Country Guide » About Costa Rica
Costa Rica is situated on Central America, and follows (along with Mexico, Guatamala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua) the North American Central Standard Time (CST) – 6 hours behind GMT. An important thing to remember is that Costa Rica DOES NOT observe Daylight Saving, which means that when the majority of the US puts their clocks forward 1 hour in the Spring, Costa Rica does not change. So, for 6 months of the year, Costa Rica is effectively on Mountain Time (MST), and thus 7 hours behind GMT. Confused? Don’t be! Just see it like this:
Winter (approx Oct-March): CST
Summer (approx March-Oct, Daylight Saving): MST
Being so close to the equator, Costa Rica has no need to enact Daylight Saving, as the days and nights are roughly equal (12 hours) in length year-round.
