The best surf & design hotels · Santa Teresa
Hotel Nantipa
In Chorotegan, the indigenous language of the Nicoya people, nantipa means blue — the colour of the water the hotel faces and the culture it was built to honour. Harry Hartman opened Nantipa on 155 metres of beachfront in 2014 alongside architects Garnier Arquitectos, whose approach to the site — retaining the existing vegetation, building low against the treeline, leaving the land's contours intact — was published by ArchDaily as an example of how to build on a coast without the coast knowing you were there. The nineteen bungalows are placed across 2.3 hectares, each set far enough apart to feel private. The Nicoya Peninsula is one of the world's five Blue Zones, and Nantipa is one of the few hotels on it that treats that fact as a design brief rather than a marketing category. The Numu Wellness Center runs open-air treatments using local ingredients — papaya, avocado, volcanic clay — and the saltwater pool is one of the best on the peninsula. Manzú restaurant sources from local fishermen daily, and the bread comes from a local baker. SLH member.
We may earn a commission if you book via this link.
The hotel
Sustainability
THE DESIGN
Six treeline bungalows, nineteen rooms across 2.3 hectares, 155 metres of beachfront. The site plan is the design.
Garnier Arquitectos's decision on the Nantipa site was primarily about what not to build. Only six trees were removed during construction — all the timber recycled into hotel furniture. The bungalows follow the existing contours rather than levelling them, and the vegetation between structures is the original vegetation, not replanted. The result is a hotel that reads from the beach as something that grew here rather than something placed here. That distinction is harder to achieve than it sounds.
THE DESIGN
Six treeline bungalows, nineteen rooms across 2.3 hectares, 155 metres of beachfront. The site plan is the design.
Garnier Arquitectos's decision on the Nantipa site was primarily about what not to build. Only six trees were removed during construction — all the timber recycled into hotel furniture. The bungalows follow the existing contours rather than levelling them, and the vegetation between structures is the original vegetation, not replanted. The result is a hotel that reads from the beach as something that grew here rather than something placed here. That distinction is harder to achieve than it sounds.
THE SUSTAINABILITY
Only six trees removed during construction. The timber became the furniture. The macaws are being reintroduced.
Nantipa holds SLH Considerate Collection founding member status and has applied for ICT sustainable tourism certification. The construction brief required tree removal to be minimised — six in total across the whole site — with all wood repurposed into hotel furniture. A macaw rewilding programme is active on the property. The kitchen sources daily from local fishermen, and the bread from a local baker outside the hotel system. The Blue Zone designation is not promotional material at Nantipa. It is the starting point for how the hotel was designed.
THE SUSTAINABILITY
Only six trees removed during construction. The timber became the furniture. The macaws are being reintroduced.
Nantipa holds SLH Considerate Collection founding member status and has applied for ICT sustainable tourism certification. The construction brief required tree removal to be minimised — six in total across the whole site — with all wood repurposed into hotel furniture. A macaw rewilding programme is active on the property. The kitchen sources daily from local fishermen, and the bread from a local baker outside the hotel system. The Blue Zone designation is not promotional material at Nantipa. It is the starting point for how the hotel was designed.
