Costa del Sol vs Guanacaste

Ikos Andalusia's outdoor bar terrace features woven pendant lamps, bar seating, and tall palm trees with pink flowering plants in foreground.

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

Costa del Sol 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.

By the numbers

Costa del Sol compared with Guanacaste
Costa del Sol	Measure	Guanacaste
Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution	U.S. travel advisory	Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution
6	Resorts in our catalog	6
★ 4.4 (better)	Average guest rating	★ 4.4
$67–$526/night pp (better)	Nightly rates	$88–$261/night pp
0 of 6	Adults-only resorts	1 of 6
No hurricane season (better)	Hurricane exposure	Low hurricane risk
November–March	Rainy season	May–November ('green season'), seriously wet September–October
June and September; July–August is hottest and busiest	Sweet spot	December–April, bone-dry
Málaga (AGP), most resorts 20–60 min west along the coast	Airport	Liberia (LIR), Papagayo resorts 30–45 min
Sun with Andalusia attached; day trips to Granada, Seville and Ronda	Best for	Nature + beach in one trip; reliable winter sun

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

Costa del Sol

Guanacaste

Weather, month by month

Month-by-month average high temperature and rainfall for Costa del Sol and Guanacaste
Measure	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Costa del Sol · high °F	63	64	67	70	75	81	86	86	82	75	68	64
Guanacaste · high °F	91	92	93	93	91	88	88	88	87	86	87	89
Costa del Sol · rain (in)	2.7	2.3	1.9	1.6	0.8	0.2	0.0	0.2	0.9	2.2	3.7	3.9
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 Málaga and Papagayo / Guanacaste: planning guidance, not a forecast. A deeper tint is a higher number, read within its own row.