How to Get to Drake Bay Costa Rica – By Air, Bus, Shuttle, Boat or Car

In this post, we’ll share a detailed rundown of how to get to Drake Bay. A remote and wild town in Costa Rica, tucked in the southwest corner of the country on the Osa Peninsula it’s not the easiest place to get to but it is worth the journey!

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About Drake Bay Costa Rica

Drake Bay is Costa Rica at its rawest and wildest. Tucked away in the country’s southwest, on the sprawling Osa Peninsula Drake Bay is a true hidden gem and a haven for wildlife fanatics and outdoor lovers.

One of two major jump-off points for Corcovado National Park, Drake Bay is the place to come if you want to see wildlife in Costa Rica and experience pristine jungle and empty beaches.

But as the saying goes, ‘difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations’ and that couldn’t be more true of Drake Bay.

As you may have heard, the journey can be a little arduous. But as intrepid travellers, we celebrate this! It keeps away the bulk of visitors and helps little Drake Bay retain its small-town charm, and remain blissfully free from mass tourism development. And honestly? Once you’re in the know, it’s not that difficult.

👉🏼 Everything you need to know about Drake Bay in our complete Drake Bay Travel Guide

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Where is Drake Bay

Before we can talk about how to get to Drake Bay Costa Rica, you need to know where you’re heading!

Drake Bay sits on the remote Osa Peninsula, a mass of land jutting out into the Pacific Ocean in the southwestern corner of the country. Drake Bay is on the western side of the peninsula.

How long does it take to get to Drake Bay?

Well, that depends – on where you’re coming from, and how you’re travelling.

Drake Bay is quite out of the way compared to other popular destinations around the country, and it’s probably one of the longest journeys you’ll have on your Costa Rica itinerary.

It seems common for travellers to come to Drake Bay from San Jose. Although we don’t think this is the best route. We would suggest first visiting Manuel Antonio and/or Dominical and Uvita. You’ll be much closer to Drake Bay, and these destinations all deserve some time on your itinerary.

To give you a rough idea, here are some expected journey times if you’re travelling to Drake Bay via land + boat (the most common method):

• 📍 San Jose – 6 hours
• 📍 Manuel Antonio / Quepos – 4 hours
• 📍 Dominical / Uvita – 3 hours

How to get to Drake Bay Costa Rica

The answer to the question ‘How to get to Drake Bay Costa Rica?’ is a complex one. It depends greatly on where you’re coming from, how you’re travelling around the country, and even what season it is.

But getting there is half the fun, and the area has remained so special and untouched because it is difficult to reach. No matter how you arrive, I promise it will be worth it!

There are a couple of different ways to get there, depending on how you are travelling. I’ll drill down into further transport combinations, there are only 4 ways you can actually arrive in Drake Bay:

• ✈️ By plane
• 🚤 By boat from Sierpe
• 🚙 By car
• 🚌 By bus from La Palma

👆🏼 Click to jump to your preferred method of transport

How to get to Drake Bay by plane

Unnecessary, unsustainable, but possible, there is a small airport in Drake Bay (DRK) with daily flights from San Jose with Sansa Air. There are multiple departures per day in the high (dry) season. Departures are less frequent in the low (wet) season.

The flight takes less than an hour. You can expect to pay around $140 USD each way in the low season. This inflates to around $165 USD in the high season.

The airport is about 15 minutes drive from town. Most accommodations will organise a transfer for you if you advise them of your plans. Otherwise, there are usually taxis waiting when flights land.

How to get to Drake Bay by boat from Sierpe

Because the roads leading to Drake Bay are remote and mostly unpaved, the quickest and most common way to arrive is by boat from the town of Sierpe.

The journey from Sierpe to Drake Bay takes around 1 hour, winding through the Sierpe River and the mangroves of the Terraba Sierpe Wetlands, before coming out into the ocean and landing on the beach in Drake Bay.

The trip is an activity in itself, and you’ll enjoy some stunning scenery and wildlife-spotting opportunities. And possibly some rough seas, depending on the tides and conditions.

Since our visit, there is a new company called Drake Bay Boat Shuttle that has formalised the trip, with scheduled times, costs and online bookings available. It’s not a ‘turn up and wait and see’ anymore.

You can book the standard trip to Drake Bay ($20 one-way), but they also offer drop-offs at some of the further hotels along the coast. They divide accommodations into 3 ‘zones’ so you can easily book the right trip for you.

The further you go, the further it costs (maximum $30 one-way), but this will still most likely be cheaper than coordinating a private boat with your accommodation if you’re staying out of town. It’s a good idea to discuss with them and confirm what the best option is.

They also offer boat transfers between Drake Bay and these hotels, and vice versa, so you can easily schedule transport for different segments of your time in Drake. Having a collective, shared option is going to be way cheaper than a private boat from your accommodation, if they don’t include transfers as a standard.

⛴️ There are two boats per day from Sierpe:

• 11:30 am
• 3:00 pm

The boats depart from the Embarcadero Sierpe (Sierpe Pier), near the Donde Jorge Restaurant in Sierpe.

⛴️ Top tip – the boat will land on the beach in Drake Bay, and you’ll have to jump out into the shallow water. Wear water shoes or shoes you can take off quickly, and avoid pants that can’t be rolled up. Otherwise, you will be very wet!

The boat lands on Playa Colorado, the main beach in Drake Bay. If you’re staying somewhere in town, you should easily be able to walk from here. Some of the higher-end accommodation options may meet you at the beach and help with your luggage.

With this new offering, you can now just stay on the boat if you’re continuing along the coast to one of the lodges. Much easier than before where you either had to coordinate on the spot with the captain to take you, or disembark and wait for your hotel’s boat to arrive.

⛴️ To return from Drake Bay to Sierpe, they offer one boat per day:

• 7:00 am (earlier pick up from the distant hotels)

You must pre-book the return trip, especially if you need to be picked up from one of the remote hotels. Their website is very easy to use and book.

If an early morning departure doesn’t suit you, there is another company that offers boat trips. La Perla del Sur is a hotel in Sierpe, and they used to have the monopoly on boat trips to Drake.

They still offer two boats a day from Siepre to Drake (11:30 am and 4:00 pm), which isn’t too different from what Drake Bay Boat Shuttle offers.

However, their return trips are a bit more favourable, with an afternoon departure at 2:00 pm, as well as their 7:00 am boat. This boat leaves from the main beach in Drake, Playa Colorado, but I don’t know if they will coordinate an earlier pickup from another beach. This option is less formalised, but leaving later in the day might suit your itinerary, so I wanted to mention it.

Getting to Sierpe by public transport

If you’re travelling in Costa Rica without a car, on a budget, you can reach Sierpe via bus.

Whilst there are some direct buses to Sierpe from other cities, it’s more likely that you will need to take a bus to nearby Palmar Norte first, before transferring to a local bus or taxi to Sierpe. Palmar Norte is a larger hub town on the Pan-American Highway, with much more frequent transport connections.

As I mentioned, I would suggest planning your Costa Rica itinerary so you approach Drake Bay from one of the following places:

• 📍 San Jose
• 📍 Manuel Antonio/Quepos
• 📍 Dominical/Uvita

These make the most sense geographically and work for bus connections.

🚌 FROM SAN JOSE / DOMINICAL / UVITA

There is one daily direct bus from San Jose to Sierpe and multiple services to Palmar Norte. Tracopa offers these services, and they have their own terminal in San Jose, located here.

Both of these routes (Sierpe and Palmar Norte) pass by Dominical and Uvita a few hours later, so if you’re staying there you can jump on the Tracopa bus too.

👉🏼 Check Tracopa times and schedules here

There are other cheaper local bus companies that run the route from Dominical/Uvita to Palmar Norte. They are less official than the Tracopa buses, but your accommodation might be able to give you some information about timetables.

🚌 FROM QUEPOS / MANUEL ANTONIO

This route is a little trickier, as not all of the Tracopa buses from San Jose stop in Quepos.

If you’re staying in Manuel Antonio, near the Manuel Antonio National Park, you’ll first need to get to Quepos. As far as I can tell, none of the buses heading in that direction come all the way into Manuel Antonio. There is a local bus that runs back and forth to Quepos all day long. 

From Quepos, Tracopa has two daily departures to Palmar Norte. Check departure times here.

There are other, cheaper local buses that leave from Quepos for Dominical, where you could switch to another bus to Palmar Norte or Sierpe if the above times don’t align.

🚌 FROM PALMAR NORTE TO SIERPE

If you don’t manage to get a direct bus to Sierpe, you’ll end up in Palmar Norte.

From here, you can switch to a local bus to Sierpe. Anyone at the bus stop can point you in the right direction. Although this is the cheapest option, note that the timings may not align with the boat.

The easiest way to get to Sierpe from Palmar Norte is to jump in a taxi. There will no doubt be some waiting when you get off the bus. You can expect to pay around $15 – 20 USD for the trip. Try and find some other travellers on the bus to share with.

🚌 When planning your bus journey, be sure to consider the boat timings and make sure they align as best as possible. Sierpe is a pretty small town, you don’t want to be stuck there waiting for hours if you can help it.

Getting to Sierpe via car

If you have a rental car and you don’t want to drive to Drake Bay (more on this below), you can drive yourself to Sierpe and take the boat.

La Perla del Sur and a few other hotels and restaurants offer secure paid parking. It’s not cheap, with rates around $5 – $10 USD per day. In most cases, you will pay on your return to Sierpe when you can confirm your car is safe and undamaged.

If you don’t have a 4×4 and it’s the rainy season, this is the best option.

Getting to Sierpe from Panama

We didn’t do this route, so I don’t have any experience or firsthand info to share, but I did want to note that Drake Bay is often a first stop in Costa Rica for people travelling north from Panama.

The more common border crossing between the two countries is on the Caribbean Coast, from Bocas del Toro, Panama, to Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, but you can also cross on the Pacific Coast via the Paso Canoas border.

You’d most likely be coming from Boquete in Panama. There aren’t any direct bus or shuttle routes from Boquete to Sierpe. There is a tourist shuttle from Boquete to the border, Paso Canoas, where you can connect with local buses to Palmar Norte and/or Sierpre.

Alternatively, if you get yourself to the city of David from Boquete, then you can basically jump on any bus heading into Costa Rica (the Ticabus route to San Jose is a good option). Get off at Palmar Norte, which is along the Panamerican Highway. Then follow the instructions above to get to Sierpre and jump on the boat to Drake Bay.

How to get to Drake Bay by car

I want to cut straight to the point here and dispel a few myths – you can drive to Drake Bay, and you don’t need a 4×4 (in the dry season, anyway).

Driving in Costa Rica is the easiest way to get around, and now you can still include Drake Bay on your road trip itinerary!

While previously you could only drive to Drake Bay with a 4×4, since 2023, this is no longer the case. Road upgrades and bridge installations mean that there are no longer any river crossings required to reach the town, and most cars can make the journey in the dry season.

The majority of the route is on paved, well-made highways, it’s only the final 30 km / 18 mi that is on an unpaved, dirt road.

Drake Bay road conditions

In the dry season, this road is easily passable in any vehicle. Some sections are bumpier than others, but with slow, careful driving you can avoid most of the potholes.

If it hasn’t been raining, and the holes aren’t filled with water, it’s easy enough to tackle the road. It’s not any worse than some of the other roads you will no doubt encounter around the country.

There are some very steep inclines and declines through mountain ranges, but the road has been paved in the worst sections. This helps with the issue of runoff and ruts forming after rain and means you’ll have good tread in the steepest sections.

As long as the road hasn’t been washed out recently, with rain gushing down the declines and carrying away all the gravel, and filling up potholes, I would hazard that most people would feel comfortable making this drive.

Of course, in the wet season (May – October ish), these concerns become the norm. The road is muddy and slippery, the potholes are deeper, the ruts are bigger and a lot of the gravel gets washed out. If you don’t have a 4×4, and you’re worried about your rental agreement, best not to risk it in the rainy season. Instead drive to Sierpe, park your car and take the boat.

If you do have a 4×4, I would say go for it, wet or dry season. We did the trip in late May, and it had been raining quite substantially before and during our time in Drake Bay.

We had our Toyota Landcruiser ‘Troopy’ from Nomad America and the trip was an absolute breeze. We had zero concerns, the road was nowhere near as bad as we were expecting and the car handled it like a champ. Brayden smashed it in under an hour, and felt let down by how easy it was!

It’s not a bad idea to check in with your accommodation in advance of making the trip, in case there has been any major rain that has damaged the road. They have the most up-to-date knowledge!

Should you drive to Drake Bay?

Just because you can drive to Drake Bay Costa Rica, it doesn’t mean that you should. And honestly, you don’t really need your car that much when you arrive as most activities are done on foot or by boat.

To help you decide if it’s worth driving, here are some thoughts for and against it.

👍🏻 When you SHOULD drive to Drake Bay

• You’ve rented a 4×4. If you’ve got a beast car, you can and should drive to Drake Bay at any time of the year. You don’t want to waste money paying for the boat, parking your car at Sierpe, plus leaving your car sitting unused for a few days, when you’ve paid a ton for the rental.

• You’re staying in an accommodation accessible by road but not in the centre of town. You don’t want to lose your freedom by staying in a remote location and not being able to join tours, try different restaurants etc. Of course take into consideration wet v dry season, and the type of car you’ve rented.

• You’ve rented a standard car, it’s dry season and you’re a confident driver with an adventurous spirit. For the same financial reasons as above, if you’ve already paid for a car, and you’re not concerned about a dirt road, you should drive to Drake Bay.

👎🏻 When you SHOULDN’T drive to Drake Bay

• It’s wet season (May – October) and you don’t have a 4×4. It’s not worth the risk. Drive yourself to Sierpe and take the boat.

• You’re staying in a remote lodge on an isolated beach with boat-only access. Not really worth the drive if you have to leave your car in town anyway. You may as well leave it at Sierpe and save yourself a bumpy ride.

• If you haven’t already rented a car for your time in Costa Rica, don’t bother renting one especially for this journey! You don’t need to, and there are other, more cost-effective ways to get to Drake Bay.

Google Maps v Waze

We just put Drake Bay in Google Maps and followed that route. It was mostly correct.

But I have heard that Waze is a better option for avoiding unnecessary river crossings near the town itself. Although it’s not too difficult to work this out once you’re close to town, and I will brief you below.

I would recommend inputting the name of your actual accommodation, a restaurant or something specific in town into your map. As ‘Drake Bay’ isn’t an actual place, the map can get a little confused.

Either way – be sure to download the maps offline as there is no service on the drive.

Drake Bay driving directions

First, you want to get yourself to Palmar Norte which is kind of the unofficial access point to the Osa Peninsula. All roads and boats branch out from here. The duration of this trip:

• From San Jose – 3.5 – 4 hours
• From Manuel Antonio / Quepos – 1.5 – 2 hours
• From Dominical / Uvita – 0.5 – 1 hour

From Palmar Norte, continue out of town on the paved and well-made Pan-American Highway (Route 2). After approximately half an hour you will reach the tiny town of Chacarita and the turnoff to Route 245.

There is a gas station on the corner, and I would encourage you to fill up your car here. There are no more options along the route or in Drake Bay.

Route 245 runs down the eastern side of the Osa Peninsula to the larger town of Puerto Jimenez. It is paved and in good condition. The drive is beautiful, through the thick jungle, and we spotted toucans and monkeys! There are a couple of places you can pull over to enjoy a viewpoint overlooking the Golfo Dulce.

The road is quite narrow, and it’s a single lane each way, but it was perfectly comfortable to drive. Rain may slow you down a little bit as you’ll need to be easier on the corners, but it’s doable in any car.

Around 45 minutes on Route 245, you’ll pass the tiny town of Rincon. Just after the town, you’ll turn off Route 245 onto the road to Drake Bay. The road isn’t really named, but there are plenty of signs directing you.

This is where the road turns to dirt/unpaved gravel. It is 30 km / 18 mi and can take anywhere from 1 – 3 hours, depending on your vehicle, the current road condition and how confident you are navigating dirt roads.

Large sections of the road are flat, and although it is bumpy and filled with potholes, it’s not treacherous. You’ll pass through a number of small, rural communities. Some sections of the roads are paved through the towns.

The second half of the drive gets a bit steeper, and you have to incline and decline through a couple of small mountain ranges. It is quite steep, for quite a while but luckily the road is paved in the very steep sections. Going up, and coming down again, is on a proper, paved road so you don’t have to worry about slipping and sliding on gravel.

There are some unpaved downhill sections that are less steep but still require extra care. It can get quite slippery if it has been raining and the road has washed out down the hill. This is why it’s not recommended to come during the wet season without a 4×4 that has good tread and traction.

As you get closer to town there is a maze of different roads you can take. You will see signs for different hotels and restaurants all pointing you in different directions. This is where your maps system may point you in the wrong direction, and lead you towards a river crossing.

Around 7 km / 4 mi from Agujitas, the road forks to the left. Going straight/right looks like the most obvious way, and Google Maps will most likely route you this way. But you actually want to follow the hotel signs that point you to the left.

Continuing straight/right will lead you towards the Drake Bay Airport, and this route will pass one of the last few river crossings in the area.

If you happen to end up here, it is not the only way to reach town and you do not need to cross the river. Just backtrack and take our suggested route, and you can drive all the way into Drake Bay without crossing a river.

Just stick left at this point, and follow a series of gravel roads to arrive in town with no wet feet! Don’t go towards the airport, and don’t follow any signs to the Corcovado Foundation Bio Hostel.

How to get to Drake Bay by bus from La Palma

It is possible to take a public bus to Drake Bay. Although, it is unusual and complicated, and for the majority of people won’t make any sense for your route.

However, I wanted to briefly include this option as it is handy to know for those of you who want to visit both Drake Bay and Puerto Jimenez (or Dos Brazos or Carate) on the Osa Peninsula. This bus route connects these two hub towns on opposite sides of the peninsula. 

The bus leaves from the town of La Palma, on the eastern side of the peninsula. La Palma is just a 5-minute drive past the turn-off to Drake Bay on Route 245.

If you’re coming from Puerto Jimenez, it is 30 minutes north, and there are a few buses running this route each day. Check with your accommodation in Puerto Jimenez for updated times.

There is a lot of conflicting information about the La Palma to Drake Bay bus route, but the most recent information I can find is that the bus departs just once per day, not on Sunday, at 12:30 pm. It takes around 2 hours.

If you want to take this trip in return, the bus leaves Drake Bay at 4:15 am (!!!).

Final thoughts: How to get to Drake Bay Costa Rica

I hope this post has eased any concerns about how to get to Drake Bay Costa Rica. It seems complicated, and it’s certainly not the easiest part of the country to visit, but it’s worth every minute of the journey! You will be rewarded with a pristine and untouched area, free from crowds. Let me know how you’re planning to travel to Drake Bay in the comments.

MORE OSA PENINSULA POSTS

• Complete Drake Bay Travel Guide
• Where to Stay in Drake Bay: Best Areas + Hotels
• 12 Best Things to Do in Drake Bay
• Drake Bay Hiking Trail Guide
• How to Visit Corcovado National Park
• Our Overnight Experience at Corcovado National Park

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