Zancudo - A Challenge Getting There and Away

Playa Zancudo, cherished for its remoteness, is also remote in regards to transportation. There are easier ways to get to Zancudo, like driving down in a rental car (really the only straightforward way to get to Zancudo) or flying from San Jose to Golfito, then hiring a private taxi, boat, or rental car once you land. Regardless those are not the things we do when we're on a budget so I'll leave those details for the other sites.

There are two basic routes getting in and out of Zancudo. Via boat from Golfito (a town on the inland coast of the gulf that is also a main way to get to Puerto Jimenez on the Osa Peninsula), and via land down toward the south (by way of Ciudad Neily or the border town of Paso Canoas if using public transportation).
UPDATE: Since Coco stopped running the daily public boat from Golfito, unless you can utilize the coconut telegraph to find out if anyone in town is already taking a boat over and back that day going by land is the cheaper option. ;)

The public transportation can be difficult to pin down and sometimes changes with the seasons. I've done my best to document both what I have experienced and what I have found out from locals. Your best bet is to be flexible with your time.Be sure to read Public Transportation in the Zancudo / Pavones Area for an overview on the public transportation in the area.

Getting To Playa Zancudo from San Jose

From the airport, your general plan of attack should be to get into the actual city of San Jose, take a bus from the Tracopa bus terminal, heading south to either Golifto/Rio Claro, Ciudad Neily, or Paso Canoas, then take public transportation from there to Zancudo. Sounds pretty simple, right? Not. Given the timing of it all, it's almost impossible to do it all in one day.

Whether going via Golfito/boat or further south by land, you have the same timing problem. Even if you leave San Jose on the earliest bus to Golfito, you won't arrive in time for the noon boat taxi. You might arrive the exact time that the local bus is scheduled to leave for Zancudo, so be sure to tell your bus driver that's your intention and if he sees the Zancudo bus go by, to stop it! And unless you take the 5am bus from San Jose to Ciudad Neily, you won't be there in time for the once-daily bus to Zancudo that leaves at 2:15pm.

No matter which route you choose, you first have to get out of the airport and get on a bus going south. You can get to the Tracopa bus terminal for only $1 (opposed to the $25 quoted you at the airport) by taking a pubic bus from in front of the airport, then walking (or taking an Uber) to the bus terminal. See Getting to Your Bus from the San Jose Airport in Costa Rica for details. Now let's look at the boat vs. land options so you can decide where to take your Tracopa bus to! Whichever town you decide to go to on Tracopa, be sure to take the Costenera (coastal) route rather than the Cerro de la Muerte (mountain) route which is winding, slower, and less direct (many stops). The literal translations are "waterfront" and "death hill". Choose wisely. LOL

Weighing Out Boat vs. Land - Which Route to Take?

Getting to Zancudo by Boat

If all the stars align, taking the boat from Golfito is the nicest way to go. You only have a 30 minute boat ride instead of spending hours more on buses, and you get into Zancudo a few hours earlier than the bus. I personally prefer this route although it's not always possible to do.

Your main hurdle is that the public shared boat doesn't always run, much less so during the green (low) season. See full details below.

Another thing to consider is that you'll be dropped off at the dock in Zancudo (rather than the bus that drops you anywhere along the road), so you might incur extra cost getting to wherever you're staying. See full details below.

Getting to Zancudo by Land (Public Bus)

The lack of concrete bus schedule information in the area (both online and from locals) and schedules that change by season, make this option a little more confusing. But a lot of locals travel this way so it's likely something will work out.

Transportes Barrantes shows (most of) the current bus schedules around the area. Check their home page too for special schedules and see Public Transportation in the Zancudo / Pavones Area for an overview.

Whether you decide to get to Zancudo via public bus from Golfito, Neily, or Paso Canoas, you'll eventually end up on the same Neily - Zancudo bus (the blue line in the map drawing above). So which one you choose is more a matter of where you want to (possibly) spend the night, where you want to buy your grocery provisions (see Zancudo - Away From the Tourist Frenzy), and how much time you want to spend on the slow bus. Unless you are in Golfito already, it makes more sense to head to Neily if you want to go by local bus.

Going by Way of Golfito

Bus to Golfito

The Tracopa buses from San Jose to Golfito (7-8 hours) leave super early in the morning (6:30 am) and then not again until 3:30 pm. However, there are other options than the San Jose - Golfito bus. The town of Rio Claro is only about 1/2 hour away from Golfito and there are buses going there from San Jose more regularly. The key times being 10:15 am, 11 am, 1:05 pm and 2 pm (₡7,660 $13).

If you land at SJO in the afternoon, see if there's a night bus, otherwise the Golfito route won't make sense for you. Your best bet is to head to Neily either that night or first thing in the morning, then take land trans into Zancudo. Even if you go toward Golfito first thing in the morning, you'll still have to spend the night in Golfito before heading to Zancudo the following morning since you simply won't get there in time to catch the noon boat.

Check the Tracopa site for the current schedules. If you take the bus to Rio Claro, from there you only pay about $1 for a public bus (1/2 hour) to Golfito. Just ask someone when you get off the bus where to catch it. It's green and says GOLFITO in the window. You pay the driver when you get on, and ask him to let you off at the muellecito (the small public pier). It's across the street from the Supermercado Pearson and next to Hotel Golfito.

Spend the Night in Golfito

You will arrive in Golfito too late for the public boat, and you also likely missed the 3pm public bus. Spend the night in the Hotel el Tucan. It's just past the supermarket on the inland side of the street. The woman who runs it will treat you like family. We paid ₡15,000 ($25) for a double with aircon. The Hotel Golfito is okay too but a little more expensive at ₡18,000 ($30). Budget eats at the supermarket (grab a cold beer - ₡1,300 for a large), Buenos Dias, and Chicken Bros.

Boat to Zancudo

The public shared boat only goes once a day at noon, M-Sa in the high season, and M, W, F during the low season and only if there are at least 3 people going! At time of writing, Eric (aka Coco) is the captain. You can reach him at +506 8638-7712 to ask if the colectivo boat is going and confirm when and where. If not, he'll be more than happy to take you by private boat for $60 (vs. $5 for the shared boat!).

So let's assume the shared boat is running. All fresh and rested in the morning, take the public ferry (colectivo bota) that leaves at noon from the ramp right across from the supermarket, next to the Hotel Golfito and costs ₡3,000 ($5) each. If you're lucky and the tide is up, you'll go via la trocha (the mangrove river) which is really picturesque. You may even see dolphins in the gulf!

Ride to Your Cabina

If your cabina or casa is not within walking distance, hopefully you have arranged for your host to have someone pick you up when you land. If not, you can be sure that Eric might run a taxi service for you (for a fee of course!). At time of writing, a couple of local guys are running TAXZ. Give them a call and if they're around, they'll pick you up and give you a ride for a few thousand colones (+506 8435 4968).

Eeks, No Boat? Bus from Golfito to Zancudo

If you end up in Golfito with no boat to take, it's not impossible to take some buses that will eventually get you to Zancudo. You'll want to take the 10:00 am or 3 pm bus to Pavones (ask more than one person to find out the current schedule - you'll get different answers from everyone) but get off early in Comte where later in the day (3:30 pm ish) a bus will come by on it's way from Ciudad Neily going to Zancudo. The bus will drop you off anywhere along the road you ask it to. Or if you're feeling particularly daring you can try to hitchhike form Comte. Good luck. ;)

Going by Way of Ciudad Neily or Paso Canoas

Bus to Ciudad Neily or Paso Canoas

The comfortable Tracopa ride takes around 7 hours with a couple of breaks along the way, including one to eat. Neily is about half an hour before Paso Canoas and is more of a quaint town than the bustling border town of Paso Canoas.There are plenty of hotel options in C. Neily within walking distance of where the bus drops you. Paso Canoas is a bit sketchy. There are a few hotels on the Costa Rica side near the bus station, but it's safer to find a hotel a little bit away. Just hop in a taxi for 500 colones ($1). Your hotel might even pick you up when the bus arrives if you call ahead.

Bus from Neily to Zancudo

Get on the bus that leaves Neily at 2:15 pm, hits Laurel around 3pm (or is it 4pm??) and gets into Zancudo around 5:30pm+. I do see the bus coming into town at around 5:35pm each evening.

Bus from Paso Canoas to Zancudo

Going via Paso Canoas is a longer way on the whole, but can have its benefits. This is where the local expats of Zancudo go to provision for their stay. Yes, they "provision" as you would a boat. This is where you get good prices on food and booze.

From Paso Canoas you'll head to the town of Laurel. A shared taxi should cost ₡1,000 (about $1.75) and takes about half an hour. From there, you'll get the Neily bus as it comes through at 3 pm on its way to Zancudo for around ₡1,600. The ride takes at least an hour and the bus will drop you off anywhere on the road that you ask. See Leaving Playa Zancudo below for photos of the Paso Canoas area and where the taxis are in relation to the bus terminal.

Leaving Playa Zancudo

You basically have the same two route options in reverse, but the good news is that both can be done in one day - woohoo! Other than a couple of buses heading South to David in Panama and a few to San Isidro from Rio Claro, all buses go to San Jose but there are many stops in between where you can get off if you don't want to go all the way to the city.

See Getting to Monteverde from Southern Costa Rica for more details and options on your way out.

Leaving by Way of Golfito / Boat

The public boat to Golfito leaves at 7am, but be sure to check with Eric (+506 8638-7712 ) if and when the boat is actually going. Taking the boat over to Golfito on the way out is definitely more fun, but it has its drawbacks.
• You have to find a way to the dock in Zancudo (if you pay for the $60 private boat, Eric will pick you up).
• It costs more.You need to check the Tracopa schedules to see which bus works for you. Not all buses that orginate in Paso Canoas make a stop in Rio Claro, but Rio Claro has some buses of it's own that originate in Ciudad Neily that you can't get from Paso Canoas. If you are going to San Isidro, that leaves from Rio Claro.

Taking the boat, you will miss the super early bus from Golfito to San Jose and the next one isn't until 1:30 pm, so hop on a public bus to Rio Claro and you'll have a lot of options to head north from there. E.g. there's an 8:30 am or 9:15 am Tracopa to San Jose. In a pinch, you can take a private taxi from Goflito to Rio Claro $30 (₡18,000). Yikes.

See Going by Way of Golfito / Boat above for photos of the Golfito area and where the dock is.

Leaving by Way of Land

The public bus leaves Zancudo at approximately 5:30 am from the tip of Zancudo. Depending on where you are staying along the road, be on the road at around 5:45 am. Just stand on the side of the road, listen to the morning birds, and wait for it to come by. The first bus that comes by is the school bus taking the high school kids, so don't worry when it doesn't stop to pick you up. Hop on the public bus. You have two choices here:

For your colectivo, the taxis (cars waiting where the bus stops) will be more than willing to take you in a private taxi (for something like $30 USD!) so make sure you specify colectivo. Hopefully there is at least one other person from your bus who wants the same so you’ll share the ride with them (I don’t think the taxi will go if there’s only one person) and your driver will try to pick up additional people along the way.

Tracopa Bus from Paso Canoas to San Jose

The taxi drops you off on the corner at the border for Panama. Off to the left and across the street is the ticket office for the Tracopa bus line. The buses actually leave from just a bit further down that road (same side of the street) where the immigration offices are. Just like when you come south, make sure it's the Costanera (coastal route) and not the Cerro de la Muerte (mountain route)! At around 11:30 am, the bus makes a 20 minute stop just before Uvita for lunch. The restaurant has clean (free) bathrooms and reasonably priced cafeteria style food. But being the budget traveler I am, I packed my own lunch. ;)

San Jose / Airport

In San Jose, just like when you came, walk to the public bus terminal and take a public bus to the airport. Boom.