Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: Tour The Town 2021

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Hello! In this video, we are doing a walking tour of Santa Teresa, Costa Rica with a voice-over! Santa Teresa is a small, beautiful, surf town just off the coast of the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica. We lived and worked here for a few months at the beginning of 2021 and have nothing but great memories from our time in Santa Teresa!
Please excuse the shaky camera handling as I am by no means a professional Vlogger but wanted to show a walk-through of the town. This may seem like a boring video concept, but as I have traveled and worked in several places in the past few years these types of videos are what I find myself looking for! I could not find much on Santa Teresa, Costa Rica when doing my research so I wanted to make this video for anyone who is interested in traveling for vacation, remote work, or long term and wants to get a better feel of the day-to-day life in the area! This travel vlog is of course great for tourists and vacationers as well.
Please leave any questions or comments below! Happy to answer anything we can about Costa Rica, Santa Teresa, and surrounding towns!
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Timestamps Below:
The first 6 minutes are me talking about Santa Teresa so if you just want to skip that and see the town fast forward to 6:30.
0:01 - Introduction
0:58 - Knowing Spanish
01:14 - Cost of Living
01:37 - Seasons
02:00 - Paying for things
02:42 - Surfing
03:00 - Locals and Expats
03:17 - Connectivity and Internet
03:40 - Recommended Surrounding Towns
03:52 - Eric & Adam Comments
06:32 - How to get to Santa Teresa
07:05 - Transportation (Car Rental)
07:14 - Covid Testing
07:32 - Main Road to Santa Teresa
07:46 - Bank Information
08:40 - Transportation (ATV)
09:27 - Ambulance Center
09:34 - Tourist Information center
09:50 - Recommended Restaurants and Shops
12:40 - The Beach
14:08 - More Great Restaurants and Cafes
15:54 - Local Bus
16:24 - Gym
16:52 - Co-Working Spaces
17:19 - Back to the Beach
17:34 - More Great Restaurants and Live Music
18:29 - Sunset
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Helpful Links:
1. Lifeguard Costa Rica - lifeguardcosta...
2. Costa Rica Green Airways - costaricagreen...
3. Get the FREE DIGITAL NOMAD WOMEN PACKING LIST! - bit.ly/packing...
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#costaricatravel #travelvlog #costaricatravelvlog #travelvlog2021 #santateresa #explorecostarica

[@tammypinnock7813]

Brilliant video..Nice to know good places to eat and drink

[@irisnemetz3221]

hands down the best video on santa teresa! thanks for putting this out 😊🎉

[@directrue1742]

Great! Video!👍🌊🌎🇨🇷🇨🇷🏄‍♂️🏄‍♂️🏄‍♂️ San Juanillo Beach is Beautiful as well!❤

[@christianjimenez3425]

Wow 🤩 you show us a beautiful places where to eat and have a lot of fun. Costa Rica 🇨🇷 is an incredible place to visit and now you can work like a nomand worker !pura vida

[@thenotmadnomads]

Thanks Christian! Yes so much fun! And thank you for the kind words! Working away! Have you been to Costa Rica ?

[@christianjimenez3425]

@@thenotmadnomads Yes, Hi. I live here in Costa Rica I am from Costa Rica 🇨🇷. I hope you can come back our country as soon as possible !

[@diegorojas681]

This video is totally great,is so completed ,so professional ,thanks for share ,this is going to be very useful.

[@thenotmadnomads]

Thank you so much :) We are so glad you enjoyed it! If you have any questions about ST feel free to reach out! Happy Travels!

[@stevediossy6184]

This is by far the best informative video I've seen on Santa Teresa. I've been there a couple of times now and heading back again tomorrow. I've only been to a few of the places you mentioned so I will be trying out your other recommendations. Thank you so much for creating this video! Pura Vida 🤙

[@thenotmadnomads]

Thank you so so much! It is so nice to meet a fellow ST lover! We will be going back next year as well! It is funny we have been traveling all year and have been all over the world and we just keep coming back to Costa Rica! Happy Travels let us know how you like some of the new spots or if you have any questions! :)

[@Husky.Biscuits]

This is an awesome video! Thank you for making it. We typically stay down in Dominical / Uvita, but this makes us want to explore further north in our favorite country. Pura Vida!

[@thenotmadnomads]

Thank you so much!! Ah man we love dominical and Uvita! So amazing waterfalls around there. ST is definitely a little smaller and probably a little younger crowd than Uvita. But a lot of fun and amazing beaches nonetheless :) for a quieter stay close to town check out Hermosa or Mal País! Pura Vida :)

[@isobelrimmer4124]

this is so informative and helpful thank you!

[@thenotmadnomads]

Thank you Isobel 😊 I hope you enjoy your trip!! This was last year. So the town will prob look all the same but not sure if the testing stuff has changed

[@isobelrimmer4124]

Thank you!

[@venusity]

Super helpful video! Thanks for sharing

[@stevenholtze2764]

Ha just found your video 👍 Nizze Job. I have watched many as well as been all over C. R many times and Santa Teresa is probably my favorite area and you showed it off nicely. Have to admit it looks like you mentioned some great places to eat that I have missed. We will be going for the "Week of February" again to ease the Minnesota winter. Guess I will be checking out a few new restaurants. I saw a couple must tries, did you have a favorite or 2? We have tried and like lots of different places from sodas in Manzanillo to Cabuya and restaurants from Koji's to Ylang Ylang. Always good to see a fresh view. Safe travels. Pura Vida 🤠🤙

[@thenotmadnomads]

Thanks so much !! There are even more new restaurants popping up now! So many great options ☺️☺️ ST is definitely our favorite too!

[@MilaDanceSport]

Thank you! That was very very helpful!

[@thenotmadnomads]

So glad 😊 We hope you guys enjoyed your stay in ST! Pura Vida!

[@daramiller5314]

Awesome

[@reddthoughts]

Hi! Thabk you for your video! Where do you recommend to stay?

[@katharinefriedman1402]

Thanks so much! I was there a few months ago and saw some of this in passing but it was a day trip from Montezuma. One thing, You didn't mention anything about rentals/small hotels................

[@thenotmadnomads]

We didn’t mention that you are right. The process is pretty similar to most other places in Costa Rica for rentals. But the prices have gone up a lot in the past year or so. We booked a long term stay through Airbnb and received the extended stay discount. There are a lot of places to rent f but we recommend doing it in advance especially during the dry season as it can book up quick.

[@diegourrutia6051]

Hello! Would you recommend it if im planning to go alone and in kind of a budget?

[@hill0344]

Thank you for such a beautiful video 🙏🏼 A few questions if you have the time - is it okay to drink the water at restaurants etc? Or do you recommend buying bottled water and if so, from where? Very health conscious. Thank you for posting the healthy grocery store. I noticed in a lot of the videos of beaches aside from banana beach, there are not a lot of people lying on the beach with towels etc. is there a reason for that or is it just a coincidence in all of the videos? Is it easy to adapt to the driving culture there if you’re used to driving big cities?/any special rules?

[@marissavolkman450]

Is there any night life there? Such a helpful video, thank you!

[@thenotmadnomads]

Thanks! There’s a small “club” that is popular on Thursday nights on the north side of town. Sometimes bonfire parties, but not during turtle season. Great restaurants and bars. And a Salina that does events sometimes as well. But all and all pretty mellow if compared to a city or anything like that

[@marissavolkman450]

@@thenotmadnomads thank you!

[@JohnWilliams-vr8fp]

Any recommendations for a hotel in the area. 7-10 days. Middle of the road $150-200, night doable. Nice pool a plus and WiFi. Thanks!

[@lloydbrown9327]

Thanks for the video...I always wanted to visit the Country! Is it a safe place, or is there places to stay away from?

[@johnfreidhoff552]

Does the bus run from Santa Teresa to Malpiaz? Pura vida🤙

[@thenotmadnomads]

Yes it goes along the coast. But the schedule times are a bit unreliable and do change so it is probably different than when we were there a year ago. But the bus seemed to stop out front of Bali Beach Deli

[@johnfreidhoff552]

@@thenotmadnomads thank 🤗

[@ronisapir]

great video!!

[@thenotmadnomads]

Thank you so much!

[@SebastianZapataBarreto]

Tks for the video!! I'm going to Santa Teresa in September, what beaches are you recommended?

[@thenotmadnomads]

Oh yay! So excited for you! There are so many benefits to traveling during shoulder season (fewer crowds, lower prices, etc)! if in the main town of ST there are a few different beaches (Playa Carmen, Playa Santa Teresa). There is no separation between these and it's really just one long stroll down the beach. There is swimming and tidepools so we loved these beaches. You can surf too but swells seem to be a little bigger here especially near playa carmen. Then you can go a little further north to Playa Hermosa, another long stretch of beautiful beach. Here you can swim, but it is primarily during and great surfing at that! If you keep going north you'll hit Playa Manzanillo which is super local, a little more remote, and calmer waters for swimming. They are all great beaches. I would say if staying in ST town, just go out to the beach by Banana Beach Restaurant and start walking and you can't go wrong :)! Happy Travels!

[@SebastianZapataBarreto]

@@thenotmadnomads tks a lot!! I think to go to te beach and run way thats beachs. 🤙✌

[@amvespinosa]

Thanks for vid. Im getting Tulum vibes. Which is an overpriced touristy Bali. Is this statement true for ST? It was hard to enjoy Tulum when your not rich.

[@thenotmadnomads]

Great point and I agree about Tulum. It may start to be going a little that way. However, there are no big hotels or resorts in ST. There are expensive hotels, but they are more boutique. ST is still more laid back than Tulum IMO. However, it can be expensive depending on how you like to travel. If you still to Casados and local beers it can be very cheap! Casado's are very filling and cost like $5 USD. However, if you like to eat the same kind of food you would eat say in the US (not sure where you are from :) and do a lot of different tours it can add up. SO it just depends on how you like to travel, but there are both types of travelers in ST.

[@JenkinsB]

Heading there mid May this year for 10 days. Freakin' stoked! So did you just bring USD , insert in atm in Santa Teresa and get equivalent colones? any surcharges this way?

[@thenotmadnomads]

Yay! So excited for you! No you would need a debit card. I have a Charles Schwab card so I can take out of any ATM and be reimbursed without fees. But if you used your normal Debit card then you can take out colones. You would get charged the ATM so for 10 days I’d say try to take out as much as you can at one time. But I def recommend always using local colones or your credit card (pretty widely accepted at restaurants and stores). Don’t use USD because then you are at the mercy of whatever establishment you are at and there conversion rate. :) hope you have an amazing time!!

[@madslasher18]

Heading there in May this year too … planning trip as we speak

[@bodnarova05]

Hi there! 🌹Based on your experience, where would you live in CR if you worked remotely and had small children ?

[@thenotmadnomads]

Ojochal or Puerto Viejo :)

[@bodnarova05]

@@thenotmadnomads thank you! Another local responded with “ playa del coco “ 😀

[@thenotmadnomads]

@@bodnarova05 I guess I’d have to say to each their own :) just depends on what you want. Playa del coco and Samara are two good options in the Guanacaste province. They have great beaches but the seasons are little more extreme (hotter dry season and wetter wet season). Ojochal /Uvita is a good mix of jungle and beach with a lot of waterfalls in that province and some good schools. Then Puerto Viejo will probably be the most out of the way and less developed it has a Caribbean feel and is kind of separated from the Rest of CR. It rains there throughout the year but I found it welcoming. we saw plenty of families living there with kids from other countries

[@bodnarova05]

@@thenotmadnomads thank you so much for your time 💖 are you still in Santa Teresa or did you make a home elsewhere ? We are in Canada right now, planning on leaving in June. Can’t wait 💕

[@dannysandoval8806]

Pura vida

[@bradherrera9436]

Can you drive a dirt bike from Santa Teresa to Nosara or is it too far?

[@thenotmadnomads]

So I wouldn't necessarily recommend it but yes it could be done. If you were going to do it I would say to make sure 1) it is not rainy season and 2) break the trip up into at least 2 days and see some sites along the way. Some of the roads are dirt, windy and travel time can take longer than anticipated so be prepared for that as well :)

[@bradherrera9436]

Thank you so much for the info. How is the town of playa Hermosa?

[@quake3quake3]

Namaste, I thought Costa Rica didn't require a covid test?

[@thenotmadnomads]

No but, we had to get gov approved insurance to get in and we had to test for the country we were flying out to. THere were a lot of people from Canada as well and they required covid tests to go back to Canada. But rules are always changing so you never know what it will be in the future :) Cheers and happy travels!

[@dannymontes3821]

Primero sheo en su espíritu que es loque uste quiere ber dentro de su interior de su mente de su espíritu hi en tonse usted se ba hadar cuenta donde be hir suerte Para la procima bes Dios lesbiga siempre su familia Amén 🙏

[@pattimurphy5151]

Dude needs a tan and can eat more tacos😂