Guanacaste Events

Guanacaste’s own national day, marking the 1824 annexation. A public holiday, and the largest date in the provincial calendar. Nicoya’s programme runs a tope de toros with marching bands from 1pm and free bull riding from 3pm at the Campo Ferial San Blas.

The busiest week of the Costa Rican domestic year. Accommodation books out months ahead and prices rise; much of the country closes on the Thursday and Friday. Book early or plan around it.

The national folkloric fiesta, held in the town declared Costa Rica’s Ciudad Folclórica, in honour of the Santo Cristo de Esquipulas — whose patronal day, 15 January, is the fixed point the rest of the programme is built around. In 2026 the saint left Hato Viejo at 6am on the 14th with a solemn procession that afternoon, the patronal Eucharist was at 10am on the 15th, and the Burra Fiestera closed it on the 18th. Marimba, traditional dance, a tope de toros from noon each day starting in the Santa Cecilia district, and bull riding from 2pm to 8pm. The one to prioritise if you can choose.

Liberia’s civic fiesta: music, bull riding and parades over roughly a fortnight.

Liberia’s agricultural and commercial fair, timed to overlap the Anexión holiday.

Its 18th edition in 2026, and it sold out. Starts at four in the morning — sunrise on race day is 5:32am, so the long distances run their first seventy-two minutes in the dark. Not to be confused with the triathlon.

A separate, inaugural event with no search history and no previous edition. Routinely confused with the Beach Marathon, which runs in September.

Mass olive ridley arrivals. They depend on moon and tide, so no calendar can give you a date — the refuge knows only a few days in advance. Ostional also has a 60 m beach boardwalk, an amphibious chair and two wheelchairs.

The one natural event here you can genuinely plan years ahead, because it follows the lunar calendar rather than the weather. Avoid the week around each full moon.