What's the Best Time of Year to Visit Santa Teresa?
Dry season, roughly December through March, is the easiest time to visit for consistent sun and reliable roads. Green season, roughly May through November, brings more rain but also quieter beaches, lush jungle, and often better waterfall hikes.
Surfing works in both seasons, just with a different personality. Dry season brings glassy, calm conditions and some of the best beach break waves around, clean and consistent enough that beginners and intermediate surfers get on with it just as well as anyone else, and it's when the town's social scene is at its liveliest.
Wet season trades that in for bigger, more powerful swells and more frequent rain, conditions that lean toward experienced surfers looking for something with a bit more push. Beyond the water, green season is when the jungle around Cabo Blanco and Montezuma looks its best and the waterfalls run fullest, while dry season makes tide pools easier to reach and beach days more predictable.
Frequently Asked Questions: Visiting Santa Teresa
One Surf Camp, All the Good Times
Reading through this list is the fun part. Planning it out night by night? Less so. A week or two at our surf camp in Santa Teresa covers the surf lessons, the board, and the stay, and it's built to flex around whatever else you want to squeeze in. Snorkeling at Tortuga Island, a bioluminescent kayak tour, a salsa class, an afternoon of ziplining, a fishing trip offshore, add it all on and let us handle the logistics. Your only real job is deciding which mornings are for surfing and which are for everything else!
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Aude St-Cyr
About the author: Hi, I’m Aude, originally from Quebec, but the last decade has taken me across Europe and slowly closer to the ocean. I’m drawn to quiet streets, slow mornings, hole-in-the-wall restaurants, tiny bookstores, and the kind of places where you can lose track of time for a while. When I’m not travelling, you’ll usually find me surfing in Peniche, trying a new recipe, or wandering around with my analog camera, saving little pieces of life for later.
I write content for Lapoint, edit videos, and help grow our community, which means most days involve a mix of words, stories, people, and way too many tabs open at once!
Life goal? To take care of the people and places I love, stay curious, and never lose touch with my inner child.
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