Public transit is easily the cheapest way to travel within Costa Rica. The only downside is sometimes it takes longer, few people speak English and there is no air condition. However, speaking limited Spanish we have managed to navigate the system fairly easily!

From Manuel Antonio you need to catch the city bus to the Quepos bus station. It costs 305 colones (about 60 cents) and the bus station is the last stop. Ask you hostel ahead of time what time the bus leaves from the bus station and give yourself 30 mins ahead to get there in time just in case. From Quepos take the bus to Punteranas (4,500 colones). Ours left at 7:30am and there was one leaving every 2 hours starting at 5:30am. It is about a 3 hour drive. Then from Punteranas you need to take a second bus to San Ramon (2,500 colones). It is about an hour and a half drive. Then from San Ramon you take a bus to La Fortuna (about 3,000 colones). This bus is around 2 and a half hours. Unfortunately when we got to San Ramon our bus had already left and we would have had to wait for four hours till the next one in 40 degrees Celsius weather – no thank you! Instead some guy called us a taxi who said would catch up to the bus that had already left. It was very amazing race style as we chased down the bus and got him to pull over on the side of the street to let us on! But thankfully we made it to our beautiful hostel (resort by our standards) in La Fortuna! Continue reading “How to Get from Manuel Antonio to La Fortuna: Public Transit”