What is the best time of year to visit Costa Rica?

Question

My sister and I would like to visit Costa Rica sometime in 2008. Does anybody know what the best month is to visit in terms of avoiding a lot of rain? I know it's tropical and varied, but I heard some parts of the year are best avoided. What are those times to avoid? Thanks!

Answer 1

For most of Costa Rica, I would go with the early dry  season starting in mid- December or so, its still very green but it won't rain on you and it'll be sunny.  Late dry season (up to March/April) ain't bad either but in NW Costa Rica (Guanacaste, Nicoya) many trees have lost their leaves and its not as lush.   May to Sept. is wet season but not too bad, it'll rain once a day for maybe 2-3 hours but will be nice the rest of the day. In NW CR this is quite nice, the rain is short and just enough to cut the heat. The late wet season is very very wet and I would avoid it.

The Caribbean coast has a different climate, my impression is that its pretty rainy there year-round.

Answer 2

we  went in sept had very little rain it warm but always had a

breeze

Answer 3

I went to the Caribbean coast in March of 2005.  All of the weather reports told us it was raining, raining, raining.  When we were finally able to speak to the person at our hotel, he told us they'd been in a drought for months.  The whole time we were there (7 days) it rained once at night.  It is hard to get good weather info on line, your best bet is to communicate with those who are actually there.

Answer 4

May to September is a nice time to visit Costa Rica. It is the rainy season, but it doesn't rain the whole day, just a few hours usually during the afternoon.