Santa Teresa (Costa Rica) has made a name for itself for having some of the best surf and yoga retreats! There are so many offers now that it’s difficult to make a decision. In this post you will find a review of my experience at Nautilus Surf & Yoga Villas.
Location
Where is Nautilus Yoga & Surf Santa Teresa located?
Nautilus Surf and Yoga is located in the city of Santa Teresa in the Puntarenas province. It is a small seaside town that has increased in popularity in the last couple of years. There are a lot of cool restaurants (check out my restaurant review post here!) and hip shops, which attracts a lot of digital nomads and in general I’d say a laid back and active crowd.
While the city only consists of one main street, it still stretches out quite a bit and walking can get quite tiresome. Hence, renting a motorbike or a quad is what a lot of people opt for. We rented our quad from ATValerios, and our experience was very good. They do get quite pricey, so you might want to be selective regarding how many days you really need to move around more (e.g. visiting a different beach or a waterfall out of town).
How to get to Nautilus Surf & Yoga Santa Teresa?
If you’re visiting from abroad, the first step will most likely be to fly into the San Jose Airport. From there, you have several options depending on your personal preferences and budget.
Domestic flight
This is for sure the quickest (the flight is only 30 mins long!) and easiest way to get to Santa Teresa, but obviously also the most expensive one. There is a small domestic airport located just 30 mins outside of Santa Teresa, and there are two domestic airlines offering flights there: Green Airways and Sansa. We chose Green Airways and had a very smooth travel experience. I do recommend to read their luggage requirements in detail before flying though, to make sure you don’t run into any problems! As an indication, we paid around 250 CHF for a round-trip flight. Side note: Since it’s a small airplane that doesn’t fly very high, you will get amazing aerial views of the green country!
Private transfer
There are also several local companies offering private shuttles from San Jose to different cities (including Santa Teresa) in Costa Rica. Depending on the size of your travel group, a private transfer might be a good option as well. Just remember, that the drive might take 6+ hours! I would recommend to check with Nautilus directly whether they can organize this for you.
Public bus
If you’re traveling alone or are on a super tight budget, then there is of course also the public / shared minivan option. These usually run on set times during the day and cost approx. 50 CHF per person. Here again, I would recommend to get in contact with Nautilus so they can help you organize your transfer.
Where is Nautilus Surf & Yoga located within Santa Teresa?
In my opinion the location of Nautilus Surf & Yoga Villas within Santa Teresa is perfect! In Santa Teresa there is a strip of trees (approx. 200m) between the beach and the main road. In irregular intervals, there are small footpaths that you can take to reach the beach. Nautilus has one of these footpaths RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE HOTEL! This was a huuuuge bonus in our opinion. Additionally, there are multiple restaurants (e.g. Eat Street, Soda Pura Vida), a surf shop (Del Soul Surf), an ATV rental, a supermarket and a tour operator within a 3-5 minutes walking distance.
If you wanted to, you could stay super local because there is everything you could possibly need within a very short walking distance 🙂
Room
As the name suggests, Nautilus Surf & Yoga Villas is actually a collection of several smaller or larger villas. To be fair, the villas look more like terraced houses since they are all right next to each other, but you still really have your privacy and peace.
We had stayed at a 1-bedroom villa and it was stunning! We had a very spacious living room, a fully equipped kitchen, a big bathroom and a big bedroom with plenty of closet space. Everything was decorated quite simple but definitely tasteful. There is even a small patio in front of the door with a hammock, a drying line and a seating area 🙂
We were very happy with our room!
Food
To be completely honest, we never ate in our hotel. However, next to the lobby area there is a very cute café that looks quite welcoming. Since it is a wellness hotel of sorts, I’d say the menu is definitely geared towards health-conscious people.
I tried the coffee though and it was good!
Personally, I’d say for breakfast it would be a nice spot, since it’s very convenient, but for lunch or dinner there are muuuuch nicer restaurants in Santa Teresa!
Price
Santa Teresa has accommodations at all different price points. There are many hostels, but also some veeeery nice beachfront hotels. Taking that into consideration, I’d say Nautilus Surf & Villas is somewhere in the middle.
If we only look at other Surf & Yoga accommodations though I’d say it’s probably one of the nicer “Surf & Yoga” hotels.
In December, right before Christmas, we paid approx. 120 CHF per night for the 1-bedroom villa.
Activities
Now to the fun part! As the name suggests, the primary focus of this accommodation is Surf & Yoga in Santa Teresa!
Yoga
Nautilus has its own Yoga deck, which is elevated up on a platform and overlooks the surrounding nature. It’s very spacious and breezy, and there are ceiling fans. The atmosphere was definitely very relaxing, even though you can still somewhat hear the busy main road close by.
As for the Yoga itself, there is a weekly schedule that is posted on their website and on their social media. You can either buy a single session or a multi pass at the reception. One Yoga session is approx. 13 CHF, with a multipass one lesson will average out to approx. 11 CHF.
We tried a couple of different lessons and all were great in their own way. At this point I also have to shout out the Yoga instructors, which had such a positive aura and just a very calming energy about them!
Surf
While I loved the Yoga and Nautilus, I have some mixed feelings about the Surf. As a beginner surfer I had booked a group lesson with Nautilus, but due to lack of other participants it ended up being a private lesson 🙂 A group lesson costs approx. 55 CHF, a private lesson around 70 CHF. The instructor was ok, but it wasn’t a great fit for my needs (this is obviously a very personal experience and your experience may be very different) …
I also have to say that Playa Santa Teresa is really not a beginner’s beach. The waves are quite high, which makes it difficult to practice.
If you do decide to book a surf lesson with Nautilus, make sure to select one that will take you to Playa Hermosa (approx. 15 mins outside Santa Teresa). The waves are much gentler there!
We mostly ended up renting our own boards and just practicing alone. We can highly recommend Del Soul Surf in Santa Teresa, and Jackalopes Surf Shop in Playa Hermosa.
Amenities
Nautilus had everything that we could possibly need. There is an outdoor pool with lounge chairs, a restaurant on site, a yoga deck within the hotel grounds and a very helpful reception desk.
For the Yoga / Surf, they also have a website where you can make the bookings directly yourself. There is also an active whatsapp group where you can join to get all the most recent information, such as any fun evening activities…
At reception, they will happily help you organize anything you might want for your trip. E.g. they can help you find quad bikes, surf rentals, book day trips for you, organize airport transfers, etc…
Overall experience
We had an amazing experience at Nautilus Surf & Yoga Villas in Santa Teresa! If I ever go back to Santa Teresa, I would definitely choose this place again! At a very fair price point, Nautilus offers the comfort of an apartment, while still getting to enjoy all the perks of a hotel (e.g. daily housekeeping, etc…).