Manuel Antonio National Park Christmas and New Year week — December 20, 2026 to January 4, 2027 — is the busiest stretch of the year in this park, and the only one where the date you can actually go is decided before you arrive. Sixteen days, fourteen of them open: the park closes every Tuesday, which this season means Tuesday December 22 and Tuesday December 29. Christmas Day and New Year’s Day both fall on a Friday, so both are open. This page is the day-by-day calendar for that window, with the SINAC ticket date for each day, the four tour prices, and the departure time that still works when
Book Christmas or New Year week — four prices, one tap.
Every price is per person and includes your certified naturalist guide and spotting scope. Classic Group $30 · Premium shared $65 · Classic Private $69 · V.I.P. Private $100.
Classic Group — $30
Premium shared — $65
Classic Private — $69
V.I.P. Private — $100
SINAC opens each park ticket exactly two months before the visit date and never sells at the gate, so December 20, 2026 goes on sale October 20, 2026 and January 4, 2027 goes on sale November 4, 2026. The park is closed Tuesday December 22, 2026 and Tuesday December 29, 2026, and in the rest of the season it is also closed Dec 1, Dec 8, Dec 15, Jan 5, Jan 12, Jan 19 and Jan 26. Those dates cannot be booked at any price.
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Fourteen of the sixteen days are open; the two closed days are Tuesday December 22, 2026 and Tuesday December 29, 2026. Manuel Antonio runs Wednesday to Monday, 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and closes every Tuesday of the year — there is no holiday exception in either direction. The table below adds the second date that decides your trip: the day the SINAC ticket window opens for that visit, which is exactly two months earlier.
| Day | Date | Park status | SINAC ticket window opens | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday | December 20, 2026 | Open | October 20, 2026 | |
| Monday | December 21, 2026 | Open | October 21, 2026 | |
| Tuesday | December 22, 2026 | CLOSED | — | Park closed — every Tuesday, all year |
| Wednesday | December 23, 2026 | Open | October 23, 2026 | |
| Thursday | December 24, 2026 | Open | October 24, 2026 | Christmas Eve |
| Friday | December 25, 2026 | Open | October 25, 2026 | Christmas Day — not a Tuesday, park open |
| Saturday | December 26, 2026 | Open | October 26, 2026 | |
| Sunday | December 27, 2026 | Open | October 27, 2026 | |
| Monday | December 28, 2026 | Open | October 28, 2026 | Busiest day of the season in our own booking log |
| Tuesday | December 29, 2026 | CLOSED | — | Park closed — every Tuesday, all year |
| Wednesday | December 30, 2026 | Open | October 30, 2026 | |
| Thursday | December 31, 2026 | Open | October 31, 2026 | New Year’s Eve |
| Friday | January 1, 2027 | Open | November 1, 2026 | New Year’s Day — not a Tuesday, park open |
| Saturday | January 2, 2027 | Open | November 2, 2026 | |
| Sunday | January 3, 2027 | Open | November 3, 2026 | |
| Monday | January 4, 2027 | Open | November 4, 2026 |
Yes, both. December 25, 2026 is a Friday and January 1, 2027 is a Friday, and neither is a Tuesday, so the regular Wednesday-to-Monday schedule is the one that applies. This is the single question we get most in December, and the answer surprises people who assume a national park closes for a public holiday. Manuel Antonio does not. What changes on those two days is not the schedule, it is the crowd: December 25 and January 1 are the two days when the largest number of families in Quepos and Manuel Antonio are free at the same time. Older travel guides that say the park closes on Mondays are out of date — the only closed day is Tuesday.
Two rules collide in the last week of December: SINAC only sells a park ticket within two months of the visit date, and the park only admits 2,500 visitors per day. Neither is a tour operator policy. Together they mean the Christmas week calendar opens around October 25, 2026 and the highest-demand days empty out fast, because everyone who has been planning since August is waiting for the same morning.
The two-month rule works backwards from your date, same day of the month: December 20 opens October 20, December 25 opens October 25, December 28 opens October 28, January 1 opens November 1, January 4 opens November 4. You cannot buy a day earlier. “Booking early” for the national park does not mean months ahead — it means being ready on the first day your date becomes available. Tickets are sold only through SINAC’s online service, never at the gate, and every ticket carries the passport number of the person using it.
The 2,500-person daily cap is what turns a busy week into a sold-out one, and the two closed Tuesdays make it worse: the demand that would have spread over December 22 and December 29 lands on December 23 and December 30 instead. In practice the block between Christmas and the first days of January is the first to go every season. The guide is the part you can secure today, months before the ticket window even opens — and on the Premium and V.I.P. tiers we handle the ticket purchase on the morning the window opens, so you are not setting an alarm for a government website.
Reserve your guide before the ticket window opens or
For the nine Tuesdays the park is closed this season, the evening is the answer: the Manuel Antonio night tour runs on every one of them, outside the park and outside the SINAC window entirely.
Start at 7:00 a.m., at the gate, on the first entry of the day — in the last two weeks of December that is not a preference, it is the difference between a walk and a queue. The park opens at 7:00 a.m. and the daily cap fills from the moment it does. Three things line up in that first window: the entrance line is short, the trails are still quiet enough that a guide can stop and set up a scope without a crowd forming behind you, and the wildlife is at its most active before the heat of the day. Sloths, monkeys and birds are more likely to be moving between 7:00 and 10:00 than at noon — nothing in a national park is guaranteed, but the odds are simply better early.
By 10:00 a.m. in holiday week the main loop is busy, the parking on the road down is full, and the afternoon brings both the heat and, in December, the chance of a shower. A 7:00 a.m. start also means you are out by late morning with the rest of the day free for the beach. If your group cannot make 7:00 a.m., the Classic Private and the V.I.P. Private let you set a later departure time — that flexibility is a large part of what those two tiers buy you in a week this crowded.
Four prices, the same in December as in any other month — there is no high season surcharge and there will not be one. What changes between tiers is whether the $18.08 park entrance and the transport are included, and whether the group is shared.
| Option | Price per person | Park entrance | Group |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classic Group | $30 | Not included — you buy it ($18.08 adult / $5.65 child 2–12) | Small shared group |
| Premium | $65 | Included | Small shared group |
| Classic Private | $69 | Not included — you buy it | Your party only |
| V.I.P. Private | $100 | Included | Your party only |
The $69 Classic Private sitting above the $65 Premium is deliberate: one sells exclusivity, the other sells convenience. In Christmas week the calculation shifts, because the Classic Group is the tier that sells out first — it is the cheapest way into the park with an ICT-certified guide, a Swarovski spotting scope and free 4K photos and video, and a family of four saves $140 over the Premium by buying their own entrances. Two adults on the Classic Group on December 26 should budget $30 + $18.08 each, plus their own transport and parking.
Expect a two-and-a-half to three-hour walk on the main loop, at the pace of the slowest person in your group, with the guide stopping wherever the scope finds something. The main trail is wide and mostly flat, which is why it works for a group that spans a five-year-old and a grandparent — the Punta Catedral loop is the steeper option and is decided on the day. In the holiday week the guides read the trail ahead and route around the clusters: a group of forty standing under one sloth is the thing a private tier most reliably avoids.
We do not promise you will see a specific animal, and any operator who does is selling you something they do not control. What we can say is what the season favours: late December is the start of the dry months on this coast, the canopy is active early, and three-toed sloths, white-faced capuchins and howler monkeys are the sightings our guides log most often on the main loop. The spotting scope is what turns a distant shape into a photograph, and the 4K photos and video come to you afterwards at no extra cost on every tier.
Tell us your dates and group size or
The national park is closed both days, so plan them as your non-park days — and book them, because everyone else in town is doing the same thing. Our night tour and the Damas Island mangrove tour both run on Tuesdays, and the two closed Tuesdays inside this window are exactly when they fill. The beaches outside the park boundary, the town of Quepos and the road viewpoints stay open. What does not work is turning up at the park gate on a Tuesday expecting an exception for the holiday season: there is none, and there never has been.
The practical version of this, if you are building a sixteen-day itinerary: put the park on a Wednesday-to-Monday date, put the boat or the night tour on the Tuesday, and buy the park ticket the day its two-month window opens. That order is what keeps the trip from collapsing into whatever is left.
Water, closed walking shoes, insect repellent, sunscreen and a light rain jacket — and your passport, because the park ticket is issued against a passport number and the rangers check it at the entrance. Leave food and plastic bags in the car: food is not allowed inside and the capuchins are very good at taking bags from people who think they are not. A hat and a refillable bottle matter more in the last week of December than in most months, because the dry season heat arrives with the crowds.
Message us with your date and group size, and we confirm the guide the same day — then buy the park entrance yourself the morning its window opens, or let us buy it for you on the Premium and V.I.P. tiers. That is the whole process. The guide is the scarce thing you can secure now; the ticket is the scarce thing you can only secure two months out. Doing them in that order is the entire difference between having a date and hoping for one.
Book your Christmas or New Year tour now or
Full availability, the deposit terms and the December 15 to January 15 policy are on the December and January booking page. If you are still deciding which day to go, the is the park open today page lists every closed Tuesday for the season, and the Manuel Antonio National Park guided tour page covers the trails, the wildlife and the full itinerary.
Book the guide now and the park ticket exactly two months before your date. Those are two separate purchases with two different clocks. Our guide slots for December 24 to January 2 are the first to fill every year, and they are the part you can lock in today. The SINAC park entrance cannot be bought earlier than two months out: for December 25, 2026 the window opens around October 25, 2026; for January 1, 2027 it opens around November 1, 2026. The mistake we see most is travelers who book flights in August, try to buy a December 28 ticket in September, and find the calendar closed.
Yes. December 25, 2026 and December 31, 2026 are both open park days, and we run tours on both. Neither falls on a Tuesday this season: December 25 is a Friday and December 31 is a Thursday. The park keeps its regular Wednesday-to-Monday schedule, 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., through the holidays. January 1, 2027 is also a Friday and also open. The only two closed days inside the December 20 to January 4 window are Tuesday December 22 and Tuesday December 29.
The tour runs and you still go in: the park keeps its normal hours through tropical showers. Late December is the start of the dry season on this coast and rain, when it comes, tends to arrive in the afternoon rather than lasting all day, which is one more reason to start early. Wildlife activity does not stop in light rain. Individual trails can be closed for safety during a real storm, and that call is made at the park on the day, by the rangers, not by us. We do not cancel for rain, so bring a light rain jacket rather than an umbrella.
$18.08 for a non-resident adult and $5.65 for a child aged 2 to 12, checked against SINAC’s official park page on September 25, 2026. Children under 2 enter free. The entrance is included on selected tiers — on the Premium at $65 and the V.I.P. Private at $100 — and is bought separately for the Classic Group at $30 and the Classic Private at $69. It is sold only online through SINAC, never at the gate, and every ticket needs the passport number of the person using it.
Yes, and the holiday week is the one where families make up most of our bookings. The main loop is a wide, mostly flat trail, and the walk moves at the pace of the slowest person in the group, so small children and grandparents both manage it. Children aged 2 to 12 pay the reduced park fee of $5.65 and under 2 enter free. If you are traveling with a stroller, tell us in advance: the main trail takes one, the Punta Catedral loop does not.
The Classic Group at $30 per person is a small shared group with an ICT-certified guide, a Swarovski spotting scope and free 4K photos and video. If your family wants the group to be only your family, the Classic Private is $69 per person and the V.I.P. Private is $100 per person — those are never shared with strangers and the departure time is yours to choose. In the last week of December the shared groups are the first to sell out, because they are the cheapest way in with a guide.
Yes. US dollars are accepted everywhere in Manuel Antonio and all our prices are quoted in dollars: $30, $65, $69 and $100 per person. Colones are accepted too, at the day’s rate. The SINAC park entrance is a separate payment made online in the government system with an international card, not in cash at the gate. We confirm every booking with a name and a receipt attached, so you know what you paid for before you arrive.
The park caps entry at 2,500 visitors per day, and in the last two weeks of December that cap is reached. If your date is already sold out in the SINAC system, message us before you buy anything else: we know each morning which dates still have entries left, and the two closed Tuesdays push demand onto the days around them. If your only free day turns out to be Tuesday December 22 or Tuesday December 29, the national park is not an option that day, but our night tour and the Damas Island mangrove tour both run on Tuesdays.