What to pack for Costa Rica: one bag, two weeks

Cold cloud forest, hot coast, one bag

Two weeks in Costa Rica asks one bag to work in two climates. Monteverde sits at roughly 1,330 to 1,400 m, where trade winds off the Caribbean hold the mean temperature at 18C and the humidity between 74 and 97 percent. ⁹ Wet air moves through the trees all afternoon. By the second night you want sleeves.

Four days later you are on the Pacific. Manuel Antonio's hottest months, March and April, average highs near 88F (31C), and humidity peaks around 83 percent in September and October. ² The fleece that saved the cloud forest goes to the bottom of the bag and stays there. Same trip, same bag.

That gap is the design problem, and it has a size. Seventeen degrees Celsius separates a Monteverde night from a Manuel Antonio afternoon. Every line further down this page answers one of the numbers in the chart below.

What should I wear in Monteverde?

The cold half of the trip, at 1,330 to 1,400 m, where nights reach the high 50s F in the rainy season and the mid-60s F in the dry one.

One fleece, one hooded shell and one pair of long trousers, and the cloud forest is handled. Monteverde's mean annual temperature is 18C, its annual rainfall runs around 3,000 mm, and humidity sits between 74 and 97 percent. ⁹ Trade winds keep that cool in place through the year, dry season included. ¹

Damp is the harder half of the problem. Air that thick dries a cotton shirt slowly, so a synthetic or merino base layer earns its weight twice: once on the trail, once overnight. A hood beats an umbrella when the wind arrives with the mist.

• A light fleece or grid-fleece pullover. It doubles as the layer you sleep in when the night reaches 14C. ¹
• A packable hooded waterproof shell. Monteverde takes around 3,000 mm of rain a year, spread across every month. ⁹
• Quick-drying long trousers for evenings and forest walks, worn with the same shirt two days running.
• Closed shoes with grip, plus one pair of wool socks. Wet trail by day, cold night after, same pair.

That is four items covering nine days of the fortnight, because Monteverde's clothes work in San Jose too. The Central Valley runs mid-70s F (24C) by day in dry season and drops to the 60s F (18C) after dark, with rainy-season nights into the 50s F. ¹

The Pacific half: heat, sun and salt

Manuel Antonio runs about 30 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than a Monteverde night. March and April average highs near 88F (31C); November and December ease to about 81F (27C). Humidity reaches roughly 83 percent in September and October. ² You will sweat through a shirt before lunch, and it will dry on the balcony by afternoon.

CDC's floor for sun protection is SPF 15 or higher, with protective clothing and shade during the hottest hours, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It also asks for loose lightweight clothes, steady water and salty snacks to head off heat illness. ⁶ A long-sleeved sun shirt does more work than a second bottle of lotion, and it weighs less than one.

Two shirts and one pair of shorts carry a Pacific week when you wash them mid-trip. The swimsuit doubles as hot-day trail wear. The fleece stays packed, which is the whole reason it fits in the first place.

How do you pack for Costa Rica's rainy season?

May to November across most of the country, with the Caribbean coast on its own calendar.

Costa Rica's rainy season runs May to November, and October is the rainiest month for most of the country. ¹ Dry season is December to April, with May, November and December as the turn between them. The Caribbean coast keeps a calendar of its own. ¹

Green season changes three things in the bag. Fabrics all become fast-drying ones. The shell moves to the top of the pack, where you can reach it from a shuttle seat. And the pack gets a liner, because a fortnight of afternoon rain finds its way inside.

• A packable hooded rain shell, worn most afternoons from May to November. ¹
• Quick-dry shirts and trousers. Cotton stays wet for hours at 90 percent humidity.
• A dry bag or a bin liner inside the pack for electronics and one dry set of clothes.
• Sandals you can wear wet, so the closed shoes stay dry for the cloud forest.

The turn months are the interesting ones. May and November sit between the two patterns, which is where a shell and a swimsuit both get used in a single day. MMT's two weeks in Costa Rica itinerary sets the route those months suit, and the two-week trip cost page prices it.

Can you do Costa Rica carry-on only?

Sansa's small planes set the ceiling on a domestic hop, and your fare class settles the rest.

Yes, and if you are taking the San Jose to Quepos flight, the small plane is the reason to. Sansa, Costa Rica's main domestic carrier, allows one personal item free up to 4.5 kg (10 lb), charges an excess fee between 4.5 kg and 6.8 kg, and sends anything over 6.8 kg (15 lb) to the hold. Maximum dimensions are 30 x 50 x 20 cm (12 x 20 x 8 in). ³

The checked figure is the gap worth knowing about. Sansa's page gives checked dimensions of 76 x 46 x 34 cm and then says the permitted weight is subject to the fare class purchased, printing no number. ³ Costa Rica Expeditions, a long-established operator, still tells guests 40 lb (18.1 kg) checked plus 10 lb of carry-on, on a page updated 14 February 2024. ¹⁰ Plan to 40 lb, confirm at booking.

1. 01

   Weigh the packed bag at home

   The target is 4.5 kg on the bathroom scale with the empty bag counted in, because that is where Sansa's free allowance stops. ³

2. 02

   Measure the bag full, not empty

   The personal-item box is 30 x 50 x 20 cm, and a soft pack that fits empty spreads past it once loaded. ³

3. 03

   Read the baggage line on your fare

   Sansa sets the checked weight by fare class, so the real number reaches you with the reservation confirmation. ³

4. 04

   Decide what rides in the hold

   Plan to 40 lb for a checked bag on a domestic flight or a boat transfer, and expect oversize bags to be turned away at the aircraft. ^{10, 3}

If the whole fortnight runs on shuttles and rental cars, the cabin limit stops mattering and the weight on your shoulders starts to. MMT's one-bag travel guide covers the bag itself, the tropical packing list covers the four-country version of this list, and carry-on size limits on budget airlines covers the flight in.

Repellent, permethrin and two live health notices

CDC asks for a repellent with 20 percent DEET or more, plus permethrin-treated clothing and gear. Permethrin goes on boots, trousers, socks and tents, and stays off skin. ⁶ Picaridin, IR3535, oil of lemon eucalyptus and 2-undecanone all work on mosquitoes; 20 percent DEET covers ticks as well, for several hours at a time. ⁶

Two notices were live on 25 September 2026. A chikungunya outbreak in northwest Costa Rica sat at CDC's Level 2, updated 30 July 2026. A hepatitis A notice, most cases reported in San Jose province, was added 18 September 2026 at Level 1. Dengue carries a separate year-round warning, updated 3 September 2026, with outbreaks every two to five years. ⁶

In practice that is one small bottle and one treated shirt. Bites happen at dusk on the coast and in the forest at any hour, so the long sleeves that handle Monteverde's cool also handle the mosquitoes on the Pacific.

Alajuela is also home to the demarcated territory of the Maleku people, in the San Rafael de Guatuso district. Three communities, Palenque El Sol, Palenque Margarita and Palenque Tonjibe, hold 478 residents of the 701 Maleku counted nationwide in the 2013 census figures a 2022 study cites. ¹¹ The Maleku govern that territory and set the terms of a visit to it, so a volcano-leg detour that crosses into it runs on their terms, not a checklist.

The La Fortuna laundry that shrinks the bag

Tuanis Laundry in La Fortuna charges 2,300 colones a kilo plus tax for wash, dry and fold, with a three to four hour turnaround, open daily except Wednesday. ⁴ At the Banco Central de Costa Rica's reference selling rate of 454.15 colones to the dollar on 25 September 2026, that is USD 5.06 a kilo. ⁵

That price is the argument for the small bag, in one line. Two kilos of washing, back the same afternoon for about USD 10.13, replaces four days of spare clothes and roughly two kilos of pack weight. Three shirts and a wash beat seven shirts and a heavier bag. MMT prices the same trade in four cities in laundry costs while traveling.

The list, in the order it goes in the bag

Every line answers a number from the sections above.

Five numbers wrote this list: 14C on a Monteverde night, 31C on a Manuel Antonio afternoon, 3,000 mm of cloud-forest rain a year, 4.5 kg in a Sansa cabin, and USD 5.06 a kilo for laundry. ^{1, 2, 9, 3, 4}

Clothes for two weeks

• Three shirts: two quick-dry, one long-sleeved for sun and for dusk. ⁶
• One pair of shorts, one pair of quick-dry long trousers, one swimsuit.
• A light fleece, for the 14C night in the cloud forest. ¹
• A packable hooded rain shell, at the top of the pack from May to November. ¹
• Four pairs of socks and underwear, with one of the four in wool.
• Closed shoes with grip, plus sandals you can wear wet.

Bites, sun and the clinic

• Repellent with 20 percent DEET or more. ⁶
• Permethrin-treated clothing, or a bottle to treat your own fabric with. ⁶
• Sunscreen: SPF 15 is CDC's floor, and a Costa Rica guide recommends SPF 30 to 50 for the tropics. ^{6, 1}
• A travel-clinic appointment if Alajuela or Limon is on the route. ⁶

Documents, power and the bottle

• A passport valid for at least one day at entry. Group I of Costa Rica's November 2025 directive gives US citizens up to 180 visa-free days. ¹²
• Chargers as they are, with the plug adapter left at home: Costa Rica runs on the same 110-volt standard as the US and Canada, on American-style sockets. ⁸
• A reusable water bottle, which national parks require at the gate. ⁷
• A dry bag for the rainy-season afternoons and the boat transfers.

The Costa Rica country guide holds entry, money and seasons in one place. For a stay that outlasts the 180 days, the Costa Rica digital nomad requirements page covers the income evidence and the insurance that route asks for.