Obviously not very many people really like the idea of having to pay for a taxi to go anywhere and the destinations can at times be very far apart. For this reason, almost all tourists will at least take one bus while in Costa Rica during their time there.
Costa Rica has local / public busing available in most of the cities and beach towns throughout the area. It is extremely affordable. The bad news is that you will probably be on an old beat up yellow school bus going to your destinations. They are extremely old ones at that and do not seem to have kept their shocks fixed up the last time I rode on one. Obviously, they get you to your destination, but I would definitely not recommend them if you are going a very far distance at all.
Costa Rica Busing
If you are in San Jose and will be going to anything like the Guanacaste which is a significant amount of driving time, I would highly recommend one of the private transportation services. These are often available through your hotel and really are not all that expensive. Generally you can get a van for about a $20 fare and it is well worth it. If you are on a big private bus many of them will have restrooms on-board and air conditioning, which is invaluable in Costa Rica. The vans, obviously don’t have the restrooms, but will almost always have air conditioning and plenty of windows so you can enjoy the traveling experience throughout the Costa Rica roads.
As mentioned above, vacationing to anything like Guanacaste which is most often a six hour drive then I would not recommend anything less than a private fare. Those big public buses generally will not have fares available to get there, but even if they do they will be a very bumpy ride all the way there as you are sweating to death and miserable. You would probably literally feel drained by the time you get there and that’s not really ideal for a vacation. Spending a little bit more money is worth the investment for the air conditioning and comfortable ride.
*Before traveling to Costa Rica please read the Entry/Exit Requirements provided by the U.S. Department of State.