Full Day Nicaragua Tour from Costa Rica

This trip was amazing! The tour guide was amazing and very knowledgeable. The food, drool

More like a 3.5 star (rounded up). Tour was great, as we got to see a lot of Nicaragua. However the day was longer than it needed to be (approximately 19 hrs for us). Our pick-up time was at 4am (yes) and we spent +2 hrs picking up people and 2 hrs dropping them off. The tour company should consider having a central meeting point because this was simply inefficient and a waste of time. Also, breakfast and lunch was included, which is great, but dinner should be included too if it’s a +19hr day. We had lunch at 1:30p, but didn’t get back to our hotel until 11:15p... so we were beyond starving on the ride back! Future travelers, bring lots of snacks and an extra cellphone battery charger! Other than that it was a good tour with a packed day of activities—and could easily be a 5 star tour

This was a fantastic day visiting from Costa Rica. Guide was good and the whole your was well organised

Totally awesome day trip! It is a long drive from tamarindo but it was totally worth it as a quick overview of Nicaragua. I surprised myself by enjoying it so much i want to go back for a longer stay. Feeding the monkeys was definitely a highlight, especially since you cant do that in CR.

This was a wonderful experience and our guide Jose was exceptional. Everything we did had a wow factor including crossing the Border! and though it was a very long day it didn't feel like it - except for the last leg when tiredness hit us all. Breakfast by the lake, the volcano, boat trip and visit to Granada were just wonderful. PS the only gripe was viator contacting us by email the day before to say the trip may need rearranging and when we replied a response was not forthcoming so we had were left in a state of flux and had to contact the local tour company ourselves to find out what was going on. 5 star for the trip and 1 star for viator........

Great tour, highly recommended. The drivers/guides ensured that we had a fantastic time. Very very long day from Tamarindo starting at 430am getting back at around 9p, but worth it. Dollars are taken everywhere so no need to convert into local currency. The views were great. Breakfast/dinner was good. One note: we had breakfast in Nicaragua and NOT Liberia. Plan accordingly.

Picked up at our hotel as promised, driver spoke no english, tiny bus was overcrowded, and had to use the 'fold-down' extra seats so the aisle was blocked while driving to the border. Expected breakfast in Liberia but we didn't stop there and only got breakfast once we reached Nicaragua after a border crossing that was not quite as smooth as promised. Our guide met us at the border and was VERY helpful with the crossing and very helpful and efficient in all aspects of our trip - she was the best part of the services supplied. Nice visit to the viewpoint at Caterina but too much time allowed at the attached market afterward. Visit to magnificent volcano at Masaya was outstanding but rushed. Lunch should have been held on the plaza at Grenada or very nearby as it took too long to get to the lunch spot, too long for lunch, and too long to re-board for the short trip to the Plaza by the cathedral. The stop at the 'chocolate museum' was completely unnecessary and ate up about 45 minutes of precious time. It consisted of an informative 10 minute talks and then 20 minutes of tasting/marketing and could have been skipped altogether. We did NOT get to go to the top of the cathedral for photos as promised in the pre-trip literature - in fact some folks who were expecting to have a guided tour of the cathedral did not even get inside the building. Then we were taken to the boats and toured quickly through the islands. Again it was too short and, more annoying, only the folks seated at the front of the boat got to see the monkeys 'up close' - those 8-10 folks crowded around the guide doing the feeding and the rest of us were unable to see/photograph past them and in fact were asked to move FARTHER back by the boat captain to balance the weight of the folks who had crowded to the front of the boat. Coming back to the border we just barely made the duty-free if we had time after lunch in the square at Grenada we could have done our Nicaraguan shopping there and not had to visit the duty-free at all, just a suggestion. Also, have a photocopy of your passport with you because we had to surrender our passports before going to duty-free and could not make purchases without the passport. Final comment - from Border to Hotel our non-bilingual driver was on his cellphone almost continuously - which led to some 'questionable' driving imho. Also from the border to Liberia the bus was again overcrowded and many clients had to sit in the uncomfortable and dangerous - no seatbelts fold-down aisle seats. Summary: 1 the sights visited were amazing and I don't regret going 2 should have had a real bus with seats for everyone and a washroom 3 all legs of the trip should have a bilingual guide available to address questions/concerns 4 our trip had a mix of english and spanish speakers so guide had to deliver same info in both languages. Should have separate trips for different language customers 5 guides should work out a better system so some clients aren't left-out when viewing monkeys at Islands near Grenada 6 all activities and promises made in the literature should be delivered.

Tour was great but a long day! Gives a great insight to the country. The guide was fun and informative. Border crossings were quick. Small group which was nice. Recommend this tour.