June is when the green season settles in across Guanacaste: bright mornings, a warm shower in the late afternoon, and still the driest corner of Costa Rica. The landscape is lush, the forest is full of fruit and new growth, and the rivers and waterfalls come roaring back, with Río Celeste at its deepest turquoise. Around June 24 comes the Veranillo de San Juan, a short sunny break of a few days to a week. At sea it's a quiet month between the two whale seasons. Crowds are thin and prices low. Best tours this month: Tenorio and Río Celeste, and birding and wildlife walks. Best for: travelers who want green landscapes and full rivers at low prices, especially in the last week of June.
June: the green season settles in
By June the green season is fully settled. The afternoon rains that started in May have brought the leaves all the way back, and Guanacaste is lush from end to end. But here that word “rainy” is almost misleading: this is still the driest corner of Costa Rica, and the rain keeps to a schedule you can plan a day around — clear, bright mornings, a warm shower in the late afternoon, and done.
The secret of late June: the Veranillo de San Juan
Around June 24th — the feast of Saint John the Baptist — Guanacaste gets a short, sunny break in the middle of the green season. The trade winds briefly return, the rains pause for a few days to a week, and the skies clear. Costa Ricans have marked this window for centuries; the meteorological service still names it. It doesn’t come exactly the same every year, but it lands hardest right here in the north Pacific. If you want green landscapes and sunshine, the last week of June is one of the best-kept secrets on the calendar.
The forest is alive and fed
June’s forest is full of fruit and new growth, and that pulls in the wildlife. Howler monkeys call across the canopy, white-faced capuchins work the branches, and after the afternoon showers the frogs come out in force. Two hours north, in the Tenorio rainforest, is where we go looking for sloths in the cecropia trees. In the fields, this is planting month — with the rains, farmers across the bajura sow their corn, and fresh elote (young corn) becomes the taste of the season. These are the encounters we build our bird-watching & wildlife walks around.
The rivers wake up
This is the flip side of March. Where the dry season shrank the waterfalls to a trickle, June’s rains bring them roaring back. The rivers of the Tenorio highlands run full, and Río Celeste — one of Costa Rica’s seven natural wonders — reaches its deepest turquoise. If a dramatic waterfall or a wild river is what you came for, the green season delivers what the dry season can’t. Explore Tenorio & Río Celeste on our rainforest experience.
A note on the sea
Be honest about June offshore: it’s the quiet stretch between the two whale seasons — the northern humpbacks left in April, and the southern ones don’t really reach our waters until August, and even then only lightly this far north. Dolphins are around year-round, but June is a land-and-river month, not a whale month.
Is June worth it?
June is one of the smartest-value months of the year. High season is long over, so crowds are thin and prices low — and the land is at its greenest, the rivers at their fullest, and the wildlife well fed and active. Add the Veranillo de San Juan sunshine in the last week, and late June may be the single best green-season window we have. It rains in the afternoons. Everything else is upside.
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By the Guanadreams team, led by Miller Contreras — naturalist guide, born and raised in Guanacaste.