When to Start Planning Your Trip to Costa Rica

In this article, we’ll tell you everything you need to know to plan your trip to Costa Rica with our agency, Terra Caribea.

First, we’ll discuss the reasons specific to the destination that highlight the importance of planning ahead to ensure a high-quality trip.

Next, we’ll explain how our local travel agency in Costa Rica operates, so you’ll know how to access the best services in our catalog.

Finally, for those who, no matter what, prefer to wait until the last minute, we’ll have a few recommendations for you.

Thank you for your attention, and enjoy the read! 

2023: Will Costa Rica See Record Tourist Numbers?

One of the main reasons why it’s important to plan your trip to Costa Rica well in advance is the destination’s growing popularity over the past several years.

In fact, since the 1980s,the country has seen tourism grow exponentially, making the tourism industry Costa Rica’s third-largest source of revenue today. This rapid growth is symbolized by the record of 2.5 million tourist arrivals reached in 2014, which at the time represented more than half of the country’s total population. It’s worth noting that most arrivals occur during the dry season.

In fact, this record was nearly broken in 2023, as illustrated by this article from the Costa Rican Tourism Institute, which reviews the year in tourism, with approximately 2.4 million tourist arrivals in the country. Specifically, 2023 did not break the all-time record, but it did exceed the pre-crisis figures from 2019, which attests to the strong vitality of Costa Rica’s tourism sector, with growth of more than 16% compared to 2022.

What about 2024?

Judging by the excellent start to the year Terra Caribea is experiencing, it’s quite possible that this year will surpass the results of 2023 and thus break the 2014 record for tourist arrivals—a testament to a destination that remains as attractive as ever, generation after generation.

This is reflected in the increased number of flights to Costa Rica. One example is the increase in the number of Air France flights, which rose to one flight per day in 2023 (see Air France News 2023–2024) and clearly demonstrates European travelers’ interest in this region of Central America.

Furthermore, there is significant investment in tourism projects, with no fewer than 19 luxury hotels set to be completed in 2024. This underscores Costa Rica’s appeal, as it continues to be viewed as a destination of the future with strong potential.

The Dry Season in Costa Rica: The Busiest Time of the Year

It’s important to realize that not all months of the year are the same in the Land of Green Gold. Depending on when you plan to visit, you’ll need to start planning your trip to Costa Rica sooner or later.

To help you better understand Costa Rica’s seasons, we invite you to read our related article, which will provide insights into the ideal time for your trip. Each season has its own advantages and disadvantages and will suit your expectations to a greater or lesser extent.

In summary, tourist traffic is concentrated during the dry season, which runs from December through April. Most visitors head to the country’s beach destinations, particularly Guanacaste on the Pacific coast, which is one of the country’s main tourist regions. But tourists also flock to other areas that have become must-see destinations, such as Monteverde, Arenal Volcano and the volcanoes of the northwest, Tortuguero, and Manuel Antonio, a flagship destination on the Central Pacific Coast. As a result, certain destinations may be harder to visit at certain times of the year due to their popularity.

The reason tourism is so concentrated during this period is that the country is bustling with activity, experiencing a dramatic change in climate that offers a completely different perspective on the country than during the rainy season. Thus, it is during the dry season that the main cultural events take place, such as international music festivals, which you can find in our Costa Rican cultural calendar.

It’s also during the dry season that the country’s major treks are possible, such as the famous crossing of the Talamanca Range, which can only be undertaken for a few weeks between March and April.

Christmas–New Year’s Week and Holy Week: Two Periods to Avoid 

If there are two periods that truly symbolize the peak tourist traffic Costa Rica experiences during the dry season, they are the Christmas–New Year’s week and Holy Week, which mark the turning points of the peak tourist season.

In fact, these two weeks see the highest numbers of international tourist arrivals, as well as the highest levels of domestic tourism, which leads to overcrowding in most of the country’s destinations, particularly the beach resorts on the Pacific coast. Just as French people do for their August vacations in the south, many foreigners book their stays a year in advance.

As a result, during these two specific weeks—and more generally throughout the dry season— hotel availability is limited, with high demand and rapidly changing availability.

These periods are therefore particularly challenging for planning a customized trip, as they feature limited availability coupled with high demand —and consequently, rates that are significantly higher than the rest of the year (sometimes 2 to 3 times higher than off-season rates).

As you can see, these two weeks are therefore not ideal for a quality vacation, as the country is overwhelmed by waves of tourists from all over the world, while service providers are under pressure due to the sharp increase in activity, making them less available. The flora and fauna are also less visible, particularly in the driest areas (mainly Guanacaste and the Nicoya Peninsula, two regions dominated by dry tropical forest).

– More information on Holy Week –

What You Need to Know to Plan a Dream Trip to Costa Rica with Terra Caribea

Our local agency’s goal is to offer you the best possible experience in Costa Rica, so you can make the most of this exotic destination and enjoy an unforgettable trip to Central America.

With this in mind, we offer personalized itineraries, designed entirely in collaboration with you.   This allows us to best meet your desire for discovery, while ensuring we remain proactive in our recommendations and showcase our expertise—all with the goal of giving you access to the finest hidden gems in our catalog and the most interesting off-the-beaten-path regions.

Our agency’s approachis well summarized in the following document: the ten steps of your trip with Terra.

Thus, our added value lies in our ability to adapt and customize, made possible by this approach. However, completing these various steps requires time and, therefore, advance planning. That’s why our approach may adapt depending on the time remaining before travelers’ potential arrival, with accelerated processes in the event of a last-minute booking…

Keep in mind that the more time we have to discuss, get to know each other, learn about your project, and make proposals, the more tailored, refined, and ambitious your trip will be. Accurately assessing your profile is the key to a successful trip, but this requires a little time to thoroughly gather all the information, so we can reflect, design, propose options, and ultimately arrive at the ideal final plan for your trip to Costa Rica.

The Terra Caribea catalog: a guarantee of quality, but subject to availability 

Having enough time to plan your trip is therefore essential for us to be able to offer you a high-quality itinerary. Another guarantee of this quality is our catalog of preferred suppliers, which allows us to applyrigorous selection criteriaand thus offer you only top-tier providers who align with our ethical vision of tourism.  

This catalog is revised annually, with additions and updates, to ensure we maintain a diverse list of accommodations. Note that the main additions are made following various fact-finding trips conducted by our agents. It is therefore a limited catalog that restricts our travel agents’ work to a defined list of establishments that can be offered to our clients—a list that cannot be bypassed except in exceptional cases.

Given this, it is clear that this constraint is even more pronounced when availability is at its lowest. This is because we are unable to search for rooms among all hotels in Costa Rica, but only among those listed in our catalog—a testament to our expertise. These hotels were selected because they meet our criteria, offer genuine added value, and, for the most part, demonstrate a notable commitment to corporate social responsibility.

– More information on our catalog of preferred suppliers –

Timeframes to Consider When Planning Your Trip to Costa Rica

We’ve outlined the various reasons why it’s important to plan your trip to Costa Rica well in advance. However, we haven’t yet provided any specific guidance:

When is the best time to start planning your trip to Costa Rica?

Based on experience, we’d say that the earlier you start, the better—so planning at least a year in advance is a good idea.

However, planning too far in advance can create other issues to consider:

• Planning your tripmore than a year in advance certainly ensures the best availability, but it also requires you to settle the balance six months before your arrival in Costa Rica if you contact us before July.

This is because rates change every year and are updated at the end of the dry season ( between May and June). Therefore, if your itinerary is confirmed in advance, you’ll need to pay the balance once the final rate updates have been applied to all the accommodations confirmed in your travel plans. On the other hand, if you’re planning a trip in August for December of the following year, that’s no problem, since we’ll have all the updated rates ready inanticipation of the coming year.

Conversely, another factor to keep in mind when planning to travel to Costa Rica during the high season is that one of the worst times to plan your trip to Costa Ricaisn’t last-minute (i.e., between 2 months and 3 weeks before arrival) ,but rather starting to plan 2 to 6 months in advance. But why is this period so challenging?

• Between 2 and 6 months before your travel dates, booking levels peak. This is because there’s a combination of confirmed reservations— sometimes made more than a year in advance—and pre-bookings made by major players in Costa Rican tourism (travel agencies, tour operators, etc.). At the same time, the number of requests is also high, so remaining availability changes very quickly.

As a result, planning a custom trip 2 to 6 months in advance can be difficult, often leading to regret that we can’t offer the best possible experience due to a lack of adequate availability… or a lack of prompt response on your part! And yes, things can change in just a few days, so you need to make your decision quickly and let us know.

If you have no other choice and want to finalize a trip to Costa Rica with less than 2 months’ notice, it’s not necessarily a lost cause. In fact, we often have pleasant last-minute surprises, since all pre-bookings that haven’t been confirmed become available about 45 days before the travel date, opening up new opportunities.

One essential requirement: having fixed dates, confirmed by your international flights

As you can see, it is possible to plan a last-minute trip, but to do so, you’ll need to take a few precautions to make our job easier.

The essential requirement is to have fixed travel dates, confirmed by your international flights.

Why is this? Because processing your request takes time, and a last-minute request requires us to act quickly and perform additional checks. This starts with verifying the availability of each planned service on a day-by-day basis to ensure that the itinerary and rates are still valid.

Given all this, even the slightest change in dates can jeopardize all the work we’ve done, sometimes requiring us to completely revise the itinerary we’d planned based on the availability we’d confirmed.

Another point is that having your plane tickets for your international flights is a sign of trust for us, as it proves that you’re committed to visiting Costa Rica. This way, we’ll be better able to devote time to your potential project, unlike someone who’s still wavering between three completely different destinations just two months before the deadline…

A tip for an unforgettable trip: don’t plan your itinerary in advance, so you can adapt to the best opportunities that come up 

If your trip to Costa Rica is coming up soon, you’ve booked your flights, and you’ve started working with one of our agents, here’s a tip: don’t be too rigid about your itinerary, or you might miss out on some great opportunities.

We know you’re often eager to visit Costa Rica’s “must-sees, ” which reflects a certain fear of missing out on the most important sights(long live FOMO—Fear Of Missing Out)… However, if you’re planning a last-minute trip, it’s definitely betterto keep your options open and be open to exploring lesser-known destinations that offer equally fascinating experiences. Especially since, as you’ve probably noticed, these “must-see” sites have certain drawbacks, starting with the concentration of tourist crowds, which limits availability and can spoil the experience.

That’s why, when planning a last-minute trip, it’s more practical for our travel agents to have greater freedom in choosing destinations, without being constrained by too many specific instructions from you. This way, they can tailor your itinerary to take advantage of the best remaining opportunities in our catalog. This means they’ll plan a route that gives you access to as many “hidden gems” and “favorites” from our catalog as possible, while ensuring well-balanced itineraries that allow you to discover the many different facets of Costa Rica.

Tips for Effective Communication: Be Responsive, Available, and Understanding 

The final tip—which may seem obvious but is crucial—centers on your responsivenessand availability, so that you can conduct effective discussions in a short amount of time, enabling your project to move forward quickly.

On our end, if we agree to handle your request on short notice, we commit to prioritizing our communication and actions over other projects, because we know that responsiveness is key to finalizing ambitious projects within a few days. However, while we commit to responding and acting just as quickly, you must also be available and responsive in your replies.

Keep in mind that when we present you with an itinerary, we’ve verified all availability within the hour. However, for a project with little lead time—especially during the dry season— availability may change within 24 hours. That is why, if you confirm your plans a week after receiving the latest version of the quote, it may no longer be valid due to the loss of previously confirmed availability.

Please note that we only make “pre-reservations” under exceptional circumstances, provided they are approved by the service provider.

In conclusion, we’d simply like to remind you that our team is doing everything possible to assist you with your travel plans to Costa Rica, even under conditions that can sometimes be challenging—conditions of which the general public may not necessarily be aware.

That is why it is important for us to highlight this proactive approach, which is how we ensure high-value-added trips that reflect who we are.

Keep in mind that we are a small agency that manages to offer high-quality trips that are both sophisticated and unique.

If you’d like to learn more about our team, we invite you to visit our About Us page: The Terra Caribea Team.

Cristo, a young writer from Costa Rica