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I have been wanting to visit Nicaragua for years, but the recent 2018 / 2019 political uprisings put my plans on hold. However with the last of my 2019 vacation days I decided that a trip to Nicaragua was well past due! It seemed like the perfect time – the uprisings were done, it was a safe destination again, but the hoards of tourists and backpackers hadn’t quite returned yet. Plus it is a pretty easy flight from Toronto which made it perfect choice for a 12 day trip.

I absolutely loved Nicaragua! It is probably my favourite Central American country and I will defiantly be returning! There is so much to do and see, transport around the country is easy and its super cheap! Here the best 12 day Nicaragua itinerary and my suggestions and tips on traveling to Nicaragua.

Day 1 – 4 : San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua

Day 1 : Arrival

We have arrived! We arrive from Toronto to Managua at around 9pm and we didn’t want to waste a day in Managua so we had organized a private taxi / shuttle to San Juan Del Sur. It cost $40USD each for 2 people which is a bit expensive for Nicaragua, but it was worth it to be able to check into the hostel that night. We decided to stay at the Naked Tiger Hostel in San Juan and were very happy with our decision (review at the bottom).

Day 2 : Surfing

The main beach in San Juan is not actually surf-able. The Naked Tiger organizes shuttles every 2 hours and rental boards at one of the main surfing beach. We hoped on one of these and spent the day trying to surf with varying degrees of success. The waves were pretty decently sized, but were pretty good for both beginners and more advance surfers. There was a beach bar where you could leave your personal items while you surfed which meant I could get some pretty cool shots of everyone surfing (of course no-one returned the favour)! Later that day we attended a sunset beach party organized by the hostel and returned to have a few drinks with some of the people at the hostel.

Day 3 : Sunday Funday

This is the reason why most backpackers come to San Juan – to party for cheap! Sunday Funday is the biggest pool party in Central America, or so they say. It is significantly smaller after the 2018/19 political uprisings, but it is still pretty big. The pool / bar crawl currently only goes to 3 places instead of the original 4, but they do intend to add the forth back in when tourism picks up again. I can’t image what it is like at full capacity because it was pretty full when we were there.

You start the day at Pachamama hostel / bar / pool, continue to Naked Tiger for sunset than finish up at a beach club back in town. Be careful of the beach at night, some people get robbed there! It is quite a fun party – lots of drinking games and glitter. If you are in the region on a Sunday I’d try to go.

Day 4 : Recovery and San Juan Sight Seeing

Monday was spent largely by the pool nursing our hang overs. A lot of people plan to leave the day after Sunday Funday, but those people looked pretty miserable. We decided to stay an extra day and were pretty glad that we did. Sunday Funday is such a big event in the area that there are a lot of people who stay for the weekend in San Juan. A little group / community ends up forming and it was nice to have a chill day hanging out with everyone from the hostel.

We also went into town to get some cash (Naked Tiger is cash only), see the sights and grab some dinner. Most people had been talking down on the town, but we were pleasantly surprised by it. Monday nights at Naked Tiger are pizza and movie night which was a perfect way to end our time in San Juan.

Naked Tiger Review

Naked Tiger is pretty far out of town so we had questioned whether of not we wanted to stay there or at Pachamama. Pachamama is in town and looked quite nice, but I’m glad we stayed at Naked Tiger. I think because it is farther out of town people stay around more and it is easy to get to know people, plus the view is great! The facilities are pretty good although we were in a dorm that everyone had to walk through which was kind of annoying. A lot of people really liked staying next door at Puk’s Palace which is pretty similar to Naked Tiger, but slightly cheaper.

Day 5 – 8 : Ometepe Island, Nicaragua

Day 5 – Transfer to Ometepe & Punta Jesus Maria Sunset

There was a group of 4 of us going from Naked Tiger to Ometepe Island so we decided to spend the extra few dollars to split a cab to the ferry terminal. The cab was $10USD each, to enter the port was $1USD and the ferry was also $1USD.

We checked into Life is Good Hostel, but not before managing to be ripped off by a taxi driver. They charged us $4 for a $1 ride and our hostel owner was pretty pissed. We then went to Punta Jesus Maria to watch the sunset and have a few drinks. The hostel arranged tuks tuks to drive us there and to return to pick us up a few hours later. There is not a ton to do at the beach, but the views of the island and of the sunset were pretty spectacular. The food at the beachside restaurant was pretty non-existent so we decided to eat at the hostel which served delicious food!

Day 6 : ATVs & Lagoon at Ojo de Agua

Today we decided to rent ATVs for $45USD (for 2 people) from the hostel and to ride around the island for the day. Ometepe is a pretty perfect place to ride ATVs, there is not very much traffic and the roads are generally ok. We could have rented scooters for $15USD, but you are limited to which roads you can take them on.

Our first stop was the Ojo de Agua Lagoon which we liked so much we decided to stay most of the day there! It has perfectly clear, pretty warm water with a jumping spot, a slack line and a small restaurant. We then went to El Pital Chocolate Paradise Hostel for some coffee and chocolate. It was a cute hostel with a very hippy vibe and served pretty good food / drinks. We had intended to go to the waterfall as well, but spent so much time at Ojo de Agua Lagoon that we ran out of time. It was another delicious meal at the hostel and early to bed because we were hiking Conception Volcano tomorrow!

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Day 7: Conception Volcano

We had been a little unsure if we wanted to hike Conception Volcano because we had heard it was quite difficult (it was!) but we decided that we should do something active. Conception is the bigger of the two volcanos on the island, standing at about 1610m hike. It is also the second tallest volcano in Nicaragua.

The first 1/2 is trough the shaded jungle where you can spot howler monkeys, cappuccino monkeys and other wildlife. The second 1/2 is much more exposed, but has a view of most of the north side of the island. The top 1/2 was incredible steep and had a ton of loose rocks which made it very difficult to climb and even harder on the way down. Generally you don’t get much of a view from the top as it is almost always covered in steam and clouds. However we did have a great view for most of the climb and decent! End to end it took us just under 10 hours. It is one of the most difficult day hikes I have ever done, but it was very satisfying.

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Day 8 : Transfer to Granada & Treehouse Party

We were still traveling as a group of 4 so we got a taxi again from the ferry terminal to Granada. The rest of the day was pretty chill and we spent most of it at the Garden Cafe in Granada. It is a cute cafe, slightly pricer than your average Nicaraguan dish, but well worth it! In particular their sangria is delicious!

We were told that we just had to attend the Treehouse Friday night party which we had never heard of before. Apparently it is one of the biggest parties in Nicaragua. We’d finally recovered from Sunday Funday so we decided it was a good idea and booked tickets at the Townhouse hostel. You can either stay at the Treehouse hostel or shuttle in from the Townhouse hostel.

The Treehouse hostel is a pretty spectacular setting and it would have been fun to spend a night put there. It is pretty far from Granada so I don’t think you’d want to spend too long there. Be prepared for a pretty rough shuttle ride in and a walk up a steep hill to attend the party. It is essentially an electric rave in the middle of the jungle. If you’re in Granada on a Friday I would recommend attending. It was particularly fun because a lot of the people who attended Sunday Funday the week before reappeared at the Treehouse party!

Life is Good Hostel Review

This was a smaller hostel – there was only 6 of us staying there when we went, but thats part of why it was so lovely. The food was absolutely delicious, the family owners were very helpful and it was a great place to meet people around the dinner table.

Day 9 – 12 : Granada, Nicaragua

Day 9 : Exploring Granada

Today was a bit of a slow day, we spent most of it hopping around various cafes in Granada and climbing to the bell tower of the cathedral. We returned to the Garden Cafe and liked it even better the second time around! The heat really got to us and we were very happy that our hostel, Selena, decided to keep the A/C on during the day. Granada is a lovely and very colourful city to walk around, but we could only do short walks before the heat sent us running back to A/C!

Day 10 : Apoyo Lagoon & Masaya Volcano

The heat had absolutely floored us the day before so we decided we wanted to spent the day in the water. We organized a transfer through our hostel to go to Apoyo Lagoon, but we wished had just gone ourselves as the transfer was a rip off. This warm, clear, fresh water lagoon feels more like a lake and was the perfect way to spend the day. You can access the lagoon through one of the hostels, restaurants or hotels on its shore. Generally it will cost you $6USD to get access to one of these places. We spent all day lounging around in the sun or swimming and paddling around.

Later that day we went to Masaya Volcano where you can actually see into the volcano and catch glimpses of the lave. It was pretty crowded and charges a $10USD entry fee, but was still pretty cool. There’s not many places in the world that you can see lava so it was worth it.

Day 11 : Leon & Cerro Negro Volcano Boarding

We wanted to limit the amount of time that we spent packing and moving hostels on such a short trip so decided not to include Leon in our 12 day Nicaragua itinerary. However we didn’t want to miss one of Nicaragua’s most popular attractions – volcano boarding! Fortunately our hostel could organize day trips to Leon and to the volcano. The tour was pretty pricy ($65USD each) but it was something that we really wanted to do and probably wouldn’t have had time to do otherwise. The drive took about 2h and we did have a little bit of time to walk around Leon. It seemed like quite a nice city and I would have loved to visit properly.

Next was the main attraction of the day – Cerro Negro volcano boarding! The hike up Cerro Negro is pretty easy, especially when compared to Conception. We arrived late in the day and it took us a while to climb the volcano. This meant that we were at the top as the sun was setting which made a pretty spectacular sunset. Plus there were very few people on the volcano that late in the day.

Day 12 : Return to Toronto

Out final day was another pretty short one. It consisted of breakfast at the hostel then off to the airport. Nicaragua was a fantastic short trip destination, but I would love to return for a longer trip.

Selena Hostel Review

Selena was probably the nicest of the hostel we stayed at (it was the only one with A/C). However it was also a little soulless. There weren’t;t very many people sitting around and chatting. It was run more like a corporation than the smaller hostels we stayed at earlier. However the A/C was a real life saver!

Conclusion

While 12 days in Nicaragua is not enough time (I could spend weeks there) I feel like we had a pretty good balance. We saw a decent amount of the country, but did not spend too much time moving around. On a longer trip I would love to visit the Corn Islands and Leon, but that will have to wait till next time! I hope you found this 12 day Nicaragua itinerary helpful, let me know if you have any additional suggestions for my next trip.

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