TWO WAYS TO SPEND
NEW YEAR'S IN JACÓ.

Updated October 19, 2026

Where are you at eleven at night on the 31st? Picture two scenes. In one, you're on a terrace holding a plastic cup, a remix of something you already heard three times this week is playing, and somebody's about to start counting. Twenty minutes away, other people are sitting in front of a tent, among trees, waiting for the next drop.

Both scenes happen the same night, on the same piece of coast. The second one is La Selva del Bajo: dubstep and experimental bass across two stages, with open-air camping, and nobody driving at dawn. This page exists so you can compare the two calmly and pick well, not to convince you the first one is wrong.

Two countdowns, one night

The left column is a real option.

It works perfectly well for a lot of people and there is nothing to argue with there. The right one asks more of you: tent, headlamp, earplugs, closed shoes, and the stamina to be outdoors from the afternoon of 31 December until the morning of January 1, with heat in the day and humidity at night.

Planning around 31 December

Doors and camping open at 12 pm on 31 December 2026. Music runs from 12 pm to 3 am, and campers stay until 11 am on January 2. That is the piece you can build a week around. The price and the on-sale date are still open, so here are five things you can settle today.

1. Get your tickets

   Tickets are on sale now. Choose your night and buy tickets for La Selva del Bajo at The Park at Ocean Ranch.

2. Decide who you are coming with

   Camping on New Year's with people who already committed is a very different thing from herding five who are still thinking about it. The invite page gives you code, link and QR card so you can lock your crew early.

3. Sort out transport

   The camping area is built around parking beside your tent, so whoever drives carries most of the load. If you have no car, that conversation happens before tickets go on sale, not after. The detail is in getting there.

4. Build the kit

   Tent, rain cover, light, water, earplugs, bug spray and bags for your own trash. None of that is easy to find on December 30 on the coast. The full list lives in what to bring.

5. Keep WhatsApp within reach

   The announcement goes out by email and WhatsApp at the same time. If that number is muted or your inbox is buried, you will hear late about something that gets decided in hours.

Late December on the coast

Worth saying plainly: the last week of the year is the busiest one in Jacó. The town fills up, prices climb, and anything that depends on a reservation is better locked early, whether you are coming to ours or to anything else.

That applies if you plan to mix plans too. Dinner in town and then the festival is perfectly possible in theory, but remember that doors and camping here open at 12 pm and the whole night is built around people who are already inside. Arriving late to a dark camp with an unpitched tent is the surest way to start off badly.

And if you are coming from outside the country, book the flight around 31 December and leave 1 January free until the afternoon. Nobody drives well on no sleep.

Before you decide