Nicaragua - Land of Lakes and Volcanoes

Nicaragua should be on everybody’s travel list. A stunning and unique country with very few tourists. It was like travelling back in the 90’s. Book direct with Vapues in Nicaragua, who are excellent. Our guide, Oskar was superb.

Nicaragua is ok. Not ready for prime time is how I would describe it. Touted as "the place to go" for travel 2026 is a stretch. The accomodations in Grenada and Leon were not the best. Loved Omtepe and of course Sera ***** and the last accomodation. The optional kayak trip on Omtepe was fantastic. We did take binoculars. Yes they inspected them at the airport. No big deal. They marked it on our entry form. Need to change your info on binoculars.

This was a great holiday to a very interesting country. On some occasions the itinerary could have been made slightly better but overall there was a great mix of activities and a good balance of busy time and free time for independent exploring. Some of the best elements were actually the optional activities at extra cost - it would perhaps be better to incorporate these and increase the base price. Hotels were generally good with a lovely one at the end. The guide, Roberto, was excellent and we shared the holiday with a lovely bunch of fellow travellers.

My daughter and I thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Nicaragua. Our guide Oscar was fantastic, and so knowledgeable about the history, culture, geography and nature of the country. The itinerary was varied although there were quite a few additional excursions that were optional extras, so make allowances for this when budgeting. Nevertheless, these tours were some of the best, such as our hike up the Cerra ***** volcano, or our boat trip bird spotting on Lake Nicaragua. We had originally planned to visit Costa Rica, but transferred to the Nicaragua trip when our original trip had no other bookings. We didn't see as much wildlife as we would have done in Costa Rica, but there were many cultural experiences, and the towns of Granada and Leon were also very interesting. Nicaragua is less touristy than other countries we have visited, which is a bonus in some ways, but it is also less developed. That said, the hotels were all comfortable and clean, and Oscar always selected good places to stop for rest breaks. The Nicaraguan people were all very friendly, and the other travellers in our group were great company. We would definitely recommend this trip.