Granada Nicaragua to St Elena Costa Rica

Thats about it in a nutshell. Get to border early, cross border, 1-2 hours hopefully, busses to Liberia on CR side depart every 30 minutes and take 2 hours to Liberia... From Liberia, its 3 hours to Monteverde, Santa Elena, but nothing direct, so you need to either incorporate a shuttle from Liberia or get off bus at on Pan Am turn off, and catch another bus or hitch...

No easy way...

The cloudforest this time of year in rainy season can be a tad wet, chilly and almost cold at night, and muddy/mucky/misty and messy...

http://thebusschedule.com/

You might want to get to Rivas, then taxi hire to border too. Are you going to Ometepe? I would go there before Monteverde any day of year, or 4 days...its magical and far less touristy...it would be much easier too, and also if going to border after Ometepe, its just 1 hour boat to San Jorge, then taxi hire to border, or just bus to Rivas and bus to border, but thats dragging things out with 2 kids in tow...

You can catch a Tica Bus in Granada and get off if it in Liberia. We just did this a few weeks ago. There is a Tica Bus office in Granada. Very easy to do and easy crossing the border and not having to worry about a ride. They drop you right in front of a hotel in Liberia and other hotels are within a short walking distance. I'm not sure about getting to your final destination as we rented a car from there.

tica bus is painless way to cross the borders, have done it and highly recommend traveling that way, keep it simple.

Keep in mind you are on the Tica Bus schedule, which may not be ideal, between Granada and Liberia, and you are paying for a full price ticket, for Managua to San Jose....

Painless would be taxi hire to border, cross border, bus to Liberia, and then shuttle to Santa Elena...with a early start from Granada...

Tica bus, $84 US round trip. I don't know about one way. Schedule is good, you arrive in Liberia in the late afternoon. Perfect time. If you want to go earlier, they have several buses that leave at different times during the day. The other way just sounds like a pain in the A==.

Trans nica bus is 56 round trip from managua to san jose. Less if you go from the Granada station and get off early in Liberia.
If you wanna save a few bucks.

But same thing...you are on their schedule, as I think they only have 2 or 3 buses go a day.

it would be lot better since they are travelling with children, fewer transfers and air conditioning along the the help they provide at the border, it would be a no brainer for me.