Central America - Costa Rica in May/June

Hi all,

I am interested in visiting Costa Rica for a week in either the month of May or June because I heard that they are the low season there thus it will be cheaper to go down. Now, obviously I also heard the reason they are the low season is because it rains more often. My question is, does it usually rain like an all day rain? Or does it rain for sometime and then clears out. So it's not a total wash out.
I'm planning on visiting their volcanoes and their national parks and also visit one of their coasts if time permits. I am thinking that most likely it's more beneficial for me to fly to San Jose rather than Liberia. But then again, if anyone can chime in on this, I surely appreciate it.

Thanks in advance

I was in Costa Rica the last week in June last year. I think of the 10 days I was there 2, maybe 3 days were filled with rain. The rest of the time it was either a brief shower or overnight. The worst was ~30 hours straight of rain in Tortuguero - amazing place to (hopefully) see the turtles laying eggs if you're so inclined.

We saw Arenal Volcano - it was a bit underwhelming, especially at this time of yesr the cone is almost always surrounded by clouds. I think I saw the top of it once for about 5 minutes. The area around is very nice though - plenty of opportunities for white water rafting, kayaking etc.

Also spent time in Monteverde to do zip lines and go through the cloud forest. Very interesting, although I still have yet to see a quetzal...

I've only ever flown into San Juan so no idea which airport is better for you. My impression has always been that Liberia is more convenient for the Pacific coast and surfing whereas San Jose offers better access to the interior of the country.

I've spent a bit of time in Costa Rica. It's not raining constantly in May-June. Sometimes, it will be dry for a whole 10 days, some times it will rain constantly, so it's pretty hit-or-miss. Generally, you can think of afternoon rain as the usual weather, with drier mornings and usually dry nights. It rains a lot more in the eastern half of the country (Tortuguero and the southern Caribbean beaches) than in the central valley and the northwestern part (Guanacaste). The southwestern part of the country (Manuel Antonio, Osa Peninsula) are pretty wet in May and June.

Liberia is a newer airport with far fewer international flights (but is growing because expats are buying up beaches on the northwest coast, like Tamarindo) San Jose is the easiest place to fly into usually. There's not so much to see in San Jose or Liberia, so don't feel bad missing out on the big cities. Liberia is located in the northwest part of the country (where it is drier), so if you're primarily interested in avoiding rain, that might be the place to go. San Jose flights are generally way cheaper, though.