By R. Caligaris - Photography by Andres Garcia Lachner

After backpacking around Southeast Asia for almost a year, Janice and Klay Camp decided to call Nosara in Costa Rica home. They worked extremely close with their local architect for close to a year, a lot of back and forth to be sure they came out with something extremely unique to the area. They gained inspiration from their travels; wood and concrete work from Mexico, lights in the concrete squares from Morocco, thatched roof and hanging basket lighting from Bali, and chevron designs from Costa Rica. Janice sat down with SVM to talk about the hospitality business, the overall concept of the hotel, and what they miss the most about Columbus.

How did you and your husband Klay decide to get into the hospitality business in Costa Rica? Long story short. Klay and I went backpacking about a year after marrying in 2012 throughout Australia, Southeast Asia and various parts of Central America. Both Klay nor I had ever spent much time abroad and fell in love with the lifestyle and friendships we werecreating, inspired by the different types of accommodations we were stayingin. Originally, The Nomadic was suppose to be only a hostel, but morphed into more of a hybrid...lifestyle hotel.

Why did you choose Nosara - Costa Rica as the location for your resort? My mom has a cousin from Athens that retired in Nosara 12 years ago. Back before Klay and I married we did a road trip in 2009 with his sister and her now husband of the Guanacaste Peninsula here in Costa Rica. We only stayed 1 night just to meet Diane, sadly leaving because we had already made reservations in another town, however I remember Klay saying, “I’m going to live here one day.” Years later after a house sitting gig in Panama fell through during the time we were toying with the idea of doing some accommodation we came to Nosara for 2 months during the rain season and fell in love with its natural beauty. However, the real draw for us was the surf...Nosara has world class consistent year-round waves. After falling in love with surfing it was all over for us, we knew we had to live near the ocean.

Please tell us a little about The Nomadic Hotel and the overall concept? When we first decided to do this project there was very little hotels like what we’ve built in an affordable, mid-range price point. We didn’t want the guests that were looking for spas and concierge service or the traveler who was looking for the bare boned essentials. In the beginning, we were gearing The Nomadic towards young working professional or newly married couple types whose budget was more mid-range and wanted to provide them with more creature comforts (like comfy bedding, stylish towels, decor from Mexico, included cook to order breakfast, stylish common grounds) things that are hard to source here in Costa Rica. The Nomadic is geared towards people who enjoy meeting other people. We have a sense of community. We actually get to know our guests here and really want them to have a good experience so they’ll want to return year after year.

How do you address the pressure of keeping the hotel new and exciting for loyal guests?Constant up keep and changes. Every year we try to make upgrades and new additions to improve the property. It's always cool to see when the returning guests actually take notice to the growth.

What are your top feeder markets, and where do you see future travelers coming from? We get most of our travelers from Canada. Honestly, most every guest I speak to is coming from Toronto. I can pick they’re accent like someone can tell I’m from the south.

When is the best time of the year for travelers who want to visit Nosara? From November to April, the weather is cooler (more fresh and breezy), and the waves are smaller and clean, great for learning. This is our high season and a great time to escape the cold temps back home.

For those visiting The Nomadic Hotel for the first time, what would you recommend they do during their visit? Taking a surf lesson is a must, actually, a few surf lessons over a week is a great thing to do. These instructors down here are great. Lots of one on one time and they even do video analysisthat way you can see yourself and what you look like surfing. Also, Nosara is a great place to escape the everyday hassles to do a little self care whether it’s taking a yoga or fitness class (pilates, kickboxing, TRX, Muy Thai etc.) speciality massages, or even natural medicinal care.

You and Klay had the chance to travel to amazing places around the world. What was your most memorable vacation experience? We loved the time we spent in Bali. Bali was like a dreamland! We want to return one day with or children just to see the change and then visit some of the more secluded islands we didn’t get the chance to see last time.

What do you miss the most about Columbus? Definitely our friends and family. We wish we could have everyone here! And southern food for sure, we always see all the new restaurants popping up downtown via friends social media and it makes us salivate.