No long distance buses run directly to Canoa. To get to this beach town, you have to first get to either Bahía de Caráquez or San Vicente, which sit across a small bay from each other. Canoa is about 20 minutes down the beach from San Vicente.
From Quito, a couple of Reina del Camino buses, including a night bus at 11.30 p.m., run directly to San Vicente (7-8 hours, $8). From San Vicente, either take a taxi ($5) or a local bus or open-air chiva ($0.30), which run every 30 minutes to Canoa.
However, the main transport hub in this area is Bahía de Caráquez, located on the other side of a bay from San Vicente, a quick 5-10 minute boat ride from one dock to the other ($0.30). From Bahía, buses operate regularly to Quito (8 hours, $8), Guayaquil (6 hours, $5), and locations all around the region. On all of these routes, the fancier ejecutivo buses also run, which will cost around $1-2 more than the regular service.
There are rumors that Bahía’s airport will be welcoming commercial flights in the near future, however, for now, to get to Canoa by air you have to fly to Manta’s Eloy Afaro airport (MEC), and then catch a bus to Bahía (3 hours, $3). Tame (www.tame.com.ec), Aerogal (www.aerogal.com.ec) and Icaro (www.icaro.aero) fly daily to Manta from Quito for around $100 return.