By seven in the morning at the Beach Club, the parking lot at Playa Avellanas is quiet, the tide is doing something interesting, and a few residents are already on the pool deck deciding whether to swim before breakfast or ride the trails while the light is still soft. This is July at Hacienda Pinilla. The tour buses that fill the coast in February are not here. The community, at this hour, belongs to the people who live inside it.
That is the argument of this post. Hacienda Pinilla is often described as a dry-season destination, and the marketing photos usually reflect that. If you actually live here, the opposite is closer to the truth. The 4,500 acres, the three beaches, the 45 kilometers of trail, the beach club, the stables and the on-property dining were designed for the depth of a slow week, not the density of a peak one. The green season is when that design pays off. And in 2026, with a drier-leaning El Niño pattern in play, the payoff is unusually generous.
The 2026 Season Is Behaving Differently
Green-season planning in Guanacaste normally means building your day around a predictable afternoon build-up. This year is not behaving that way. A drier-leaning El Niño year lets you pivot on a dime if the sun stays around for longer than normal, and July inside the community has been rewarding residents who keep their plans loose. A morning that looks marginal at seven often clears by nine. A cell that darkens the ridge at three sometimes never lands on the coast at all.
The practical read is this. If you have been treating July through November as a season to work around, treat it as a season to work with. The trails are the best they will look all year. The golf course is playing softer. The Beach Club is not full. And the community amenities that are hardest to enjoy in February, because everyone else is enjoying them, are wide open now.
The Trail Network Is At Its Peak Right Now
The trail system wends and winds through 45 kilometers of forest, coastline, and traditional cattle ranch, and green season is when those three habitats look nothing like the postcard version of Guanacaste. The dry forest is not dry. The savannah between Los Almendros and the coast is green. The wooden bridges that get skipped over in March become the most photogenic sections of a ride in July.
A few practical notes for residents who already know the network:
- The early window, roughly 6:00 to 8:30, is when the light is best and the ground is most reliable.
- The mid-morning window, 9:00 to 11:00, is when howler monkey activity is loudest along the interior loops.
- The late-afternoon window is a coin flip. Some days you get a two-hour ride with no weather at all. Some days you get twenty minutes and a warm downpour. Both are fine if you plan the route to loop back through the ranch rather than out along the beach.
The mountain-bike terrain is honest. Scenic routes, natural challenges, and rigorous tracks wind through forest, coastline, and traditional cattle ranch, and you can often ride as if you had the trails to yourself. That last part is truer in July than in any other month.
The Beach Club Rhythms Residents Actually Use
The Beach Club is the community's living room, and the rhythm of that living room changes with the season. The beach club is open from 6 am – 10 pm daily, which means there are really three clubs inside one building, and green season is when the shape of each one becomes obvious.
The morning club, from opening to about ten, is a swim, coffee, and quiet-breakfast club. If you have visitors staying at your house who want to see the ocean before the day gets hot, this is the window.
The middle-day club is for the water. Avellanas Beach offers three incredible surf opportunities: the first is "Little Hawaii," which is located directly in front of the Hacienda Pinilla Beach Club, and where rights and lefts roll all day long. Green-season swell is more consistent than dry-season swell, and the crowd at Little Hawaii thins meaningfully once you get past the July school-holiday weeks.
The evening club is dinner and the fitness center upstairs. The oceanfront fitness center is located on the second floor at the Beach Club, and offers a place to enjoy a workout while watching the crashing waves, the surfers, and the sunset. Residents who use the treadmill at 5:30 in July get one of the better sunset seats on the property, without having booked anything.
Golf You Can Plan Around A Rain Cell
The course is a factor the marketing understates. The par-72 course was designed by Mike Young, and is designated as an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary for its preservation of ecological balance, wending its way through 7,200 yards of tropical forest, Pacific coastline, and unparalleled views. In July, it is not a course you plan the day around. It is a course you fit into a morning.
A drier-leaning season can mean more comfortable windows to play a round, fewer crowds than the highest-demand months, and the pleasure of a course that feels fully alive around you; in 2026, it may be even easier to build a trip around morning rounds and still have afternoons for the pool, Beach Club, or dinner out. Residents in Reserva de Golf are, unsurprisingly, the ones taking most advantage of this. The people who are missing it are the ones who still think of the course as a February tee sheet.
The community was built to absorb weather, not to hide from it. When the sky moves, the day moves with it.
The Stables, The Courts, And The Underused Hours
Two amenities are almost always available in green season, and residents who ignore them in the dry season should reconsider them now.
The stables. The best way to explore the 4,500 acre ranch is by horseback, with rides from 30 minutes to 2 hours taking you through the forest and out along the secluded beaches all within the ranch. The ranchland is unrecognizable in green season. Grass is high, streams are running, and the beach section of a longer ride ends at coastline that most owners have seen only from a car.
The tennis center. Two courts and top-quality surfaces welcome you to a match, which you can play with the resort's tennis pro, Jaylen Brennan, who has 25+ years of experience. Court time in July is essentially open. Kids camps and pickleball events are regular activities and are worth watching the community notices for.
Where Residents Actually Eat This Time Of Year
Two dining points anchor a green-season week inside the gates.
The Beach Club restaurant. Nestled on the beach level, the restaurant offers gourmet dishes featuring local produce, vegetarian options, and fresh seafood, paired with cocktails, beers, and tropical fruit juices, and a sunset reservation delivers a panoramic vista over Playa Avellanas. Reservations in July are usually easy. In February they are not.
The JW Marriott, on the property. Hacienda Pinilla is home to the JW Marriott hotel, and residents can purchase a day pass for use of the hotel's pool, which is the largest throughout Central America, and the day pass gives access to all of the hotel grounds and amenities. In green season, using the JW as a dining and pool destination for an afternoon with visiting family is one of the underused moves inside the community.
The Three Beaches, Read By Season
The community has direct access to three beaches, and green season shifts which one you use for what. Playa Avellanas, Playa Langosta, and Playa Mansita each play a different role.
Avellanas is the surf and Beach Club beach. Green-season swell keeps Little Hawaii and its neighbors working most days. It is also the beach where visiting friends will want to spend their afternoon.
Mansita is the swim beach. In green season the water clarity varies by day, but the sheltered shape makes it the quiet-morning option when you do not want to commit to the Beach Club scene.
Langosta is the walk. Playa Langosta is also part of the Las Baulas Marine National Park, and the estuary end of the beach is a green-season standout for birding at first light. Owners in Los Almendros and along the southern edge of the community are closest.
A Rough Week, For Residents Who Want The Shape Of It
- Monday morning: trail ride from the interior loops, breakfast at the Beach Club by nine.
- Tuesday: tee time at seven, home by noon, quiet afternoon.
- Wednesday: horseback along the beach section, JW pool with family in the afternoon.
- Thursday: tennis or pickleball at the courts, dinner at the Beach Club at sunset.
- Friday: Langosta at first light with coffee, a slow day, and whatever the sky offers after four.
None of this requires reservations more than a day out. In February, most of it does.
The Argument, Restated
Residents who have been here through more than one green season already know what the newer owners are still learning. The community is not diminished by July. It is uncrowded, greener, and easier to use. The infrastructure is the same. The staff is the same. The trails, the courts, the stables and the coastline are all more available, not less. The 2026 season, with its drier-leaning tilt, is a good year to lean into all of that rather than wait for December.
If you have friends thinking about buying inside Hacienda Pinilla, the honest sales pitch is not the dry-season photo. It is the green-season week. Send them a July afternoon on the trails and a Beach Club sunset in August. They will understand what the 4,500 acres are actually for.
When you are ready to talk about what ownership looks like inside Pinilla, or how the community compares to Reserva Conchal, Las Catalinas, or the Flamingo corridor, the team at Flamingo Beach Realty is here for the conversation. Contact Us.
