Tica Bus Pickup in Liberia, Costa Rica

Pulmitan Station in Liberia, Costa Rica

As we wrote previously, we were surprised how simple it was to buy our Tica Bus tickets online. The next step of course was using them.

In communication with Tica Bus we confirmed that the location for pickup had changed since the last time we had travelled this route. With the construction of the overpass, the new pickup spot was at the Pulmitan Bus Terminal. The rep from Tica Bus wasn’t able to give me the direction for the terminal but confidently told me that all the taxis know where it’s located. Not being one to leave such an important detail to chance I was able to get a Google map to show the location of the terminal by using the website: http://thebusschedule.com/cr/index.php. We tried to get information about what time the Tica Bus would arrive from the ticket & information booths inside the Pulmitan station, but they weren’t helpful at all and of course spoke no English.

Interior of Pulmitan Terminal

Our tickets were booked on the 6:00 am bus out of San Jose which meant that it arrived in Liberia between 10:00-10:30 am. Our bus pulled right into the terminal, but we know that at times when the bays are full it will pull into the lot across the street from the terminal and load the bus from there. There wasn’t an assistant on the bus for our trip who usually would collect the border fees, which meant that when we arrived at the border the bus driver arranged for a woman to take us to where we had to pay our exit tax. 

There are new ex-ray machines to examine your luggage which modernized the process, but we were still about 1 ½ hours at the border before getting on our way into Nicaragua.

We arrived in Granada about 3 pm and there were taxis at the drop off point to take us to the hotel. Our taxi driver wanted $10.00 US to take us to where we were staying, but we knew that this was way overpriced.  We had checked beforehand and had been told that the fare for the taxi is 10 Córdoba’s per person. Quite often they will charge for your luggage which should still have only cost us 50 cords. We agreed on 60 cords and in no time at all we were settling into our accommodations.

Pulmitan Terminal - Liberia, Costa Rica

Maleku Tours - Liberia, Costa Rica

Tempisque River Boat Tours

When we originally booked our tickets through Air Miles we were scheduled to fly on Sunday, December 11th and transfer to Nicaragua by bus on the following day. However, Air Canada contacted us to inform us that they had cancelled our flight and we had the choice of leaving Halifax on Friday, December 9th or the following week on the 15th. Since we had already booked our Tica Bus tickets we opted to leave sooner, rather than later. With leaving two days earlier it meant that we had time to book a tour and enjoy what Costa Rica has to offer.  We decided on the Palo Verde Jungle Tour.

Iguana

We contacted Maleku Tours for airport pickup and also to take the Palo Verde Jungle Tour. Since we have used them before for transfers to the Riu Guanacaste we were not surprised when they responded quickly to our email request and all our arrangements were in place in no time at all.

Airport pickup went smoothly as they were waiting for us as we exited the airport. We were surprised to have personalized service with Eugenia and chatted all the way to the hotel catching up on what has been happening in the area over the last few years.

The following day Eugenia met us at 7:30 for our day tour to Palo Verde followed by lunch at Rancho Los Coyotes. All arrangements went smoothly. We had exceptional wildlife viewing on the Tempisque River with iguanas, crocodiles and birds galore.

After the boat tour, Eugenia located Howler monkeys for us and stopped for us to take pictures of them. By chance, the location that she stopped the van was along the route that the troupe used to cross the road and we were able to take some amazing shots of a mama howler and her baby.

 

Lunch at Rancho Los Coyotes was delicious and was ready as soon as we arrived. Before we left the Rancho some local artisans showed us how they make pottery - truly beautiful works of art that can be purchased right on site.

If you are in the Liberia area, we highly recommend using Maleku Tours – you will truly receive excellent service. https://www.malekutours.com/

Flying into Costa Rica and Requiring Proof of Onward Travel - Purchasing Tica Bus Tickets Online

We have been planning our return to Nicaragua pretty much since the day we left three years ago.One of our strategies to minimize the cost of returning was to aggressively collect as many Air Miles Reward miles as we could in order to purchase plane tickets at a reduced rate.

Purchasing our tickets through Air Miles did result in considerable savings for us. However, by redeeming reward miles it meant that we couldn’t fly direct to Nicaragua, but had the option of landing in San Jose or Liberia, Costa Rica. This itinerary created the necessity for us to prove onward travel because having proof of onward travel is one of the entry requirements for Costa Rica.

To satisfy the need to provide proof of onward travel we considered a couple of options. A flight from Liberia to Managua was cost prohibitive and would eat up the savings from purchasing our tickets through Air Miles. We also considered a private transfer, but with the low Canadian Dollar we couldn’t spring for the $275 US that we were quoted. Finally, we looked at various shuttles and bus options and decided that the bus was what we were going to go with.

Having traveled by Tica Bus from Liberia in the past we decided that their company would be the best solution for us - but since we were in Canada how would we get our tickets? We considered purchasing the tickets through an agency listed online, but the additional fee they charge for the service discouraged us. Due to circumstances friends were not able to purchase them for us either so we decided to bite the bullet and purchase them online ourselves. We had read online that the process was simple and could be completed quickly.

Here is our experience with purchasing Tica Bus tickets online:

Tica Bus chat assistance

First step was to visit their website and determine the route and time that we wanted the tickets for. Their website is: https://ticabus.com/ When we determined what the bus schedule we wanted, we used the chat box in the lower right corner.  When it is green it means that someone is available to help.  

I changed the language to English by selecting “English” from the drop down menu when you click on the little world icon. I filled in my name, email and question and then clicked start chat.  Very quickly I had a response from Tica Bus with these instructions:

Tica Bus Chat initiator

Good morning

We have a way to buy and reserve tickets in advance via e-mail and paying with a credit card so here the steps:

1. Send an email to (CSR email address) with the scanned passports of the passengers, the desired route, time and date of travel.
2. Once I receive the email I will forward the information to the Credit Department. They will contact you and send the Debit/Credit Card Authorization Form.
3. Complete and sign the form and send it back to them via email.
4. The Credit Department will charge your credit card and send the tickets via email.
5. The Credit Department functions Monday – Friday from 7:00am to 4:00pm….processing of credit cards will happen during that schedule.
6. IMPORTANT – TICKETS ARE NON REFUNDABLE –

From this point the procedure went smoothly. I sent along a scan of our passport and travel schedule to the CSR and he forwarded the info along to the Credit Department. I was contacted by a representative from that department with a copy of our “temporary” tickets and a credit card authorization form with instructions to respond only to them in order to keep the credit card information confidential. We confirmed that the date and time on the “temporary” reservation was correct and returned the signed authorization form (either scan or take a picture of the form). We received confirmation of the purchase with copies of our tickets to print off from the original CSR within a short span of time.

The whole process to purchase the tickets online was fairly simple and we had no communication issues since both the CSR and the credit department communicated in English. 

Would we recommend purchasing your Tica Bus tickets online to prove onward travel?  Absolutely! We will definitely purchase our tickets online again when we need to cross the border for a visa run.

Visa Renewal in Costa Rica and a stay at the RIU Guanacaste

view from our room at the RIU Guanacaste

In order to renew our Nicaraguan Tourist Visa we only need to leave the country every 180 days (roughly 6 months). I think it's funny that before we moved to Nicaragua I thought how fun it would be to have a "forced" vacation every 6 months. In reality though, we have found that a trip to Costa Rica hasn't been as carefree and fun as we anticipated. It's not that we have encountered any dangers, and Costa Rica is certainly beautiful but somehow we've always come home feeling that we "missed" something and the expense of the trip wasn't worth it.

In April it was time to leave Nicaragua to renew our Visa but this time we decided to have a different experience in Costa Rica. Instead of having to "count our pennies" for every expense we decided to try something totally new for us - an all-inclusive resort. Yes, I hear you! Anyone who knows us has heard us say that we don't think an all-inclusive vacation is the way to go.... So.. we are eating our words! After checking out some of the resorts in the Guanacaste area of Costa Rica we finally decided on the RIU Guanacaste. Now, according to the folks on TripAdvisor this resort has a sketchy past in regard to it's treatment of the environment and although I respect their concerns we decided to stay there because the reviews from travelers were mostly favorable and they had the best price.

Chizu and Pat at the border

A few days after we booked our 3 nights at the resort we found out that our good friend Chizu was going to be visiting us and wanted to come to Costa Rica with us. We couldn't be happier to share this experience with her. We did have to change our plans to a certain degree. In order to meet her at the airport we needed to arrive in Managua the night before she was due to arrive. We opted to stay at the Best Western Las Mercedes across from the airport.  Although they aren't what you would call "budget accommodations" we enjoyed the opportunity to just relax and not worry about anything.

Chizu's flight was at noon and after grabbing a quick bite to eat we headed to Casa Silas in Granada for the night in preparation for an early departure the next morning. We again traveled to Costa Rica on TicaBus but this time we left from the Granada terminal. The trip across the border was uneventful and we arrived in Liberia about 11:30 a.m. We had scheduled a transfer to the RIU Guanacaste with Maleku Tours since there is no bus service that would take us past the resort.

front lobby heading towards the pool - RIU Guanacaste

We arrived early at the RIU Guanacaste - long before the official check-in time - although our room wasn't ready they gave us our bracelets and told us to go and enjoy lunch and return later to check into our rooms. We were starving by this time, so we literally raced down to the buffet lunch and dug right in! We were almost overwhelmed by the selection - remember we have been in Nicaragua for a year - there was so much to choose from. Check-in was a breeze and we were happy to find that we had adjoining rooms. The rooms were nice but not extra special. We had a view of the ocean from our little balcony but didn't spend any time out there. The grounds are well kept and we enjoyed walking around them. We saw quite a few iguanas sunning themselves on the pathways.

buffet decoration - RIU Guanacaste

We found that the food was good whether you ate at the buffet or at one of the specialty restaurants. The only restaurant that we didn't have a good experience with was La Toscana - the Italian one. While the food was good, we found the service was terrible. The table that we were seated at was totally blocked from the view of the waitstaff. Others that came in after us were served before us and we had to ask for everything - bread basket, wine glasses refilled, dishes cleared etc. The night that we were at this restaurant we were asked to fill out a survey - and you can bet we did!

On our last night at the resort we enjoyed the Grill and Steakhouse - you have to make a reservation to eat here. The food was excellent and the portions were huge. We also loved the location because it is the closest restaurant to the beach and so there was a beautiful sunset while we enjoyed dinner.

pathway leading to the pool - RIU Guanacaste

So, besides eating what else did we do at the RIU? Well, the pool was a huge draw - and not just because there was a swim-up bar! Although the resort has a nice beach area we found that there was a big undertow and Pat (who can't really swim) didn't feel safe - so we spent most of our time in the pool.

The animation team put on Water Aerobics everyday which Chizu and Pat eagerly joined. There was also a nature walk that took us along the beach and the guide pointed out different plants and animals. The highlight of the walk was seeing a large troupe of Howler monkeys with a number of babies - they were a lot of fun to watch. I would recommend joining this free tour if you ever stay at the RIU Guanacaste. There was also nightly entertainment - a Michael Jackson show, karaoke and another show that I can't remember the name of. The shows were both ok - fun to watch but they won't win any awards with them.

So... all in all, I must say that we thoroughly enjoyed our 3 night vacation at the resort. In fact, we were talking about meeting Chizu there again next year! We found that we definitely got our moneys worth going the all-inclusive route and we came away relaxed and happy with the overall experience.

Pat, Debbie and Chizu enjoying a cold one in the pool - RIU Guanacaste

pool aerobics - RIU Guanacaste

view from the Steak House - RIU Guanacaste

fabulous steak dinner - RIU Guanacaste