Puntarenas–Paquera Ferry: Timetable, Fares and Car Prices

Verified on 25 September 2026, on Naviera Tambor’s own timetable-and-fares page, on ARESEP’s ferry fare page and its open-data fare, route and passenger datasets, and on Coonatramar’s own site.

Naviera Tambor sails between Puntarenas and Paquera eight times a day in each direction, at 04:00, 06:30, 09:00, 12:00, 15:00, 18:00, 20:00 and 22:00 from both terminals — the timetable in force since 20 April 2026. A foot passenger pays CRC 810 (about USD 1.78), a child CRC 480, and seniors ride free: those are the fares ARESEP, the regulator, sets for the route. A light vehicle costs CRC 11,400 plus IVA.

The passenger fare is regulated, and ARESEP’s own fare history shows the same CRC 810 adult figure in 2008 and in 2026; the vehicle fares are the operator’s, with tax on top; and the crossing time is a number neither the operator nor the regulator prints.

Currency: fares are set in Costa Rican colones. USD figures are our arithmetic, at the Banco Central de Costa Rica reference sell rate of CRC 454.15 per US dollar for 25 September 2026.

Timetable

Naviera Tambor’s “Horario Actual”, marked “A partir del 20 de Abril 2026 hasta nuevo aviso” — from 20 April 2026 until further notice. Read on 25 September 2026. The two terminals publish identical departure times. The gap between sailings (our arithmetic) is 2 h 30 in the early morning, 3 hours through the middle of the day, and 2 hours in the evening.

Passenger fares

Naviera Tambor’s own page prints the same three figures — 810, 480 and 0. ARESEP’s ferry page states that it sets these fares; the current resolution was published on 26 June 2026 and the fares apply from Wednesday 1 July 2026. That resolution deals with how the fares are rounded, and the adult figure did not move: ARESEP’s open-data fare history shows CRC 810 for adults under the 2008 resolution (RRG-8666-2008) and CRC 810 again in 2026, with no adult row for this route in between. The child fare was CRC 485 under the 2008 resolution and is CRC 480 now.

Vehicle fares

Every vehicle fare on Naviera Tambor’s page is printed as "+ I.V.A", and a trailer pays the same fare as the vehicle towing it. Naviera Tambor does not print the IVA rate. The other Gulf of Nicoya ferry, Coonatramar, states on its own fare page that its vehicle tickets include a 13% IVA and that passenger tickets are exempt. If the same 13% applies to Naviera Tambor — an assumption, not the operator’s statement — a car would be CRC 12,882, about USD 28.37 (our arithmetic).

ARESEP’s ferry fare page lists passenger fares only; the vehicle fares above are the operator’s own publication. Naviera Tambor’s page does not say whether the car fare covers the driver. ARESEP’s 2008 records carried a separate “Conductor” (driver) fare at the adult price; its 2026 records carry no such category.

Tickets and the terminal

Naviera Tambor sells tickets online through Quick PayCR, but only for “una cantidad limitada de espacios del barco autorizada por los reguladores del servicio” — a limited number of the ship’s places authorised by the regulators. The rest are sold at its ticket offices. Neither operator we read gives an arrive-by time.

The Puntarenas terminal is the Terminal de Ferrys Naviera Tambor, Barrio del Carmen, Puntarenas, phone (506) 2661-2084. Naviera Tambor’s service charter puts its customer office in front of the ferry terminal, open 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and commits to 95% of sailings leaving within 15 minutes of the published time, barring force majeure — a published commitment, not a measured result. The company’s site gives no Paquera terminal address.

Naviera Tambor lists three ferries — Tambor II, Tambor III and Tambor IV, the last added in 2024 — and says its vessels have a closed passenger lounge with TV and air conditioning, a sun deck, and snack and restaurant service.

How long the crossing takes

Naviera Tambor prints no crossing time on its site, and ARESEP’s ferry datasets carry none. What they do give is length: Naviera Tambor calls the route 11 nautical miles — about 20.4 km, our conversion — while ARESEP’s route map measures the Puntarenas–Paquera line at 17,863 metres, in a dataset dated 2019. We print both rather than choose.

The one crossing time we found is from a rental-car company’s travel guide, which says 70 to 80 minutes. It is a secondary source, we have not confirmed it at the operator, and the same guide still prints the child fare as CRC 485, the pre-July-2026 figure — so treat its crossing time as an estimate, not a timetable.

How busy the ferry is, month by month

ARESEP publishes the number of passengers each ferry company carries each month. For Naviera Tambor in 2025 (adults, minors and seniors added together — our arithmetic):

That is 1,366,789 passengers in 2025, up from 1,276,564 in 2024. In ARESEP’s 2025 figures January carried the most passengers and October the fewest; January’s count was 1.7 times October’s (our arithmetic). The 2026 figures run to August: January 157,059, February 130,719, March 135,132, April 134,327, May 115,439, June 91,724, July 132,338, August 111,699. In ARESEP’s February 2026 row the adult and minor columns appear to be swapped — 7,818 adults against 112,875 minors — which does not change the monthly total.

These counts measure the ferry’s load, not whether any given sailing sells out. Neither operator publishes a sell-out record.

The other ferry: Puntarenas–Playa Naranjo

A second company, Coonatramar R.L., runs from Puntarenas to Playa Naranjo. ARESEP sets its passenger fares too, under the same 2026 resolution:

ARESEP’s route map measures this line at 14,506 metres. Coonatramar carried 490,843 passengers in 2025, against 674,933 in 2024 (our sums of ARESEP’s monthly figures).

Coonatramar publishes its timetable and its vehicle fares only as images — the image files are named with the dates 02-07-26 (fares) and 21-07-26 (timetable), and the pages carry no text version — and its timetable page tells passengers to check its social media for special schedules. We do not transcribe figures from images; the passenger fares above are ARESEP’s. Coonatramar’s office is 50 metres north of the Plaza de Fútbol Monserrat in Barrio El Carmen, Puntarenas, phone (+506) 2661-1069 or 2661-9011.

Onward from Paquera

ARESEP’s bus register includes a San José–Paquera–Cóbano–Tambor–Mal País–Montezuma route and a Cóbano–Paquera fare stage on its route 631; both fares, and the shuttles that include the ferry in their price, are on our Santa Teresa page.

What the operators don’t publish

• A crossing time. Neither Naviera Tambor’s site nor ARESEP’s ferry datasets give one.
• The IVA rate on Naviera Tambor’s vehicle fares, and whether the car fare covers the driver.
• Coonatramar’s timetable and vehicle fares in text. Both are images only.
• An arrive-by time or a sell-out record from either company.
• The Paquera terminal address.
• Vessel capacity on Naviera Tambor’s own site.

How we researched this

Scope: this page reports source research, not an on-site test. Nobody from this site has made this crossing.

On 25 September 2026 we read, and saved the text of, Naviera Tambor’s home, timetable-and-fares and contact pages and its service-charter PDF; ARESEP’s ferry fare page; ARESEP’s open-data ferry fare history (43 records), ferry route map and monthly passenger counts; Coonatramar’s fare, timetable, contact and about pages; and one rental-car company’s ferry guide, used only for the hedged crossing time above. Timetable and fares are the operators’ and the regulator’s own figures. Passenger totals, annual sums, gaps between sailings, the nautical-mile conversion, the IVA-inclusive car example and all USD conversions are our arithmetic. Colón-to-dollar conversions use the Banco Central de Costa Rica reference sell rate for 25 September 2026, CRC 454.15, rather than the older rate used elsewhere on this site.

Figures on this page labelled our arithmetic are calculated by us from the sourced inputs cited below — sums, ratios, conversions and the tax example. Every other figure is reproduced as its named source published it.

Sources

• Naviera Tambor — Horarios y Tarifas — the eight departures from each terminal, “A partir del 20 de Abril 2026”, passenger fares 810 / 480 / 0, every vehicle fare “+ I.V.A”, the trailer rule, and the limited online sale via Quick PayCR.
• Naviera Tambor — home — 11 nautical miles, the three ferries and Tambor IV’s 2024 addition, the on-board lounge, deck and food service.
• Naviera Tambor — Contáctenos — the Puntarenas terminal address and phone.
• Naviera Tambor — Carta de Servicio (PDF) — the 95%-within-15-minutes commitment and the customer office hours.
• ARESEP — Tarifas del ferry (Cabotaje Mayor) — both routes’ regulated passenger fares, RE-0074-IT-2026, publication 26 June 2026, in force 1 July 2026, the senior exemption.
• ARESEP — ferry fare history (open data) — the 2008 and 2026 fares, the age bands, the old “Conductor” category.
• ARESEP — ferry route map (open data) — 17,863 m and 14,506 m route lines.
• ARESEP — ferry passengers carried (open data) — every monthly passenger figure.
• Coonatramar — Tarifas — image-only fare table, the 13% IVA on vehicle tickets and the passenger exemption.
• Coonatramar — Horario Regular — image-only timetable and the social-media note.
• Coonatramar — Contáctenos — office address and phones.
• Vamos Rent-A-Car — Puntarenas to Paquera ferry guide — the 70–80 minute crossing estimate and the outdated CRC 485 child fare; secondary source.
• Banco Central de Costa Rica — reference sell rate — CRC 454.15 per USD for 25 September 2026, used for every conversion.

Last verified: 2026-09-25. Naviera Tambor’s timetable runs “until further notice”; the passenger fares stand until ARESEP’s next resolution.

Written by Estuardo Enriquez. This site is independent, carries no affiliate relationship with any operator named here, and is not connected to any previous owner of this domain.