Mint Santa Teresa - Adults only

Four Whitewashed Pavilions on a Santa Teresa Hillside

Mint sits on a steep hillside above Santa Teresa, four whitewashed pavilions stepping down toward the ocean, designed by Costa Rican architect Benjamin Garcia Saxe of Studio Saxe for the Swedish couple who own and run it, Jonas Thorrel and Johanna Johansson. The design reads as Scandinavian minimalism filtered through local craft: lime-rendered walls, locally made furniture and local art rather than imported decor, arranged around rooms that each keep an ocean view and a private rooftop terrace. It's a hotel built deliberately small, and the architecture and the hospitality both make the case for why.

Why It Works

We picked Mint because the design itself is the argument: a project by a named architect, featured in Dwell Magazine, built around four rooms rather than scaled up for volume, is rare in a beach town where most hotel stock chases bed count over character. Eighty reviews holding at 9.9 out of 10 back up what the architecture promises, in a property small enough that every guest actually meets the owners.

Why This Location

Mint sits on a hillside a short walk from Santa Teresa's beaches and its surf breaks, close enough to hear the waves from the rooms at night and far enough up the hill to keep its own quiet. The town's restaurants, yoga studios and surf schools are a walk or a short taxi away, and the owners, who live on site, send guests toward the waterfalls and the beach horseback rides most visitors never find on their own.

Fast Facts

• Price: Luxe (architect-designed boutique, four rooms only)

• Vibe: Scandinavian minimalism meets Costa Rican hillside

• Rooms: 4, each with an ocean view and a private rooftop terrace

• Best For: Design-minded couples, travellers who want a small, owner-run stay

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: The private rooftop terrace off every single room, not reserved for a top category

• Dining: Communal buffet breakfast in the lounge; owners recommend local restaurants for dinner

• Amenities: Private rooftop terraces, locally made furniture and art, owner-led excursion advice

• Attractions: Santa Teresa's beaches and surf breaks (short walk), nearby waterfalls, sunset beach horseback rides

A Studio Saxe Design, Built in Four Rooms Only

Benjamin Garcia Saxe, Studio Saxe's executive director, designed Mint as a series of pavilions that step down the hillside rather than one single block, a layout he describes as contextual, built to adapt to the slope and the view rather than impose on either. The influences read as Greek architecture crossed with minimalist Scandinavian design, worked out in whitewashed render and local materials, and the result was significant enough to earn a feature in Dwell Magazine, real validation for a four-room hotel in a surf town.

Breakfast Together, Dinner Wherever the Owners Point You

There's no full restaurant at Mint, and the choice fits the hotel's size: breakfast is served buffet-style in the shared lounge each morning, which doubles as the one moment all four rooms' worth of guests are likely to overlap. For dinner, the Swedish owners send guests out into Santa Teresa's own restaurant scene, with specific recommendations rather than a generic list, the kind of local knowledge that comes from actually living above the hotel rather than managing it from a head office.

What a Four-Room Hotel Gets Right

Staying at four rooms rather than scaling up is a deliberate choice, and it shows in details larger hotels skip: every room gets its own rooftop terrace rather than reserving the view for a single suite, the owners know guests by name within a day, and the communal breakfast actually functions as a place to compare notes on where to surf. It's a property built for travellers who'd rather feel like a guest in someone's considered design than a number in a reservation system.