How Long Is the Drive From San José to Manuel Antonio?

About three hours, for roughly 175 km. The road is Route 27 west from San José to the coast, then Route 34 south through Parrita to Quepos. Allow four to five hours on a Friday afternoon or a holiday. From Jacó it takes an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half, and from Uvita about an hour.

The park opens at 7 am and the animals are most active early, so from San José the easier plan is to sleep in Quepos or Manuel Antonio the night before. None of the walks sold here starts in San José. From Jacó, one does the driving for you: Tucanes Tours’ full day, with transport, breakfast, lunch, a bilingual guide and the park entrance fee included. It’s from about $134 on the booking platform when we checked, rated 4.6 over 59 reviews.

Drive times

Route 34 brings you to Quepos, the port town below the park. From there it’s a 7 km uphill drive to the park entrance, on the only road between Quepos and Manuel Antonio, which SINAC says gets very busy in the high season. We found no walk in our data that collects from Uvita, so from the south, drive up and meet your guide at the park.

Quepos or Manuel Antonio?

The two names often get used for one place, but they’re different. Quepos is the port town, with Marina Pez Vela, the market and the bus terminal. Manuel Antonio is the strip of hotels and restaurants on the hill road, the beach area at the park gate, and the park itself. Wherever you stay, the local bus between Quepos and the park entrance runs about every 15 minutes. Long-distance buses also run from San José’s Tracopa terminal to Quepos and the park area, if you’d rather not drive at all.

Parking at the gate

The park has no car park of its own; SINAC and the ICT both say so. Private lots near the entrance charge about $10 in cash for the day, according to the operators’ listings. On the way in you may meet men stepping into the road to wave you into their lots, some of them dressed like rangers. Drive past anyone waving you in early, or leave the car at your hotel and take the bus up from Quepos.

Two operators, Xplore Manuel Antonio and the private park walk, meet at Parking Chalo, next to Supermarket Joseth, right before the entrance. One guest who parked there wrote, “They blocked us in!” If you’d rather not deal with parking at all, Nature Walks Costa Rica sells a guided walk with the park ticket and parking, from about $65 on the booking platform when we checked. Its title offers a pickup or parking, so check which one your option includes.

The full day from Jacó

Tucanes Tours provides the transport from Jacó and brings you back to your lodging afterwards. Breakfast and lunch are both included, which one reviewer was glad to find. In the park, the guide leads a walk of about 2 miles that circles through the forest, with Pentax and Swarovski telescopes for close looks, and you get about twenty minutes to swim at a beach in the southern part of the park. Guests have written that they “saw both types of Sloth” and “even saw the nesting Macaws”.

The drive is 71 to 80 km each way, so allow an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half on the road, more in traffic. The listing doesn’t state the length of the day or the group size. It also says a passport copy is accepted, but guides disagree about copies at the gate, so bring the original passport.

Staying in Jacó without a car, this is the simplest way to spend a day in the park.

Check dates for the Jacó day

Before you go, the tickets guide explains SINAC’s online-only tickets, and the best time to visit covers the seasons and the closed Tuesdays. Driving down to walk on your own? Do you need a guide? covers what you’d see and miss. The homepage has every walk sold here.

Distances and routes from regional travel guides; parking and the road from SINAC, the ICT and the listings; tour details from the listing. Checked October 2026.