Low season in Costa Rica, also known as “Rainy Season”, coincides more or less with European Summer and an increase in the intensity and consistency of swells coming from the Pacific Ocean.

Despite not being one of the cheapest established tropical/surf destinations - as the likes of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Mexico - it becomes significantly more accessible during the months from May to October. During this season rain starts falling in the south of the country, as well as in the mountainous areas in centre and northeast. They continuously increase in frequency peaking in September and October.

The “Rainy Season” brings with it bigger and more consistent swells which begets the question, obviously, is it worth spending the summer here to surf while Europe is waveless?

The answer is clearly yes and not only for surfing - I’ll explain you why.

Continue reading or watch the video version in youtube:

#1 It doesn’t rain the same everywhere

The first reason is that even in the peak of rainy season, September, there’s several regions in Costa Rica that remain very dry compared to others. Focusing on those that have surf we have the northwest Guanacaste peninsula, that goes from Mal Pais/St. Teresa up to Tamarindo and beyond, going through Nosara and other places - the further north you go the less rain you’ll see.

I’ll leave here the link for costa-rica-guide.com because they have an excellent map with the rain patterns/amount in all regions by months. It’s possible to see that outside September and October all of the Pacific coast is quite ok. In those two months specifically you can go to Guanacaste and avoid any rougher rainy patch.

Nonetheless, even though “Rainy Season” is the name given to it, here in Costa Rica it is less intense than those of the same name in Southeast Asia, or Indian Ocean monsoons (if we exclude the mountainous areas).

#2 Rain and Wind Patterns

The second reason is the rain patterns. It’s rare to have continuous in-interrupt rainy days in the regions we’re interested in, not even full days of rain. Rain will fall more commonly mid-afternoon and night, while mornings many times remain clear. This pattern is important because favourable wind direction for surf occurs during mornings too. If these two things didn’t match the surf would be of much less quality - for instance if it rained in the morning and the afternoons were clear. In total it would be the same rain, you would have the same amount of hours without rain, but in those hours the wind would not be the best for surfing.

Luckily, in this case, it matches - rains occur almost always outside the window of favourable winds which means surfing during the mornings (specially dawn patrol) is usually great.

#3 Prices

The third point is prices. Obviously this is something important as in most cases it goes down to less than half of those of high season. The only exceptions are transportation and food. Lodging, massages, vehicle rental, activities, everything gets cheaper due to the lower number of tourists compared to December and January, which is peak vacation time around here. Prices continue to be higher than other well-known spots around the world but they become much closer in value.

Prices searched today for the same place in different dates (2024-08-19)

#4 Warm Temperatures

In fourth place I would say the temperatures. The average temperatures don’t swing too much in Costa Rica, they go from 22º to 28ºC during the whole year which means it will still feel like a tropical summer - there’s a slight drop that is noticeable as we get closer to September but I personally welcomed it as everything became more pleasant - I noticed the drop because I started using less and less AC. Nonetheless, as I mentioned, it still feels like summer, it’s not like you’re going out of Europe to face cold weather during August, nor anything close. Due to humidity you’ll sweat, and a lot, during the days.

#5 Green Season

The fifth reason is that everything gets greener. Some call this season the “Green Season” instead of “Rainy Season” and it makes sense. Everything blooms as soon as the first rains start falling, the parks start coming alive, the hiking trails become more pleasant to do, the landscapes turn lush green and some animal wildlife gets busier during this time of the year - as is the case with whales, their numbers peak between August and October. This is a good reason to visit Manuel António, walk the park there or the public hikes, or even go down to Uvita and schedule a whale watching trip. Both those places have surf and generally less tourists.

#6 SURF!

I left my #1 reason as the last one. The quality of surf.

All these atmospheric systems that create these storms and bring these rains that cross Central America bring as well stronger, more consistent, swells to the coasts washed by the Pacific ocean. On the other hand the wind patterns, even in those regions with a bit more rain, go hand in hand with the daily rain schedule adding up to clean dawn-patrol surf conditions.

If I was to visit Costa Rica during this season again and my intention was to extend the trip to see the most I could I would do:

25 July up to 10 August: Manuel António, Dominical, Uvita, Pavones

10 August up to 20 August: Playa Hermosa (Puntarenas) and Jacó

20 August up to 30 August: Mal País, Santa Teresa, Nosara

September/October: Tamarindo and northwest coast of Guanacaste

Obviously it’s important to understand that some places will, most of the times, have better surf than others and you might want to go there even if coming at different dates than the ones I mentioned.

For instance if you’re staying for 2 weeks in the middle of August it might make more sense to do 2 or 3 days in Jacó/Playa Hermosa as soon as you arrive and then follow down to Pavones for the remaining days, coming back to Jacó again 1 or 2 days before leaving so that you’re closer to the airport on the day you need to catch your flight. Pavones is down there almost by the border with Panama and it’s several hours from the airport - if something happens in the road - blocked, accident, landslide, whatever - you don’t want to lose your flight, it can also happen going from Jacó but there you’re 2h from San José, instead of 7h, and the road is arguably more taken care of.

Or if your interest is more about yoga retreats and surfing, maybe then it’s better to go directly to Guanacaste, for instance a few days in St. Teresa followed up by the remaining days in Nosara, both areas more known for that kind of thing.

In conclusion I would say that besides parks in higher altitudes, heavier rain areas and thermal baths (because they’re usually in areas with more rain) anything else is fair game and you can avoid most of the cumbersome rainy patches with a bit of planning.

Costa Rica during Rainy Season? 6 Reasons you should