There always seems to be a bus passing through the tiny town of Dominical heading in one direction or another. And, it almost seems that for as many buses that pass through there are different schedules to be found. Dominical seems to be one of those places where the schedule changes often. The info we have for you is from May 2017 and its from the Tourist Information Centre.
Basically the bus will pull into this little beach town from the highway, drive down the main road and then turn around at the beach and drive back out. There are two coverd bus stops in town and they are both on the main road and close to eachother. Best to head to one of these to grab the bus, but if you are running late you can be picked up anywhere along the main road by flagging down the driver.
San José to Dominical
I think that the easiest way is to go the Tracopa station and catch one of the two busses that head to Uvita at 6am or 3pm. Ask the driver to drop you in front of Dominical. You will *usually* be let off on the side of the highway (see photos below) but last time my driver drove in. Ask the driver if he pulls into Dominical or just passes by.
Or you can grab one of the several buses from San José to Quepos: 5:30am, 7am, 10am, 12pm, 2pm, 4pm. And from Quepos switch to the bus headed to Dominical. As of 2017 the bus costs about 4070₡. The trip is about 6hrs.
Quepos to Dominical
Schedule for Quepos in the photos below . Price is 1500₡ and takes about 1hr 45min.
Dominical to Uvita
Photo of schedule below for Uvita. Price is about 700₡ and the trip takes about 25minutes.
Help your fellow traveller
If you have taken any of the buses on this page, please drop us a comment below about how the trip went, what time you left, how long it took and what it cost. And, definitely let us know if we have anything wrong.
Lets help each other in our travels!
We visited Dominical in March 2020 and the 06:30 am bus connection to Nauyaca Waterfalls (as described on the Uvita page by Callum) worked beautifully. However, the schedule between Dominical and Uvita must have changed slightly as locals told us the 12:15 pm bus now leaves at 12:40 pm as we were waiting at the bus stop.
I was in Domenical in February 2022 and the bus to Uvita leaves at 8:20a.m 10:30a.m 12:30a.m 3:40p.m 5:30p.m 6:30p.m
Price is 750 colones. If you ask, the bus driver leaves you wherever you want along the way.