What to See and Where to Go in Nicaragua

When you come from Honduras, like us, then you might feel like entering an oven right at the border of Nicaragua. For me, as I hate the cold, this was a pleasant feeling. Yet, the heat in Nicaragua even made me sweat and gasp for a breeze. Our trip through the country became a mix of city sightseeing and beach escapes with fun things like sailing and hiking.

I still can’t believe that we managed to climb up one of the most active volcanoes of Nicaragua. The view was rewarding and the breeze up there made us forget for a moment that our legs were on fire! Check out our Video on YouTube with some images from our trip or read on for some tips on activities and places to visit.

Border Crossing from Honduras to Nicaragua

We took a bus from Lake Yojoa in Honduras at 6 o’clock in the morning. It took us about 2 hours to get to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, and another 45 minutes to figure out which bus leads us to the border. We decided to go with local buses, because the direct tourist buses to Leon or Granada seemed to be a rip-off. It was pretty easy in the end. We just asked around the bus terminal in Tegucigalpa, which local bus goes towards the border of Nicaragua, and a couple of dollars later, we were on a bus for a fraction of the price we would have paid for a direct bus.

Once at the border around 4 hours later, we hopped off the bus and walked through border control of Nicaragua after checking in with the immigration office. Make sure to bring US dollars, as you have to pay a fee of 10 USD and around 100 Nicaraguan Cordobas. Then, you simply walk over the bridge that leads to the first village in Nicaragua (not even 5 minutes away). Right after the borde, you’ll find plenty of local buses that will take you to any destination in Nicaragua. My advice, do the border crossing on your own and with local busses, so you save yourself quite a bit of money.

Buses waiting for you after the border of Nicaragua — ***You have plenty of options to get away from the border of Nicaragua!***

Unless you are a slow traveller like us, check out this ‘Nicaragua itinerary‘ for two weeks. If time doesn’t matter, keep reading to follow our route.

León

By 6 pm, we arrived in León, our first stop in Nicaragua. Boiling hot and exhausted from a long trip, we stumbled into the first hostel that we could find. We were on the look-out for accommodation with some other guys from our bus and they told us that they would stay in León for a while to learn Spanish. Later on, we saw that this is apparently the thing to do in León, as the city has a vast selection of Spanish schools. We also noticed that León has a huge variety of clothes and shops that made my fashion heart pump higher! We spent the next day roaming around the little streets, hunting for clothes and cool drinks to get used to the heat. Honduras really was so much cooler, gah…

Las Peñitas

A couple of days later, we decided to leave León because we were desperate for a cool breeze from the ocean. At least, that’s what we thought…the only refreshing thing in Las Peñitas was the ocean itself and the beer, if you drank it fast enough before it got warm. Consequently, I spent a lot of time in the water and wondered if I am too weak for this heat, or simply not used to it anymore! After the cold waves in Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, our bodies seemed to be adjusting, just not quickly enough. Yet, what we saw was great and helped to distract us from the heat. At the end of the day, we still loved being there very much.

Las Peñitas is a really small fisher village with few activities besides hanging out at the beach, kayaking in the mangroves, swimming or surfing. It’s also a good place to enjoy some yummy seafood for a reasonable price and usually, an ocean view as most restaurants are along the beach or along the little lagoon area.

Granada

From Las Peñitas to Granada you have to go back to León, which is about a 45-minute ride by bus. There you board the connecting buses in León centre that go towards Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. By the time we arrived, 2 hours later, we decided to not stay. One, for the heat which is always less bearable in a city, I think. And two, for the less appealing neighborhoods that we drove through when we entered Managua. For us, Nicaragua’s capital did not seem to have much of interest. There are frequent buses to Granada so we didn’t have to wait long, and continued on with our journey. 3 hours later, we arrived in the centre at the bus terminal of Granada and saw a typical Hispanic colonial city with cute colourful buildings and old churches.

When you travel long-term, you have those days when you want nothing but rest. In Granada, we stayed 3 days but did not do much other than working on our computers in our hostel and walking around the streets of the old town. What we did discover, though, was the national dish called ‘Vigoron’ which was a mixture of cabbage, Jukka (native potato), meat, tomatoes and chilies… all neatly served on a banana leaf. We combined it with the very traditional, non-alcoholic ‘Chicha’, a beverage made out of fermented maize, sugar and in our case it had some raspberry juice. Yummy! 😀

Ometepe Island

Due to the low water level in Lake Nicaragua, the ferries no longer run from Granada directly to Ometepe. You’ll have to take the bus to Rivas, which is the closest town on the main road just 15 minutes away from the ferry dock. To get from Rivas to the ferry, walk away from the bus stop and ask for the corner where the local bus leaves every 20 minutes. If you’ve made it through the hassling taxi drivers, then you’ll realise that the bus costs a fraction of what they just offered you for their lift.

View onto Volcano Concepcion from the ferry — ***The ferry ride towards the island is already entertaining!***

At the harbour, you can choose between the ferry and a smaller boat. Both options are around 45-50 Cordobas and take around 1.30 hrs. It really doesn’t matter which one you take, although some people might tell you that the official ferry is more secure and less rocky. We noticed no difference on our way back when we jumped on the ferry, only because it was scheduled before the other one.

On the island, rent a motorbike or scooter if you get the chance! It’s really worth it to explore all the different areas and drive through the small villages. If you get too hot, stop at the natural pool called ‘Ojo de Agua’. Its water is crystal clear and comes from an underground river, so it’s really refreshing!

Ojo de Agua is one refreshing stop on your trip on Ometepe Island!

There are plenty of little bays and beaches along your way and sometimes you even have to stop to let some horses or cows pass by…

Climbing Volcano Concepcion

Hiking up Volcano Concepcion on Ometepe Island. — ***It seems so close but this was still two hours away from the top!***

Nicaragua has some of the most active Volcanoes in Central America and we climbed one of them! This was one of our most exhausting experiences in Central America so far. The hike to the top of Volcano Concepción takes about 4-6 hours, depending on your pace, of course. The top part is the trickiest of the entire hike, as it gets very steep and you walk on gravel and loose bigger stones. If you arrive before 1pm, you will be fine, time-wise, in order to make it back before dark.

We started our hike a bit later than planned and got to the top at 2:30pm, so a friendly tour guide who was on his way down with a group pointed out that we wouldn’t make it all the way to the top and back. We had about 50 meters left to the crater, but it would have taken at least another hour due to its steepness. We decided to call it a day and not push it to the very top (for us, this was already an accomplishment and the view from up there is breathtaking!)

Hike up towards the top of Volcano Concepcion — ***Far down you see lake Nicaragua and the rest of Isla Ometepe***

Playa Gigante

Our last and favourite stop in Nicaragua was Playa Gigante. If you haven’t done so, then make sure to check out the post about our sailing trip along the coast. It was really one of the highlights of our stay in this country, and we were very tempted to stay for much longer…perhaps this is a place to go back to, one day!

Have you been to Nicaragua? What were your highlights? Did you climb Volcano Concepcion and have your legs on fire the days afterwards?

The ocean is my happy place. Sailing in Playa Gigante made this very clear to me again. No matter if I am at the beach, underwater or on a boat, it always feels like I am exactly where I need to be. Perhaps this is why one almost immediately gets soaked into those special destinations where like-minded people get stranded. We had no idea that it would be so hard for us to leave after just a few days in this gorgeous place. Thanks to a spontaneous encounter with a pirate and some fantastic hours on his boat, we call sailing in Playa Gigante one of our highlights in Nicaragua. Here is all about our trip that included awesome scenery, jumping off cliffs and ‘Pirate Punch’.

Enjoying the cruise, Captain John (in the middle with the beard!) and his crew. — ***A fun crew and a special captain made our trip awesome!***

First of all, let’s introduce John, our Captain, who reminded me a bit of the modern version of Captain Ahab! A lot friendlier, and an impressive character, John shows his guests a very awesome time on his sailboat. He is not only the owner of the boat we were sailing, but also the inventor of the legendary ‘Booze Cruise’. The sailing trip starts almost every day at 2:3o pm right from the beach in front of his hostel ‘Gigante Bay’. You don’t want to miss this unique trip, it’s so much fun to go sailing in Playa Gigante and sip some rum punch along the way!

Enjoyed a lot this sailing trip...or as they called it 'Booze Cruise' :-D — ***Sipping away yummy Pirate Punch…harr!***

It's only about 10m high :-D — ***Captain John showed us cool jumping spots!***

Sailing along the coast we past many cool rock formations! — ***The coastline is just filled with these gorgeous cliffs…***

Thanks to Captain John’s adventurous soul, he personally swam along the coastline in order to explore every single rock, canyon and caves, and we were introduced to some awesome jumping spots along the way. With a lot of insider tips from your captain, you will get a glimpse of the gorgeous coastline south of Playa Gigante in a fun way. Originally from San Francisco, John has long lost his real connection to the United States and instead bought a hostel, started a family and grew a beard…the latter fits extremely well with his beautiful sailboat and gives the whole trip a special touch.

Leaving the steering wheel for a while...Captain John dips in the ocean — ***Captain John enjoys the water as much as his guests!***

In general, this part of Nicaragua attracts a lot of surfers from all over the world. You can’t blame them, as it is a paradise that offers first-class waves, but still has not attracted mass tourism. Along the coast, you’ll find endless strips of beaches and bays that show off the most beautiful waves. Even if you don’t surf, sailing in Playa Gigante is a great alternative activity and a lot of fun, too. Furthermore, you can do horseback riding, yoga and, of course, it’s the perfect destination to enjoy a swim in the ocean.

Sailing in Playa Gigante with some yoga moves onboard. — ***No one said you couldn’t do yoga on a boat! 😀***

How to get to Playa Gigante

It is a place that attracts tourists, but Playa Gigante is still very remote and not heavily crowded. Buses from Rivas run only from Monday to Friday. On the weekend, the only bus takes you to a little village 7km away from Playa Gigante… you can either walk, hitchhike or hope for a taxi for the rest of the way. Most likely someone will offer you a ride from Rivas once you get to the bus station. We happened to arrive on a Saturday and paid 4 USD each to a guy who offered us to take us. This doesn’t sound a lot, but it’s still 3 times more than the public bus.

Working at the beach, just perfect! — ***One of my favourite remote offices so far… 😀***

Where to stay in Playa Gigante

Perhaps the exclusivity of this area makes Playa Gigante one of the more expensive places we’ve been to in Nicaragua. The lowest price that we could find for a private room was 20 USD but that was a very basic room. After two nights, we changed our hotel and went to Gigante Bay, a very fun hostel which has dorms from 10 USD up to AC private rooms. We loved it there, not only because of the free yoga classes every morning, but also because we happened to meet a lot of great people and went sailing in Playa Gigante.

Slack Lines in front of the hostel are just one great thing Gigante Bay has to offer... — ***Nestled in Playa Gigante’s bay, our hostel was just a perfect place to relax a few days…***

Have you been there? Did you go sailing in Playa Gigante?

NOT DONE READING YET?

Are you looking for more Latin American travel guides? Check out our post on Diving the Great Blue Hole of Belize if you are into scuba diving. Or what about a less sporty and therefore more cultural trip? Then you might like to read our Guatemala Travel Guide with tips for the ancient Mayan ruins in Copan.

Or are you curious about other places in Nicaragua? Then check out this travel guide for Nicaragua, a real fun place to visit when in Central America.

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