I liked Nicaragua so much I started a travel blog
Aug 26, 2016, 3:44 pm
#1
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I liked Nicaragua so much I started a travel blog
Flame away. I'm not trying to make any money or anything (in fact I'll lose on hosting charges alone) I just like to write and it's an outlet for me.
http://www.travelwithvik.com/2016/08/25/nicaragua/
http://www.travelwithvik.com/2016/08/25/nicaragua/
Aug 26, 2016, 9:24 pm
#3
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Aug 28, 2016, 5:35 pm
#5
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I think you were looking for comments about the content. I didn’t even notice the black border. So, nice report and analysis, Vik. I never pass up a chance to go to Nicaragua. I love the place.
I do take issue with a couple of things you said:
I don’t buy this assessment of Costa Rica. The boom in CR is not recent. Tourism began to take off in the mid-90s and has never looked back. Save for the 2008-2010 seasons where things dipped following the worldwide financial crisis, numbers have increased markedly every year for the past two decades. CR welcomed 2.7 million visitors last year. CR does offer a more polished product than Nicaragua does, and many more people here speak English. (Education levels are simply higher.) That does not mean that CR has somehow become "Americanized." After 20 years here, I realize it is still a very foreign country, and not at all American, nor does it have any desire to be.
You know, people have been saying this for years. In fact, "Go now before everyone discovers Nicaragua" was the theme of an article I wrote in 1999. Visitor numbers to Nicaragua have increased. They were at 1.4 million in 2015. I still don’t think the country is in any danger of being overrun.
I do take issue with a couple of things you said:
The recent tourism boom of Costa Rica has led to an unfortunate Americanization of the land of the Ticos. Prices are at best the same as in the USA, and at worst sky-high. One is surrounded by Americans and workers that are strangely fluent in English; at times it feels like it is an ecotourism Disneyland.
I think that it is only a matter of time until Nicaragua explodes into the next "it" destination. My advice: go now before this happens, it is worth a visit.
Aug 28, 2016, 6:28 pm
#6
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I think you were looking for comments about the content. I didn’t even notice the black border. So, nice report and analysis, Vik. I never pass up a chance to go to Nicaragua. I love the place.
I do take issue with a couple of things you said:
I don’t buy this assessment of Costa Rica. The boom in CR is not recent. Tourism began to take off in the mid-90s and has never looked back. Save for the 2008-2010 seasons where things dipped following the worldwide financial crisis, numbers have increased markedly every year for the past two decades. CR welcomed 2.7 million visitors last year. CR does offer a more polished product than Nicaragua does, and many more people here speak English. (Education levels are simply higher.) That does not mean that CR has somehow become "Americanized." After 20 years here, I realize it is still a very foreign country, and not at all American, nor does it have any desire to be.
You know, people have been saying this for years. In fact, "Go now before everyone discovers Nicaragua" was the theme of an article I wrote in 1999. Visitor numbers to Nicaragua have increased. They were at 1.4 million in 2015. I still don’t think the country is in any danger of being overrun.
I do take issue with a couple of things you said:
I don’t buy this assessment of Costa Rica. The boom in CR is not recent. Tourism began to take off in the mid-90s and has never looked back. Save for the 2008-2010 seasons where things dipped following the worldwide financial crisis, numbers have increased markedly every year for the past two decades. CR welcomed 2.7 million visitors last year. CR does offer a more polished product than Nicaragua does, and many more people here speak English. (Education levels are simply higher.) That does not mean that CR has somehow become "Americanized." After 20 years here, I realize it is still a very foreign country, and not at all American, nor does it have any desire to be.
You know, people have been saying this for years. In fact, "Go now before everyone discovers Nicaragua" was the theme of an article I wrote in 1999. Visitor numbers to Nicaragua have increased. They were at 1.4 million in 2015. I still don’t think the country is in any danger of being overrun.
Aug 30, 2016, 7:04 am
#7
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Enjoyed reading the post! I'm heading out on Friday to do laguna de apoyo for 3 days and then Granada for 4. Our hotel is right across from Parque Central - good to know what to look out for food.
As someone new to Nicaragua, where would you suggest people look to for the carriage tours? There's a few stuff doing on our own, but a carriage tour would be a fun activity to do the evening we check in. I was just going to go to Parque Central and get one, but if I can find them cheaper elsewhere I definitely will!
Also, in Granada, $ or Cordoba for these types of local establishments?
As someone new to Nicaragua, where would you suggest people look to for the carriage tours? There's a few stuff doing on our own, but a carriage tour would be a fun activity to do the evening we check in. I was just going to go to Parque Central and get one, but if I can find them cheaper elsewhere I definitely will!
Also, in Granada, $ or Cordoba for these types of local establishments?
Aug 30, 2016, 1:54 pm
#8
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Granada seemed pretty intensely Americanized to me when I went earlier in the year. (And Americanized with some pretty non-adventurous tourists; the other American tourists at my hotel were appalled to learn that I'd been taking public transportation and not participating in packaged tours.) The rest of the country, less so; most of the tourists I ran into outside of Granada were European or Canadian. But there were no shortage of tourists anywhere--every single person on the chicken bus I took from Rivas to Granada, for example, was a tourist. (Excepting the driver, of course!)
Oh, to answer tcormier's question, everyone I met preferred $, but of course paying in $ makes it harder to bargain for small items, and any prices will obviously get rounded up to the nearest dollar or five.
Oh, to answer tcormier's question, everyone I met preferred $, but of course paying in $ makes it harder to bargain for small items, and any prices will obviously get rounded up to the nearest dollar or five.
Aug 30, 2016, 2:38 pm
#9
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Enjoyed reading the post! I'm heading out on Friday to do laguna de apoyo for 3 days and then Granada for 4. Our hotel is right across from Parque Central - good to know what to look out for food.
As someone new to Nicaragua, where would you suggest people look to for the carriage tours? There's a few stuff doing on our own, but a carriage tour would be a fun activity to do the evening we check in. I was just going to go to Parque Central and get one, but if I can find them cheaper elsewhere I definitely will!
Also, in Granada, $ or Cordoba for these types of local establishments?
As someone new to Nicaragua, where would you suggest people look to for the carriage tours? There's a few stuff doing on our own, but a carriage tour would be a fun activity to do the evening we check in. I was just going to go to Parque Central and get one, but if I can find them cheaper elsewhere I definitely will!
Also, in Granada, $ or Cordoba for these types of local establishments?
Aug 30, 2016, 2:39 pm
#10
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Granada seemed pretty intensely Americanized to me when I went earlier in the year. (And Americanized with some pretty non-adventurous tourists; the other American tourists at my hotel were appalled to learn that I'd been taking public transportation and not participating in packaged tours.) The rest of the country, less so; most of the tourists I ran into outside of Granada were European or Canadian. But there were no shortage of tourists anywhere--every single person on the chicken bus I took from Rivas to Granada, for example, was a tourist. (Excepting the driver, of course!)
Oh, to answer tcormier's question, everyone I met preferred $, but of course paying in $ makes it harder to bargain for small items, and any prices will obviously get rounded up to the nearest dollar or five.
Oh, to answer tcormier's question, everyone I met preferred $, but of course paying in $ makes it harder to bargain for small items, and any prices will obviously get rounded up to the nearest dollar or five.
Sep 5, 2016, 9:42 pm
#11
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I enjoyed your post. I visited Nicaragua in 2013 and had a lovely time there and plan to return to the country at some point because I never saw Leon.
Your comments about CR amused me, I asked a Canadian who was seated next to my on my flight home why there were so many Canadians in Nicaragua and he said "because it's like Costa Rica before Americans discovered it"
Your comments about CR amused me, I asked a Canadian who was seated next to my on my flight home why there were so many Canadians in Nicaragua and he said "because it's like Costa Rica before Americans discovered it"
Sep 10, 2016, 8:13 pm
#12
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Otherwise not many sightings, due to the lack of a "downtown" I think.
I always see foreigners in Leon in Parque Central and the cathedral but not in slightly farther away places like Poneloya or Subtiaba.
Granada is a real waste of time other than the Disney type tourist market.
Sep 10, 2016, 9:56 pm
#14
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Sep 10, 2016, 9:58 pm
#15
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You'll see foreigners mainly Americans in Mercado Huembes where the artisan goods are all the time, though no bargains, vs. Masaya for the same stuff. I have my driver buy things for me in Huembes. I think they are organized tours.
Otherwise not many sightings, due to the lack of a "downtown" I think.
I always see foreigners in Leon in Parque Central and the cathedral but not in slightly farther away places like Poneloya or Subtiaba.
Granada is a real waste of time other than the Disney type tourist market.
Otherwise not many sightings, due to the lack of a "downtown" I think.
I always see foreigners in Leon in Parque Central and the cathedral but not in slightly farther away places like Poneloya or Subtiaba.
Granada is a real waste of time other than the Disney type tourist market.