The best surf & design hotels · Santa Teresa
Hotel Fermata
Most of Santa Teresa's hotels are set back from the water. Hotel Fermata is not — it sits directly in front of La Lora, the surf break at the southern end of the strip, on three acres of beachfront that put the Pacific at the edge of the property rather than a walk from it. Rivella Group, which built Fermata, also runs Sendero Hotel and Outpost Nosara — a track record that tells you the approach before you arrive: natural materials, considered design, a hotel that belongs to the community around it rather than sitting apart from it. Thirty-five rooms across queen rooms, casitas, suites, and a two-bedroom villa with private beach access. A members-only beach club open to Santa Teresa locals alongside hotel guests means the people surfing La Lora every morning are likely to be at the bar in the evening.
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The hotel
Sustainability
THE DESIGN
Ivory palette, natural materials, nothing trying too hard. Opened December 2025. Travel + Leisure It List 2026. Directly on La Lora.
Fermata's design position is restraint — ivory throughout, textured natural materials, no statement pieces, no signature motif. In Santa Teresa, where the temptation is to build something the jungle has to compete with, the Rivella Group approach is the opposite: let the beachfront position do the work. The casitas and the villa with private beach access are the two room categories worth knowing about. The members-only beach club, open to Santa Teresa locals, is the decision that most clearly signals what kind of hotel this intends to be.
THE DESIGN
Ivory palette, natural materials, nothing trying too hard. Opened December 2025. Travel + Leisure It List 2026. Directly on La Lora.
Fermata's design position is restraint — ivory throughout, textured natural materials, no statement pieces, no signature motif. In Santa Teresa, where the temptation is to build something the jungle has to compete with, the Rivella Group approach is the opposite: let the beachfront position do the work. The casitas and the villa with private beach access are the two room categories worth knowing about. The members-only beach club, open to Santa Teresa locals, is the decision that most clearly signals what kind of hotel this intends to be.
THE FOOD
Chef Olivier Palazzo. Mediterranean technique, local ingredients, oceanfront setting. Already considered the most serious kitchen in Santa Teresa — in its first season.
Fermata Kitchen is the restaurant Santa Teresa has been missing. Chef Olivier Palazzo works a menu that draws on Mediterranean technique and French training, built around ingredients sourced as locally as possible — seafood from the Pacific coast, produce from the peninsula. The oceanfront setting means dinner faces the same water the guests surfed that morning. In a town where the food options have historically run toward açaí bowls and casual beach fare, Fermata Kitchen is operating at a different register entirely.
THE FOOD
Chef Olivier Palazzo. Mediterranean technique, local ingredients, oceanfront setting. Already considered the most serious kitchen in Santa Teresa — in its first season.
Fermata Kitchen is the restaurant Santa Teresa has been missing. Chef Olivier Palazzo works a menu that draws on Mediterranean technique and French training, built around ingredients sourced as locally as possible — seafood from the Pacific coast, produce from the peninsula. The oceanfront setting means dinner faces the same water the guests surfed that morning. In a town where the food options have historically run toward açaí bowls and casual beach fare, Fermata Kitchen is operating at a different register entirely.
THE SUSTAINABILITY
Eco-friendly materials and energy-efficient systems throughout. The beach club is open to Santa Teresa locals. Rivella builds hotels that belong to the towns they're in.
Fermata was built with eco-friendly materials and energy-efficient systems as part of Rivella Group's sustainability approach across all its properties. The kitchen sourcing is local where possible. The members-only beach club — available to Santa Teresa locals as well as hotel guests — is structural, not promotional: it means the hotel is financially invested in the health of the surf community it sits next to. Rivella's other properties, Sendero and Outpost Nosara, operate on the same model.
THE SUSTAINABILITY
Eco-friendly materials and energy-efficient systems throughout. The beach club is open to Santa Teresa locals. Rivella builds hotels that belong to the towns they're in.
Fermata was built with eco-friendly materials and energy-efficient systems as part of Rivella Group's sustainability approach across all its properties. The kitchen sourcing is local where possible. The members-only beach club — available to Santa Teresa locals as well as hotel guests — is structural, not promotional: it means the hotel is financially invested in the health of the surf community it sits next to. Rivella's other properties, Sendero and Outpost Nosara, operate on the same model.
