Cahuita National Park
Costa Rica's only coral reef system in a national park — pristine Caribbean jungle trails, white-sand beaches and snorkeling reefs.
LIO · MRLM · Costa Rica
Limón International Airport
Limón — Caribbean Coast. 10 min from Limón city center.
Runway
1524m
Surface
Asphalt
Elevation
8m
Hours
6am-6pm
Book your private flight to Limón
Airport at a glance
Limón — Costa Rica
Costa Rica's Caribbean coast is a different country. The music is calypso rather than cumbia, the food is cooked in coconut milk, English-based creole is spoken alongside Spanish, and the rain follows a schedule that ignores everything the guidebooks say about Costa Rican seasons. Limón International Airport is the way in.
LIO sits almost at sea level — 2 metres, one of the lowest fields in Central America — on a flat coastal shelf between the city of Limón and the Caribbean. It carries "International" in its name from an earlier era of scheduled service; today it operates principally as a regional and charter field, which for the traveller is an advantage rather than a limitation.
Runway 14/32, 1,800 metres by 30 metres, asphalt, at 2 metres elevation. ICAO: MRLM. Coordinates: 9°57′28″N, 83°01′22″W. The field is approximately 5.7 kilometres from the centre of Limón.
Eighteen hundred metres at sea level is a substantial runway for a regional field — considerably more than most of Costa Rica's coastal strips — and it means LIO accepts a wider range of aircraft than the small airstrips further south. For charter planning, that translates into flexibility: larger groups, more baggage, and fewer weight restrictions than at a 750-metre beach strip.
Getting there
Limón International Airport — Getting there
From San José, LIO is roughly a 36-minute flight against about three hours by road through the Braulio Carrillo tunnel — a route that is scenic when it is open and genuinely disruptive when landslides close it, which happens most years. That reliability argument is as strong as the time argument.
LIO also connects north to Barra del Colorado and Tortuguero, and south into the Panamanian Caribbean at Bocas del Toro, making it a useful staging point for a two-country Caribbean itinerary rather than an out-and-back from the capital.
| San José | ~36 min | ~3 h |
Nearby
Things to do near Limón
Limón city itself is a working port, the busiest in the country, and it is not the reason anyone flies here. The reason is the ribbon of coast running south: Cahuita, 45 minutes away, with its national park and the country's best-preserved living coral reef; Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, about an hour, the centre of Caribbean surf and nightlife; and Manzanillo and the Gandoca-Manzanillo refuge at the end of the road near the Panamanian border, roughly ninety minutes out.
North of the city, the road ends and the waterways begin. Tortuguero is reached by boat from Moín, just outside Limón — or, far more efficiently, by charter direct to the Tortuguero airstrip.
Inland, the Talamanca mountains rise steeply, holding the Bribri and Cabécar indigenous territories and the vast, largely trackless La Amistad International Park shared with Panama.
Cahuita National Park protects the reef and a stretch of white-sand beach with a walking trail that regularly produces sloths, howler monkeys and capuchins within the first kilometre. The Jaguar Rescue Center near Puerto Viejo rehabilitates wildlife and is one of the more credible operations of its kind in the country. Playa Cocles, Playa Chiquita and Punta Uva are among the best beaches on either coast. The Kèköldi and Bribri territories offer guided cultural visits arranged through community organisations. And Tortuguero — the green turtle nesting beach, the canals, the rainforest — is a short flight north.
Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge
Remote Caribbean wildlife refuge — sea turtle nesting, manatees, dolphins and pristine coral reefs in a protected marine area.
Jaguar Rescue Center
World-renowned wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center — up-close encounters with jaguars, sloths, monkeys and tropical birds.
Caribbean Gastronomy Experience
Costa Rica's Afro-Caribbean culinary tradition is unique — private cooking classes, local market tours and restaurant experiences in Limón.
Afro-Caribbean Cultural Experiences
Limón's Afro-Caribbean community preserves a unique cultural heritage — music, dance, storytelling and ancestral traditions distinct from the rest of Costa Rica.
Remote Surf Expedition — Barra del Colorado
Charter flight from Limón to Barra del Colorado for the most remote surf in Costa Rica — deserted beach breaks north of Tortuguero, accessible only by air, with zero tourist infrastructure and perfect Caribbean beach-break waves.
Tarpon Fishing — Barra del Colorado
Barra del Colorado is the tarpon capital of Central America — 100–200 lb silver kings in the river mouth, lagoons and canal system. Private boat, certified tarpon guide and the real possibility of multiple 150+ lb fish in a single session.
Helicopter — Caribbean Coast Aerial Tour
Private helicopter tour of Costa Rica's entire Caribbean coast from Limón — aerial views of Cahuita's coral reef, Puerto Viejo's Caribbean culture, the Gandoca-Manzanillo reserve and the Panamanian border wilderness.
Where to stay
Hotels near Limón
When to fly
When to fly
This is the single most useful thing to know about flying to LIO. The Caribbean slope does not follow the Pacific pattern. Its driest, most reliable windows are September and October — precisely when the Pacific coast is at its wettest — with a secondary dry period around February and March. The wettest months tend to be December and January, and again around July.
The practical consequence is that a September itinerary that would be a gamble in Manuel Antonio is often excellent in Cahuita. It also means charter planning to LIO should be treated separately from the rest of the country: the same date can be a good flying day on one coast and a poor one on the other.
Rain here also arrives differently. Rather than the clockwork afternoon storm of the Central Valley, the Caribbean gets prolonged, softer systems that can sit over the coast for a day. Morning departures remain the right default.
From $1,476
Fly from LIO to
Cóbano · 61 min · $2,369Drake Bay · 44 min · $2,225Golfito · 42 min · $2,318La Fortuna · 50 min · $2,036Liberia · 73 min · $3,057Nosara · 74 min · $2,828Palmar Sur · 37 min · $2,045Pérez Zeledón · 32 min · $1,757Puerto Jiménez · 46 min · $2,393Quepos · 40 min · $1,787San José (Pavas) · 37 min · $1,476San José · 39 min · $1,807Tamarindo · 78 min · $2,993Tambor · 58 min · $2,293Tortuguero · 29 min · $1,753Upala · 63 min · $2,547
FAQ
Limón International Airport — Frequently asked questions
What is the runway length at Limón (LIO)?
1,800 metres by 30 metres of asphalt, runway 14/32, at 2 m elevation. ICAO: MRLM.
How far is LIO from Limón city, Cahuita and Puerto Viejo?
The airport is about 5.7 km from central Limón. Cahuita is roughly 45 minutes by road, Puerto Viejo about an hour, and Manzanillo around 90 minutes.
How long is the flight from San José to Limón?
Approximately 36 minutes by charter, compared with about three hours by road.
When is the best time to visit the Caribbean coast?
September and October are typically the driest and most reliable months on the Caribbean slope, with a second dry window around February and March — the reverse of the Pacific pattern.
Can I fly from LIO to Tortuguero or Bocas del Toro?
Yes. LIO connects by charter north to Tortuguero and Barra del Colorado, and south to Bocas del Toro in Panama.
Is Limón still an international airport?
It retains the designation but operates today principally as a regional and charter field.