The Best Time to Visit Manuel Antonio National Park

For dry weather, come between mid-December and April. For fewer people, come in the green season, from May to mid-December. Either way, the hour matters more than the month. Arrive at 7 am, when the park opens and the animals are most active, and pick any day but Tuesday, when the park is closed all year.

A guided walk is the simplest way to use those first hours. Steve Tours Costa Rica’s lasts two hours and ends with time on a beach inside the park. It’s from about $27 on the booking platform when we checked, rated 4.8 over 2,195 reviews.

Dry season or green season

On the Pacific side, the climate page of the ICT, Costa Rica’s tourism board, puts the dry season from December to March, with March the driest and hottest month and April a transition. The rains run from May to October, and November is another transition. The same board’s travel advice rounds this off into a dry season from mid-December to late April and a green season from May to mid-December.

Rain doesn’t cancel the animals. Nature Adventures by Guach says its walk runs rain or shine, and two Steve Tours guests in August 2026 wrote of “great fun even in the rain” and of sloths with a baby seen “despite the heavy rain”. For September and October, SINAC advises coming early and dressing for the weather. It can also close the park when the weather makes a visit risky, and it announces any closure on its own channels.

Month by month

The worst month

On the Pacific side it’s September or October, the wettest months. The rain falls mostly in the afternoon, though, and the park is at its quietest then. The Caribbean coast, meanwhile, is in one of its two drier spells.

If those are your only dates, go anyway and go early. You get the morning before the rain and fewer people on the trails.

Crowds and sold-out days

Manuel Antonio is Costa Rica’s most visited national park, with close to half a million visits a year. It’s busiest over the Christmas and New Year weeks, in Easter week (Semana Santa) and on dry-season weekends, and numbers start climbing from about 15 December. On those days, be at the gate by 7 to 7:30 am. In 2027, Easter week runs from Palm Sunday, 21 March, to Easter Sunday, 28 March.

The park admits at most 2,501 visitors a day, and on busy days that cap is reached. Tickets for the Christmas and New Year weeks sell out well in advance. Buy yours as soon as your dates are fixed; the tickets guide explains how SINAC sells them.

The best hour

The first hours after the 7 am opening are the best. Animals are most active early, and it’s cooler before about 10 am. Your ticket carries an entry time, so choose an early one and arrive within it. A late start also leaves little time for the swim, because the beaches are cleared from 3 pm and everyone is out by 4 pm.

If you can choose, take the earliest walk you can get.

Check dates for the guided walk

Plan around Tuesday

The park closes every Tuesday, all year. Public holidays that fall on other days are open days, unless SINAC closes the park for weather or another risk. For the season ahead, the closed Tuesdays fall on 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29 December 2026 and on 5, 12, 19 and 26 January 2027. Christmas Day and New Year’s Day are both Fridays this season, so the park is open on both, tickets permitting.

Keep the Tuesday for something outside the park: a boat trip, a rest, or a kayak through the Isla Damas mangroves north of Quepos, where trips are timed to the tide. For an evening plan, the night tour guide covers the walk in a private reserve near the park.

Getting there is in Manuel Antonio from San José, and the trails guide covers the routes and the rules. Every walk sold here is on the homepage.

Climate from the ICT’s Visit Costa Rica; hours, closures and wet-season advice from SINAC; crowd patterns from local guides; the daily cap from Costa Rican press reports. Checked October 2026.