May arrives quietly in Costa Rica. There’s no grand announcement, just a shift you feel more than see. The pace softens. The town exhales. The ocean stays warm and inviting, while the land begins to turn lush again. It’s the moment just before the season really turns, when everything feels open, unrushed, and just a little more personal.
For couples, this in-between month offers something rare. Fewer distractions. More space. More room to notice how it feels to be together, without an agenda. At Santarena Hotel in Las Catalinas, May isn’t about chasing highlights. It’s about choosing experiences that flow naturally from one to the next, from saltwater to soil, from shared silence to unhurried conversation.
This is where connection deepens. Not through intensity, but through purpose and meaning.
May in Costa Rica: The Moment Before the Exhale
May sits gently between Costa Rica’s dry and green seasons. The days remain bright and warm. The ocean is still clear and calm, especially in the mornings. Light rains arrive occasionally, refreshing the landscape rather than disrupting it. Trails are quieter. Beaches are quieter. The town settles into a rhythm that belongs to the people who are there, not the crowds who have already moved on.
For couples traveling together, this creates an emotional ease that’s hard to replicate during busier months. There’s no need to plan around peak hours or packed itineraries. Let your mornings unfold slowly, your afternoons with room for rest or wandering. And allow your evenings to arrive with a sense of openness rather than urgency.
May doesn’t ask you to do more. It invites you to do less, but with more intention.
Mornings Begin with Coffee and Conversation
At Santarena, mornings don’t begin with urgency. They begin on foot. You step out of our hotel and onto pedestrian streets where the air is still cool and the town hasn’t quite decided to wake up all at once. There’s time to wander, to notice the way light moves across the buildings, to ease into the day instead of racing it.
Costa Rican coffee carries a deep sense of place. Grown at high elevations in volcanic soil, most often from arabica hard bean varieties, it develops slowly, shaped by cooler mountain air and patient cultivation. The result is a cup that’s clean, balanced, and quietly complex. Sitting together with your morning coffee becomes less about caffeine and more about conversation. It’s where plans soften, thoughts unfold, and the day begins to feel like something you’re stepping into together rather than something to get through.
This is where connection turns verbal. You talk. You linger. You let the morning arrive fully.
Snorkeling as Shared Silence
Eventually, the pull of the ocean replaces the pull of conversation. Without much discussion, you find yourselves heading toward the water.
During early May, snorkeling in Las Catalinas remains one of the most intimate ways to experience the Pacific together. The water is warm. Visibility is typically good. And the experience feels less like an activity and more like a quiet ritual you share side by side.
You enter the water together. Words fall away. Beneath the surface, everything slows. Light and color render differently. Fish move in gentle, unhurried patterns. Sunbeams filter down in soft ribbons that shift with the tide. There’s a subtle awareness of your partner floating just beside you. You move at the same pace, exploring reef and sand in unspoken agreement, following curiosity rather than direction.
Side by side, silence becomes connective rather than empty. It’s not about discovery in the traditional sense; it’s about shared attention. About being present in the same moment, without needing to narrate it.
You finally step back onto shore, salt drying on your skin. This is ocean intimacy at its simplest. Calm. Physical. Grounded.
The Space Between Experiences
Lunch unfolds easily. The afternoon stretches without structure. Maybe you rest by our rooftop pool. Maybe you retreat to the shade with a book you’ve been excited to read. These in-between hours matter more than they seem. They allow the morning’s quiet intensity to settle into something softer, something lasting.
Slow travel lives in these pauses. In choosing not to rush from one highlight to the next. In letting the day breathe.
Sunset Snorkeling and the Return to Land
As afternoon drifts toward evening, the light begins to shift again. In May, sunsets arrive early, usually between 5:45 and 6:00 pm, casting the bay in warm golds and muted pinks that transform the water, both above and below the surface, completely. The ocean remains calm, but the mood changes.
Sunset snorkeling is different from its morning counterpart. Less exploratory. More reflective. The colors deepen. The light softens. Floating together in the fading glow becomes a way of closing out the day, of marking time without ceremony.
Stepping out of the water as the sky darkens feels like crossing a threshold. The day has moved from conversation to silence, from motion to stillness, from land to sea and back again.
A late afternoon cafecito – the Costa Rican ritual of coffee and pastry – or an early dinner nearby becomes the natural close to the experience. Nothing heavy. Nothing elaborate. Just enough to ground you again.
From Silence to Conversation
What begins underwater as shared quiet becomes dialogue on land. This contrast matters.
Snorkeling asks you to feel. Coffee invites you to reflect. Together, they mirror the rhythm many long-term couples crave. Novelty without chaos. Depth without pressure. Experiences that are very different but ultimately connected.
This pairing isn’t about filling time. It’s about creating memory through contrast. Because we rarely remember trips by what we did, or in what order. Instead, we remember how moments made us feel like we were one again.
Saltwater to soil. Floating to grounded. Quiet to conversation.
Santarena, Your Quiet Guide
At Santarena, these experiences aren’t stacked back to back. They’re shaped into a rhythm that feels natural. Mornings leave space. Afternoons invite rest. Rooftop sunsets become punctuation rather than programming.
We don’t schedule your days; we help guide the rhythm. A snorkeling morning that leaves you relaxed, not rushed. A coffee experience that feels like a continuation, not a contrast. Time in between to wander town, read by the pool, or do nothing at all.
This is where we quietly excel. We make reconnection feel effortless.
Let the Rhythm Carry You
If you’re imagining a romantic getaway in Costa Rica that feels grounded, unhurried, and emotionally rich, May offers exactly that. Let the ocean quiet you. Let the land open conversation. Let Santarena guide the rhythm.
Discover why May is Costa Rica’s most intimate month, and let our concierge design an escape that flows naturally from sea to land.
