As part of your travel from San José to the South of the Nicoya Peninsula where we have our surf camp, you will have to cross a bay (Golfo de Nicoya) with a ferry. Depending on your bus connection and your arrival time, there are several options to be considered.

First of all, if you choose to take a taxi (San José to Santa Teresa at 130-140 US$) or book a shuttle (Montezuma Shuttle Service, one way 35 US$) from the capital, you don’t have to worry about ferry schedules, tickets or what ever. Your driver will take you through the process. Especially if you have a longboard or many smaller boards with you, this is the option you should favorise.

If you decide to do it cheap and adventurous, you can do the trip with public busses. One convenient option here are the air-conditioned busses from Hermanos Rodriguez, leaving San José from the Coca Cola Terminal. This is a direct bus to Mal Pais (where we will pick you up) and costs 10 US$. The bus will stop at the ferry embankment and let you out to buy your passenger tickets for the ferry. You will receive a small card from the bus driver which you should keep with you; when you leave the ferry, you will have to show this card to the bus driver! After the bay crossing, you will re-enter the same bus. Tip: don’t let anything in the bus, except the bulk luggage stored at the bottom of the bus (this place is closed).

The other bus option is a bus from the Puntarenas Terminal in San José (Empresarios Unidos) which will arrive at the bus terminal in Puntarenas. The drive is cheap and has no air-con for 1,50 US$, but you have to arrange your ferry crossing by your own. Depending on the time of your arrival in Puntarenas, there are two ferry services with different starting points in town.

Here are the actual time tables for the ferry:
Naviera Tambor (leaves from the northwest end of town): From Puntarenas to Paquera - 04:30 / 08:30 / 12:30 / 16:30 / 20:30
Peninsular (leaves from dock behind the market): From Puntarenas to Paquera - 06:30 / 10:30 / 14:30 / 18:30

Take a taxi from the bus terminal in Puntarenas to both ferry points - it’s fast, cheap and convenient. The ferry ticket costs around 700 Colones (~ 1,50 US$). If you don’t find a taxi at the bus terminal and you’re in a hurry, walk the street in direction to the center and flag down the next free cab.

At the ferry, you have all facilities you need: a phone, a TV, bathrooms, snacks and drinks to buy, etc. The bay crossing takes you about 1 1/2 hours. As soon as you arrive in Paquera and you don’t have a transport arranged, head immediately to the busses outside of the ferry services building. They are waiting for the ferry and fill up quickly. The busses go to Tambor, Cobano and Montezuma. From Cobano, there are other busses to local destinations like Santa Teresa or Mal Pais.

You can buy your tickets for the ferry or the busses also with US Dollar. Bring small notes with you.

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 22nd, 2006 at 8:53 am and is filed under FAQs - Frequently asked questions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.