We have taken two trips with Ticabus, we will not be taking anymore.
On the first trip, from Honduras to Nicaragua, the ayudante (helper) collected $11 from each passenger for border fees. We were told the fees were $8 to Nicaragua and an additional $3 to exit Honduras. We had already exited Honduras on our own and had never paid to exit so we decided to handle the border ourselves; we paid $7 to Nicaragua and nothing to Honduras. The ayudante pocketed $4 from each passenger and then had the nerve to yell at us for taking too long…we took only two minutes but needed to wait until the officials finished processing all of the bus’s passports.
On the second trip, from Panama to Costa Rica, we left the terminal at 11pm expecting to wake up at the border when it opened. We arrived there two hours early. Why leave at 11pm only to wake everyone up at 5am to wait for two hours? Additionally, as this was an overnight bus we were shocked to find no toilet paper or water in the bathroom. The water problem was particularly surprising as when we woke up at the border we found that all our things (on the overhead shelf and by our feet) had been soaked by water from the A/C. We have taken many overnight buses and all have had a fully functioning bathroom with no flooding inside the bus.
In Central America, there are often no other direct buses between capital cities. When there is competition however, we strongly recommend using it. Say no to Tica Bus!
We are leaving for Guatemala next week so we are trying to gather all the information we can. Thanks for the posts!
good luck! Tica Bus really only runs south of Guatemala- its not worth it to take it from even guatemala city to tegucigalpa- the route runs through san pedro sula which will take you about 7 hours out of your way if you want to go direct to tegucigalpa (but then again who does?) look for travel agencies in antigua to take you to copan, they´re cheaper and faster than the chicken buses!