Costa Rica > Panama: Paso Canoas

Apr 2
2 min read

Jan 2026 |

This was a fast crossing, much easier than the horrifying experience coming into Costa Rica from Nicaragua (read more). Here's details.

Preparation

I did a quick scan of info the night before, spent about 30 minutes reading up on what to expect/do. It didn't look like this is a challenging crossing, as expected, given that these are the 2 most developed countries in Central America.

Riding to Paso Canoas

I started the day at Drake Bay, about 2 hours from the border, the first half on an unpaved road. BTW: I highly recommend Drake Bay, the best place I stopped in Costa Rica (read more).

Costa Rica border

The border at Penas Blancas coming in from Nicaragua was new and flashy (with atrocious service). So I was a bit surprised to see the Costa Rica border here was quite grungy, maybe as bad as I had seen in Central America. Fortunately, the processes were fast and easy:

Paid an exit fee, $10; that required walking across the road
Stamped myself out at immigration; took about 15 minutes, one person ahead of me
Cancelled my TIP in the Customs office beside Immigration; that took 10 minutes; no charge

The officials did not speak English, which surprised me given the high fluency in Costa Rica. There were a few touts, but they were cool and gave up on me quickly (they spoke a bit of English).

Once done, I rode the 100 meters over to the Panama side.

Panama border

I rode to the main building and parked my bike beside it. This side was as grungy as the Costa Rica side. A tout gave me some guidance on what to do (turned out he worked for the tourist service), as follows:

To enter your bike, you need to buy insurance for Panama at an office in a separate building just inside the Panama side; it was $20, and the process took about 10 minutes
Next, I stamped myself out at immigration; there was a short line, about 15 minutes
Then I went to the Customs kiosk beside immigration and processed my TIP; this was also fast and easy, took about 20 minutes; I can't recall if there was a fee

The whole process of exiting Costa Rica and entering Panama took less than 90 minutes. Once done, I rode to David for the night.

Documents used to exit Costa Rica: