Getting to Santa Teresa: the Ferry Runs Eight Times a Day

The crossing is not your problem. Your landing hour is.

Article Marta Daví · October 23, 2026 · 6 min read

Santa Teresa sits near the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula, and there are four honest ways to get there: drive your own car onto the Puntarenas to Paquera ferry, ride a shared shuttle that makes the same crossing for you, hire a private driver, or fly to Tambor and cover the last stretch of road.

The ferry is the part travelers worry about. It should be the part they worry about least. Naviera Tambor posts eight departures a day in each direction. What actually decides your first day is the hour your plane touches down in San Jose.

The four ways, side by side

Sansa also lists Tambor among its Costa Rica destinations, which turns the drive into a short hop over the gulf. More on that below, because the flight solves less than people expect.

The ferry: eight sailings, and what it charges

Naviera Tambor has run the Puntarenas to Paquera crossing since 1992 as a concession authorized by the Costa Rican state. The company describes the route as eleven nautical miles. Its boats have an air conditioned passenger lounge, a sun deck and a snack service, which matters more than it sounds like it does when you have a toddler and an hour of open water.

Both sides keep the same clock. From Puntarenas and from Paquera alike, boats leave at 4:00 a.m., 6:30 a.m., 9:00 a.m., noon, 3:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.

Fares, in colones:

Both the timetable and the fares come from Naviera Tambor's own horarios y tarifas page, read on 20 October 2026, which posts this schedule as effective from 20 April 2026 until further notice. Check it again close to your dates, because that is where a change would appear first.

Two things follow from the table. A vehicle costs many times what its passengers do, so the ferry is cheap if you walk on and a real line item if you drive on. And with eight sailings a day, missing one costs you a wait, not a day.

What your landing hour actually decides

This is the arithmetic nobody puts next to the ferry schedule.

Door to door, our own private transfer from San Jose airport to Santa Teresa is scheduled at about five hours, and the shared shuttle at about six. Both include the crossing. Work backward from that and your arrival day sorts itself into three cases.

You land before about 11 a.m. You reach Santa Teresa in daylight with room for immigration, bags and lunch. This is the comfortable version, and it is the only one that fits the shared shuttle, which runs one departure a day with pickup around 9 a.m.

You land in the early afternoon. You will arrive around dusk. Workable with a driver who knows the road. Less fun if you are also meeting a rental car desk and reading signs for the first time.

You land after about 4 p.m. You will finish the last stretch in the dark. Plenty of people do it. The calmer move is a night near the airport and an early start, and you lose a hotel night rather than an evening of stress. "Driving Paquera to Santa Teresa at night" is a question travelers post again and again on r/CostaRicaTravel, which tells you how the drive feels to someone doing it for the first time.

When flying to Tambor is worth it

Flying trades a long road day for a short one. You still land short of Santa Teresa and need a ride for the final leg, so the flight shortens the trip rather than ending it at your hotel.

Two practical notes. Travelers regularly report that the big booking sites do not show these flights at all, so look on flysansa.com rather than concluding they do not exist. And small aircraft carry strict baggage limits, so check the allowance before you pack boards or a hard case.

When the rental car earns itself

A car makes sense if you want to drive the peninsula: Montezuma, Mal Pais, the Cabo Blanco gate, a different beach every morning. For a week of that, the vehicle fare on the ferry is a fair price.

A car makes less sense if you plan to stay in Santa Teresa and walk to the water. The town is one long road behind the beach, and a car you do not use still costs you the rental, the ferry fare and the last stretch of road at the end of a flying day.

One thing worth saying plainly, because the internet makes people nervous about it: the road from Cobano to Santa Teresa is good, and you can easily do it with a standard car. Choose the 4x4 because you want to go further up the coast or down rough side tracks, not because you are afraid of reaching the town.

Getting out again, which is the harder half

Leaving has a deadline, and that is why the 4:00 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. sailings exist. An early flight out of San Jose means a start in the dark from Santa Teresa, whichever way you travel.

Our shuttle back to San Jose airport runs one early morning departure a day and is scheduled at about six hours: from $72 per person. A private transfer leaves at the hour you choose and is scheduled at about five: from $360 per vehicle (up to 4). If you are flying out of Liberia instead, that run is from $324 per vehicle (up to 4).

Whatever you book, do not build the morning around a single sailing with no slack in it. Pick the boat before the one you need.

Once you are there

The glow tours that draw people to this coast sail from the Paquera side, nearer the water you crossed to get in than the beach you are sleeping on, so your arrival day and your first night are the same planning problem. Ours is a night paddle through plankton that lights up under the blade: from $45 per person.

Santa TeresaCosta Rica

Tell us when you land

Send us your flight number and arrival time and we will tell you which ferry that puts you on, whether the shared shuttle still works for your day, and whether you should sleep near the airport instead. That answer is different for an 8 a.m. landing and a 6 p.m. one, and it is a quicker conversation than another evening of tabs.

Ask us. We will tell you what the drive is really like at the hour you are doing it.

Pura Vida!

More on Santa Teresa

• Your first surf lesson in Santa Teresa: which beach, and which hour

• Santa Teresa without a surfboard: Cabo Blanco is shut Mondays and Tuesdays

• In Santa Teresa, book the moonless night first