See Nicaragua in a Day with the Nicaragua Tour from Costa Rica

If you’re staying on the Guanacaste coast, I highly recommend taking the one day Nicaragua tour from Costa Rica.

The Nicaragua one day from Costa Rica is a great day trip for visitors staying in Playas del Coco, Flamingo, Brasilito, Papagayo Peninsula, Playa Hermosa GTE, Playa Panama, Conchal, Potrero, Tamarindo, Langosta, Playa Grande, Las Catalinas and Liberia.

This is an excellent way to see another country, especially if you don’t plan on visiting Nicaragua on your own in the future.

The tour company takes care of all the border fees, immigration, transportation, guiding and itinerary, making it an easy and convenient day excursion.

Book your Nicaragua tour from Costa Rica here!

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Nicaragua Tour from Costa Rica Itinerary

The Nicaragua one day tour from Guanacaste is a full day activity starting from about 5 AM to 9 PM.

Places you visit on the Nicaragua day excursion:

• Laguna de Apoyo viewpoint
• Masaya Market
• Masaya Volcano National Park
• Granada town
• Lake Nicaragua boat ride

Pick up time depends on your location and varies between 430 AM to 630 AM. Normally, the pick ups in the Tamarindo, Hacienda Pinilla, and Langosta areas are first, then Flamingo, Brasilito, Potrero, third is Papagayo Peninsula and Liberia last.

The tour company will inform you of your exact pick up time a couple days before the tour.

Border

After you get picked up, it’s about a 2 hour drive from Liberia to the Peñas Blancas border.

When you arrive at the border, the guide will tell you what to do as you have to get off the bus and walk across the border.

Border crossings are easy when you’re on a tour since you go with your group and the guide will tell you where to go.

Lake Nicaragua Breakfast and Photos

After crossing the border, they take you to breakfast at a local restaurant in Nicaragua near Lake Nicaragua.

It’s a typical Nicaraguan breakfast with gallo pinto (with red beans), eggs, cheese, coffee and plantains.

When you’re done eating, you can walk around and take some photos of Lake Nicaragua. It is a huge lake with windmills all around and on a clear day, you can see the two volcano.

After breakfast, our next stop was Mirador Catarina.

Catarina Town and Laguna de Apoyo

At Catarina, a very small town in Masaya, there is a great viewpoint of Laguna de Apoyo.

This volcanic lake is a nature reserve in an extinct volcano and it is just beautiful! It’s one of our favorite places in Nicaragua.

We stayed for about 20 minutes and then headed off to Masaya.

Masaya Market

Our next stop was the Masaya market, one of the most famous souvenirs stores in Central America. We first had lunch which we got to choose from a variety of dishes.

Nicaragua has excellent beef so if you like meat, this is a good place to get some. They also have kebab, vegetarian and chicken options.

After lunch we had about 20 minutes to browse the Masaya market. If you want souvenirs, this is the best place to buy them.

Souvenirs in Nicaragua are cheaper than Costa Rica and their leather items are top notch quality.

You can find everything from leather bags and purses, shoes and belts for a good price.

You can also get cheap shirts, hammocks, cigars and other knick knacks. Remember to bargain! They’ll always start high but you can negotiate down a lot.

I highly recommend doing souvenir shopping here since it is so much cheaper than Costa Rica.

You can use dollars at the market but they give your change back in cordobas. Ask if you want your change in USD.

Masaya Volcano National Park

Our next stop was Masaya Volcano National Park.

This active volcano is famous for being one of the few in the world and the only one in the western hemisphere where you can actually drive up to the center.

We got out and spent about 45 minutes walking around and taking pictures.

Along the way there, our guide told us some history and background about this volcano and the national park which was really interesting.

The Mayans who used to live in this area would sacrifice beautiful women at the cross whenever the volcano erupted or rumbled.

To this day, this active volcano continuously spews sulfur dioxide gas and even lava!

If you walk towards the entrance of the parking lot, you can get some beautiful views of Nicaragua below.

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Granada

Next, we stopped in Granada which is one of the most important cities in Nicaragua due to its very rich colonial heritage, apparent through its architecture and city design.

You’ll see colonial buildings and churches everywhere and automatically see why so many people love this little city.

In fact, many foreigners who move to Nicaragua choose Granada as their new home.

We walked through town towards the main yellow church and visited a hammock making shop along the way.

Then we went into the church and climbed the stairs for a beautiful view of the city.

Grenada is one of the cutest towns in Central America. Costa Rica doesn’t really have any colonial towns like this one, so it’s something different to see.

Lake Nicaragua boat ride

Lastly, is the Lake Nicaragua boat ride.

We climbed into a boat and went off into the lake to see the thousands of little islands. The lake itself and the islands were very beautiful and it was fun to see different houses built on the island.

During the boat ride, it stops at Monkey Island, which, to be honest, was not my favorite part of the tour. The spider monkeys seem like they are basically trapped on the island, relying on the tour guides to feed them.

Nicaragua has a very different mindset to Costa Rica when it comes to wildlife.

Costa Rica is all about conservation, leaving wildlife alone, not taking selfies, not feeding them, but in Nicaragua, rules and laws like these are not in place and conservation is not important.

Back to Costa Rica

Nowit’s the end of the Nicaragua tour from Costa Rica and it was time to head back. We drove back to the border (about 1.5 hours) and got out to do the border crossing.

After we successfully crossed the border , they dropped us back home.

Things to Know About This Nicaragua One Day Tour

• You need to bring your original passport that cannot be expired nor will expire.
• Nicaragua is VERY strict so your passport must be perfect condition.
• Nicaragua normally requires passports to have at least 6 months validity before expiration.
• You MUST show an exit ticket out of Costa Rica. A printed flight ticket works best.
• Bring small USD bills if you want to purchase souvenirs. Nicaragua accepts USD but NOT Costa Rican colones. If you pay in USD, they will give you your change back in cordobas (Nicaraguan currency) or you can ask them to give you dollars back.
• Wear comfortable clothes and walking shoes.
• The tour provides water, breakfast and lunch but not dinner so bring snacks.
• The bathroom at the border on the Nicaraguan side costs a dollar. Bring toilet paper and hand sanitizer.

Reserve your Nicaragua tour from Costa Rica here!

Read about other things to do in Guanacaste below!

Diamante Eco Adventure Park (get 10% off): Adventure park in Gulf of Papagayo with a zipline, animal sanctuary, local house with chocolate/coffee/sugar cane tour, botanical garden and a beach.

Hacienda Guachipelin: Adventure park next to Rincon de la Vieja National Park that has rooms, ziplining, horseback riding tours, white water tubing, mud baths, hot springs, waterfalls and an terrarium. Most popular is their one day adventure tour.

Rincon de la Vieja National Park: National park in Guanacaste with hiking trails, waterfalls, rivers, volcano and boiling mud pots.

Guanacaste Rainforest Tour: Hike hanging bridges in the rainforest and visit a private reserve to see sloths, toucans and other animals in Bijagua.