Casa Zen Hotel Mal Pais Costa Rica

Welcome to Casa Zen! We have been waiting for your arrival...

Casa Zen

Our guest house is located 100 meters from the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean of Costa Rica, Central America. The beach opens to a long gently curving stretch of beach in Santa Teresa on the Nicoya Peninsula.

Bienvenidos a Casa Zen!

Welcome to Casa Zen! We have been waiting for your arrival...

Casa Zen

The one minute stroll down the road to the beach leads you to a soft sand beach perfect for swimming, fishing, bathing in sandy tidal pools, hanging a hammock OR...

thiago surfing

.....a 10 minute walk down the beach leads you to the BEST surf break in Costa Rica.....The famous beaches of Santa Teresa and Mal Pais attract the international surfer scene.

Beginners take heart! The variety of waves found along these beaches also offer optimal conditions for the beginning surfer. Ask about surf lessons!

Casa Zen is located on the Nicoya Peninsula on Costa Rica's southern Pacific coast. The Peninsula is reached by crossing the Paquera Ferry from the historically enchanting industrial/commercial boating town of Puntarenas. For those of you traveling from the Santa Maria International Airport in San Jose you will thoroughly enjoy the change of pace from traveling by car/bus across the beautiful mountains and down to meet the gulf for an unforgettable ferry ride.

The Southern Nicoya Peninsula is a remote area where you will find solitary yet beautiful beaches meeting mountains that tilt precipitously upward to the interior of the half island. The Southern Nicoya Peninsula can be reached by road from the northern province of Guanacaste, but the easiest way from the Costa Rica mainland is to cross the Gulf of Nicoya by ferry from Puntarenas.

Check out our map page and travel information page for more information.

Tourism on the Nicoya Peninsula is mostly small scale with quaint villages and hotels. Vacations in the little beach villages offer something for everybody's taste. Nearby Montezuma with its stunning natural beauty and gorgeous waterfalls has a trendy village atmosphere that makes for a perfect day-trip. Other great nature-lover opportunities include day-trips to the Curu Wildlife Reserve, canopy tours, horseback riding, snorkeling off of Tortuga Island, or hiking at Cabo Blanco (the oldest nature reserve in Costa Rica)

While Guanacaste is known for its dry climate, the southern part of the Nicoya Peninsula receives more rain annually, making it a transitional zone between the dry forest climate and the tropical rain forest. The wildlife here is common to both ecosystems and many animals are seasonal commuters.

HISTORY..What is Casa Zen?

We are a small and inviting "casa de huespedes" or guest house. We have a variety of rooms and apartment options to meet every budget and travel need...including a full-service Thai-Asian restaurant, multiple seating areas, special party arrangements and wedding solutions!

Casa Zen opened in the green season of 2004 (winter to you norte americanos..). Business is great! Casa Zen was the brain-child of your hostess (see pic above). Kelly created, planned and invested much sweat and joy into creating a place where friends - old friends and yet to be met friends - could come to "chill and recreate" on their own time. Many of you may have heard that Costa Ricans are called "ticos" as a term of pride and endearment. The country in general is on "tico-time". This translates into a lot of people following their own internal clock (and they all run slow! ha ha!) It's all good! Pura Vida! Casa Zen accepts and supports tico-time 150%!

MISSION..Why are we here?

Casa Zen experience embraces the entire atmosphere -- a focus on a way of life that, for many, has no equal in everyday life. If you need something, have a question (where to go? what to do? how do I get there?) ASK our very helpful staff! We also keep a variety of interesting materials and guide books at our restaurant. It helps people strike up a conversation and find our where you came from and how you arrived at Casa Zen!

Our guest book pages are filling quickly --- Do not forget to sign the guest book before you leave! We want all our friends to become a part of Casa Zen...

mural

Most of our guests have "found" Casa Zen by word of mouth. In fact we have even had a few repeat customers (Hi! Dave from New York!). You can also check us out in a couple of different publications and links to other web sites ::::

“excellent choice with many options”

Casa Zen

casa zen is one of the few places in mal pais that offers a really solid "middle-ground" in terms of price and atmosphere. the single family ownership have made a point of keeping prices down while also making sure the place is well staffed, clean, and comfortable -- with some style. you're experiencing a labor of love here, run by people who have repatriated to costa rica to stay -- not some real estate developer's detached idea of a boutique hotel.

you could pay 2x + the price elsewhere easily and NOT get 2x the value. there's not much middle ground around in the immediate vicinity-- prices nearby jump to $70/$120 night for private cabinas at nearby itauna and tropico latino during high season, and the budget options nearby are... uh... well, muy rustico. casa zen still offers hostel-style bunks in addition to private rooms (shared bath) and an apartment with private bath + kitchen that can optionally connect to additional bedrooms for larger groups. there's also a communal outdoor (covered) kitchen downstairs for everyone else.

and, then there's the restaurant. the food's excellent, thai dishes for dinner and typical/traditional breakfast and lunches.

its true, due to the surfer/backpacker presence you may encounter some people hanging out at night and they'll be audible if you're turning in early to sleep and get a jump on the surf in the AM, but i just spent a month there, and in fact the staff DID make a point of asking folks to tone it down after 9pm or so on the few occasions it was called for, and a few semi-polite words like "hey dudes, keep it down", or "por favor, amigos" also does the trick. people who stay here aren't rowdy, they're just happy, and its a pretty tranquil place in general.

for me, a major plus at casa zen is that it is centrally located but still away from most of the development in the area. you don't have to walk on the main road to get to the beach (its beachside), there's a fully stocked market a block up and over, and its equidistant from both playa carmen (beginner surf mostly, apart from the outside peaks near the reefs) and santa theresa (excellent and occasionally heavy beachbreak waves for experienced surfers when there's a swell -- and if you want to score it good, just get up EARLY instead of drinking that last shot of tequila the night before... you'll get glassy and quite possibly hollow waves in return, with only a few other people in sight. you want a mid-tide usually, coming up... unless the swell is small, in which case, plan around the low tides... this place yields tubes.... FREQUENTLY... more often right, but also left on a few peaks).

the staff here is excellent, all the way around. it isn't a barcelo, mind you. if you're looking for a turn-down and a chocolate on your pillow, you're in the wrong place. but the people here are all nice and good at what they do. the yoga classes are both solid yet non-intimidating as are the spa treatments & massage.

there's also internet access here (2 newish computers with a printer), and since it isn't shared with 10 other people trying to use it at the same time its pretty fast -- so if you need to check in with the "fake world" on a regular basis, you don't have to hike to some place up the road. its all right here.

if you come here, you're going to make friends, and want to come back.

“one of the last great authentic + comfortable places to land, here”

Casa Zen

i almost don't want to write this. insofar as you know -- when you find a good thing, you don't want to see it get over-publicized, but...

places like this -- in areas like this -- are harder and harder to come by. and the more they get written up and acknowledged, the harder it is to get a reservation and the more likely it is things will change, faster.

but kelly and the staff here deserve to be recognized.

this is a little bit of the old costa rica backpacker vibe, but grown up and packaged up in a location and setup that can accommodate both random walk-ins on the cheap, and honeymooners looking for something authentic but comfortable. its a tough combination to find, and thankfully kelly and her family+staff have maintained the place and its aesthetic while rolling with the changes of a growing destination.

the food is good. the staff is good. the vibe is good. its ALL good. come for a day -- stay for a month. people have. i'm about to go back for my fifth visit to the area and there was no question about where we were going to stay.

you're away from the major development of mal pais/sta theresa here, but close enough to the market/internet cafes etc to stay stocked and connected without listening to traffic and breathing atv fumes all day, and having to hike more than a few blocks to stock up or check mail.

its freaking perfect, or as close as you're gonna get, here, today, given what is happening in (and to) the area. the surf remains stellar and if you can situate yourself in a good place like this with the right attitude and some time to appreciate it, you're not gonna want to leave.

“Lovely rooms, good location but no warm water”

Casa Zen

Stayed here for the last 3 nights of our 11 days Costa Rican vacation. We were staying at the MalPais Surf Camp but were looking to move to a nicer hotel and better location for the last few days.

Kelly, the owner is very down to earth and available for questions. We hadn't planned to stay here but stopped by for lunch one day and decided to just see how much the rooms were. Only $30 for a 2nd floor room with a double and single bed, ceiling fan and safe. We said yes! Of note:

Movie night each Sunday

Need to have or buy your own lock for the safe

On-site laundry service

6+ hammocks to lounge on

Yoga twice a day on the open air 2nd floor (I didn't participate but it looked good and was packed with people)

I'm pretty sure they had surf board rentals there but not 100%

Location is right across the street for the largest super market in Santa Teresa/ MalPais area.

Cash only

No pool

Shared baths - but they are nicer than most I'd seen, clean and private.

They did not provide bath towels.

On-site spa - offering deep-tissue massage and reflexology. $40 for an hour, and $25 for 1/2 hour. I did the hour deep-tissue and loved it - especially for the price.

NOTE: it can be very noisy, as the walls are thin and our room had a partial open ceiling that appeared to connect to about 4 other rooms - you could easily hear what's going on in the other rooms. At night people party and they are LOUD. This happened 2 of 3 nights we were there and no staff made the people quiet down.

They are not right on the beach but very close.

Overall, I'd go back because for the price of $30 a night it was worth it, even without warm water.

“Un sitio encantador!”

Casa Zen

Llegamos una tarde sin reserva, y el chico del restaurante/recepcion de verdad nos recibio con mucha amabilidad hiciendonos sentirnos de verdad bienvenidos.

A buen precio (22$ temporada baja), superbonito, limpio y el personal muy agradable. Los baños communes limpios, una cocina commun (cual no usamos) y todo el lugar hecho con muy buen gusto.

El lugar precioso y limpio, el personal y la dirección super, y ademas cerca de la playa y el supermercado es un sitio qué elegiera de nuevo.

Algo negativo seria los precios del restaurante y los desayunos caros y pequeños. Tuve que pedir dos desayunos para mi hijo para que no saliera con hambre. A un precio 3-4 veces las sodas locales.