Visiting in December 2026 or January 2027? The park is not open every day: it is closed on 9 Tuesdays in that window. See open dates and book your December tour or ask on WhatsApp if your date is open.
Rated 4.9 out of 5 from 259 travelers on TripAdvisor — the same guides who confirm today’s park hours on WhatsApp.
It is open today unless today is a Tuesday: SINAC, Costa Rica’s national park authority, opens Manuel Antonio from Wednesday to Monday, 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and keeps it closed every Tuesday. The box at the top of this page reads your clock, converts it to Costa Rica time (UTC-6, no daylight saving) and tells you whether the gate is open right now.
What it cannot know is a one-off closure — a storm, a trail repair, an official announcement. Those come from SINAC, not from any tour operator, so if the weather is extreme the morning of your visit, message us and we will tell you what we are seeing at the entrance.
No. Manuel Antonio is open six days a week and closed every Tuesday, all year, including high season. The closure is not a holiday rule and it is not lifted for Christmas or New Year: it gives the trails and the wildlife one day a week without visitors.
Open day confirmed? The next question is usually how to actually reserve it: Manuel Antonio National Park booking explains the two-month SINAC ticket window, the 18.30 dollar entrance fee and why the guide is a separate booking.
Some older travel guides still say the park is closed on Mondays. That schedule is out of date — SINAC’s current published schedule opens the park on Mondays. The only closed day is Tuesday. Checking whether rain will spoil the day? See Manuel Antonio National Park weather month by month.
Manuel Antonio National Park’s hours of operation are 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Wednesday through Monday. The park opens at 7:00 a.m. and SINAC’s official page gives 3:00 p.m. as the closing time. Several ticket and travel sites still list 4:00 p.m.; plan around the 3:00 p.m. figure that SINAC publishes, not the later one, so you are not caught on the beach when rangers start clearing the trails.
The practical hours are shorter than the official ones. The first two to three hours after opening are the cooler, quieter part of the day, and they are when our guides find the most wildlife on the trail. Arriving at noon leaves you three hours in the hottest part of the day. Coming from San José? Check how to get to Manuel Antonio National Park — address, distance and parking — so you reach the gate early.
Manuel Antonio National Park is closed only on Tuesdays. Nine: December 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29, 2026, and January 5, 12, 19 and 26, 2027. Across those two months there are 62 calendar days and 53 of them are open days.
| Month | Park closed (every Tuesday) | Open days |
|---|---|---|
| December 2026 | Dec 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 | 26 of 31 |
| January 2027 | Jan 5, 12, 19, 26 | 27 of 31 |
Source: SINAC’s official park schedule (Wednesday to Monday, 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., closed every Tuesday).
If one of those Tuesdays is your only free day, the national park is not an option, but our night tour and the Damas Island mangrove tour both run on Tuesdays. The full December planning guide — weather, crowds and the ticket window — is in Manuel Antonio National Park in December 2026.
Neither falls on a Tuesday this season: December 25, 2026 and January 1, 2027 are both Fridays, so the regular Wednesday-to-Monday schedule is the one that applies. SINAC’s park page does not publish a separate holiday timetable (checked on September 21, 2026).
Open does not mean easy. The last two weeks of December are the busiest of the year in Manuel Antonio, the park works with a daily visitor limit, and tickets for Christmas week become available around October 25 — two months before — and go first. If your trip includes Christmas or New Year, pick the park day as soon as your flights are fixed.
Only within two months of your visit date, and only through SINAC’s online service at serviciosenlinea.sinac.go.cr. Each ticket is valid for one entry, and you show your ID at the gate with it.
That two-month rule is SINAC’s, not a tour operator policy, and it is the planning mistake we see most: travelers who book flights in August try to buy a December 28 ticket in September and find the calendar closed. It opens on October 28.
Not for ordinary rain. The park keeps its normal hours through tropical showers; in December, rain tends to come in the afternoon rather than all day, which is one more reason to enter in the morning. Individual trails can be closed for safety during a real storm, and that decision is made at the park on the day.
What rain does change is the walk: trails get muddy and some animals go quiet during a heavy downpour and reappear as soon as it eases. We cover a wet day in detail in what to do in Manuel Antonio when it rains.
At opening, 7:00 a.m. The first hours are when wildlife is most active and the trails are least crowded; by late morning the heat and the number of visitors both rise. Decide which trails to walk first with the park map. During peak periods — Christmas week, New Year’s and Easter/Semana Santa — arrive earlier, by 7:00 to 7:30 a.m., since the ticket line builds fast.
That is why every Wakoo group enters in the morning with an ICT-certified naturalist and a spotting scope. Sloths and most birds sit 20 meters up and are close to invisible without one — we cannot promise any single animal, but a trained eye changes the odds a lot. See what a close encounter looks like: Manuel Antonio park trails guide, distance and difficulty for each one.
No, a guide is not required to enter; a ticket and your ID are. A guide is what turns a beach walk into a wildlife walk. Our guided tour of Manuel Antonio National Park starts at $30 per person for the Classic Group, with Premium at $65, Classic Private at $69 and V.I.P. Private at $100 — the same prices in December as in any other month, and park entrance is included only on selected tiers. Prices in detail are on the tour cost guide, and ticket buying steps are in how to buy Manuel Antonio park tickets online, and the official price, the daily quota and the reservation window are on our Manuel Antonio National Park tickets page. Visiting with children? Manuel Antonio with kids: family guide covers easy trails and pacing.
Manuel Antonio National Park opens at 7:00 a.m. Costa Rica time, Wednesday through Monday. SINAC, the park’s official authority, does not open earlier on any day of the week.
Manuel Antonio National Park closes at 3:00 p.m. Costa Rica time, the closing hour SINAC publishes on its official park page. Some travel sites still list 4:00 p.m.; plan around 3:00 p.m. so you are not caught inside when rangers start clearing the trails.
The park opens at 7:00 a.m. every day it is open (Wednesday to Monday) and stays open until 3:00 p.m. Last entry is 3:00 p.m. as well — SINAC does not publish a separate cutoff time for new entries.
The main entrance is in Manuel Antonio, Quepos, Puntarenas, Costa Rica, GPS 9.3914508, -84.1457868 (open in Google Maps). It sits at the end of the road from Quepos, past Playa Espadilla and the row of park-side sodas and parking lots.
| Day | Hours |
|---|---|
| Monday | 7:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. |
| Tuesday | Closed |
| Wednesday | 7:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. |
| Thursday | 7:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. |
| Friday | 7:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. |
| Saturday | 7:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. |
| Sunday | 7:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. |
Source: SINAC’s official Manuel Antonio National Park schedule. Closed only on Tuesdays, all through December 2026 and January 2027 (see the 9 closed Tuesdays above).
Pick any Wednesday to Monday in December 2026 or January 2027 and we will confirm it the same day. See December dates and book your tour or message us directly on WhatsApp +506 8514 1361.
Travelling in December 2026 or January 2027? We have a page for each month with its own closed-Tuesday calendar, weather figures and ticket window: Manuel Antonio National Park in December and Manuel Antonio National Park in January.
Open days are only part of the planning. The full reference for Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica has the tickets, the trails, the animals and what to bring.