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Costa Rica Costa RicaIslandUNESCO World Heritage

Coco Island

23.2 km² of land in the Pacific Ocean.

When to go

Coco Island seen from space, cut out from the sea (Sentinel-2)
N 1 km

Satellite: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX (CC BY 4.0). Outline and points © OpenStreetMap contributors / Natural Earth. North up.

In numbers

23.2km²

Area

35km

Coastline

283m

Highest point

0

People

29°C

Warmest sea

March

495km

To the mainland

When to go to Coco Island

Best for the beach from January to May.

The sea is warmest in March (29 °C) and coolest in November (27 °C). You can swim comfortably all year (21 °C or more).

Sea temperature (the water level) Air: night low to afternoon high Wet days Best months

Averages 1991–2020. Sea: NOAA OISST, the water within 35 km of the coast. Air, rain and sun: NASA POWER. Best months weigh warm afternoons (23–30 °C), sea of 24 °C or more and few wet days.

Island in the Pacific Ocean administered by Costa Rica

Coco Island is an island in Costa Rica. It covers 23.2 km², with 35 km of coastline. Its highest point rises to 283 m. Nobody lives on it. The nearest mainland is 495 km away. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Read more on Wikipedia

Getting there

  • 495 km from the mainlanddistance to the nearest continental coast
  • From January to Maybest months to go (from 30 years of averages)

Plan the trip

Ferries, stays and things to do

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

On the island

What you find on Coco Island.

  • 3beaches
  • 3named peaksCerro Pelón, Cerro Jesús Jiménez, Cerro Las Madres
  • 1volcanoesCerro Yglesias
  • 1waterfallsCatarata Río Genio

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, inside the island's outline. A low number may only mean nobody has mapped it yet.

The shape of the land.

On average the island stands 227 m above the sea. 40 % of it is below 200 m.

  • 7 %0–50 m
  • 33 %50–200 m
  • 59 %200–500 m
  • <1 %500–1,000 m

Share of the island's area in each altitude band, from the Copernicus DEM (30 m, read at 30–240 m on large islands).

Size, for real

Next to islands you may know.

Coco Island23 km²
Manhattan54 km²
Santorini76 km²

5 km

All outlines drawn to the same scale (Natural Earth and OpenStreetMap).

Month by month

The weather on the island.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Afternoon high (°C)272828282827272727262627
Night low (°C)262728282727262626262626
Sea (°C)282929292928282727272727
Rain (mm)169126156256350301333295243182158162
Wet days252124282929303029272626
Sun h/day6.57.26.55.33.93.93.53.84.14.94.75.6
Wind (km/h)1099121718192021222115

Averages 1991–2020 for the ~55 km NASA POWER cell over the island; the sea from NOAA OISST.

Recent years

Warmer and cooler years at sea.

Each month's sea temperature compared with its 1991–2020 average, in degrees.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2020+0.3+0.3+0.6+0.4+0.4+0.3+0.3+0.1−0.1+0.2+0.1+0.2
2021−0.9−0.7−0.3−0.1−0.3−0.2+0.3−0.1+0.2+0.5+0.6−0.2
2022±0.0−0.6−0.2−0.3−0.4−0.7−0.5−0.2+0.2±0.0+0.3+0.2
2023−0.2+0.3+0.4+0.9+1.3+1.3+1.5+1.9+1.8+1.7+1.7+2.0
2024+1.3+0.7+0.7+0.9+0.2+0.3+0.7+0.4+0.5+0.8+0.5+0.3
2025±0.0−0.1+0.6+1.0+0.5+0.7+0.8+0.4+0.4+0.5+0.6+0.5

+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual

Photos

Seen by visitors.

About these numbers

Names, area, populationWikidata (Q215081) · CC0
Outline© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
Sea temperatureNOAA OISST v2.1 · 1991–2020
ClimateNASA POWER · 1991–2020
Relief, 3D modelCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Beaches, ports, lighthouses, trails© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
TownsGeoNames · CC BY 4.0
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

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