How to get to Corcovado National Park ?

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Last week we went from San José to Corcovado National Park. It is quite difficult to find good and recent information online about how to get there, but it’s quite easy.



You have two choices : either you go to Drake Bay and take a ferry from there to Corcovado National Park or you go to Puerto Jimenez and take a shuttle to the park.



What we did was the following : at Atlántico Norte bus station in San José, we took the 6AM Bus to Puerto Jimenez. It costs only 8000 Colones (= 14$US or 12€) and takes about 8 to 9 hours to get there. The bus is very comfortable and stops about every 1 1/2 or 2 hours either for a short pee-stop or for a lunch stop. It’s quite fast and cheap, a very good option.

You can also fly to Puerto Jimenez, but we couldn’t find a flight for the days when we wanted to go, so I can’t tell you how much that cost or how it is. But I’m pretty sure the bus is the better option since, this way, you can plan your trip back more spontaneously.



To go to Drake Bay, you take a bus from San José to Palma Norte (I think it’s the same bus as to Puerto Jimenez but I’m not sure since we’ve done it in the opposite direction) and that one costs 6100 Colones (= 11$US or 9€) and takes 5 hours. Then you have to take another bus or a shuttle from Palma Norte to Sierpe (1$US for bus, 5$US for shuttle) that takes about 1 hour and then you take a boat (small, not a big ferry) to Drake Bay (8000 colones = 15$US or 12€) that takes 1 hour.



If you compare both ways, it’s definitely preferable to go to Puerto Jimenez because you don’t have to change, it’s cheaper and does not take much more time.



Both from P.J. and from D.B. you can do day tours or 2 or 3 day-tours to the Corcovado National Park. Which one you take depends on how much time you have, whether you like to hike and whether you are in a good shape or not.

From D.B. tour operators will take you to the national park by boat (1h) and then you start your hike at the Sirena station. On a day tour, you will go on the trails around the station where you can see quite some animals (if you’re lucky of course). It’s a very easy hike, not much of a challenge, more a walk. If you want to do 2 or 3 days, you will first hike the trails around the Sirena station, sleep there, and then, the 2d or 3rd day, hike 22km to the La Leona station and from there go by shuttle to Puerto Jimenez.



From P.J. you have the same options : a day hike, a 2 or a 3-day-hike. The day hike from P.J. is, I think, more expensive than in D.B. and I think this one is better and you see more animals if you start in D.B. and not in P.J.

The 2 or 3-day-hike however is much better from P.J. because :

a) you see a lot of animals on the way to the park which you probably don’t see in the park and definitely not by boat coming from D.B.

b) you get to hike 22km to the Sirena station. It’s a very exhaustive hike, not very steep or anything, but it’s very hot and humid (30°C + 90% humidity) and part of the way across the beach and on the sand is. So, you should be in a good shape if you do it! On this hike, you see many animals you don’t get to see close to the park and it definitely is an adventure worth doing!

c) it’s cheaper because prices in P.J. are lower than in D.B. : 270$ for 2 nights in Puerto Jimenez (includes dinner, breakfast and luggage transfer) vs. 330$ in Drake Bay (no luggage transport, includes lunch, dinner, breakfast).



If you do the 2 or 3-day-hike from P.J. you have the choice to either come back there by walking or to take a boat to D.B. I would definitely recommend the second option, because the 22km hike to P.J. is very exhausting and once you’ve done it, you don’t want to do it again soon. ;-)



We did the 2-day-hike and they brought our heavy backpacks by car to D.B. so that we only had to carry our day-packs. I can absolutely recommend this tour, especially with the Osa Wild agency. We saw lots of animals, our guide was incredible, funny, smart, gave us lots of information, cared well for us and Osa Wild pays the guides well (not all companies do that!).

If you book a tour with an agency, make sure your guide is a local and not from San José or somewhere else. That’s the only way to make sure you’ll have a high quality tour.





If you go to Corcovado, don’t be pressed in time. You might want to plan 1 or 2 extra days on this peninsula just to be sure you have enough time there to do the tour you want to do. It’s absolutely worth it, there is a lot to do and to see!

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