Buses leave the Puntarenas station for several destinations including: Liberia, Quepos, Jacó, Monteverde, San José, Cobanó, Santa Teresa Montezuma.
**STATION CHANGE : All of the bus stations are no longer grouped in one location. The TQP (Quepos, Puntarenas, Jaco) buses now arrive and depart from the Municipalidad de Puntarenas, which is about 4 blocks from the other station. (Jan 2017)
one helpful traveller has given this location as the new bus terminal (Aug 2018) https://goo.gl/maps/9JR2QhF81ep
Bus station to the Ferry
The Puntarenas bus station is located about 15 blocks from the ferry terminal. A taxi between the two will cost you about 1500₡. You can walk but it is far when carrying your luggage and it shouldn’t be hard to find other travellers to share a taxi.
Puntarenas to Santa Teresa
Get from the bus station to the ferry and cross. In Paquera there will be a bus waiting for you to take you to Cóbano. This trip takes about a 1.5hr and will cost around 1800₡. If you end up connecting with the bus coming from San José you may be able to stay on all the way to Santa Teresa. If not, you get off in Cobanó. The rest of the trip form Cobanó to Santa Teresa takes about 40min and costs 1000₡.
Puntarenas to Quepos
See photo of schedule below. Price is2605₡ as of Jan 2019 and it takes about 3hrs until you arrive in Quepos.
Puntarenas to Liberia
There are 10 buses per day to Libera between 5am and 5pm. The schedule is posted below. See photo of schedule below. As of February 2018 the price is 2875₡. The trip takes about 3hrs. Be early as buses can leave early.
Puntarenas to Monteverde
See photo of schedule below for buses to Monteverde. 1500₡, ~3hrs
Check out the route if you are coming from Santa Teresa: Santa Teresa to Monteverde
Puntarenas to Jacó
See photo of schedule below for buses to Jacó. ~ 1500₡, ~1.5hrs
Puntarenas to San José
There are both directo and indirecto buses to San José. We are told that only the indirecto buses pass the airport.
This bus does a few different routes (San Ramón, Alajuela, Esparza, El Roble). You can see them here on the Empresarios Unidos website and see which route number goes where.
The schedules are also listed on their website: Empresarios Unidos schedule. We hope their website is up to date! There is also a photo of the indirecto schedule below.
The trip from Puntarenas to San José costs 2585₡ as of May 2017 and takes about 3hrs.
Puntarenas to Cañas and Tilarán
One helpful traveller has told us that there is one bus per day at 11:45am to Cañas and onto Tilarán. Thanks, Doc!
Ferry to the bus station
Cost of a taxi: 1500₡, 5 minutes
Ferry Schedule
Puntarenas to Paquera
- 05:00, 09:00, 11:00, 14:00, 17:00, 20:30*
(*no connecting bus heading all the way to Santa Teresa/Mal Pais, Montezuma)
Paquera to Puntarenas
- 05:30, 09:00, 11:00, 14:00, 17:00, 20:00
***here is an extremely useful number = call tel: 26612084 (then press 4) and you can get the current ferry schedule.
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!
The Puntarenas-Paquera / Paquera-Puntarenas ferry is not working since 11/23/2018 until 12/3/2018 due to some repairs. In his replacement there are some boats with the following schedules:
Leaving Puntarenas:
7:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 3:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m.
Leaving Paquera:
5:30 a.m., 9:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m.
The boats in Puntarenas leave behind the Municipal Market.
I know all this because I’m right here waiting for the boat at 11:00 am!
Awesome, thanks so much for the update!
Hi,
I am traveling to Costa Rica this week (August 23-September 1st) I want to ask how reliable the buses are at coming? Do buses ever not show up? My plan is to take the 4:30am bus from Quepos to Puntarenas. Then catch the bus from Puntarenas to Monteverde. From Monteverde, I want to take the jeep-boat-jeep to La Fortuna. The last jeep-boat-jeep leaves at 2pm in Monteverde to La Fortuna. Do you think I will make it? Are there early bus times from Puntarenas to Monteverde? Around 8am? 9am? 10am? I just need to be in Monteverde by 2pm the latest.
Hi, buses are fairly reliable. Though not 100%. I see my schedule photo for buses to Monteverde isn’t above anymore. There used to be an 8am bus. Im assuming there still is, I just havent been through on this route in a little while. I cant say for sure if you will be there before 2pm though!
Today we took the Puntarenas to Quepos bus. The fare was 2530 per person. We left at 11am sharp and arrived in Quepos about 2pm. You have to buy your ticket from the ticket window and cannot buy it from the bus driver at this terminal (he sent us to the window when we tried to pay him).
We had a little trouble finding the bus terminal, but we did eventually. It’s little more than a small store front area with buses parked out front. Perhaps you can post this map somehow to help your readers. The bus terminal is at this pin: https://goo.gl/maps/9JR2QhF81ep
Thanks, Travis! Super helpful. I put the link above.
Hi my daughter is travelling from Jaco to Monteverde. She knows she has to change at Puntarenas but not sure where the bus departing to Monteverde is in relation to where the bus from Jaco will drop her off. Can you advise please?
Hi there. I am sorry I havent been to Puntarenas since the bus station change. As I undertstand it, the bus to Monteverde should be in the same location it was before https://goo.gl/maps/5bjLXj3z5N22 and the bus arriving from Jaco should be go here. https://goo.gl/maps/9JR2QhF81ep
Maps doesnt want to save the pin on the Monteverde bus location I sent. You can find the buses across the street from the station marked as the Puntarenas Bus Station (old station).
Thank You so much for these information ! Because here in Puntarenas nobody working at the bus station wanted or even tried To help ! 😑 i found my way trough This site ! Going from Puntarenas To Monteverde (Santa Helena) ! I Will take the 1:15 pm bus that goes direct ! The panel for the Monteverde schedule is obsolete! so thank you again!
08:00 / 1:15 / 1:30 / 02:15 still gold but the 1:30 passes by Las Juntas.
Normand 30-January 2019
Hi!
I want to go from Santa Teresa to Quepos. I can leave with a bus 6am to catch the ferry at 9, but is there a bus I can take from Puntarenas at that time? I can’t see it on the schedule 🙁
Thanks!
Hi Sille, if you catch the 9am ferry from Paquera to Puntarenas you will be there about 10:30am. Then you need to get to the bus station and so you should look for the bus leaving to Quepos at 11am.
Thank you! There is a bus leaving from Santa Teresa at 6am – then I can make it to the ferry at 9am 🙂
Hello! I need help deciding the cheapest method to get from the Liberia airport to Santa Teresa Beach. I arrive in the airport around 12:30PM so I feel like I should have enough time to be able to get there that day. A few options would be nice! Thanks in advance!
Hi Chloe! From Liberia airport you will need to get to Liberia the Municipal Station in Liberia (take the bus headed to town that passes the airport) and get on a bus to Puntarenas. In Puntarenas you can get a taxi to the ferry terminal and then cross. Don’t doddle as you need to be on the 5pm ferry at the latest to make connecting buses to Santa Teresa. All the info you need is on the site on each station page. Have a great trip!
Hola! Como lo hago para ir de Puntarenas a Manuel Antonio? Saludos!
Hola, Nico. Hay un horario por Puntarenas – Qupeos ^^ arriba. Cuando llega a Quepos, toma un bus a Manuel Antonio, hay muchos cada 20 min.
Just arrived a few days ago in Puntarenas (from Quepos) and our bus stopped about four blocks away from the actual bus terminal in front of City Hall (Municipalidad de Puntarenas) on Calle 3 and Avenida 2. On exiting the bus we were mobbed by men trying to take us to the ferry or tours or something. After pushing our way out of the crowd, we had one young man approach and ask where we were going. When we said Liberia, he told us that the next bus wasn’t until 5pm and would take a long time. When I asked about the 3:20pm bus which is listed on the schedule at the actual stop (as seen in your photo) he lied and said that there wasn’t a bus at that time. He told us he could get us a taxi to take us to catch the bus from San Jose, and it would only be a 20 min drive away. It was clear to us that it was a scam so we told him no and walked away. It was a rather unpleasant experience and just wanted to let others know not to necessarily trust those guys. Also, the cost of the trip to Liberia was only 2875 colones, not 3875. The 3:20pm bus actually left around 3:15pm and took about 3 hours to get there. The bathroom in the Puntarenas bus terminal was free but they do charge for toilet paper (I forgot to ask how much). And lastly, I think the sign with times for buses to Monteverde is mostly gone as I saw what looked like about 1/3 of what’s pictured above.
Thanks, Jeremy. Lots of great advice for travellers here in your comment.