🇨🇷 Costa Rica · Puntarenas (Nicoya Peninsula)
Montezuma is a picturesque, bohemian coastal village at the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula, known for its waterfalls, its beaches of white sand and rock, its alternative scene and its laid-back spirit. Affectionately nicknamed 'Montefuma' for its historic hippie and artistic reputation, it keeps a countercultural, natural charm that sets it apart from the big Guanacaste resorts.
The village, small and walkable, looks out over clear water and natural pools, with streets full of cafés, vegetarian and international restaurants, craft shops, yoga schools and hotels with character. But its hallmark is the nature around it: the spectacular Montezuma waterfalls, with their swimming holes; untouched beaches a short walk away; and the nearby Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve, the oldest in the country.
This guide covers the essentials of Montezuma with a practical eye: the waterfalls and their pools, the beaches and the village atmosphere, the trips to Cabo Blanco and Isla Tortuga, the yoga and the bohemian life, how to reach the remote tip of Nicoya and what to keep in mind. Montezuma is ideal for backpackers, couples and travelers after nature, an alternative spirit and beaches without the crowds of other destinations.
Montezuma, at the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula, was a quiet fishing village that from the closing decades of the 20th century turned into an iconic bohemian, hippie and environmentalist refuge in Costa Rica, drawn around its waterfalls, its beaches and the nearby Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve, the first protected area in the country. The full story is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The country's longest coastal province, from the Central Pacific to the deep south: from the historic coffee port of Puntarenas to the cloud forests of Monteverde, from the beaches of Manuel Antonio to the wild jewel of the Osa Peninsula and Corcovado, 'the most biologically intense place on Earth'.
Read the history of Puntarenas →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Costa Ricans jokingly call it 'Montefuma', a nod to its hippie reputation: few villages in Costa Rica carry a nickname that says so much about their history. But long before the yoga classes and the vegan cafés, Montezuma, at the southern end of the Nicoya Peninsula, was one of the most remote and hardest-to-reach corners of the Costa Rican Pacific. For generations it was a small, isolated village of fishers and farmers, connected to the rest of the country only by rough roads and by sea. That isolation, far from the main routes, preserved both its natural setting —waterfalls, untouched beaches and forest— and a simple way of life tied to the sea.
The Nicoya Peninsula, a territory of Chorotega roots and later of mestizo culture, historically looked more to cattle and fishing than to tourism. The southern tip, where Montezuma sits, was especially cut off. That remoteness, an economic limitation at the time, would later become part of its appeal: a natural, barely touched corner at the end of the peninsula.
Montezuma's setting, with its river forming waterfalls before reaching the sea, its beaches of white sand and rock and its forest running down to the coast, had a singular beauty. On that foundation of remote fishing village and intact nature would be built, decades later, the bohemian and environmentalist identity that gave the place its international fame.
Very close to Montezuma, one of the founding chapters of Costa Rica's environmental history took shape. In 1963 the Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve was created, the country's first protected area, at the very tip of the Nicoya Peninsula. Its establishment was due in large part to the drive of the couple formed by Olof Wessberg and Karen Mogensen, Scandinavian immigrants who, alarmed by the deforestation advancing over the area's forests, fought to protect that corner of jungle and coast.
The creation of Cabo Blanco marked the birth of the Costa Rican protected-area system, which in time would make Costa Rica a world reference in conservation. Because of its 'absolute' category, the reserve keeps a very strict protection regime, with limited access, to preserve its ecosystems as fully as possible. The story of Wessberg and Mogensen, and Wessberg's later murder while he was fighting for new protected areas, ranks among the most significant accounts in the country's environmental movement.
Montezuma's closeness to this pioneering reserve steeped the village in an ecological sensibility from early on. Living next to the country's first protected area reinforced, in the local culture and in those who arrived later, a regard for nature that would be an essential part of Montezuma's identity.
From the closing decades of the 20th century, Montezuma went through a transformation that would turn it into an iconic destination. Its natural beauty —waterfalls, beaches, forest— and its out-of-the-way feel drew alternative travelers, hippies, artists, backpackers and people seeking a life closer to nature, both Costa Ricans and foreigners. The village filled with vegetarian cafés and restaurants, craft shops, yoga schools and an artistic, countercultural scene that gave it an unmistakable stamp.
Out of that spirit came its affectionate nickname, 'Montefuma', a reference to its laid-back reputation and its easygoing atmosphere. Montezuma established itself as one of the reference points of alternative and ecological tourism in Costa Rica, a place where surfing and the beach coexisted with wellness, spirituality, environmental awareness and an unhurried pace of life.
Today Montezuma combines that bohemian legacy with a broader tourist offering —from hostels to boutique hotels and eco-lodges— without losing its essence. Better access roads and the closeness of booming Santa Teresa brought it into the circuit at the tip of Nicoya, but the village keeps its character as a natural, alternative refuge. Its history, from remote fishing village to neighbor of the country's first reserve and bohemian mecca, makes it unique on the Costa Rican tourist map.
The history of Montezuma is closely tied to that of Karen Mogensen, a Dane, and Olof 'Nicolás' Wessberg, a Swede, a couple of Scandinavian immigrants who settled in the area at the tip of Nicoya in the mid-1950s. Drawn by the exuberance of the tropical forest and alarmed by the rapid advance of the deforestation that was beginning to sweep the peninsula, they devoted their lives to defending nature.
After three years of international campaigning, they managed to raise the first funds —close to 30,000 dollars, with the support of environmental organizations in Sweden and Denmark— to buy the land that in 1963 would become the Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve, the first protected area in the country. Wessberg was murdered in 1975 on the Osa Peninsula while pushing for the creation of new protected areas, an episode that shook the emerging Costa Rican environmental movement. Karen Mogensen carried on the fight for decades and left an indelible mark: today a nature reserve bears her name.
That legacy shaped Montezuma's identity for good. Living next to the country's first reserve steeped the village in an early ecological sensibility which, added to its natural beauty, would be the ground on which its reputation as a bohemian and sustainable refuge would grow.
From the 1980s onward, Montezuma began to turn into a tourist destination thanks to pioneering businesses and to a kind of traveler quite unlike the big-resort crowd. One milestone was the opening of lodgings and cafés with an alternative spirit and environmental awareness: on the site where Karen Mogensen had run a small hotel in the center of the village, El Sano Banano operates today, and foreign residents launched projects such as Ylang Ylang Beach Resort, which over time added donation programs to expand the area's conservation land.
Over the following decades, the village drew alternative travelers, artists, backpackers and yoga practitioners, Costa Ricans and foreigners alike, who reinforced its countercultural character. Vegetarian restaurants, yoga schools, wellness retreats and an active arts scene appeared, while the range of places to stay widened from the simplest hostels to boutique hotels and eco-lodges.
The gradual improvement in access —the Paquera ferry, the peninsula's roads— and the closeness of booming Santa Teresa brought Montezuma into the tourist circuit at the tip of Nicoya, without the village losing its essence. Today it combines its conservationist and bohemian legacy with a nature and wellness tourism that keeps it one of the most singular corners of the Costa Rican Pacific.