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The bus from the airport to the small bus terminal just north of Parque Merced is actually only 370 colones (ie less than 75 cents). Either way still incredibly dirt cheap. If you don't have any small colones coins or notes (or even only dollars), go across the pick up lanes outside the airport arrival doors, up the stairs and back into the terminal. There is a booth for a couple of banks in the far right corner, just past the exit stamp counter that have good hours and reasonable exchange rates. Hopefully no one has to tell you NOT to use the exchange booth downstairs next to the baggage claim. The Alajuela>SJ bus runs every 5-10 minutes so you'll never have to wait very long and you'll be downtown nearly as quickly as if you had taken a cab.
Once you get to the Merced area downtown, the Presidente is probably farther than you're going to walk with a backpack (though I've actually walked farther than that in SJ). However, that is still only about a kilometer so shouldn't cost you more than a buck. Of course, if you really wanted to save some money, you could stay at one of the much CHEAPER hotels that actually ARE within easy walking distance of where you get off the bus. The Nuevo Johnson is pretty basic at only $10/night, but you could "live it up" at the Hotel Doral for just $20 more per night (tax included). Even with a daily $5 guest fee, a $1 cab ride or two to the heart of the Gulch, and a $2 breakfast on their top floor or 2 blocks away in the Central Mercado, you'd still come out ahead of what the Presidente would cost you and the rooms there are actually pretty nice. Its biggest drawback, had been the shady area it was in but it seems much nicer now that they've completeed the Avenida de Peatones on Ave 4. Like many hotels downtown (including the Presidente), it can sometimes get a little noisy. I travel with some cheap foam earplugs that I pick up for a couple of bucks at Walmart and have nver had a problem getting a good nights sleep.
The fare from SJ to Quepos is 2155c (~$4). The Malinche is actually a nice MID range option. I believe their listed rates are actually a bit more than those cited here but I'm sure rates that low or lower can be negotiated during the wet season. If you want to save even more there are certainly even less expensive options than the Malinche. Just for example, the Hotel Pueblo, which is right next to the bus station has listed rates about $10 less than the Malinche for its rooms with a/c. If you're prepared to settle for a room with just a fan, you can save even more than that, though not that I'm necessarily recommending that at this time of year.
I'm sure that Manuel Antonio has seemed very nice to you on previous trips, but there are some aspects to keep in mind that make it less desirable for a budget trip. Going on a budget means staying at a hotel or cabina in or very near downtown Quepos rather than at one of the nicer hotels on the road out to the park . And Quepos, despite some recent improvements, is still somewhat of a pit. It can also be unsafe, with gang and drug activity going on. And the nicer beaches, which are probably what draws you there, are all in the park itself, which is ~7kms from town and which now costs $10/day to enter. The Quepos area does have nightlife, but the P4P certainly leaves something to be desired. The few P4P nightspots are known to be rip-off places. And with the street action you'll need to be VERY careful you don't wind up with a chica that is under-age. I recall hearing about some shake down schemes with gringos that unknowingly stepped over that barrier. Of course, with your novia there with you, that probably would not be a factor anyway, but that also means you could just as well go to any other beach area that didn't have any P4P to speak of at all, as long as it had some type of nightlife.
As El C, has suggested there are many nice beach areas in CR that are much less popular with tourists and thus much less expensive. In the low end, you'll find much nicer cabinas for your dollar in those other places. And if you're not going to pay the $10/day to enter the park, beaches that are just as nice. Personally, I prefer Dominical. It is what I imagine Quepos was more like before it was over-run with tourists, but even it is starting to change in not so desirable ways (the Coldwell Banker billboard in english on the way into town was the first sign of that). OTOH, it has much more of a surfer element as opposed to the well heeled ecotourist types, which means cheaper digs and a still fairly active nightlife scene for such a small town.
Of course the bus between Quepos and Dominical only takes an hour and a half and only costs 695c (~$1.35), so if you still wanted to spend part of your time at Manuel Antonio, you could easily do both - a week in Quepos and the other in Dominical.
Unfortunately, buses between Dominical and SJ are not quite so convenient as those between SJ and Quepos. There are only 2 direct buses per day (costing 2720c or ~$5.25) and they take about 3 hours longer than the SJ-Quepos bus, so you might want to split up that trip with a stopover in San Isidro to check that little city out, the tiny village of San Gerardo de Dota just off the PAH along the Cerro de la Muerte (Cabinas Quetzal are dirt cheap though about a 1km hike off the highway) or even the Hotel Georgina which is where the buses stop for a break anyway and is just 5km from the highest point on the road (again dirt cheap and definitely no a/c is necessary though the electric blankets the hotel provides certainly can be).
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So I walked my happy arse around the corner and rode into SJO, caught a cab at Merced to Amistad for $900 colones. Just make sure you have coins in colone or a mil note.
