Skip to main content

Tours from Granada, Nicaragua

We did several popular tours while in Granada, including:

  • Boat tour of Las Isletas
  • Sunset lava tour of Masaya Volcano
  • Hiking on the inactive Volcano Mombacho
  • Day trip to Lago Apoyo with swimming & kayaking
$ Note:
Tour companies typically accept cash only. The only ones we found that would take cards were online tour aggregators like Viator or GetYourGuide, which charged a LOT more than local companies directly. The Selina chain hostel and coworking space also sells tours and would accept credit, but their tours were marked up too. Tour companies quote in USD, but you can pay in Nica cordobas if you'd prefer. (We learned the hard way that it was much cheaper for us to get cordobas from the ATMs here than USD.) 

Las Isletas

Lake Cocibolca (aka Lake Nicaragua) is the largest lake in Central America and the only lake in the world to have freshwater sharks (!!). There are hundreds of small islands right off the shore formed by volcanic eruption from nearby Mombacho. Boat tours around the islands are very popular. Like many of the tours in Granada, prices are all over the map and difficult to compare because most tour operators don't have websites. We ended up paying $20 total to a vendor in the central square for a private boat including taxi to/from, but the cheapest way to do this would be to get your own taxi to the docks ("Centro Turistico/Playa el Turismo" on Google Maps, $1-2 each way) and negotiate with a boat captain directly. 

Our tour brought us past "Monkey Island", though sadly, none of the few monkeys that live there came down to greet us. Our guide also pointed out several of the island houses owned by Nica and Costa Rican politicians including presidents, as well as an Airbnb and hotel. In the end, our tour was cut short by a quickly approaching storm that thoroughly soaked all of us. :) 


Sunset Lava at Volcano Masaya

Masaya is an active volcano known as the "mouth of hell" because you can stand at the rim and look down into the steep caldera to see a lake of roiling lava. Sunset tours are especially popular because the bright lava is so fascinating to watch when it's dark.

"Tour" is a generous description for this one. The tourism industry generally isn't as built up in Nicaragua as, say, Costa Rica, and many tours involve just getting driven around or dropped off somewhere, often with a driver who only speaks Spanish and who's tasked with being just that - a driver, not a guide. During our tour of Masaya, for example, we learned exactly nothing, and there weren't even informational signs at the top. Still - very cool experience! 


Alas, not all of us enjoyed it. Zadie wouldn't go near the railings for fear that she'd somehow fall into the lava pit, not a fan. On the drive home, she started composing a song with the lyrics, "I had to hold my pee for this? Are you serious?"

Hiking on Volcano Mombacho

Mombacho is another volcano near Granada, very different from Masaya. No lava to see here (the last eruption was in 1570), but it has fantastic views of the city and the lake. We got some brief views before the clouds rolled in. Mombacho's climate differs from the rest of the area - the top was a cloud forest like the one Bill and I saw in Costa Rica at Monteverde. The climate here meant this hike was the coolest we'd been in a month! Sadly, we didn't see any of the sloths or cool birds that live there, but it was a beautiful walk. 


There was a coffee farm further down the mountain called Cafe Las Flores, which we'd heard was the best coffee in Nicaragua. We brought a bag home to try and I wish we'd gotten more - so delicious!

Swimming at Lake Apoyo

Another must-do day trip from Granada is Lake Apoyo, a warm crater lake about 30 mins away. Hotels, hostels, and tour groups organize shuttles to the hotels on the lake. This was another cheap trip, $14/person with a discount for Zadie, for the shuttle to/from the lake and full access to the Paradiso Resort including beach chairs, kayaks, inner tubes, etc. The water felt fantastic in the heat, and it was very relaxing to float around on the inner tubes. We jumped off the floating platform and kayaked (badly) around the shore. Only downsides here were the long waits for lunch and that the stand-up paddleboards were out of commission. Beautiful, calm, relaxing day.


Popular posts from this blog

Have I mentioned that Bill rocks?

The original clawfoot tub now has a new faucet and a shower!, which gives us a full working bath upstairs. We first thought the tub would require professional reglazing, but it turns out that some sanding/painting on the outside and a serious cleaning on the inside was all it needed. Shower conversion kit arrived last week and Bill set about the super-fun task of removing all the old parts and hooking everything up. Boy, does he love plumbing! Old faucet and previous "shower", a short length of garden hose with a plastic sprayer on the end: New faucet (which is so bright and shiny, pic doesn't do it justice, love it): Ready for shower curtains and final touches: It did take 5 trips to Lowes and 3 trips to Home Depot IN TWO DAYS (damn those old, non-standard plumbing sizes), but it works! In other news, I think the second color on the hallway is going to work (first one = too beige), so Bill will start on trim this week. Full final before and after pics are here .

Before & After - Front Door

Quite the transformation with the new color scheme! Since our house is located in a historic district, the colors had to be approved by the historic district commission.  Front Door After The colors and products used here are (not affiliate links): Door - Sherwin Williams Cajun Red ( link , a pretty red-orange in real life, looks slightly more brown here) Siding - Sherwin Williams Rookwood Blue Green ( link ) Trim (white) - Sherwin Williams Pure White ( link ) Trim (teal) - Sherwin Williams Still Water ( link ) Porch floor - Sherwin Williams Pewter Tankard ( link ) Brick foundation (not shown) - Sherwin Williams Rookwood Dark Brown ( link ) Mailbox - Ecco E4 in Bronze ( link , available via Amazon and elsewhere) Similar Craftsman-style Door With Dentil Shelf ( link ) Front Door Before

Next Trip Coming Soon!

 Today's post was written by my 7-year-old daughter, Zadie: Hi, I'm going to tell you about our trip to Costa Rica that we are going on in 12 days also I'm the youngest daughter of the person who wrote this blog so the day after school gets out we go on our trip. It will suck. I don't even get a day to relax before our trip. At least it is not like another of our trips when we had to wake up at 3 am. But we still have to get up at 6 am. When we get there, our house only has three bedrooms so I will have to sleep with my sister and I don't want that and she does not want that. But at least we get a tv and our own beds. Oh and the planes we take there are one to Charlotte which is less than an hour long and then one to Costa Rica which is 4 hours long. I don't know the activities so bye. PS - I hope you liked my writing because I cannot see half of the letters on my mom's keyboard so this was hard to type.