What happened to spring and fall?
Costa Rica weather has a tropical climate, yes, but the climate of Costa Rica does vary. There’s no such thing as spring, summer, fall, and winter – just summer and “winter”…if you can call it that. (Do not be alarmed! It never snows in Costa Rica.)
Dry season
With the weather in Costa Rica, probably the most important thing to note is that there is a “rainy” season and a “dry” season. Now, “dry” doesn’t mean a total absence of rain, it just means there’s less rain than during the rainy season.
The dry season is often referred to as “high season” by the hotels and tour companies. This is when the most tourists travel to Costa Rica, and you’ll notice that in your travel budget and bookings. Hotel reservations and tour prices will be highest during the high season. Pun intended by the Costa Rica travel industry?
Tours, activities, and the beaches will be more crowded as well during this time of year, which is generally December to April.
Rainy season
The rainy season is also known as the green season. With the rains comes the lush, rich, green landscape. We traveled during this time of year – which is May to November – and found it to be ideal.
| Our hikes in the cloud forest. |
We booked our rooms as we traveled across the country without issue. We had no problems getting on the tours we wanted, and the boats and buses were not crammed full of tourists like us.
Yeah, it rained. Up in the cloud forest, it rained a lot! But we still were able to do quite a bit and hike through the rain forest without getting totally drenched. But temperatures are generally cooler during this season, and let me tell you, Manuel Antonio National Park was plenty hot as it was. Everybody had nice glistening of sweat. Still, the Costa Rican weather suited us fine.
Everywhere we went it would get misty and foggy in the evening. But by that point it was dark, and we were either having a relaxing dinner or planning the next day’s adventures.
A big part of the experience
The weather in Costa Rica was really quite spectacular, though. Traveling in August, we were met with temperatures in the low 80s (mid to high 20s °C) for the most part. It was cooler up in the mountains, but certainly more wet. It was hotter and more humid by the coast.
We didn’t work around the Costa Rica weather forecast much though! We just went for it and dealt with the afternoon showers as they came. It never rained for very long, and we’d usually end the late afternoon with a few last moments of sunshine.