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Manuel Antonio National Park in December is open 26 of the 31 days of December 2026, closed on five Tuesdays, and it is the month the dry season starts to win: 503.1 mm of rain and 8.3 hours of sun a day, against 935.0 mm in November. If you are choosing a date, this page has the calendar, the SINAC ticket window, the four prices we publish and what you can reasonably expect to see.
Send us your date on WhatsApp at +506 8514 1361, or book a December 2026 tour here. Every Manuel Antonio National Park tour booking confirms the same day. Not sure how far in advance to book a Manuel Antonio tour for December? Hold the guide today and buy the SINAC ticket the day your two-month window opens.
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Reserve your December 2026 date now — four prices, one WhatsApp message.
Classic Group $30 · Premium $65 · Classic Private $69 · V.I.P. Private $100, all per person. Park closed Tuesdays: Dec 1, 8, 15, 22, 29. SINAC tickets go on sale exactly two months before your date — your guide is a separate booking, hold it today.
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Is Manuel Antonio National Park open in December 2026?
Yes, on 26 of the 31 days. The park is closed every Tuesday, which in December 2026 means December 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29. Every other day it opens from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with last entry at 2:00 p.m. December 25 falls on a Friday in 2026, so Christmas Day is a normal operating day — the closure rule is the Tuesday rule, nothing else. Source: SINAC, the Costa Rican park service that runs the park. The running version of this calendar lives on our open-today page.
Manuel Antonio National Park on December 25, 2026: hours and tickets
Manuel Antonio National Park is open on December 25, 2026. Christmas Day falls on a Friday this year, and the park’s only closure rule is the Tuesday rule — there is no separate Christmas closure. Hours on December 25 are the same as any other open day: 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with last entry at 2:00 p.m. The SINAC ticket window for December 25, 2026 opens exactly two months earlier, on October 25, 2026, and tickets are sold only online at serviciosenlinea.sinac.go.cr, never at the gate and never before that date. Book the guide today; the park ticket can only be bought from October 25 onward.
What is the weather like in Manuel Antonio National Park in December?
December averages 503.1 mm of rain across 14.1 rainy days, with 8.3 hours of sun a day, a daytime high of 27.4 °C / 81.3 °F and a night low of 22.8 °C. That is roughly half of November’s 935.0 mm, and it is the reason December is the month people fly in for. It is still not a dry month in the European sense: fourteen days out of thirty-one will see rain, usually as an afternoon burst rather than an all-day grey. Source: weather-and-climate.com, the same dataset behind our month-by-month weather table.
Looking for one specific date? Our Manuel Antonio tour dates for December 2026 and January 2027 page lists all 62 days one row at a time, each marked open or closed with the ticket window for that date.
One thing the park ticket does not cover: December is the start of the northern humpback season, and whales cannot be watched from inside the park. That happens on the water out of Marina Pez Vela — the Manuel Antonio whale watching tour has the month-by-month season table, the four real prices, and the seasickness and children questions answered.
When do December 2026 park tickets go on sale?
Exactly two months before your visit date — not a day earlier, and never at the gate. For December 1, 2026 the window opens on October 1, 2026; for December 31, it opens on October 31. Tickets are sold only by SINAC at serviciosenlinea.sinac.go.cr. This rolling window is what catches people out: you cannot buy the whole trip in one sitting in August. What you can lock in today is the guide, who is the scarcer resource in high season.
How much does a December visit cost?
Park entrance is $18.08 for adults and $5.65 for children 2–12, paid to SINAC. On top of that we publish four tour options:
- Classic Group — $30 per person. ICT-licensed guide, Swarovski spotting scope, your photos and video included. Park ticket not included.
- Premium — $65 per person. The all-in option: park ticket and transport included.
- Classic Private — $69 per person. Your own guide and your own group, nobody else on the walk.
- V.I.P. Private — $100 per person. Flexible departure time, a guide who walks at your pace, and a scope that is never shared with strangers.
The $69 Classic Private sitting above the $65 Premium is deliberate: one sells exclusivity, the other sells convenience. There is no high-season surcharge — the price is the same as in any other month. Full detail on the December booking page.
What wildlife can I expect to see in December?
The animals that make Manuel Antonio famous live there year-round — three-toed and two-toed sloths, white-faced capuchins, howler monkeys, Central American squirrel monkeys, agoutis, iguanas and more than a hundred bird species. What December changes is not the cast, it is the visibility: 8.3 hours of sun against November’s 5.8 means longer stretches of usable light and drier trails, and a scope pointed at a sloth in sunlight shows you something a scope in rain does not. We will never promise you a specific animal. What we will say is that a guide with a Swarovski scope who walks these trails daily finds things an unguided visitor walks straight past.
For the fauna side of a December visit, see what wildlife you see in December and January.
What time should I enter the park in December?
As close to the 7:00 a.m. opening as you can manage. Two reasons, both December-specific: the animals are most active in the first two hours, and December is the start of the busiest stretch of the Manuel Antonio year, so the 7:00 a.m. entry is the one where the trails are still quiet. With last entry at 2:00 p.m. and closing at 4:00 p.m., a late-morning arrival gives you the hottest and emptiest hours.
Do I actually need a guide in December?
You do not legally need one, and whether it is worth $30 is the real question. The honest answer is that the difference is the scope and the eyes. A sloth thirty metres up in a cecropia reads as a lump of moss to an untrained eye; through a Swarovski scope it reads as a sloth with a baby on its chest. In the month when the park is at its fullest, a guide also decides which trail to take and when, which is worth something on its own.
How far ahead should I book a December 2026 tour?
Book the guide now and the ticket when your two-month window opens. That order matters. Guides book out before tickets do in December: the park sells a fixed daily quota that resets every day, while there is a finite number of certified guides in Manuel Antonio and they are the first thing to run out. Booking in the wrong order is the most common way people lose the date their whole trip was built around.
What if my date lands on a closed Tuesday?
Move to the Wednesday or the Monday. Those are the two adjacent days that always work, and in December 2026 there is no week where both are unavailable. If you have already booked a tour with us for a Tuesday, message us and we will move it at no cost — the closed-Tuesday rule is ours to know, not yours.
Can I cancel or reschedule a December tour?
Yes. Cancel 72 hours or more before the tour and you get a full refund. Inside 72 hours, message us on WhatsApp and we will do what we can; in practice a reschedule is almost always easier than a cancellation, and in December it is usually a matter of moving you to a different departure on the same day.
¿Habla español? Esta guía existe en español
Sí: el tour guiado al Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio en español tiene la misma información en su idioma — los cuatro precios reales ($30 grupo pequeño, $65 Premium compartido, $69 privado clásico, $100 VIP privado), la ventana de dos meses del SINAC para comprar la entrada, y los nueve martes que el parque cierra en diciembre 2026 y enero 2027 con la fecha exacta de cada uno.
How do I book a December 2026 tour?
Send us the date and the number of people on WhatsApp at +506 8514 1361 and we confirm the same day, or use the December booking page. We will also tell you the exact SINAC ticket window for your date, so you can buy the entrance the morning it opens.
Planning January instead? See our Manuel Antonio tour January 2027 page for that month’s calendar, weather and prices.
See the full list of Manuel Antonio National Park tours we run, and everything else about Manuel Antonio National Park in one guide. Our Manuel Antonio National Park tour is the flagship walk, the Manuel Antonio wildlife tour page breaks down what you actually see, the Manuel Antonio National Park boat tour covers the water route, and the Manuel Antonio night tour runs even on the park’s closed Tuesdays.
December evenings in Manuel Antonio cool down fast once the sun sets, which is exactly when the park’s nocturnal animals become active. The Manuel Antonio night tour runs year-round and is a good way to fill an evening slot during a December visit.