Family of 5 trying to book a summer trip. Have wanted to get to Costa Rica for so long but with kids schedules it leaves us with late July early August?<BR>Advice please?<BR>Thanks<BR>Karen

Well, Karen certainly is not the best time of the year...because the rainy station is arriving but it is not tas bad as October or November when rains all evenings. You could expects sunny days at the pacific coast and sunny mornings at the Central Valley.<BR>

We travelled to CR twice, both times in the first half of August and the weather was not a problem. Occassional rain in the afternoon or at night, with some days with no rain at all. If you stay at Nicoya Penninsula and Pacific north west, the weather should be fine, better than anywhere else in the country.<BR>The only things that we were not able to do because of the weather were to see the Arenal Volcano (it was covered in clouds and fog both days we were there) and hike to the waterfall at Vista del Valle (the rain at night made the trail too slippery and muddy).

We have a similar problem with our two boys. Went the first two weeks of August this past summer. We expected rain much of the time, but lucky or not rain seemed to come mainly late afernoon and at night. Even on Osa, rain over four days/nights came only at night. We got to see Arenal clearly for several hours during the two days we spent there. Bottom line is the rain never really hindered our activities. Even a late afternoon downpour while in Manuel Antonio park was a fun adventure as it is very warm.

All above posters are correct. Of my 8 trips to CR, 5 of them have been in the 'green' season. With the exception of a couple rainy monings in all my trips, I only saw rain late afternoon and evenings. July is a great time to visit. NO, you're not crazy...GO!