Punta Cana to Samana and Las Terrenas by Bus: the Change

Punta Cana to Samana in five facts

1. There is no direct bus: the trip is two buses with a change in Santo Domingo.
2. It is about 330 km along the bus route and about 7 hours in total, by our estimate.
3. The first leg, Punta Cana to Santo Domingo, is about 200 km and about 3 hours.
4. To Samana town, Caribe Tours has 8 daily departures from central Santo Domingo, four of which also stop on the east side, taking 2 h 15 to 5 h 30 depending on the departure.
5. Both legs go in one assisted booking from 40 USD per person.

Where you change buses: in Santo Domingo, depending on where you go

The change is always in Santo Domingo, but not at the same spot for the two destinations on the peninsula. If you are going to Santa Barbara de Samana, the bay town, the second bus is Caribe Tours. Caribe Tours buses to Samana also stop at one of its terminals on the east side of Santo Domingo, next to the junction where the Punta Cana bus comes in, according to its API checked on 4 October 2026. Whether your bus drops you there depends on the company running the first leg, and we confirm it with your ticket. If not, the change is at its central terminal, with a ride across the city by taxi or Uber, and at rush hour the capital's traffic eats into your buffer. If you are going to Las Terrenas, the second bus is Asotrapusa, which also picks up passengers on the east side of Santo Domingo, the side where the Punta Cana bus comes in, so the change can be made without crossing the city. Either way, the exact point and time come with your booking confirmation, because they depend on the ticket for each leg.

First leg: Punta Cana to Santo Domingo

Two different companies run the Punta Cana to Santo Domingo corridor and they are often mixed up: Expreso Bavaro and Expreso Punta Cana. Expreso Bavaro gives a trip of approximately 3 hours on its website and does not publish a timetable. Expreso Punta Cana does publish times on its website. It is about 200 km and we estimate the leg at about 190 minutes. The company that carries you is the one on your ticket, and that is the one in your confirmation. To connect with the peninsula bus on the same day, it is best to leave Punta Cana in the morning.

Second leg to Samana town: the Caribe Tours timetable

According to the timetable Caribe Tours publishes through its API, checked on 3 October 2026, there are 8 daily departures from its central Santo Domingo terminal to Samana: 07:00, 08:00, 09:30, 10:00, 13:00, 14:30, 16:00 and 16:30. They do not all take the same time. The 08:00, 10:00, 14:30 and 16:30 arrive in 2 hours 45 minutes, and the 07:00, 09:30, 13:00 and 16:00 in 5 and a half hours. Four of those departures, the 2 hour 45 minute ones, also pick up at one of its terminals on the east side of the city some 30 to 45 minutes later: at 08:30, 10:30, 15:15 and 17:00, taking 2 hours 15 minutes from there (API, 4 October 2026). They are the same buses, not extra departures. That changes the maths of the connection. If your first bus leaves Punta Cana at 7 in the morning and takes about 3 hours, you reach Santo Domingo around 10: if it drops you on the east side, the 10:30 fits, arriving in Samana at 12:45. If the change is in the centre, after crossing the city you are left with the 13:00 and the 14:30, and the 14:30 arrives earlier, at 17:15. It is about 130 km.

Second leg to Las Terrenas: Asotrapusa, no published timetable

Asotrapusa does not publish official times or fares on its website, so there is no table to copy here. We estimate the Santo Domingo to Las Terrenas leg at about 2 and a half hours for about 140 km, and the bus drops you in the centre of Las Terrenas. Since the time it passes the change point is not published, we confirm it before your trip along with the rest of the booking. If you sleep in Samana town and want to go on to Las Terrenas, or the other way round, the two are about 30 km apart, which we estimate at about 40 minutes by local guagua. For the whole trip from Punta Cana to Las Terrenas we count about 340 km.

What about the boat via Sabana de la Mar?

The other idea that comes up when you look at the map is crossing Samana Bay by boat from Sabana de la Mar, on the south shore. The only dated source we can cite is a note from the Dominican Port Authority of 17 January 2023: when it reopened the public pier in Santa Barbara de Samana, it said the pier would be used for sea transport to Sabana de la Mar. We have no current source with times, fares or frequency for that crossing, we do not handle it and we cannot tell you whether it runs on the day you travel. The road from Punta Cana to Sabana de la Mar is not one of our routes either. The route we can confirm is the two buses via Santo Domingo.

Sources and how we checked

The Caribe Tours times come from its public timetable API, the same one its website uses, checked on 3 October 2026 for the central terminal and on 4 October for the east side one. The first leg time is the one given on the Expreso Bavaro website, and that Expreso Punta Cana publishes times can be seen on its own. Distances, the Asotrapusa leg and the total duration are our estimates, and we label them as such. The Samana pier fact comes from the Dominican Port Authority note of 17 January 2023. We are an independent intermediary with no agreement with the operators, and we are not the website of any transport company. We handle Punta Cana to Samana from 40 USD per person and Punta Cana to Las Terrenas from 40 USD, with secure payment when you book and a full refund if we cannot get your ticket.