Jacó and Manuel Antonio: four nights on the Pacific coast

Two towns, ninety minutes apart

The road out of San José runs about 100 km to the Pacific and takes about an hour and a half. Highway 27 toward Caldera, then Route 34, the Costanera Sur, down the coast. Twenty minutes short of Jacó it crosses the Tárcoles river, where American crocodiles lie out on the bank below the bridge. ⁴

Jacó is the surf town at the end of that drive: two and a half miles of open Pacific, schools working the tide, Playa Hermosa just south. Manuel Antonio is another ninety minutes on and asks for a different day. A booked ticket, a 7 a.m. gate, monkeys in the trees above the trail. ^{10, 5, 2}

Four nights covers both towns if you split them. This page says what each one is for, prices the gates and the rides off the operators' and the government's own pages, and puts them in order. The route these nights sit inside is MMT's two-week Costa Rica itinerary.

Jacó vs Manuel Antonio: which one should you base in?

One town is a beach you walk onto. The other is a park you buy a ticket for. They want different days and different money.

Base in Jacó for the water and the short drive; base in Manuel Antonio for the park. Jacó sits about 100 km from the airport, about 1.5 hours by private vehicle and closer to 2 on Friday afternoons. Sí Como No, on the Manuel Antonio road, puts itself about 3 hours from the same airport and 10 minutes from the park gate. ^{4, 11}

How do you get from San José to Jacó and on to Manuel Antonio?

One road does most of the work. Highway 27 out of the capital, then Route 34 down the coast. A Jacó operator puts the airport run at about 100 km and about 1.5 hours in a private vehicle, nearer 2 hours when Friday traffic or the Sunday return fills the road. ⁴

The second leg is the one to book. Two Weeks in Costa Rica sells a private shuttle from the Jacó area to Quepos and Manuel Antonio at $134 for one to five passengers, plus 13% tax. That is $151.42, or $37.86 a head split four ways, for about 1.5 hours of driving plus a 15-minute stop. ⁵

Interbus runs the same gap on a schedule and publishes no price for it. Its San José to Manuel Antonio shuttle leaves at 7:30 a.m. daily and takes about 4.5 hours. ¹⁴ If the airport itself is still open as a question, MMT compares the two in SJO or Liberia.

Carara National Park sits on the same road, and it costs $11.30 with tax. The same decree that sets Manuel Antonio's fee prices Carara's base at $10; the government's own ticketing carries it to $11.30 for non-residents and CRC 1,130 for residents with IVA added, $6.78 a head less than Manuel Antonio. It is the cheapest rainforest morning between the airport and the beach, and the crocodile bridge is minutes past it. ^{1, 4, 15}

What does Manuel Antonio National Park cost, and how do you get in?

One price, one portal, one closed day a week.

Entry is $18.08 for a foreign adult and $5.65 for a child aged 2 to 12, and the government's own site is the only place to buy it. The decree sets the base fee at $16; IVA carries it to $18.08 at checkout. Two adults is $36.16. Two adults and two children is $47.46. ^{1, 2, 3}

1. 01

   Buy online before you go

   Manuel Antonio is on the list of parks that must be reserved through SINAC's own portal. There is no window at the gate. ³

2. 02

   Pick any day but Tuesday

   The park runs 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Monday, and closes every Tuesday. Early is cooler and the animals are awake. ²

3. 03

   Leave the picnic in the room

   Food and drink are barred at the gate, with narrow exceptions for sealed reusable containers. Feeding an animal breaks the wildlife law, with fines reaching CRC 140,000. ¹⁷

4. 04

   Sort the parking out first

   The park has no lot of its own. Private lots line Route 618 and take cash. ²

The cap is not as generous as it sounds. More than 478,000 people came through in 2023, the most of any Costa Rican national park. Spread over the 313 days it opens in a year, 365 less 52 Tuesdays, that is about 1,527 a day. The ceiling rose from 1,800 to 2,500 in 2024, 700 more tickets. ¹⁶

The food rule, and the monkeys behind it

Bring no food in, and hand none over. A research team from Icomvis-UNA has followed the park's white-faced capuchins and raccoons since 2012. In animals fed by visitors they found cavities, high cholesterol, high triglycerides and high blood glucose. Raccoons that once moved at night now work in daylight. ¹⁶

The park answered with cages. Two feeding-prevention structures went up around the food-service area and a table area in October 2023, and SINAC and the Central Pacific Conservation Area bar visitors from carrying food or drink of any kind through the gate. Sealed reusable containers hold the only listed exceptions. ^{16, 17}

The ticket buys 1,983 hectares of land and 25,634 hectares of water. The park was declared in 1972, after local people organized against development and beach closures. It holds 109 mammal species and 184 bird species, three of Costa Rica's four monkey species and both of its sloths. The Central American squirrel monkey is listed as Endangered. ¹³

Jacó's surf, and the current running under it

Two hours in the water with a teacher costs $60 to $80, and both schools hand you the board. Jacó Beach Surf School prices a standard two-hour group lesson at $65 with 24 hours of board use, and a three-hour private lesson with hotel pickup at $80. Tortuga Surf Camp charges $80 one to one, $70 each semi-private, $60 a head for three or more. ^{6, 7}

Playa Hermosa, just south in Garabito, is a World Surfing Reserve. Save The Waves Coalition named it on 23 September 2020, the first in Central America and the thirteenth in the world, for its wave quality and its coastal biodiversity. That is a credential rather than an adjective. ¹²

Costa Rica Pacific coast itinerary: four nights, two and two

Two nights in each town beats four in one. About 1.5 hours of road separates them, so a day trip from one to the other spends three hours driving and the best part of a park morning. Split the stay and each town gets a whole day. ⁵

Jacó first puts the long airport drive on your freshest day and leaves you close to the gate at the end. Sí Como No, on the Manuel Antonio road, puts itself 10 minutes from the park and about 25 minutes from the Quepos airstrip, which is the other way home. ¹¹

Packing for a surf town and a rainforest in one bag takes some thought, and MMT's one-bag tropics packing list is built for that split.

What do four nights on the coast actually cost?

Two adults, every line read off the provider's or the government's own page on 25 September 2026.

The fixed lines come to $1,971.68 for two adults, and the room is 82% of that. Four nights in Tulemar's Standard Room at the green-season rate, both park gates, the shuttle between the towns and one semi-private surf lesson each. Flights, food and the airport run sit on top. ^{8, 1, 2, 5, 7, 15}

When should you go, and what does the rain do?

Costa Rica's weather institute dates the Pacífico Central rains from 2 to 10 May through 6 to 23 November. That rainfall region covers Jacó, Quepos and Manuel Antonio alike. The dates come from the 1991 to 2020 climate period, so they give you the shape of the season rather than a forecast for your week. ¹⁸

• Dry season, December to April. The best weather, the most reliable wildlife sightings and the biggest crowds at the gate. ²
• Shoulder, May and November. Fewer people and lower prices, on the two months the rains are either starting or finishing. ^{2, 18}
• Green season, June to October. Heavier afternoon rain, with September and October the wettest of the year. ²

The calendar costs more than the choice of hotel. Tulemar's Standard Room is $345 a night from 1 May to 15 November and $585 in the 20 March to 3 April Easter window. Four nights with the 17.5% added is $1,621.50 against $2,749.50, a difference of $1,128 for the same room. ⁸

Prices on this page are in US dollars because that is how these providers quote them. Costa Rica runs on colones, and the Federal Reserve's weekly H.10 release does not carry the colón, so no US reference rate applies here. The fee decree itself states park entry in dollars for non-residents and in colones for residents. ^{19, 1}

Staying longer than a holiday changes the question. The Costa Rica digital nomad requirements cover the income and insurance evidence, and the rest of the country sits in the Costa Rica guide hub.