If you have a time of year in mind you can use the dropdown menu to the right to choose when you'll visit and access a summary of weather and rainfall, prices, reservations and availability, bank and school holidays, daylight hours, moon phases and rise and set, tides, turtle nesting and other seasonal information.

The Best Time to Visit Costa Rica

It mostly depends on what you'd like to see and when you have time to go. We've visited at every time of year and while there are advantages to the high dry season, we honestly prefer the low rainy season (no we don't have gills). There are a few places where it would be ill advised to visit at a few specific times because of the weather and some relatively undiscovered (uncrowded) times with gorgeous weather; they are noted in the summary of each month linked in the dropdown menu.

Don't forget while browsing all the weather and climate data that one of the reasons you're visiting Costa Rica is because it's covered in amazing rain forests, and surprise, surprise - it rains in the rainforest. If you're only looking for sunny days on the playa then Costa Rica has a zone and season that guarantees that too - January, February and March are bone dry in Guanacaste (the northwest beach area).

Getting the Best Airfare

Any time you travel your best bet for getting a good deal on airfare is to plan ahead and set an alert or notification on a search site like kayak.com for both SJO (San José International) and LIR (Liberia International)

What is a Good Deal?

The most important thing to know when searching for a good deal is "what's a good deal?" We've been purchasing flights to Costa Rica for twenty years and watching fares carefully for at least ten. One of the most amazing things is how cheap it still is to fly to Costa Rica from the U.S. (and to a lesser extent Canada). While the cost of flights to Europe has approximately tripled, the costs for Costa Rica have barely risen in the past twenty years. This is probably because the popularity of Costa Rica has increased immensly and more airlines are competing with more flights.

To get an idea of the best fares, first find your city below, then read the approximate fares (2-6 month advance purchase, round trip, including all taxes and fees). If a city appears in two lists it's because it varies a lot.

Average Cities - Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Jacksonville, L.A., New York, Newark, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Francisco
Most flights from these departure cities require one stop and the total fare tends to depend on the fares to the domestic stopover city.

Average High Season - $650
Average Low Season - $550
Good Deal - $450 or less
Great Deal - $375 or less

Expensive Cities - L.A., San Diego, Phoenix, Portland, Seattle

Average High Season - $750-850
Average Low Season - $700-800
Good Deal - $600 or less
Great Deal - $500 or less

Cheap Cities - Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Miami, New York, Newark
These cities all have direct flights to either SJO (San José International) or LIR (Liberia International) or both which generally means prices are lower.

Average High Season - $550
Average Low Season - $500
Good Deal - $400 or less
Great Deal - $350 or less

Canada
Fares vary wildly from Canada but generally it's fairly expensive. Some Canadians have told us they do better avoiding U.S. stopovers (TACA, AeroMexico). Others have told us the opposite.

Average High Season - $750-1150
Average Low Season - $700-800
Good Deal - $700 or less
Great Deal - $600 or less

Remember these are average prices. That means that for everyone who saves a hundred bucks someone else is paying a hundred bucks more than the price displayed. If you start looking early, your dates are flexible and you can travel mid week you'll have a better chance of getting or beating the average.