What's on in Tamarindo, Costa Rica through the year

Peak crowds — Dry season, Christmas and New Year

Nothing new starts in January.

Still on: Leatherback nesting at Las Baulas (20 Oct – 15 Feb), Dry season (10 Dec – 30 Apr (usually)), Christmas and New Year (18 Dec – 5 Jan)

Busy — Dry season

Nothing new starts in February.

Still on: Leatherback nesting at Las Baulas (20 Oct – 15 Feb), Dry season (10 Dec – 30 Apr (usually))

Peak crowds — Semana Santa, Dry season

• Holiday

  Semana Santa

  29 Mar – 5 AprEaster & Holy WeekCrowdedBook early

  Costa Rican families take the whole week at the coast and Tamarindo is one of the places they take it. Thursday and Friday are national holidays, much of the town shuts on them, and the road in from Liberia crawls. Source ↗

Still on: Dry season (10 Dec – 30 Apr (usually))

Peak crowds — Semana Santa, Dry season

Nothing new starts in April.

Still on: Semana Santa (29 Mar – 5 Apr), Dry season (10 Dec – 30 Apr (usually))

Shoulder season — an ordinary month

• Season

  Southern swell season

  1 May – 31 Oct · usuallySurf season

  Southern-hemisphere swells run from May to October and give the beach its biggest and least crowded weeks. The clean offshore mornings belong to the dry months at the other end of the year instead.

Quiet — school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it, one of its worst months for weather

Nothing new starts in June.

Still on: Southern swell season (1 May – 31 Oct (usually))

Busy — Guanacaste Day, school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it

• Holiday

  Guanacaste Day

  20–27 JulNational holidayCrowded

  The 25th marks Guanacaste choosing Costa Rica over Nicaragua in 1824, and the province takes it more seriously than the capital does. The horse parades, marimba and bull rings are in the inland towns, not on the beach. Source ↗

Still on: Southern swell season (1 May – 31 Oct (usually))

Shoulder season — school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in August.

Still on: Southern swell season (1 May – 31 Oct (usually))

Quiet — school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it, one of its worst months for weather

Nothing new starts in September.

Still on: Southern swell season (1 May – 31 Oct (usually))

Quiet — one of its worst months for weather

• Nature

  Leatherback nesting at Las Baulas

  20 Oct – 15 FebTurtle nestingClosures

  The park's season opens on 20 October and closes in mid-February. Playa Grande, across the estuary, shuts at five once it starts: after dark you go with a licensed guide, fifteen at a time, one red-filtered torch between you and no cameras. Source ↗

Still on: Southern swell season (1 May – 31 Oct (usually))

Shoulder season — an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in November.

Still on: Leatherback nesting at Las Baulas (20 Oct – 15 Feb)

Peak crowds — Dry season, Christmas and New Year

• Season

  Dry season

  10 Dec – 30 Apr · usuallyCrowdedBook early

  Guanacaste's dry half of the year, and Tamarindo's busiest. The hills go brown, the dirt roads behind the beach turn to dust, and everything from a surf lesson to a table at eight wants booking a day or two out.

• Holiday

  Christmas and New Year

  18 Dec – 5 JanChristmas & New YearCrowdedBook early

  The dearest and fullest fortnight of the year, with San José emptying towards Guanacaste and the beach bars running to dawn on the 31st. Rooms, cars and the Liberia flights are gone by October. Source ↗

Still on: Leatherback nesting at Las Baulas (20 Oct – 15 Feb)