How's the adventure travel and activities in and around San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua?
Eugenio Cortez - Hacienda & Ecolodge Morgan´s Rock
The adventure travel in San Juan del Sur is varied. There is some stuff to do just in the immediate San Juan del Sur area, but not a lot. Given where San Juan del Sur is located, however, it is perfectly situated for adventure travel very close by. - You can go five minutes north to the Flying Frog Canopy. That’s $30 for the trek. It is a great adventure.
- You can hop on a boat that costs between US $40 to $45 per person and go whale watching or...
The adventure travel in San Juan del Sur is varied. There is some stuff to do just in the immediate San Juan del Sur area, but not a lot. Given where San Juan del Sur is located, however, it is perfectly situated for adventure travel very close by. - You can go five minutes north to the Flying Frog Canopy. That’s $30 for the trek. It is a great adventure.
- You can hop on a boat that costs between US $40 to $45 per person and go whale watching or dolphin watching right.
- You can hop on a bike and then go on different treks that aren’t necessarily in San Juan del Sur but right on the outskirts. Right before you come into San Juan, you go through a mountain. That mountain has a couple of treks that are good for biking or hiking. You can take those trails and hike or bike.
- Let’s go a little further from San Juan del Sur. There’s La Flor, which is a national park famous for its sea turtle migrations. They have thousands and thousands of sea turtles. It’s a protected national park, not necessarily in San Juan del Sur, but it’s only 40 minutes away, so it’s something you can definitely do.
- You can always visit Ometepe Island, which is another tourist destination that is an hour away from San Juan del Sur. You see Ometepe coming into San Juan del Sur. It is a 45 minute taxi drive from San Juan to the port on Lake Nicaragua. That takes you to the ferry that takes you to the island.
What is cool about the specifics of this part of Nicaragua is all of this is an hour away, maximum. You can really do a lot. In addition, you can go from San Juan del Sur and visit Granada and the volcanoes and the markets in a day. You don’t need to sleep overnight anywhere.
For example, at our hotel, we have the Granada Volcanoes Tour where you leave the hotel at 7: 30 in the morning after breakfast and you visit Granada and the islands of Granada. You visit the Mombacho Volcano, the markets, and then you’re back at the hotel by 6 PM. It’s all a relatively short distance and the highways are in perfect condition.
Posted November 30, 2014
David Smith - Nicaragua Sotheby's International Realty
Adventure tourism in and around San Juan Del Sur and in Nicaragua in general is probably the best in the world because of the variety. Over New Year's, out in the main bay here in San Juan Del Sur, I was watching some kids on jet-packs who were powering them up into the air while they were standing, like something from a James Bond movie. All kinds of beach sports, even those extreme beach and ocean sports, are available in and around San...
Adventure tourism in and around San Juan Del Sur and in Nicaragua in general is probably the best in the world because of the variety. Over New Year's, out in the main bay here in San Juan Del Sur, I was watching some kids on jet-packs who were powering them up into the air while they were standing, like something from a James Bond movie. All kinds of beach sports, even those extreme beach and ocean sports, are available in and around San Juan Del Sur, right on the ocean using some of the latest technologies I just described.
Within half an hour from San Juan Del Sur you can go kayaking up rivers and hiking to a waterfalls up in the mountains. You can be on the desert islands of Ometepe and the jungles. You can be in volcanoes and staring into the mouth of the most accessible volcano, which is Volcan Masaya that you can drive up to for about 10 minutes and you can see red lava. You can also "volcano board" down the side of an active volcano in the northern part of Nicaragua, which is about 3 hours away from San Juan Del Sur by car and is near Leon. Hiking up to the jungle of Mombacho in Granada is also another thing you can do here. You can also zip line through the jungle. These activities are just on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua. There is just so much adventure travel to do here in Nicaragua. In 7 years, I still have things to explore.
On the Caribbean coast, you can go snorkeling and deep-sea diving around the Corn Islands. To get to the Corn Islands from San Juan Del Sur, you have to drive to Managua and then fly for about an hour and a half to Bluefields.
Talking about adventure, we have the world’s largest stretch of rainforest outside of the Amazon. Its located on the extreme south-east coast of Nicaragua, which is an incredible adventure. You can stay for a week in an eco-lodge there. Then you can take a boat and just see caymans and other wildlife. I did that trip last year over New Year’s, when we spent two weeks there, which was pretty incredible. To get there, you drive to Managua, then you fly for 2 hours across to the other side of the country in a little plane to San Carlos. Then from San Carlos, you fly another 45 minutes to San Juan Del Norte. We did what people are commonly interested in doing and that is to re-trace the American Gold Rush route. Cornelius Vanderbilt built his transportation empire in the early 1800s during the Gold Rush, bringing the Americans down the east coast of the USA, into the Caribbean, then out of the Caribbean, out to the San Juan River in Nicaragua, in order to get them across Lake Nicaragua to San Juan Del Sur and then out the Pacific Coast to California to the Gold Rush state because it was too unsafe to go across the continent of North America. It was also not practical to go overland across the USA at that time.
I have retraced that route up the San Juan River and it was quite the adventure. We stopped at El Castillo, where there is a lot of history to enjoy and learn about the Colonial and Pre-Colonial Period. There were a number of times when the pirates came and raided Granada, which was the capital of Nicaragua at that time.
There is a rich history and quite a lot of adventure to be had in Nicaragua. I am a geologist by training and so to be out in the wild and in the bushes is something that has been part of my career and I enjoy it. It is one of the reasons why I chose Nicaragua.
Posted March 12, 2015