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Hotel Casona Macondo Granada: Our $21 Room With a Pool
I don’t know what kind of accommodation you expect to get for $10 a night, but I certainly wasn’t expecting a beautiful little hotel with a swimming pool literally outside my bedroom door. And yet, that’s exactly what we found at Hotel Casona Macondo in Granada, Nicaragua. We were backpacking through all eight countries in Central America, trying to keep our budget around €20 a day, and accommodation was usually whatever cheap place we could find when we arrived somewhere. But Granada was different. After spending the previous night in a ridiculously basic room in Rivas, where the bathroom walls didn’t even reach the ceiling, I decided we deserved something…
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How to Get from Ometepe to Granada (and How We Actually Did It)
We had only spent about 24 hours on Ometepe Island, but somehow managed to pack a waterfall hike, a lost hostel key, a lot of sweating, and an unreasonable amount of chaos into that time. When it was time to leave, our plan was to continue to Granada. In theory, getting from Ometepe to Granada is actually pretty straightforward. In reality, we made it considerably more complicated than it needed to be. How to Get from Ometepe to Granada If you want to do this route the easy way, you basically have two options: local buses or a shared shuttle. The first part is the same either way. You take…
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Ometepe Travel Guide: Everything You Need to Know Before You Go
Ometepe was my first stop in Nicaragua, and I knew almost immediately that I had messed up by giving it so little time. I was traveling through all eight countries in Central America by land with a friend, and Nicaragua was already starting to feel completely different from Costa Rica. Then we arrived on Ometepe, got off the ferry in Moyogalpa, rented bikes and basically started exploring without much of a plan. That ended up being one of my favorite stops of the entire trip, but it also meant I left knowing I hadn’t really seen the island properly. So this Ometepe travel guide is the overview I wish I’d…
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Where to Stay in Ometepe: The Best Areas for Your Trip
Ometepe is a big island, and where you stay actually matters. I learned that pretty quickly because I stayed in Moyogalpa and spent most of my ridiculously short time on the island getting around from there. I also can’t ride a bike, so if I were traveling around Ometepe alone, I’d care a lot about being somewhere I could walk to food, shops and the port. If you have your own transport, you have a lot more freedom. So if you’re wondering where to stay in Ometepe, these are the areas I’d look at and what I’d consider before booking. Where to Stay in Ometepe: Quick Answer Moyogalpa is the…
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My Ometepe Itinerary: What We Did & How I’d Plan It Now
Our actual Ometepe itinerary was barely an itinerary at all. We arrived with nothing booked, found somewhere cheap to stay in Moyogalpa, rented a bike and spent most of our time seeing where the island took us. And honestly, I wouldn’t completely change that. What I would change is how little time we gave ourselves. We barely had time to enjoy Ometepe before we were already trying to leave again, and there were entire parts of the island we never properly saw. So if I went back now, I would still keep Ometepe fairly spontaneous, but I would give myself three full days and actually build the trip around the…
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18 Things to Do in Ometepe Without Turning the Island Into a Giant Tourist Checklist
The best thing we did in Ometepe was probably the least organized thing possible. We got off the ferry in Moyogalpa, found a bike to rent almost immediately and basically started driving around the island with no real plan. If we saw somewhere we wanted to stop, we stopped. If we found a beach, we went to the beach. Most of the time we had absolutely no idea where we were going, and that ended up being exactly what I loved about Ometepe. There are plenty of actual things to do in Ometepe, including volcano hikes, waterfalls, natural pools, kayaking and some things I didn’t even know existed when I…
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Is Ometepe Safe? My Experience, the Good and the One Weird Moment
Before going to Nicaragua, I had definitely heard enough about the country to wonder what traveling there would actually feel like. Then I got to Ometepe and safety ended up being one of the things I thought about the least. We spent our time driving around the island, stopping at beaches, eating wherever we found food and going through areas where there were barely any other tourists. I never felt like I needed to constantly watch what was happening around me or worry that somebody was going to steal something from us. There was one moment when I was alone in a much more isolated part of the island where…
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Best Time to Visit Ometepe: When I’d Go Back
I visited Ometepe at the end of August, which technically put me right in the rainy season. And considering how much I hate having travel plans ruined by rain, you would think I’d now be telling you to avoid August completely. Except I wouldn’t. Ometepe was ridiculously green when we visited, it was hot, we spent time at the beach, drove around the island on the bike and I absolutely loved it. I never left thinking we had chosen a terrible month to be there. That said, if I could choose exactly when to go back, I probably wouldn’t pick August again. I’d go during the dry season when there…
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Cocos Hostel Ometepe Review: My One-Night Stay
We arrived in Ometepe with absolutely nothing booked, which was basically how we were traveling through Central America at the time. Once we got off the ferry, we opened Booking.com, looked for somewhere cheap that wasn’t too far from us and found Cocos Hostel with a private room for around $12 total. That was enough for us. We had already rented a bike near the port, so we jumped on and drove over. The hostel is right in the center of Moyogalpa and within walking distance of the port, which ended up being one of the best things about staying there. → Find Cocos Hostel here Location For me, the…
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How Many Days in Ometepe? How Long I’d Stay Next Time
We stayed in Ometepe for a really short time and, looking back, I definitely would have given the island more days. We had enough time to rent a bike, explore, spend time at the beach and attempt the waterfall hike that almost destroyed me, but there was still a lot of Ometepe we never got to see. And honestly, the main reason I would stay longer isn’t even because I have some giant list of things I still need to do. I really loved being on the island. Give me a bike, a beach, cheap food and two volcanoes in the background and I am perfectly happy staying there for…
