Costa Rica guide · 7 min read
Best Time to Visit Costa Rica: A Season-by-Season Guide
"Dry season" and "green season" don't mean the same thing on every coast — and that's the detail most guides skip.
Costa Rica really has two seasons, not four: dry (verano, roughly December through April) and green (invierno, roughly May through November). But the country has two coastlines with different weather systems, and treating the whole map as one climate is where most trip-planning goes wrong.
Pacific side: a real dry season
Guanacaste and the Central Pacific get the classic postcard dry season — long stretches of sun from December to April, with Guanacaste the driest, dustiest, and busiest region in the country during those months. Book beach stays here well ahead if you're traveling January through March.
Green season isn't a reason to skip it
May through November brings afternoon rain more than all-day washouts — mornings are frequently clear, everything turns intensely green, waterfalls run full, crowds thin out, and rates drop. September and October are the wettest stretch on the Pacific side and worth planning around if you're set on that region specifically.
The Caribbean coast runs on its own calendar
Puerto Viejo, Cahuita, and Tortuguero don't follow the Pacific pattern — the Caribbean side is rainy nearly year-round, with its own short drier spell around September and October, which is exactly when the Pacific side is at its wettest. If a trip has to include both coasts, that overlap window is worth building around.
Shoulder months worth knowing about
Late November and early December often deliver the best of both worlds — the rains are tapering off, the landscape is still lush from the wet season, and the December crowds and prices haven't fully kicked in yet. It's a genuinely underrated window for a first trip.