Welcome to the Puerto Caldera cruise port guide. Puntarenas or Puerto Caldera? Some cruise itineraries are not very clear about your destination in Costa Rica. Fact is Puerto Caldera and Puntarenas are two different cruise ports approximately 20 km away from each other but in both cases Puntarenas is the nearest town of interest. This is the cruise port guide for Puerto Caldera. Click here if your ship will dock in Puntarenas. Find out all you need to know about Puerto Caldera in the cruise port guide underneath.
This is the Puerto Caldera cruise dock. You will find your shore excursion busses and shuttle busses waiting for you on the pier. No other facilities are found at this cruise pier.
Cruise ships visiting Puerto Caldera dock in a large container port. Therefore walking is prohibited in port. You either need to catch your shore excursion bus on the dock or take the shuttle bus to the port exit.
From the ship you will have a great view over the beautiful coastline of Costa Rica.
Also visit our cruise port guides for:
Corinto
Huatulco
Fuerte Amadaor
Puerto Quetzal
Puerto Vallarta
Puerto Caldera – Costa Rica: your cruise ship is docked
Usually, if the cruise dock in Puntarenas is occupied, your ship will dock at Estacion de Puerto Caldera. This is a large container port about 20 km south of Puntarenas.
If this is the dock where your ship will be at when visiting Costa Rica, we highly recommend you to book a shore excursion.
Walking is prohibited in cruise port Puerto Caldera
The port authorities have a strict no walking in port policy. For this reasons either the cruise ship or the port authorities will arrange a shuttle bus for you to take you from the cruise pier in Puerto Caldera to the exit of the port or into the town of Puntarenas.
Shuttle bus to exit of the port
The only way to get from your cruise ship dock to anywhere is to take transportation as walking is prohibited. This is why there is a free shuttle bus from the dock to the exit of the port. You won’t find much at the exit, but there are most of the times taxis or private vehicles there. Negotiate a price so they can tour your around. Make sure you agree upon a price before you step into the taxi. Paying in US dollars is usually no problem at all.
Shuttle bus to Puntarenas
If you are not on a shore excursions or up for a taxi tour you can alternatively also take the shuttle bus to the town of Puntarenas if your cruise line provides one. This is usually a paid shuttle, but again, this depends on your cruise line. Make sure to check with them if there is a charge for this bus.
This shuttle bus is also authorised to pick you up at the cruise dock in Puerto Caldera. The drop off location is normally at downtown Puntarenas at the market and beach.
Don’t expect much of Puntarenas. It is a great town if you want to do some souvenir shopping, have a swim at a basic local beach or to have some refreshments at the beach restaurants.
Because there is basically nothing to find at the port of Puerto Caldera and there is not much in the nearest town either we highly recommend you to take a shore excursion here if anywhere else. We do not want you to miss out on the beautiful things Costa Rica has to offer. The highlights on things to see and do from this port of call is:
– Carara National Park
– Aerial Tram
– Adventure Canopy Zip Line
– TuruBari Eco Park
– Coffee farms
– Monteverde Cloud Forest
– Pos Volcano National Park
– San Jose
