Play in Guanacaste between mid-December and April. Liberia, the weather station nearest the best courses, records almost no rain from January to March, with afternoons of 33 degrees or more. May, June and November bring showers. September and October are the wettest months, with rain on more than half the days.
Costa Rica’s national weather service has kept rainfall records at Liberia, the town whose airport serves these courses, since 1957. The January page of that record is short. Average rainfall: 1.3 millimetres. Days with rain: on average, none. Average afternoon high: 33.4 degrees. October’s page reads 310 millimetres and 16 wet days. Every decision about when to go sits between those two.
The record, month by month
Figures are long-run averages for Liberia from the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional: rainfall from 1957 to 2012, temperatures from 1977 to 2013. A day with rain is one with at least a millimetre. The last column is our reading of them for a golfer.
| Month | Average high (°C) | Rain (mm) | Days with rain | For golf |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33.4 | 1 | 0 | Dry. Windy. |
| February | 34.4 | 2 | 0 | Dry. The windiest month. |
| March | 35.4 | 4 | 0 | Dry and very hot. |
| April | 35.9 | 24 | 1 | The hottest month. Mostly dry, with the first showers. |
| May | 33.9 | 194 | 9 | The rains begin. |
| June | 32.0 | 246 | 14 | Wet on about half the days. |
| July | 32.1 | 153 | 10 | A drier spell in the wet season. |
| August | 32.1 | 209 | 12 | Wet again. |
| September | 31.3 | 346 | 17 | The wettest month in this record. |
| October | 30.9 | 310 | 16 | Nearly as wet. |
| November | 31.6 | 98 | 6 | The rains ease. |
| December | 32.5 | 12 | 2 | Dry from about the middle of the month. |
The institute’s newer record for Liberia airport, from 2005 to 2025, runs hotter, with average highs of 35 to 38 degrees from January to April, and finds October slightly wetter than September. The shape of the year is the same.
Mid-December to April: the season
For four months it barely rains. That is the whole case for Guanacaste in the British winter, and it is a strong one: these are the weeks when courses at home are on winter greens or closed.
Two things come with the dry. The first is heat. In the long-run record, afternoons average 33 degrees in January and nearly 36 in April, and the airport has run hotter in recent years, so golf here is a morning game. First tee times are 6.30am at Reserva Conchal and 6.20am at La Iguana. The sun sets at about twenty past five in December and ten to six in March and April, so there are no long evenings to play into.
The second is wind. The Papagayo winds blow across this coast from November to March and are strongest in February. At Liberia airport the national weather service records the strongest winds from January to March, with afternoon averages above 15 knots, about 17mph. We do not have wind readings for the individual courses, and we will not pretend to.
Christmas, New Year and Easter, which falls on 28 March in 2027, all sit inside the dry season, and we expect them to be the busiest weeks. We do not yet know when the resorts release their peak-season tee times to guests. It is one of the first things we are asking them.
May, June and July
The rain arrives in May: 194 millimetres at Liberia, on nine days of the month. June is wetter. Then July dips, to 153 millimetres on ten days, a mid-year lull that Costa Ricans call the canícula. Afternoon highs fall from nearly 36 degrees in April to 32 by June.
A golfer can play in these months. A golfer cannot plan on a dry round.
August to November
August is wet, September and October wetter: more than 300 millimetres a month, on 16 or 17 days. The Foreign Office calls June to November the peak rainy season and warns that heavy rain can cause landslides that block roads. We would not send anyone to play golf in Guanacaste in September or October.
November is the turn. Rainfall falls to 98 millimetres on six days, and by the middle of December the dry season has started.
Away from Guanacaste
Two of the courses a trip is likely to include are elsewhere. Valle del Sol is in the Central Valley near San José, almost 3,000 feet above sea level. La Iguana is in rainforest on the Central Pacific. We have not found station records for either that we trust as we trust Liberia’s, so we are not quoting figures for them. Rainforest is not dry country, and we would expect La Iguana to be the greener and the damper of the two.
Flights by season
British Airways flies non-stop from Heathrow to San José five times a week from late October to March. From the end of March 2027 the route stays open all year, at three flights a week. The dry season and the fuller timetable coincide.
The honest drawback
The driest months are the hottest and the windiest. Liberia’s afternoons average over 35 degrees in March, and the Papagayo winds are at their strongest in February.
Who should go when
For the golfer who wants to be certain of a dry round and can play at half past six in the morning, January to March is the time; for the golfer who wilts in heat or loses patience in wind, those same months are a trial, and late December, the coolest of the dry weeks, is the kinder choice.
Couples and groups who can travel outside school holidays have the widest choice of weeks. A party tied to Christmas or Easter should register early, because we expect those to be the weeks when tee times are hardest to get.
For what you would play, see the best golf courses in Costa Rica, and who can play them. If you want sun and golf this winter somewhere we already sell, our guide to winter sun golf holidays has the choices.
The price, stated flat
We have no price for Costa Rica in any month. We have never sold it, and we have not contracted a hotel or a tee time. Nothing here is on sale today.
The next step
The form on our Costa Rica page asks when you are thinking of travelling: this winter, spring 2027, next winter, or flexible. Your answer decides which dates we build first. Register your interest in Costa Rica and you will see those dates before anyone else.
Frequently asked questions
What is the weather like in Costa Rica in January for golf?
In Guanacaste, dry and hot. Liberia averages 1.3 millimetres of rain in January, no wet days, and an afternoon high of 33.4 degrees. It is also in the season of the Papagayo winds.
Can you play golf in Costa Rica in the rainy season?
You can in May, June, July and November, when it rains on between six and 14 days a month in Guanacaste. September and October are the wettest months, with rain on 16 or 17 days, and we would not plan a golf trip then.
Is Costa Rica too hot for golf?
Not in the morning. Afternoon highs in Guanacaste average 33 to 36 degrees in the dry season in the long-run record, and 35 to 38 at Liberia airport since 2005, so rounds start early: first tee times are around 6.30am.
Which month is the driest in Guanacaste?
January and February. Liberia records under two millimetres of rain in each, and on average no wet days.
Is it windy in Costa Rica in the dry season?
On the Guanacaste coast, yes. The Papagayo winds blow from November to March and are strongest in February, and Liberia airport records afternoon averages above 15 knots from January to March.
When does the dry season start in Costa Rica?
On the Pacific side, about the middle of December. It runs until April. Liberia’s December rainfall averages 12 millimetres, against 98 in November.
Come and play with us
Wherever you're travelling from, you're welcome on our Western Cape Spring Tour: a small group, a host with you from the first tee to the last, and every round, transfer and dinner taken care of. You just bring the clubs.
