December is when the dry season returns to Guanacaste. Early in the month you can still catch a late shower, but by mid-month the skies clear and the Papagayo trade winds are back. Offshore, the northern humpback whales return to calve, and December and January are the peak of the leatherback nesting season at Playa Grande, though these turtles are now rare. December has two faces: the first three weeks are calm and affordable, while from about the 20th through New Year's it is the busiest, priciest stretch of the year, with rates double or more. Best tours this month: a Palo Verde river cruise, birding in the dry forest, and the mangrove canoe safari at Playa Grande. Best for: travelers who want dry weather and real Christmas traditions, ideally before the 20th.
December: the year comes full circle
December is where the year comes full circle. The northern trade winds return — the same Papagayo winds that will define January — and with them comes a feeling every guanacasteco knows. The forest still holds its leaves this early, and when the wind moves through them, that dry rustling sound is the sound of Christmas coming: family arriving from the city, the town filling with visitors, the year winding down. The dust rises, the air turns fresh, and something in that breeze tells you the holidays are here.
The dry season returns
Early December can still catch a late shower, but by mid-month the skies clear. The forest begins its slow turn toward gold, especially across the open savannas. The Papagayo winds stir up cold, nutrient-rich water from the deep: the sea runs cooler and a little murkier, but that same upwelling brings the big filter feeders back, and in the sheltered bays we choose for snorkeling the water stays clearer. And offshore, the whales come back: the northern humpbacks, down from the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington to calve in our bays, just as the water turns cold again. The same whales that open our January. Paddle the Playa Grande estuary on our wildlife canoe safari.
Leatherback season at Playa Grande
December and January are the height of the leatherback season at Playa Grande — the largest sea turtles on Earth, nesting by night at the most important leatherback beach in Costa Rica, an hour and a half up the coast. Their numbers in the Eastern Pacific have fallen sharply, so seeing one is now a rare privilege.
The sugarcane harvest begins
December is when the zafra starts — the sugarcane harvest. Drive past the fields around the canals as the machines are cutting and you’ll catch it: not the sweet fermenting smell of high season yet, but the green, fresh scent of just-cut cane. Where the harvest is still done by hand, they sometimes burn the leaf off the cane first; where it’s mechanized, the machine simply cuts. Either way, the season of the cane has begun. Visit the Tempisque wetlands on our Palo Verde & El Viejo experience.
Christmas in Guanacaste
Christmas is a big celebration here in Guanacaste — the trees go up, the houses are decorated, the pasito (nativity) is set beneath the tree. Families gather for a full day to make tamales — corn masa filled with pork, wrapped in plantain leaves, exchanged between neighbors — the taste of the whole year’s corn coming home for Christmas. In the towns, the festive spirit blends with the old rural traditions: marimba, local rodeos, toros a la tica (where the bull is never killed), food cooked over a wood fire. It’s warm, rustic, and deeply Guanacaste.
December prices and crowds: the honest word
December has two faces. Through about the first three weeks, it’s still calm and affordable — dry, festive, and not yet overrun. But from roughly the 20th through New Year’s, this becomes the busiest, priciest stretch of the entire year: the town swells, the hotels fill to the top, and rates run double or more what you’d pay in the regular or green season. Our honest advice: come in the first three weeks of December, or after the holidays pass. But if you love a real celebration — the festivity, the fireworks, the crowds and the joy of it — the holidays here are wonderful. Just come knowing what it costs.
Is December worth it?
December closes the circle. The winds return, the forest golds, the northern whales come back, the leatherbacks peak, the cane starts, and the warmest festivities of the year fill the towns. Come in the first three weeks for calm and value, or dive into the holidays if celebration is what you’re after. Either way, December is Guanacaste saying goodbye to one year and hello to the next — with the wind at its back.
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By the Guanadreams team, led by Miller Contreras — naturalist guide, born and raised in Guanacaste.