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[hoffler]

Hi,

Can anyone give me anymore info on bus travel in costa rica. Are there overnight buses?

Thanks

[starlagurl]

I don't know much about Costa Rica, but I found some amusing blogs about bus travel there:

I didn't see anybody taking a night bus, however, but I'm sure they must exist...all of them seem very negative.

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entri...16520/tpod.html

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entri...31880/tpod.html

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entri...15480/tpod.html

[mmbcross]

Cost Rica is not big enough to have long distance night buses. There are however overnight buses to neighbouring countries.

Here's the website for TicaBus: http://www.ticabus.com/mapa_ing.html

There are a series of tourist shuttles available throughout the country. These are generally safe and comfortable and pick up and drop off at hotels. On the other hand they are relatively costly compared to regular buses.
http://www.costaricashuttle.net/shutle_services.html
http://www.easyridecr.com/
http://www.interbusonline.com/

Regular chicken buses are considerably cheaper and considerably more uncomfortable. I certainly don't suggest using regular transport on night runs due to security concerns.

Here's an online book you can purchase about travel in Costa Rica if you are really serious about going there.
http://www.costaricabybus.com/

Last but not least, consult our own travelpodders. Skim through these blogs to see if someone has already done what you want to do, and then consult them.
http://www.travelpod.com/blogs/0/Costa%20rica.html

Good luck

[starlagurl]

Great Central America info once again, thanks Martin.

[starlagurl]

Thanks for that link caracuda, it looks very helpful for any Central American trip. Welcome to the forums!

[mmbcross]

This last site is quite remarkable. With the uncertainly of local bus schedules in Central America, it probably isn't 100% correct, but it looks pretty close. I tried several schedules in Guatemala, and at least the long distance bus services seem pretty accurate. Not so much for chicken bus routes though, as these are very hard to estimate. Usually they leave whenever they fill up, or whenever the driver feels like leaving (for example, he has to be home by 5:00 pm). I have no idea how they keep up with the hundreds of routes they cover. In five languages to boot!

One negative is that they don't do cross-border routes. I tried Belize City to Flores, Guatemala and Guatemala to Copan, Honduras without luck.

Anyway, our thanks to Caracuda for finding this useful site. I'll keep it on file.

[mmbcross]

I see it's all in the name you use. Regrettably the darn website isn't working presently.

[hoffler]

Thanks very much for the advice, I assumed there probably weren't due to the length of the journey's being around 6hrs or so they say!

I'm definitely going and need to get to wherever my friends will be, in good time to see the new year in! I arrive at 10pm on the 29th December. Looks like i'll have to wait until the morning and catch the first bus out.

the interbus website looks very helpful, however i'm on a tight budget so chicken buses it may have to be!

Thanks again for the advice.

Robin

[starlagurl]

Chicken buses sound like quite the experience anyway! Good luck, and let us know how it goes or if we can help you some more.