Santa Teresa Guide for Digital Nomads

Weather in Santa Teresa by month

The warmest month is March, at about 87°F (30°C) in the afternoon, and the coolest is October, at about 82°F (28°C).

The most rain falls in October.

From NASA POWER's monthly climate averages for the point (a grid about 50 km across, so a coastal or mountain city can read a little off).

Internet in Santa Teresa

In M-Lab's open speed tests within 60 km of Santa Teresa, half came in above 36 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload, and the fastest quarter of lines above 85 Mbps.

That's 553 download tests from September 2025 to September 2026.

The typical figure counts every line, cheap and mobile ones too; a fiber line in a good apartment or coworking space is closer to the fastest quarter.

Test yours when you get there with my internet speed test.

Cost of living in Santa Teresa

One person spends about $1,604 a month in Santa Teresa, with a furnished place to stay:

The rent is estimated from Costa Rica's housing prices, as Inside Airbnb doesn't cover Santa Teresa.

The rest is what a one-person US household spends (the Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2024 survey), at Costa Rica's prices for each (the World Bank's 2021 price comparison).

Coworking, insurance and flights come on top.

Air quality in Santa Teresa

By an estimate, the air in Santa Teresa carries about 8 µg/m³ of fine particles (PM2.5) over a year, 1.5 times the WHO's guideline of 5 µg/m³.

The cleanest month is October, at about 4 µg/m³, and the haziest is April.

No open air quality station is within 25 km of Santa Teresa, so these are estimates from Copernicus's CAMS air model for the surrounding area (an 80 km grid, 2023 to 2025, CC BY 4.0), adjusted to what stations measure elsewhere.

Take them as a guide: the model can be well off in big cities, and a measured figure replaces it once a station opens.

Is Santa Teresa safe?

The US State Department rates Costa Rica Level 2 ("Exercise increased caution", updated 2026-04-02), the same level it gives France, Germany, the UK and Spain.

Levels 1 and 2 are both everyday travel; the US only asks you to reconsider a trip at Level 3.

Some advisories raise the level for parts of a country, so read the full advisory before you book.

Work and stay in Santa Teresa

Where to work and live with other remote workers, from each finder:

See them all on a map, with hours, photos and directions, in the free Wi-Fi spots and coliving finder.

Visas, taxes and residency in Costa Rica

Before you plan a long stay, check what your passport allows and what staying does to your taxes:

• Can you stay? – see where your passport goes without a visa on the visa-free countries map, and whether Costa Rica has a visa for remote workers in the digital nomad visa finder
• Tax – compare Costa Rica's income tax with other countries in tax rates by country
• Foreign income – Costa Rica taxes only income earned inside the country, not income from abroad; see the rule and its exceptions on the territorial tax map

Each tool reads the official rules, so the answer is for your own passport and income.

Money in Santa Teresa

A card with no foreign fee and an account that holds several currencies make a stay much cheaper:

• Accounts – the best bank accounts for digital nomads, by where you live
• Cards – what a card costs you abroad in the card fees abroad calculator
• Sending money – the cheapest way to move money there in the money transfer comparison

The finders show only accounts and cards you can open from where you live.

Time zone

Santa Teresa runs on Costa Rica time (America/Costa_Rica).

See how many working hours you'd share with your clients or team in the time zone overlap calculator.