Bahia vs Guanacaste

Turquoise pool with thatched-roof cabanas, loungers, and a daybed pavilion surrounded by tropical vegetation under cloudy sky.

Illuminated beachfront dining pavilion with white railings and thatched-roof bungalows reflected in the pool at dusk.

Bahia and Guanacaste, side by side: live travel advisories, our resort catalog's real guest data, and each destination's honest weather picture. Everything you need to break the tie.

Bahia guide · Guanacaste guide · How we score

By the numbers

Bahia compared with Guanacaste
Bahia	Measure	Guanacaste
Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution	U.S. travel advisory	Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution
4	Resorts in our catalog	7 (better)
★ 4.7 (better)	Average guest rating	★ 4.4
$128–$233/night pp	Nightly rates	$88–$289/night pp (better)
0 of 4	Adults-only resorts	1 of 7
No hurricane season (better)	Hurricane exposure	Low hurricane risk
April–July	Rainy season	May–November ('green season'), seriously wet September–October
September–March (southern-hemisphere spring and summer)	Sweet spot	December–April, bone-dry
Salvador (SSA), resort zone ~1–1.5h north	Airport	Liberia (LIR), Papagayo resorts 30–45 min
Culture-rich beach trips; hurricane-free southern summers	Best for	Nature + beach in one trip; reliable winter sun
TAMAR turtle project; Salvador's Pelourinho; moqueca	Signature	Wildlife everywhere; volcano and cloud-forest day trips

Advisory levels sync from travel.state.gov; catalog figures reflect the resorts we've researched, not every hotel in the country. A marked row is one we are willing to call; rows without a mark are a matter of taste, or we have no comparable figure for both sides.

On the map

Bahia

Guanacaste

Weather, month by month

Month-by-month average high temperature and rainfall for Bahia and Guanacaste
Measure	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Bahia · high °F	86	87	86	84	82	80	79	79	81	83	84	85
Guanacaste · high °F	91	92	93	93	91	88	88	88	87	86	87	89
Bahia · rain (in)	2.7	3.9	6.1	10.9	10.5	8.5	6.9	4.4	3.3	3.9	4.1	4.9
Guanacaste · rain (in)	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.7	7.7	9.0	5.9	7.9	13.0	12.2	4.3	0.5

Approximate climate normals for Bahia coast (Salvador) and Papagayo / Guanacaste: planning guidance, not a forecast. A deeper tint is a higher number, read within its own row.