If your Costa Rica trip lands between December 2026 and January 2027, you are arriving in the busiest weeks of the year in Manuel Antonio. This page is for travellers who have already decided to come and now need the practical answers: when park tickets are released, what December weather actually looks like, what a guided tour costs, and how far ahead to lock in a guide. Every figure below comes with its source. Where we could not verify something, we say so instead of filling the gap.
Two ways to get it sorted in a minute: message us on WhatsApp at +506 8514-1361 with your dates, or see the four tour options and prices on the Manuel Antonio National Park guided tour page.
Yes — December is the transition out of the green season and into Costa Rica’s driest stretch, which is exactly why it is the most booked month of the year here. The trade-off is simple: you get the best chance of dry mornings and the most competition for park tickets and guides at the same time. If you want the park with fewer people and no ticket anxiety, September and October are quieter. If you are travelling in December because that is when you have holidays, the rest of this page is about doing it well.
December in Quepos averages about 501 mm of rain across roughly 14 rainy days, with daytime highs near 27 °C (81 °F), night lows near 19 °C (66 °F), and about 249 hours of sunshine for the month (weather-and-climate.com, Quepos station). The pattern matters more than the total: rain here usually arrives in the afternoon or evening, so most December mornings are dry and bright. That is why our tours start early — you walk the trails in the good half of the day.
For context, the driest month at this station is March with 136 mm over 7 rainy days, and the sunniest is January with 9.0 hours of sun per day. December sits between the wet season and that dry peak, and it dries out noticeably as the month goes on. Bring a light rain layer and quick-dry shoes and you will be fine.
Yes, regularly. Park entry is capped with timed entry slots, and in high season (December to April) dates commonly sell out three to four weeks ahead, against one to two weeks in the green season. Tickets are sold only online through the official SINAC system — never at the gate — and the park is closed on Tuesdays. A “sold out” day on the official site is not automatically the end of your plan: message us with your date before you rearrange your whole itinerary, because we hold availability for our guests.
Entry tickets can only be purchased within a maximum of two months before your date — not any earlier (Manuel Antonio Park Online Services). That is the single most useful date to put in your calendar. For a 28 December visit, the window opens at the end of October. For 5 January, it opens in early November. Travellers who try to buy in August get nothing and assume the park is full; travellers who wait until mid-December for a Christmas-week date usually find it gone. Also beware of sites that look official but are marketing companies reselling entry — the official system is SINAC’s.
Treat those dates as gone by the end of November. New Year’s week is the single highest-demand window of the Manuel Antonio year, and it is the one where travellers most often lose the date they planned their whole trip around. If your trip includes 31 December to 3 January, contact us now and we will tell you honestly what is still open rather than take a booking we cannot honour.
The same as every other month — we do not add a high season surcharge. There are four options:
The $69 Classic Private costs more than the $65 Premium on purpose: one sells exclusivity, the other sells convenience. Pick the axis that matters to you. Prices and inclusions here are our published rates as of September 2026.
Park entrance is $18.30 for adults and $5.65 for children, set by SINAC, and it can change — always confirm it when you buy. It is not included in the $30 Classic Group or the $69 Classic Private; it is included in the $65 Premium and the $100 V.I.P. Private. Two travellers on the Classic Group in December should budget $30 + $18.30 each, plus their own transport and parking. If you would rather not deal with tickets at all in the busiest month of the year, the Premium exists precisely for that.
The park’s wildlife is resident year-round, so December is not a special or a poor month for sightings — it is the walking conditions that change. Sloths (two-toed and three-toed), white-faced capuchin, howler and the endangered Central American squirrel monkey, coatis, iguanas, and over 350 bird species including toucans and, at the right spots, scarlet macaws are all in play. We never promise a specific animal: wild animals are not on a schedule, and a guide who guarantees you a sloth is selling you something he cannot deliver. What a certified naturalist with a Swarovski scope changes is your odds and how much you actually see and understand.
On humpback whales, a frequent December question: we do not publish a season window we have not verified ourselves. Ask us with your dates and we will tell you what the boat operators are genuinely seeing that week.
Book the guide as soon as your dates are fixed, and buy the park ticket the day the two-month window opens. Those are two separate steps and travellers routinely confuse them. Guides are the scarcer resource in high season — there is a finite number of certified naturalists in Manuel Antonio and the good ones are committed weeks out. Reserving with us first costs you nothing in flexibility: cancellation is free up to 72 hours before the tour outside the 15 December to 15 January window.
Bookings for tours between 15 December and 15 January are not refundable at any time. Outside that window you get a full refund if you cancel 72 hours or more before the tour. The reason is concrete: in those weeks we buy park entrance tickets, boat spaces and ranger permits well in advance, and a seat released at the last minute cannot be resold. The one exception runs in your favour — if conditions on the water, on the mountain road or in the forest become genuinely unsafe, we reschedule or refund you in full, high season included. The full text is on our cancellation policy page.
Send us your travel dates, where you are staying and how many of you are coming, and we will tell you what is realistically available. WhatsApp +506 8514-1361 is the fastest way — it is a person, not a bot menu. Or compare the four options on the Manuel Antonio National Park guided tour page, read the 28-question park FAQ, or see what the forest holds on our Manuel Antonio wildlife guide and park information page.