Costa Rica / Guanacaste Province
Sámara
Sámara is a coastal resort area in Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica. Its longest mapped beach (Playa Sámara) stretches about 3.4 km and has a sand surface. The sea averages 29.4 °C in April, its warmest month, and 27.8 °C in November; it stays at 21 °C or above all year.
Average sea surface temperature by month. Current month outlined.
OpenStreetMap shows no lifeguard station within 1 km. Seasonal lifeguard posts are often unmapped, so check on site.
Services in the resort
- 58Restaurants, cafés & bars
- 2Public toilets
- –Showers
- 3Car parks
- –Lifeguard stations
- 52Hotels & guesthouses
- 5Campsites
- 6Grocery shops
- 1Bus stops (1.5 km)
- 1Pharmacies & clinics
- 2Cash machines
- 1Bike rental
Food and drink mapped within 1 km: 43 restaurants, 5 cafés and 10 bars. Accommodation: 52 hotels and guesthouses.
Counted within 1 km of the beach (bus stops 1.5 km) from OpenStreetMap features and Overture Maps places, release of 2026-10. Unmapped does not mean absent.
Month by month
October at Sámara
Beach-day index 7.1/10 · Costa Rica median 7.1
| Measure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sea °C | 28.4 °C | 28.6 °C | 28.9 °C | 29.4 °C | 29.1 °C | 28.8 °C | 28.9 °C | 28.9 °C | 28.5 °C | 28.0 °C | 27.8 °C | 28.2 °C |
| High °C | 31° | 32° | 34° | 33° | 31° | 29° | 29° | 29° | 29° | 28° | 28° | 29° |
| Low °C | 23° | 23° | 24° | 25° | 25° | 25° | 24° | 24° | 24° | 24° | 23° | 23° |
| Rain mm | 14 | 8 | 10 | 48 | 198 | 190 | 150 | 186 | 259 | 288 | 132 | 34 |
| Cloud % | 31 | 25 | 31 | 58 | 83 | 87 | 86 | 87 | 87 | 87 | 71 | 44 |
| Wind m/s | 4.2 | 4.2 | 3.9 | 3.0 | 2.6 | 2.4 | 2.3 | 2.3 | 2.3 | 2.7 | 2.8 | 3.3 |
| Daylight h | 11.6 | 11.8 | 12.1 | 12.3 | 12.6 | 12.7 | 12.7 | 12.5 | 12.2 | 11.9 | 11.7 | 11.6 |
| Record high/low | 35°/21° | 37°/21° | 37°/21° | 37°/22° | 36°/22° | 34°/24° | 33°/23° | 33°/23° | 34°/23° | 32°/22° | 33°/20° | 34°/20° |
| Beach index | 9.5 | 9.0 | 8.4 | 8.0 | 7.6 | 7.6 | 7.9 | 7.6 | 7.1 | 7.1 | 8.2 | 9.3 |
Long-term monthly averages: air from NASA POWER (2001–2020), sea from NOAA OISST (1991–2020); records are the extremes of 2001–2020. How the index works.
When to go
The beach-day index peaks in December–February; January scores 9.5/10 with highs of 31 °C, sea at 28.4 °C and 14 mm of rain.
In January that is 0.4 points above the median of the 89 beaches in Costa Rica covered by this atlas.
Across the year the sea averages 28.6 °C, warmer than 94% of the coastal beaches in the atlas.
October is the wettest month (288 mm) and February the driest (8 mm); the yearly total is about 1,520 mm.
Daylight runs from 11.6 hours in December to 12.7 hours in June; in mid-January the sun rises at 06:02 and sets at 17:38 local time.
Orientation, sun and shore
The shore faces south-south-west (200°). Open water fills about 42% of the horizon close by, which makes it an open stretch of shore.
The sun sets over the sea in September–March; in mid-December it goes down at 17:23 local time on a bearing of 247°.
Straight out to the south-south-west there is open water for more than 2,000 km, so the beach is exposed to long ocean swell.
About 1 km offshore the sea is roughly 152 m deep and 66 m at 3 km, so deep water starts close to shore. Behind the beach the ground is about 17 m above sea level 500 m inland and 84 m at 1.5 km.
Within 1 km, the land is 66% tree cover, 13% grassland and 11% bare ground, sand or rock (satellite land-cover map, 2021): a largely natural setting. Water makes up 88% of that circle.
- Tree 66%
- Grass 13%
- Bare 11%
- Built 9%
Land cover: ESA WorldCover 2021 (10 m). Orientation from OpenStreetMap land polygons sampled in 36 directions; depths and heights from the GEBCO 2020 grid (about 450 m cells), indicative only.
Getting there
| Airport | Code | Distance | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nosara Airport Nicoya | NOB | 18.5 km | north-west |
| Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport Liberia | LIR | 80.1 km | north |
| La Fortuna Arenal Airport La Fortuna | FON | 123 km | north-east |
Straight-line distances from the beach; road distance is usually 20–40% longer.
Local transport: 1 bus stop within 1.5 km and 3 mapped car parks within 1 km.
1 town or village of 1,000+ people lie within 10 km (about 1.1K residents); within 30 km there are 4 (about 2.9K).
Around the beach
Nature
- Werner Sauter Biological Preserve nature reserve 480 m W
- Cerro Sámara peak 930 m NE
Campsites
- Camping Aloha 400 m SW
- Camping Cocos 500 m SE
- Los Mangos 500 m E
- Los Cocos Samara 520 m E
Map
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Data on this page
- Air temperature, rain, cloud, wind, humidity: NASA POWER climatology 2001–2020, 0.5° grid.
- Sea temperature: NOAA OISST v2.1 monthly normals 1991–2020, nearest ocean cell 11.4 km away.
- Beach outline, surface, rules and public facilities: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), feature w54645026; restaurants, cafés, bars and lodging: Overture Maps places (CDLA-Permissive-2.0).
- Towns and time zone: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Airports: OurAirports (public domain). Sunrise and sunset: NOAA solar equations.
- Satellite view: Copernicus Sentinel-2 (ESA), scene S2B_16PFR_20240207_0_L2A.
- Orientation: OpenStreetMap land polygons (ODbL). Depth and terrain: GEBCO 2020 grid.
- Settlements: GeoNames places with 1,000+ inhabitants.
- Land cover: ESA WorldCover 2021, 10 m (CC BY 4.0).
- Search popularity: about 8.1K Google searches a month for the name (KeywordTool, October 2026).
Data compiled 2026-10-13. Something wrong? Report a data error.