** October 26th, 2018: There has been a temporary change in Ferry hours and the bus from San Jose to Santa Teresa/Montezuma now departs at 7:30am and 3:30pm.
The bus stop in front of the Villa Bonita Station in Alajuela is a great spot to grab the bus if you are arriving at the Airport and don’t want to go all the way into San José to catch the bus from the main station. Essentially it is large covered bus stop with a gas station about 40metres away. People are often confused on how to exactly use this stop and also have some level of discomfort with the idea of taking a taxi to the side of the highway to wait. Have no fear, this is a very well used pick-up spot. There will almost surely be others waiting and there are even some very nice locals selling water, soda and plantain chips who can help you catch your bus.
It takes about 20-40 minutes for the bus to get here from central San José (depending on traffic) but I would recommend being here no later than 20 minutes after your bus was scheduled to leave from its station in San José.
Getting a taxi here
A taxi from the airport should cost no more than 2500₡. It seems close but its a bit of driving. Chances are they will fist quote you $10 for the ride.
Walking from the Airport to Villa Bonita?
Have you ever wondered if you can walk to this spot from the airport? No? – well I have! And, so I did. Turns out you can walk about 25minutes along the side of a busy highway to get here. Would I recommend this option? Probably not. There is no sidewalk and most of the journey is along a small worn foot path next to the highway (see photos).
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!
Wanna take this direct bus tomorrow but from Montezuma to San Jose.
Do you know if it’s possible to leave the bus at this bus stop (villa bonita) before San Jose cause we booked a night in Alajuela.
Thanks!
Hi there! Our flight lands at 1:02pm at SJO. Will we have time to make the 2pm bus to Santa Teresa from the Villa Bonita station?
If your plane is landing at 1pm then it’s pretty unlikely you’ll even be through customs by 2pm. Remember you have to land, taxi to your gate, disembark, go through customs, get luggage, exit airport and get taxi.
Buenas tardes, en el mes de abril voy a estar en costa rica. Quisiera saber donde compro los boletos del bus para ir desde el puente villa bonita hasta santa teresa? y cuanto cuesta el viaje por persona?. Otra consulta los horarios de salida son a las 6am y a las 2pm?.
Muchas gracias!!
Hola, si los horarios de salida son 6am y 2pm. Puedes consultar este pagina por el hoario. Y, puede comprar el boleto del chofer.
Buenas tardes, gracias por tu respuesta. Cuanto cuesta el viaje desde Villa bonita hasta Santa teresa?? y en que parte de ésta pagina puedo sacar el boleto? Muchas Gracias
Hola Soledad! El horario que cambio de San Jose a Santa Teresa. Consulta la pagina de Transportes Cobano por el Horario. Ahora es 7:30 y 3:30
Does anyone know if a bus to La Fortuna/Arenal passes by the Villa Bonita stop?
Hi there, sorry for the slow reply. The bus to La Fortuna doesn’t pass this location but there is a bus station. The bus leaves from the 7-10 station in Central San Jose or you can also get a bus from Ciudad Quesada.
(May 30, 2018) We just caught the bus to Monteverde from Villa Bonita yesterday. It worked well and as explained in this article. Here are a few more details. First, if you have time after you land at SJO, you might want to catch the public bus from SJO to San Jose and board the bus there. This way you do not need to worry if the bus will stop at Villa Bonita or be full. The bus from SJO to San Jose cost about $1. We chose to catch a taxi to Villa Bonita instead where we waited for 2 hours for the bus. The bus stop at Villa Bonita is right by the highway and very loud but felt safe. We paid $7 for the four of us for the taxi to Villa Bonita. The bus did stop at Villa Bonita for us, but we purchased our tickets ahead of time. So maybe the driver was looking for us. I bought our tickets online at https://www.transmonteverde.com/. When I tried to buy them 3 days before our trip, I got an error when the website was processing my credit card. It did not explain the error, but when I tried again the night before our trip, it worked fine. My guess is that you can only buy the tickets 24 hours in advance, but who knows. Another thing that was a bit odd is that when buying your tickets online, the website let you choose your seats but only showed 3 seats across, but the bus had 4 seats across. So which seats you choose probably does not mean much. When buying our tickets online, we chose the following options. Origin City = San Jose, Available Routs = 675 San Jose – Monteverde, Destination City = Monteverde, Boarding City = Alajuela – Villa Bonita. The cost was about $6 per person. The website sent me a confirmation email that I showed to the bus driver. The bus arrived at Villa Bonita at 3:05pm and at Monteverde around 7:30pm. The bus was a very nice, full sized, Mercedes Benz bus. It was only about half full but we are traveling during the low season at the end of May. It made one stop on the way to use the bathroom where you could also buy some snacks. Happy travels.
Hi Don! thank you so much for sharing your experience on purchasing tickets for Villa Bonita, definitely one thing we get a lot of questions about.
Cheapest way is to take an Uber, cost me $3.. whereas a taxi driver offered to take me for $15
Hi! If i want to buy my bus ticket in advance, i cannot choose the vista bonita station on Alajuala. Do I have to buy ticket for station 7-10 and grab the bus in Alajuala???!? Thanks!!!
Hi, it depends on where you are going. La Terminal (link above) is one place to buy tickets for several destinations including places like Santa Teresa. If you are headed to Monteverde you have to buy from the Transmonteverde website.
I’m going to santa teresa. But the web site of La Terminal offert me just a departure from 7-10 and not Alajuela. Do I have to buy the one of 7-10 even if I jump in in Alajuela???
There should also be a departure choice of Villa Bonita. Thats the name of the stop for this page.
Hey There. I will travel to costa rica in about a week. My plan is to get to Monteverde as soon as possible. Unfortunately, I will arrive at around 9 p.m. So the earliest connection would be the 6.30 a.m. bus. Can you recommend any hostel close by the the busstop or would you recommend to get to the city centre of san Jose to catch the bus there?
Hi David! I always stay at Gaudy’s backpacker near the airport. They can arrange a taxi for you in the morning. You don’t need to go to San Jose first, but make sure you book a ticket in advance so they know to stop for you there. https://www.transmonteverde.com/
Thanks a lot for your reply! I booked a hostel even closer to the airport. It might not be the best one I will stay in but it is close to both (the busstop and the airport).
Do taxis take long to come after requesting? X