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
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.)
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!
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