Location

Some History and Facts

• One of the most touristed destinations in Nicaragua
• Gateway to many of the country’s best beaches
• Built up with the budget tourist in mind
• Close to the turtle watching at La Flor Wildlife Reserve
• Overcrowded and expensive during Christmas and Semana Santa
• In 1846, at the beginning of the California Gold Rush, Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt established a transit route to facilitate the trip between New York and California.  Transferring from Vanderbilt’s Transit Company steamboats to smaller river- and lake-based steamboats, and covering part of the distance on foot, by mule, or by stagecoach, travelers crossed the isthmus between San Juan del Sur and San Juan del Norte in approximately twenty hours.  This innovation cut travel time between East and West Coasts from six months to less than one.
• On November 23, 1856 the port hosted the battle between William Walker’s schooner “Granada” and the Costa Rican brigantine “Once de Abril”, and finally on May 5, 1857 San Juan was the scene of Walker’s final retreat on the “St. Mary” after his surrender in Rivas.

Getting There

Since I was coming from San Jose, Costa Rica, I chose to travel via TicaBus. TicaBus is a great service for traveling within central America. They are cheap ($14 USD for a ticket from San Jose, Costa Rica to Managua, Nicaragua), the buses are comfortable and air conditioned, they make very few stops and they all but hold your hand at the border crossings. However, it is best to purchase your tickets a week or so in advance just to insure you can travel when you want.

The Trip

TRAVELERS TIP: Both the US Dollar and the Nicaraguan Cordoba use the “$” as their currency symbol, when in doubt always ask if the price is in Dollars or Cordobas!

As I mentioned in my Isla de Ometepe post, the town of Rivas makes a convenient overnight spot and TicaBus will drop you off there, but you HAVE TO TELL THE DRIVER TO STOP when you enter Rivas or he will drive right through. They also have a ticket office in town and a pickup point so you can easily depart from Rivas. Rivas is not a tourist destination in any sense, but I did find a nice hotel there, Hotel Cacique Nicarao. It has a plush sitting area in the front with an internet station, a nice little restaurant and clean rooms with hot water and air conditioning. Rooms were $45 USD including breakfast.

From Rivas it is a simple matter to get to San Juan Del Sur. The easiest way is by taxi which should cost about $5 USD and take about 20 minutes. There are also buses that leave every 30 minutes between 6am and 6pm, costing $0.75 for the 45 minute ride.

TRAVELERS TIP: Most of Southwestern Nicaragua loses power daily and San Juan Del Sur is no exception. Most hotels have generators but they do not power the air conditioners, so be prepared for a few sticky hours in the afternoon or during the night.

We spent our first night at Hotel Joxi and only our first night. It has the feel of a place that used to be very nice and popular, but has slowly slipped into disrepair due to the huge expansion of tourism and many newer hotels springing up. It did have one saving grace, it was dirt cheap at $15 USD for the night.

The rest of the time we stayed at different Hotel, which was perfect, and which neither of us seem to have a picture of nor can we remember its name or find it online! However I will be heading back there soon and will update this post when I have the information. We had one of two balcony suites that looked out over the beach that was just across the road. Air conditioning, mini refrigerator, comfortable wicker furniture and a friendly and helpful staff made this hotel a bargain at only $40 USD a night.

…and the view from our room….

There are a lot of great places in and around San Juan Del Sur and I wish I had time to cover them all.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Big Wave Daves, is an expat institution with great comfort food and an excellent place for breakfast. Just be prepared, as the portions are huge as evidenced from the picture of my breakfast sandwich below. Prices are average for the area with meals costing between $4 and $8 USD.

El Timon Restaurant, situated right on the shore has a great view of the ocean and a pleasant atmosphere. The prices are a little higher here than other restaurants in the area but the food is well worth it. I had the pesto and my friend had a seafood pasta, pictured below, both were excellent and cost about $6-8 each.

You can also see El Timon on the far right hand side of the picture below along with Iguana bar to its immediate left which is another of my favorite places. Great atmosphere, good location and decent food make it a fun place to relax and socialize after a long day of surfing or lounging in the sun. Prices are reasonable with the average drink costing between $2 and $4 USD. The hotel we were staying at is the square pink building on the left of the picture.

On our third day in San Juan Del Sur we decided to explore Playa Madera which lies a short distance to the north. I rented a surf board for $10 at one of the many shops located in San Juan Del Sur and spent $20 to hire a Taxi for the day to take us there and back.

The beach was excellent and offered spots for both surfing and swimming, but watch the rip tide and be careful of the rock shelves on the south side of the beach. They look pleasant enough in low tide, but they can become very dangerous if you get caught on them when the tide begins to come in. There is also a small surf shack located on the beach where you can get simple meals and even rent a hammock for the night. A few pictures of the beach are below.

That was pretty much our stay. There is a lot to see and do in the area and I’ll be going back soon, so I’ll have another post with more fun spots and cool hangouts!

I’ll leave you with a nice sunset over the San Juan Del Sur beach.

Budget:

Overall the trip was very reasonable. Including the hotel for one night in Rivas ($45), the TicaBus tickets ($28), taxis ($30), food and drinks ($150), surfboard rental ($10), four nights hotel in San Juan Del Sur ($160) and Costa Rica/Nicaragua and Nicaragua/Costa Rica border crossings ($20), the total was only about $450.00 USD for 5 nights/ 7 days.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 5:48 pm and is filed under Nicaragua. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.