Het weer in Tamarindo, Costa Rica in december

The rains usually finish in November, so December catches Guanacaste in its best state - dry, but with the foliage still green before the long brown months set in. Our row is a shade wetter than the regulars' 'very little to no rain', at 64.3mm across 10.6 precipitation days, which is the turn rather than the dry season proper. December to March is also when North Americans arrive to escape their winter, so the town fills. For surfers the draw is consistency: Playa Guiones is among the most reliable breaks in the country and a typical season runs knee to head high from November to March, which is why the surf and yoga crowd is here now. The sea is 28.9C. The record: 30.5C reading as 36C, 24.5C nights, 10.3 hours of sun and AQI 24.

Tamarindo's forum consistently rates July as one of the better rainy-season months - genuinely the driest stretch of the wet season here, with sunny mornings, clouding over by early afternoon, and a shower or thunderstorm that clears out again rather than lingering. Locals reportedly call this the 'little summer of San Juan,' a real break within the rainy season that feels more like a dry-season week. Daytime temperatures stay in the high 80s F, and forum regulars were clear this counts as a genuinely good month to visit, not a compromise pick.

Forum posters describe January as dry and beautiful, squarely inside Guanacaste's dry season - daytime highs commonly in the low 30sC with bright sun essentially every day, evenings cooling to a comfortable high-20sC. The landscape stays green early in the dry season, though posters note the strong 'December winds' (part of the broader Papagayo/Guanacaste wind pattern) can already be drying things out fast. Beaches generally aren't too windy through most of January, though the very start of the month - the wet-to-dry season transition - can see a stronger, gustier stretch. Overall, posters consistently rate January among the most reliable months here for classic sunny beach weather.