Manuel Antonio National Park in January is open 27 of the 31 days of January 2027, closed on four Tuesdays, and it is the driest month of the whole December–January window: 222.7 mm of rain and 9.0 hours of sun a day, against December’s 503.1 mm. If you are choosing between the two months, this page has the calendar, the SINAC ticket window, the four prices we publish and the honest comparison.
Send us your date on WhatsApp at +506 8514 1361, or book your Manuel Antonio tour here.
Yes, on 27 of the 31 days. The park is closed every Tuesday, which in January 2027 means January 5, 12, 19 and 26. Every other day it opens from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., with last entry at 2:00 p.m. January 1 falls on a Friday in 2027, so New Year’s Day is a normal operating day. Source: SINAC. The running calendar lives on our open-today page.
January averages 222.7 mm of rain across 10.5 rainy days, with 9.0 hours of sun a day — the highest sunshine figure of any month we track — a daytime high of 27.6 °C / 81.7 °F and a night low of 23.0 °C. Source: weather-and-climate.com, the same dataset behind our month-by-month weather table. Ten rainy days out of thirty-one is still rain: this is a rainforest, and the dry season means drier, not dry.
On the weather numbers, yes, and it is not close: 222.7 mm against 503.1 mm, 10.5 rainy days against 14.1, and 9.0 hours of sun against 8.3. January also has one more open day in the month (27 against 26), because it has four Tuesdays instead of five. December’s advantage is different and it is real: it is the holiday window, so it is the month most people can actually travel. If your dates are flexible and you only care about conditions, take January.
Exactly two months before your visit date. For January 1, 2027 that window opened on November 1, 2026; for January 31, it opens on December 1, 2026. Tickets are sold only by SINAC at serviciosenlinea.sinac.go.cr, never at the gate and never earlier than two months out. Book the guide first and buy the ticket the morning your window opens.
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:
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.
The same resident cast as every month — three-toed and two-toed sloths, white-faced capuchins, howler monkeys, Central American squirrel monkeys, agoutis, iguanas and more than a hundred bird species. January’s edge is 9.0 hours of sun, the highest figure on our table, which in practice means better light through a spotting scope and trails that are not slick. We will not promise a particular animal on a particular day; nobody honest can. What a guide changes is how much of what is already there you actually see.
As close to the 7:00 a.m. opening as you can manage. The animals are most active in the first two hours, and January sits inside the high season, so the 7:00 a.m. entry is the one where the trails are still quiet. Last entry is 2:00 p.m. and the park closes at 3:00 p.m.
Not legally. The case for one is the same in January as in any other month and it comes down to the scope: a sloth high in a cecropia is invisible to an untrained eye and obvious through a Swarovski. At $30 per person for the Classic Group, it is the cheapest line item of the day and the one that changes what you take home from it.
Now, if your dates are set. Guides run out before park tickets do in high season, because the park’s daily quota resets every day while the number of certified guides in Manuel Antonio does not change. Lock the guide, then buy the SINAC ticket the day your two-month window opens.
Move to the Wednesday or the Monday. The closed dates are January 5, 12, 19 and 26, 2027, and there is no week in the month where both adjacent days are unavailable. If you have already booked with us for one of those Tuesdays, message us and we move it at no cost.
Send the date and the number of people to WhatsApp at +506 8514 1361 and we confirm the same day, or start from the booking page. Cancel 72 hours or more before the tour and you get a full refund. We will also tell you the exact date your SINAC ticket window opens.