Puntarenas Travel Forum

Various news articles are describing Puntarenus as an extremely bad haven for petty theft and con-artist., as is most of the tourist towns of Costa Rica. I would like to know HOW BAD is it. Has anyone had first hand experience, good or bad.
Bryan

Hello,

I spent a short time in Puntarenas and this town does leave impression of being a dangerous place. We were heading to Nicoya Peninsula and the ferry leaves from Puntarenas. We had to wait for the ferry in the docks for 3-4 hours (evening hours). During this time nothing really bad happened to us, except that a few locals have approached us asking for money. One guy offered friendly help with getting us ferry tickets (how much help you need for that kind of service?). However we did not want to turn him down too rudely so he hung around for a few hours. When we finally bought our tickets (15 minutes before the boarding since the ticket booth was closed earlier) he asked for tip!? We gave him a few bucks but he wanted more. It was very unpleasant situation....On our way back, we decided to make a stop at the big market on the town beach to buy some souvenirs. It was a week day around noon so it was not that busy. However every single person we passed during our walk said or asked us something. Nothing bad really happened but we really attracted everyone's attention. We left after 15 minutes, forget shopping there....

Hopefully this helps.

Srechko