When is the best time to visit Costa Rica in 2023

So here is the question of all questions: When is it best to visit Costa Rica, and you surely find tons of overlapping answers to it on the internet.

January to March in Costa Rica

Costa Rica is beautiful any time of year, but each season has its own appeal to different types of travelers. If you are looking for a busy scene with plenty of other students to meet up with, then January to March is a great time to visit. This is the Costa Rican “summer”, which means no rain, and sunny skies all day long! By March, the temperatures are really heating up at the beach, but in the mountains it is still refreshing.

The Central Valley of Costa Rica has the most perfect temperatures you can imagine!

There is also a wide age range of visitors in this season, from college students on winter or spring breaks to retirees escaping the colder Northern climates! It’s a great time to come to Intercultura’s City Spanish school in Heredia as a solo traveler, as you will undoubtedly meet friends in the Spanish classes, and find plenty of people to travel with on the weekends.

In April, it is still hot and sunny, but the high season is slowing down,…

So you’ll find prices going down, continuing to lower through May, which is when the rainy season officially starts, though depending on the area, you may get no rain at all still. In Guanacaste and the Northern Pacific Coast, it is still usually quite dry, whereas the Southern Pacific Coast will start having rains in early to mid-May.

If you are looking for a more peaceful travel experience, this is a great time to come.

Spanish classes tend to have fewer students per class (average 3 to 4), so you will get plenty of intensive Spanish practice and you’ll see your language skills rapidly improve.

June, July and August are a mid to high season, as many North Americans and Europeans on their summer break choose this time to come visit.

Weather is usually good, with some sporadic rains, but warm temperatures and sunny mornings. At  Intercultura’s beach school, it’s a great time to come as a family, as we have many families all studying, the adults taking our regular classes while their kids are in the children’s program. We also see a lot of adults in the 30-60 age range at this time, many of whom come on their own and enjoy meeting people from around the world to share travel experiences with. For the city campus right in the middle of the country, it is an ideal time for exploring other areas and nearby cities.

September and October is definitely rainy season, and a great time of year to go to Costa Rica!

Everything is green, the jungle sprouts up along every highway, and you’ll feel like you’re driving through a rainforest even if you’re just going from one beach to another! Our students love the small class sizes (2-3 on average), and having the beach almost to themselves is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. If you want to learn to surf, this is a great time to come, as there are low-season offers, and lots of space in the ocean to practice without bumping into too many other surfers. In the city, people stay busy enjoying the cultural scene, with art exhibits, indoor facilities like climbing walls, roller skating, concerts, or shopping at one of the nearby malls and experiencing the best of the city’s culinary scene.

And finally, November and December – our favorite months to visit Costa Rica

These are the all-around favorite months for anyone who has experienced Costa Rica at different times of the year. The rainy season is over, but everything is still green and lush everywhere you look. The rivers are full but calm, great for swimming in the mountain swimming holes or going waterfall-hopping. The ocean water is transparent many days, and the beach is still relatively calm before the Christmas rush.

The city is so much fun at this time of year.

With the Festival of Lights in San José and other cities like Nicoya, just 40 minutes from Sámara, decorations going up everywhere, and traditional towns in Heredia near our city campus with their nativity scenes and lights,  where locals and tourists alike go to people watch and enjoy the festive atmosphere. Intercultura’s Spanish classes are still quite small this time of year, so also a good time for plenty of individual attention and interaction with staff, locals and other students.

So, in answer to the question, When to visit Costa Rica? …  Anytime!

Bienvenidos, and we look forward to welcoming you to Intercultura whenever is right for you.

Contact us here if you have more questions,