The best surf & design hotels · Nosara
Sendero
Stefanie Tannenbaum and Sarah Kosterlitz met on a Nosara surf trip. They came back, kept coming back, and eventually built the hotel they couldn't find — on the site of Mamma Rosa, the first cabins in Nosara, rebuilding on an existing footprint rather than breaking new ground. Every member of the operational team is Costa Rican. The name means "a short path" — the two-minute barefoot walk through the jungle to Playa Guiones that the hotel is built around.
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The hotel
Sustainability
The design
LOOP Design Studio is based in Nosara. The hotel looks like it was designed by someone who lives here — because it was.
Architecture by LOOP Design Studio, drawing from traditional hacienda forms: exposed wooden beams, arched hallways, rounded wall edges, brick, ceramic tile. A palette calibrated not to compete with the jungle. The Gold Key Award — one of the leading international hospitality design prizes — went to Sendero in 2024.
The design
LOOP Design Studio is based in Nosara. The hotel looks like it was designed by someone who lives here — because it was.
Architecture by LOOP Design Studio, drawing from traditional hacienda forms: exposed wooden beams, arched hallways, rounded wall edges, brick, ceramic tile. A palette calibrated not to compete with the jungle. The Gold Key Award — one of the leading international hospitality design prizes — went to Sendero in 2024.
The sustainability
Built on the footprint of Mamma Rosa. 60% solar. Half the ground area left as permeable soil.
Built on an existing site rather than clearing new land. Sixty percent of electricity from solar panels, rainwater captured and reused, half the hotel footprint left as permeable ground to recharge the local water table.
The sustainability
Built on the footprint of Mamma Rosa. 60% solar. Half the ground area left as permeable soil.
Built on an existing site rather than clearing new land. Sixty percent of electricity from solar panels, rainwater captured and reused, half the hotel footprint left as permeable ground to recharge the local water table.
The surf
Playa Guiones is two minutes on foot. The path is the hotel's name.
One of the most consistent beach breaks in Central America, working almost any swell direction, year-round. The walk through the jungle to get there is the point — not a transfer, not a drive, not a shuttle.
The surf
Playa Guiones is two minutes on foot. The path is the hotel's name.
One of the most consistent beach breaks in Central America, working almost any swell direction, year-round. The walk through the jungle to get there is the point — not a transfer, not a drive, not a shuttle.
