Santa Teresa travel tips

The world’s largest street party changed my life. As I visit for a third time, here is everything you need to know to make sense of Carnaval 2024.

As two Central American titans of tourism, how do you choose between Costa Rica and Panama? Both have incredible landscapes teeming with wildlife, beautiful beaches dotted along both the Pacific and Caribbean coastlines and a vibrant local culture. 

If you're planning a trip to Rio, you might need to budget more than you think – prices in Rio de Janeiro are often on par with travel in parts of the USA or Europe.

Few cities are as naturally spectacular as Rio. Flanked by the Atlantic and Guanabara Bay, backed by jungle-furred peaks and strung together with miles of creamy sand, this is a place of singular beauty. The beachside neighbourhoods are the obvious areas to stay: legendary Copacabana, quieter Leme and trendier Ipanema, the gateway to Rio’s western beaches. Don’t write off inland, though — over the past decade, a new, boutique-style hotel scene has emerged. High above the historic centre, Santa Teresa is Rio’s boho bastion. Directly below is nightlife-central Lapa. 

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Martha Pierce , a 34-year-old former marketing agency owner, who started her own business coaching practice this year and left Denver, Colorado for Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

For generations, designers have adopted towns, villages, and other enclaves as second homes and visited them again and again, imprinting a touch of their own sensibility on their chosen place—and importing something of its essence into their own work. It’s the kind of symbiosis that Coco Chanel and Le Corbusier, who summered in neighboring homes, enjoyed with the Cote d’Azur’s Rouquebrune Cap-Martine, or Yves Saint Laurent with Marrakech and Tangier. More recently, Christian Louboutin popularized the Portuguese village of Melides, eventually opening Vermelho Hotel there earlier this year. Here, five designers on the places they go, and why they continue to be pulled back.

Come to Costa Rica to discover magnificent landscapes, endless outdoor activities and creatures great and small. This smallish Central American country offers a world of adventure, from water sports to mountain hikes, from rainforest wildlife watching to cloud-forest birding.