Granada (Nicaragua): A Charming Colonial City

Granada is the most touristic city in Nicaragua, thanks to its beauty (incredible colonial city) and its ideal location (near several volcanoes, Lake Nicaragua). This is where we chose to spend 2 weeks between work and learning Spanish.

Part 1: Travel Diary
Part 2: Practical Tips

Part 1: Travel Diary

Granada is really the type of city you visit in a single day and regret not staying overnight. So I’m thrilled to stay there for 2 weeks.

Central square

The microbus from Managua drops us off right in front of this beautiful central square. Like all colonial cities in Nicaragua, the central square consists of a beautiful church (or cathedral) and a park. There may or may not be restaurants around. The locals meet here – especially on weekends because it is cooler there. A few restaurants sell vigoron, drinks, there are SIM card vendors… this is one of the most authentic places in this tourist city.

The center

Right next door is Calle La Calzada, with plenty of restaurants (there are as many locals as tourists), especially lively at weekends.

Here you can admire the beautiful garden of the Hotel Dario (link Booking). Prices vary a lot from one restaurant to another.

From Granada, you can see the Mombacho volcano, still active. When I’m hot, and I see clouds above the Mombacho (there are always clouds because it’s always wet up there, it’s an ecosystem in itself), and I secretly ask it to send me some clouds and rain ahahah

My favorite restaurants

What I don’t like about Granada is the “scamming tourists” part. Many restaurants for tourists automatically add 25% tax and obligatory tip to the bill (it’s written very small), and restaurant prices are close to Spain, so even if our accommodation is cheap, we pay a lot for food, and the quality/price ratio isn’t satisfactory. Here are my favorite addresses:

Garden Cafe: for its beautiful garden, my favorite in Granada – and its brownies, small but good. The prices are a bit high. There are local dishes as well as international dishes. The decoration is top. The -: 10% tip + 15% VAT
Pita Pita: I recommend their spaghetti with a spicy sauce (it’s a bit like Bolognese with spicy touch). Or their pizza cooked over a wood fire. You get your money’s worth. The -: 10% tip + 15% VAT

A little further is El Garaje: a Canadian expat headquarters (since the owners are Canadian). What’s cool is that the owners are the ones who cook. They have a farm. The ingredients come directly from their farm. Everything is fresh and good. The best part: no tips imposed, no VAT to pay on top of that. The minus: payment in cash only
Mansion Chocolate: for its garden full of cocoa trees, its colonial architecture, its desserts & its chocolate frio, I like it, but the price is a bit high (count 10% VAT also)

As for the comedors, the local cheap restaurants, these are only open at noon, so you only go there for lunch (no tax to pay, no tip, but payment in cash only)
- Cafetin Claudia: 90 cordobas the menu of the day, drink included, several choices of meat, but the plate remains basic: rice, beans, salad + meat
- Casa Nica Spanish school: 70 cordobas, only one choice. Drink not included (20 cordobas more)—basic plate but with a lot of taste.
- In front of Ferreteria Briones, two very nice ladies sell vigorón, a local specialty, every day from 9 am to 1 pm approximately (except Sunday). The plate costs 70-80 cordobas, you need 1.5 plates to be full, but it is the best in the city.
- Hotel Lucys: serves the menu of the day at 100 cordobas, a little too much frying, but at least there are no beans (for those who can’t take it anymore)
- Just in front, at the bus terminal, there is a self with a lot of choices: Comedor Dona Celia. We have not tested it, but the locals recommend it to us.

Vigorón: composed of yuca (manioc), pickled cabbage, fried pork skin and a little pickled onion (spicy)

Many of the above addresses were recommended by Lauriane. Moreover, I advise you to follow her on Instagram because she regularly completes her favorite addresses via her stories.

The rainy season

We went to Nicaragua at the end of October, and every day (starting at 4 pm more or less), it’s flood time. Sometimes for only 10 minutes, sometimes for an hour.

It reminds me of the monsoon season in Asia. It rains a lot during one hour max, but it refreshes the atmosphere, it feels good. When I talk about it with the locals, they all answer me, “it’s normal, it’s the rainy season, it’s going to end soon.” And right at the beginning of November, the rain doesn’t come anymore, as if by magic, every day I wait for a fresh wind announcing the rain, but it doesn’t come as often as it used to.

The + is that the whole country is green, green, green. It’s beautiful! Already most of the country is covered with plants. Then it is enough to go up a little bit in height, and one has the impression that all the country is in the jungle 🙂

The – is that Granada is crossed by small rivers, which become more “active” in the rainy season and become the nest of mosquitoes. There are plenty of other places with stagnant water. The mosquitoes here are ferocious, they bite as if their lives depended on it, and each bite makes a big mess. Fortunately, David, our guide I mentioned here, recommended Calamina, a pink liquid to put on the bites (35 cordobas at the pharmacy) – it relieves them instantly. He tells us that it is used to soothe the itching caused by chickenpox in children. As soon as the rainy season is over, mosquitoes, fortunately, become rarer.

Chocolate Museum & Spanish Courses

La Mansion de Chocolate has a store, a café, a Spanish school, and a hotel with a swimming pool (link Booking). You can access all this simultaneously, and I spent a lot of time here between my Spanish classes (I talked about it here) and squatting in the place. Being a student, I also get a 10% discount on all services. The guided tour is free. Afterward, you can participate in a 2-hour course to make your own chocolate bar.

The Choco Spa is apparently the best in Granada. I was able to test two massages there. The masseur’s name is Mario, he’s blind, and he fixed my shoulders and back (I went to get a massage because I couldn’t even turn my head to the right anymore).

Here there are always lots of cute cats hanging around. It’s really a haven of peace, I like it very much.

I also sometimes use the Mansion swimming pool (100 cordobas during the week, 150 on weekends). With a spa treatment of 10$ or more, access to the pool is free.

Photo de cet établissement dans la galerie

If there are many tables here to work on, the Internet connection is disappointing (1.72Mbps down, 1.57Mbps up).

Lake Nicaragua

Granada offers us direct access to the largest lake in Central America, representing +/- 10% of Nicaragua’s surface area. From here, you can also take a boat tour to visit the 365 islets created by the eruption of volcanoes long ago. To get to the lake, you can take a cab for 15 cordobas/person (rates are fixed in Granada). Unfortunately, the water isn’t good here. You cannot swim.

The mercado

We don’t go there every day, but we like it because this market sells fruit at an unbeatable price. We are advised not to go there after 5 pm, but it is quite safe during the day. With the heat, the smell can be unbearable at times. The sellers are rather honest, provided that you give preference to those in the center of the market (avoid the sellers sitting right at the entrance).

Our accommodation – Casa Carina

It isn’t easy to find a whole house in Granada, because the houses are often huge, consisting of several rooms. That’s why we have to opt for a private room contrary to our habit.

There aren’t many accommodations with large work tables, so we opted for Casa Carina 10€/night (link Booking). In his advertisement, the owner even made a screenshot of the speed test and specified that it was particularly adapted to nomads.

As everywhere in Nicaragua, there are super comfortable hammocks. And the old houses of this type have a garden. There is always wind. This is very important, especially for a country where it is always hot.

As the only room with a private bathroom is already occupied, we are entitled to a small room with access to a shared bathroom, located between two rooms. We share it with another room (which isn’t occupied every day). Each room has a door to the bathroom. The rule is to knock before entering. It makes me think a little bit of the series Un dos tres … where this system of a bathroom shared between two rooms did not always go well.

The reality is that people don’t spend their lives in a bathroom, and we’ve never had an incident with this kind of system. For the extreme stress of life, there are 2 other completely isolated bathrooms (only one door) at the garden’s back.

Paul (a Welshman), the owner, lives there and employs 2 Nicaraguan women full time, even though there aren’t many tourists. Part of the house used to be an English language school, but since the crisis last year, the school has been closed, and he now teaches online – and converts the old school into a hostel.

If you are hoping to find a French nomads community, Nicaragua isn’t Indonesia. Even in Granada, the most touristy city in the country, the French are few. We saw an online English teacher and an American real estate manager—2 nomads over 2 weeks in our hostel.

If Casa Carina is full, the alternative would be El Arca de Noe (Booking link), but the connection is slower (3.68Mbps down, 0.65Mbps up). We’ll have to use 4G here. There are many tables, and the bathroom is private.

Continuation of our adventure in Nicaragua here

Part 2: Practical Tips

Where to go after Granada?

In general, Granada isn’t the first city tourists visit, especially if they came by land from Costa Rica or El Salvador.

From Granada, we went :

In the surroundings: visit Masaya, its active volcano with visible lava, its watchtower, Lake Apoyo, and the artisanal villages. We visited with David, a French-speaking nica guide (see our travel diary)
in the South: visit Ometepe (130 cordobas by public transport, change at Rivas). If you have more time, you can opt for the beach in San Juan del Sur (15$ in tourist shuttle, or about 100 cordobas in public transport – change at Rivas)
in the North: visit Leon (15$ in tourist shuttle, or 104 cordobas in public transport, change in Managua) and the beautiful beach of Las Penitas (1h bus ride from Leon)

What about insecurity?

What insecurity? It’s super quiet around here. The tourists aren’t afraid at all. Nicaraguans aren’t armed at all (there has been a considerable effort to disarm the country), and there is no narcotics network as dangerous as the neighboring countries.

You have to be careful with your phone and your wallet, just like everywhere else in the world. But I really liked being able to breathe a little and not having to worry about my safety. If you still have doubts, read Lauriane’s interview here

Budget

Mini-bus Managua (UCA terminal) – Granada (Bus terminal near the Cathedral): 33 cordobas/person
Accommodation: Casa Carina 10€/night (link Booking)
Food :
- Lunch at the comedor: 90 to 100 cordobas/person
- Dinner at the tourist restaurant: count 12$/person drink included, VAT + 10% tip
- Fruits at the market: 20 cordobas per dozen oranges
Withdrawal :
- with N26 (Mastercard): free withdrawal at BAC bank
- with a VISA card (Revolut or Boursorama Ultim): withdrawal with $4 fee/withdrawal at BAC, or 1.5% of the amount withdrawn at BANPRO
Spanish classes: 20h for 120$ (private classes)