Every route runs in both seasons: once in the dry months, once in the rains. Same route, same lodges, same price — and a different country each time.
Costa Rica's Pacific year has two halves. From December to April the country dries out — the tourism board draws the line at mid-December and late April — and the rains return in May and stay to November, with July and August bringing the veranillo, a drier spell inside the wet that is strongest on the Nicoya and the north and faint on the southern Pacific, and September and October the wettest weeks. The Caribbean coast keeps its own calendar.
We call them what they are: the dry season and the rainy season. The tourism board markets the rains as the green season; the months are the same. Each route is designed once and run in both — the itinerary, the lodges and the price do not change. The weather, the rivers, the light, the wildlife and the company do, enough that we write each edition its own page.
Two of our dry-season editions begin in early December, when the rains are shutting down rather than gone: the mountain still green from seven months of water, the nights only beginning to turn cold. The gravel edition waits for late January, when the Nicoya has dried out. By February the ridges are at their driest and clearest.
The four regions our routes cross, and how each half of the year treats them.
What each season gives each way of moving through the country.
Dry seasonCold, clear air on the Nueve Cumbres, with the longest views of the year by February; the Osa drying in December and at its brightest by February.
Rainy seasonThe mountain is run in the mornings and the rain comes in the afternoon; the rivers are full; the Osa at full volume, in the southern humpbacks' season.
Dry seasonDry gravel and a week of dry sky — with wind, dust and dry fords as the honest cost.
Rainy seasonA green coast, live river crossings on the Río Frío line, the rhythm of the rains rather than the veranillo's lull, and Ostional's big-arribada season opening.
Dry seasonCool, clear mornings on the páramo, the valley drying by the week, and the northern humpbacks' season on the coast at the end.
Rainy seasonThe wild avocados still fruiting in the Dota, the quetzals' season; the Savegre high at the hanging bridge and the andarivel; walking in the mornings, at the lodge for the rain.
Each route, in each season, with every departure — the one on sale and the ones to come. The price is the same in both.
Dry season December – April 
Rainy season May – November 
Dry season December – April 
Rainy season May – November Dry season December – April 
Rainy season May – November 