What is the best month to visit Costa Rica?

February or March if you want the most reliable weather, particularly in Guanacaste where every all-inclusive resort sits — those are mid-dry-season months with dependable sunshine, at peak prices. If value matters more, late April or November sit on the edges of the dry season with lower rates, and May through August gives you sunny mornings with afternoon showers at a real discount. September and October are the wettest and cheapest months on the Pacific side.

What is the rainy season in Costa Rica?

May through November on the Pacific side, locally called the green season. The typical pattern from May through August is clear, sunny mornings followed by afternoon showers rather than all-day rain, which for a beach week is a workable trade. September and October are the wettest months of the year. The Caribbean coast does not follow this calendar — it is among the rainiest regions in any month, with February and March the window most sources describe as drier.

Is the green season a bad time to visit Costa Rica?

Not for a resort week, and not for value. Rates fall, the resorts are quieter, the landscape is green rather than dust-brown, and the May-to-August rain pattern usually arrives in the afternoon. It is a harder window for inland touring, because Arenal, Monteverde and the Osa Peninsula are hours from the resort coast on roads where rain matters, and September and October are the toughest months for that. Match the season to the shape of your trip rather than to the brochure.

When is Guanacaste driest?

Guanacaste is the driest region in Costa Rica and its dry season is the most pronounced — published guides describe stretches of months without rain between mid-December and April. The caveat is aesthetic: the final weeks of that window are brutally dry and dusty in the northwest, with brown hillsides instead of the green ones most visitors picture. Late November and early December give you dry-season weather with the landscape still green from the wet months.

Does Costa Rica get sargassum seaweed?

Not on the resort coast. Costa Rica's all-inclusive strip is in Guanacaste on the Pacific side, and the sargassum influx that affects Mexico's Caribbean beaches between roughly April and October is an Atlantic phenomenon that cannot reach it. That is one of the genuine structural advantages Costa Rica has over the Mexican Caribbean, and we work through the rest of them in [Costa Rica versus Mexico](/compare/costa-rica-vs-mexico).

When should I avoid Costa Rica?

Two windows, for price and crowds rather than weather. Christmas and New Year carry the highest rates of the year plus minimum-stay requirements at most resorts. Easter week is the domestic holiday, when Costa Ricans travel to the Pacific beaches and the coast is at its busiest. If your dates fall in either, book considerably further ahead than you otherwise would, and read our [festive season resort guide](/guides/festive-season-resort-guide) for how the holiday supplements work.

Planning Guide

The Best Time to Visit Costa Rica

By Marcus Reed · Senior Editor — Caribbean & All-InclusiveLast updated October 17, 2026

The best time to visit Costa Rica is mid-December through April, the dry season, with the most reliable sunshine in Guanacaste and the highest prices and crowds of the year. May to November is the green season — cheaper and quieter, with sunny mornings and afternoon rain — and September and October are the wettest months on the Pacific side.

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Costa Rica has one widely quoted answer and three real ones, because the country does not share a single weather calendar. The headline is straightforward: the dry season runs mid-December through April, it is the most popular window, and it carries the most reliable sunshine along with the highest prices and crowds. Guanacaste, where every all-inclusive resort in the country sits, has the most dependable dry weather of any region — published guides describe stretches of months without a drop of rain.

The green season, May through November, is cheaper and quieter. The usual pattern from May through August is clear sunny mornings with afternoon showers, which for a resort week is a surprisingly good trade. September and October are the wettest months on the Pacific side — and also the cheapest, which is the whole reason this page exists for anyone whose dates are flexible.

The complication is regional, and it catches out visitors who plan a beach-plus-touring trip. The Caribbean coast does not follow the Pacific calendar, and published sources disagree about its driest window — February and March is the safest claim to plan around, with some guides also pointing to September and October, and all of them describing the region as one of the rainiest in the country. Higher elevations, including the Monteverde cloud forest, stay cooler and damper year-round regardless of season.

So the right question is not when to visit Costa Rica but when to visit the part of Costa Rica you are going to. If that is a Guanacaste resort week, the answer is mid-December to April for weather and May to November for value. If it is a Guanacaste resort plus Arenal or Monteverde, read on — and our [Costa Rica all-inclusive cost guide](/guides/costa-rica-all-inclusive-cost) prices the two seasons against each other.

The two seasons, and what each one actually feels like

The dry season — mid-December to April — is what the postcards show. Reliable sunshine, calm Pacific water, and the highest occupancy of the year at the Guanacaste resorts, which means you book earlier and pay more for the same room. The one honest caveat is that the back end of the dry season gets extreme in the northwest: published guides describe the final dry months in Guanacaste as brutally dry and dusty, with brown hillsides rather than the green ones most visitors picture.

The green season — May through November — is a different and in some ways better product. From May through August the pattern is typically clear, sunny mornings followed by afternoon showers, which means the beach morning happens and the rain arrives when you were going to be at lunch anyway. Rates are lower, the resorts are quieter, and the landscape is green rather than dust-coloured.

September and October are the exception at the wet end: the wettest months on the Pacific side and the cheapest of the year. For a beach week at a resort with good indoor and covered space, that trade can still work. For a touring trip with unpaved access roads and river crossings, it is the hardest window of the twelve.

Costa Rica by season and region (2026) — Pacific resort coast versus the rest of the country
Window	Season	Guanacaste / Pacific coast	Cloud forest and highlands	Caribbean coast	Rate pressure
Mid-December-February	Dry season, peak	Most reliable sunshine of the year	Cooler and damper than the coast year-round	Among the rainiest parts of the country	Highest
February-March	Dry season	Dry and sunny; hillsides browning	Clearer spells, still cool and misty	The window most sources agree is drier	High
April	Dry season ends	Driest and dustiest in the northwest	Transitional	Listed by some guides as part of the dry period	High, easing late
May-August	Green season	Sunny mornings, afternoon showers	Wet and cool	Variable	Lower
September-October	Green season peak rain	Wettest months on the Pacific side	Wettest, with road and trail impacts	Named by some sources as drier here	Lowest of the year
November	Green season ends	Rain easing, landscape still green	Improving	Variable	Low, rising late

Pick the region before you pick the month

Guanacaste is the simple case and the one that matters for an all-inclusive week, because every inclusive resort in the country is on that coast — roughly 150 miles of it, within about an hour of Liberia's airport. It is the driest region in Costa Rica and the most seasonal: a February week there is as close to a weather guarantee as the tropics offer, and a September week is a genuine gamble with a large discount attached.

The highlands are the opposite. The Monteverde cloud forest is cool and damp more or less year-round by definition — that is what makes it a cloud forest — so choosing dry-season dates improves your odds of a view but does not change the character of the place. Pack for mist and cool evenings whenever you go, and do not plan a cloud-forest day as the weather-dependent highlight of a beach trip.

The Caribbean coast around Limon runs its own calendar and has almost no all-inclusive inventory, so it rarely features in a resort trip. If you are going there, February and March is the window published sources most consistently describe as drier, with some also pointing to September and October — a disagreement worth noting rather than resolving, because the region is among the rainiest in the country in any month.

What this means for an all-inclusive week

If the trip is purely a resort week in Guanacaste, the decision is a straight weather-versus-price trade and there is no wrong answer. Mid-December to April buys reliability at peak rates; May through August buys a sunny-morning pattern at a discount; September and October buy the lowest rates of the year with the highest rain risk. Our Costa Rica all-inclusive ranking sets out which resorts have the pool and indoor infrastructure to absorb a wet afternoon — the Westin Reserva Conchal's nine dining venues and the new JW Marriott Costa Elena's 44,000-square-foot poolscape are the two strongest on that measure.

If the trip pairs a resort with inland touring — which is the version of Costa Rica most visitors should book — weight the decision toward the dry season. Arenal, Monteverde, Manuel Antonio and the Osa Peninsula are several hours from the resort coast, often on roads where green-season rain is the difference between a scenic drive and a slow one, and the activities themselves are weather-exposed in a way a resort pool is not.

And if your dates are already fixed, the useful move is to choose the coast rather than the country. Guanacaste in September is a wet bet; Mexico's Pacific coast or the Caribbean's southern islands are drier in different months, and our Costa Rica versus Mexico comparison covers which of the two handles a given month better. The one thing Guanacaste never has to worry about is Atlantic sargassum — it is a Pacific coast, and the seaweed that affects Mexico's Caribbean beaches between roughly April and October cannot reach it.

The shoulder weeks worth hunting

Two windows give you most of the dry season at something closer to green-season pricing. Late November into early December, before the Christmas calendar takes over, usually has the rain easing and the landscape still green from the wet months — arguably the best-looking version of Guanacaste. And late April into the first week or two of May, when the dry season is ending but the rains have not established, trades a dusty landscape for lower rates.

Both windows are short, both are known to people who book Costa Rica repeatedly, and both disappear early at the better properties. If you are aiming at one, book further ahead than you would for a green-season week rather than waiting for a deal that will not come.

Avoid, unless the dates are imposed on you: the Christmas and New Year window, which combines the year's highest rates with minimum-stay requirements at most resorts, and Easter week, when Costa Ricans themselves travel domestically and the Pacific beaches are at their busiest. Our festive season resort guide explains how the holiday supplements work across the luxury resort market.

Our picks — where to book

The resorts below are ones we have reviewed and scored in full. Rates are pulled live rather than printed, because resort pricing moves with season and availability.

Grand Velas Riviera Maya
Playa del Carmen, Riviera Maya, Mexico
9.2/ 10
The most convincing luxury all-inclusive in Mexico — 206 acres, suites from 1,100 sq ft, and the first all-inclusive restaurant in the world to earn AAA Five Diamond status.
Check rates on Expedia Read our review →
Jade Mountain
Soufrière, above Anse Chastanet, St. Lucia
9.3/ 10
Twenty-four open-walled sanctuaries with private infinity pools aimed straight at the Pitons — the most architecturally daring hotel in the Caribbean.
Check rates on Expedia Read our review →

Rates as of September 2026. Always verify current pricing.

Frequently Asked Questions

: February or March if you want the most reliable weather, particularly in Guanacaste where every all-inclusive resort sits — those are mid-dry-season months with dependable sunshine, at peak prices. If value matters more, late April or November sit on the edges of the dry season with lower rates, and May through August gives you sunny mornings with afternoon showers at a real discount. September and October are the wettest and cheapest months on the Pacific side.