By Bus
All buses arrive first in Santa Elena. Some then continue along the road to Monteverde, making their last stop at the Lecheria (cheese factory). Most people arrive on one of the two direct services from San Jose 's Tilaran terminal (3hr 30min minimum, though it can often be more like 5hr, especially in the rainy season). Be particularly vigilant when waiting to board the bus - this service is a magnet for opportunistic thieves. When on the bus, keep everything with you if possible and valuables on your person. Note that taking the afternoon service from San Jose gets you to Monteverde after dark. From Tilaran , you can catch the 1pm bus (3hr), but in the rainy season, this may stop a few kilometres short of Santa Elena, leaving you with no option but to walk the remainder of the way. From Puntarenas , a daily bus leaves for Santa Elena at 2.15pm (3hr). The Santa Elena bus stop is next to the church, at the top of the "triangle" near the Banco Nacional. From here, all amenities and many pensiones are no more than 100m away. The owners of pensiones and cabinas will come to the bus and try to entice you to their establishment; most are fine, so take your pick. If you are booked into one of the hotels on the road to the reserve, stay on the bus and ask the driver to drop you off, or, if you arrive on the bus from Puntarenas, arrange with your hotel to have a taxi meet you (US$5-6). Moving on from Monteverde , buses to San Jose leave Santa Elena at 6.30am and 2.30pm daily. There's sometimes an extra service leaving at 2pm from Friday to Sunday; check the office beside the bus stop. For Tilaran , one bus leaves daily at 7am; for Puntarenas , the daily service departs at 6am. Two buses also leave daily at 5am and 6am for the two-hour journey to Las Juntas , from where you can get to Liberia and points north in Guanacaste. Check in the office beside the bus stop in Santa Elena; tickets are sold here too.
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