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Costa Rica · Central America · northern hemisphere
Guanacaste & Tamarindo is at its best for swimming in December to March. Good but not prime in April, July and August. Crowds peak in January and bottom out in September.
| J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swimming | 91 | 90 | 89 | 77 | 35 | 35 | 68 | 57 | 15 | 15 | 49 | 91 |
| Wildlife | 90 | 67 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 42 | 67 | 90 |
| Crowds |
Swipe the table sideways for the rest of the year.
The dry season runs from December to March, when only 4% of the year’s rain falls. A short dry spell, the veranillo, returns in July and August between the two rainy periods
September and October for a beach trip — the wettest months of the year on this coast.
December to April, the dry season, busiest in January; Holy Week also draws big crowds
January to March is breezy: the trade winds are strongest in the afternoons, which can make the sea choppy.
Tamarindo sits next to Las Baulas National Park, where the leatherbacks nest on Playa Grande. Book turtle tours ahead; group sizes are capped.
Rains from May; September and October are the wettest months, with a drier spell in July and August.Jun · Sep · Oct · Nov
Kept out of the score on purpose. Averaging a rare catastrophe into a monthly number would tell you something false; the warning is the honest form.
0 is this destination’s own quietest month and 100 its busiest. The scale never compares one destination to another. Source: Wikipedia — Tamarindo, Costa Rica
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Most places have one or two months that are genuinely better — and a booking moment that comes a lot earlier than the trip. I’ll write when one of those is coming up. No schedule, no filler.
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