Corcovado National Park Entrance Fee: 2026 Prices

SINAC prices Corcovado's four sectors, Sirena, San Pedrillo, La Leona and Los Patos, identically. The published tariff itself is $15 for a non-resident adult and $5 for a child before Costa Rica's 13% VAT is added; the tax-included figure below is the one printed on every SINAC sector page and the one you'll actually be charged.

At ₡451 to the dollar, the Banco Central rate on 15 August 2026, the resident adult fee of ₡1,808 converts to roughly $4.01, a fraction of the non-resident rate. The published tariff sheet lists the base figures as $15 and ₡1,600 before tax; the 13% VAT on top is what produces the $16.95 and ₡1,808 you'll see charged at the sector. Last verified: August 2026.

Two Non-Resident Adults

A couple traveling together, both non-residents, pays $16.95 each at the gate if entering independently, $33.90 for the pair before anything else is added. Booked instead through the Drake Bay day tour at $110 a person, the fee is already folded into that $220 total for two, along with the guide and the boat crossing, so the entry fee itself never appears as a separate line.

A Family With Two Children

Two non-resident adults and two children aged 2 to under 12 pay $16.95 twice and $5.65 twice at the gate, $45.20 in fees alone for the family of four. On a booked tour, that same family sees the fee absorbed into the per-person tour price rather than itemized separately, which is one reason operator pricing looks higher than the bare entrance fee at first glance.

The entrance fee is charged per person, per day, per sector. It buys you access through the gate of the specific sector you booked, Sirena, San Pedrillo, La Leona or Los Patos, for that one day. It does not buy the guide who has to accompany you by SINAC rule (covered in full on the do you need a guide page), the boat or vehicle transport to reach the sector, or any food along the way.

Every tour sold for Corcovado bundles these into one price, which is why the ticket you buy from an operator costs considerably more than the $16.95 fee by itself; the fee is one line item inside a larger day, not the whole cost of visiting.

This is the single most common budgeting mix-up visitors make researching Corcovado: reading the $16.95 figure on a SINAC page and assuming that number is the whole cost of the day. It is not. The park fee, the mandatory guide, the boat or 4x4 that gets you to the sector, and usually lunch are four separate cost lines that a booked tour rolls into one price.

Pricing the fee alone against a $110 to $185 tour price can make the tour look like it is charging a large markup, when in reality it is charging for four services, only one of which is the sector entrance itself.

Stacking the entrance fee against what a booked tour actually covers shows how small a share the park fee is of the real total.

In practice this means the cheapest way to see Corcovado, the Drake Bay day trip to Sirena at $110, already has the $16.95 fee folded in alongside the guide and the boat. From Uvita and Puerto Jiménez, the same kind of day runs $170 to $185, largely reflecting a longer boat crossing or a smaller private group rather than a different park fee. Last verified: August 2026.

Prices at checkout can move with demand and season, so treat every figure on this page as a snapshot rather than a locked-in number; the total shown when you actually book is the one that governs, and it is worth reconfirming close to your travel date rather than budgeting off a screenshot taken months earlier.

The Booking Window

Reservations for any sector can be made up to six months in advance. There is no minimum lead time required, and most operators can confirm a booking within days, but the fee itself is tied to a confirmed reservation, not paid loosely at the gate on the day.

What You Present at the Gate

The reservation is personal and non-transferable, and you present your ID, a passport for most visitors, at the specific sector you booked. Stations run 7:00 am to 3:00 pm daily, and Sirena closes for the whole of October for maintenance, since it is also the rainiest month of the year, so that month is off the table regardless of which fee tier applies to you.

The Refund Rule

A refund request has to be justified and made at least 15 calendar days before your park visit. Changes made closer to the date are granted only for a genuine reason, a flight cancellation, illness, or a park closure, each requiring a justified note under the governing directive. This applies to the reservation and its associated fee, not to whatever cancellation policy your tour operator sets on top of it.

For nearly every visitor, the practical way to pay the entrance fee is to let it ride inside a booked tour rather than handling it independently. Booking a Corcovado day tour from Drake Bay or a similar departure means the operator files your reservation, the fee, and your guide's ACOSA registration together, and you are charged one total when you book. Trying to arrange the reservation and fee payment independently, ahead of arranging a qualifying guide, risks the two pieces falling out of sync, since SINAC ties the guide's registration to the reservation itself, not the other way around.

• Booked through an operator: one charge at checkout, fee and guide already reconciled
• Arranged independently: the reservation, the fee and the guide's ACOSA registration all have to line up before the visit, not after
• Either way, the passport presented at the gate has to match the name on file

If your plan includes sleeping at Sirena rather than doing a single day trip, the lodging, meals, the nature shop and locker rental all run under a use permit held by the Asociación de Desarrollo Integral Corcovado-Carate, not SINAC. That means an overnight stay is two separate bookings in practice: the park reservation and entrance fee through SINAC or your guide, and the bed and meals through the concession directly. The park entrance fee covers your access to the sector, not a night's stay inside it.

For the fuller comparison of a day visit against sleeping over, see the ranger stations guide, which covers how each sector's access and services differ, and for a look at what a single Drake Bay day actually includes, see the Drake Bay day tour guide.