1

you can use the public bus or one of the international buses such as ticabus.

for either one, the easiest thing to do is grab a taxi from san juan del sur either to rivas for the ticabus or to the border (very inexpensive with four of you) and pick up the public bus once you cross the border into costa rica.

for public bus schedule, http://www.thebusschedule.com/cr - use penas blancas for the origin.

the public bus stops in a lot of places - - the international buses, just a few.

where you go other than santa teresa or montezuma depends on what you are looking for. tamarindo, playas del coco would be rocking new year's eve. for a mountain/volcano location, arenal would be good.

Edited by: wiremu

2

Borders can be a nightmare during holidays so get there early.

There is always a bus from CR border to Liberia, from 6am and 5pm, takes 2 hours. Tamarindo is another hour. There is a shuttle between Tamarindo>Montezuma for $35PP and takes 4 hours.

Tamarindo would be the party of parties for NY eve...

3

It sounds like you have a great trip planned! The previous reply about the bus route is right on. I checked Sansa flights & they are too expensive that week.
NYE in Tamarindo is an epic blowout. It depends what you want. I live in Santa Teresa and there will be good fun parties there, which will be cooler & calmer than Tamarindo. You'll save yourself time, energy, and money if you stay down toward the bottom of the peninsula after Montezuma. I highly recommend Santa Teresa as your other destination; I love it here.

4

http://transportesdeldu.com/

5

Thanks All! I think we will probably do Santa Teresa, although Tamarindo is tempting for NYE. We don't want to do three locations (too little time) and are already set on Santa Teresa. For areas to stay in Santa Teresa, I've heard that it's better to stay in Playa Carmen or Mal Pais, and that staying in ST requires taking a lot of taxis at night. Any recommendations?