LilDenver

My husband, I and our 2 kids, ages 8 and 13 went to Nicaragua 12/28 - 1/5/08. We had a great trip. Here are details:
1) Flew into Managua on Delta via Atlanta (we are from Colorado). Good flight and they served lunch with free drink! I was shocked! Got to Managua around 2 pm. Plane was about 1 hour late due to weather in Atlanta. Our ORO Travel driver, Henry was there for us as promised. Drive to Granada about 30 minutes. Checked into Hotel Plaza Colon.
Hotel Plaza Colon is a very nice hotel and the staff was very helpful (calling ORO Travel for us to confirm pickup time for tour and getting us some drinks after kids went to sleep)! Had a room overlooking the plaza and there was a nice pool in the interior courtyard of the hotel which the kids enjoyed. Went on carriage ride and ate at El Zaguan which was excellent.
Days 2-3: Met with ORO Travel guide and Henry again promptly at 8:30 am. Spent Day 2 touring San Juan del Oriente, Caterina, Masaya market and Masaya volcano. Had wonderful day. Our English speaking guid was very informative and energetic. Ate at Dona Conchi, another excellent dinner. Ask about the bullet holes in the restaurant wall! Next day met with another ORO Travel guide (we requested English speaking guides) and did Isletas boat tour. The monkeys jumped right in the boat and 1 gave my daughter a hug. She was thrilled. Then Henry from ORO Travel picked us up to take us to San Juan del Sur. Henry was such a kind man. We enjoyed getting to know him.
3)Days 3-8: Checked in at Pelican Eyes after 2.75 hour trip from Granada. The road from Pan-American Hwy to coast was awful. We got an upgrade at Pelican Eyes. Our 2 bdroom 2 bath casa at Pelican Eyes had beautiful ocean view even though I requested a garden view. So that was nice. Pelican Eyes staff wonderful except for the staff at upper pool. Since we weren't swilling $$ drinks poolside all day like the 20 somethings we were ignored re: towel requests and drinks when we wanted them. The other nit I had with Pelican Eyes was the restaurant service and the $$ food which was not worth the price. Much better food can be found in town, especially El Culebra (not sure if spelled right). Also ate at El Timon and O Sole Mio which were good too. WHile in San Juan del Sur, my husband and son took some Spanish lessons and we took water taxi to Majagual and Maderas beaches. The beach in town is not that clean. The kids had fun on a boogie board and there is a cool little bar at Madera Beach that serves drinks and sandwiches. Other than that we relaxed. Also 1 day was super windy so we hung around the house that day. New Year's Eve was pretty rowdy with lots of fireworks and a mobile disco that played booming music until 8 am New Years Day. The highlight of our time in San Juan del Sur was the Pelican Eyes sailboat trip. It was such a treat. Don't miss if you are in San Juan del Sur. If you are at Pelican Eyes in the generator area, you don't even notice the power outages. However in town at night be prepared iwth flashlight. It gets dark! We felt bad for the Eskimo ice cream shop owner who was frantically trying to get his small generator started so he could wait on customers and not have his inventory melt.
Day 8: Our return to Denver uneventful except that with immigrations and customs in Atlanta, and the gate for Denver flight on other side of airport, we barely made 2 hour connection and our luggage didn't make it. However the luggage was on next plane and by the time I filled out claim, the luggage arrived. So not too bad.
Overall we loved Nicaragua and will return.

nonstop

thanks for sharing the report. I was there in May and went to many of those same places. Brought back some great memories.

Every night we had drinks on the sidewalk at the Hotel Colon and watched the activities of the park. Great people watching spot.

Did many of the same exursions that you did including some of the same restaurants.

The Pan-Am. can get a little tight in places especially when the trucks are passing. I was a passenger on it and was glad I wasn't driving.

Know what you mean about SJDS. Not one of my favorite places. While the bay view is picturesque, the beach itself is a little rough around the edges.

Thanks for sharing.

aprillilacs

Thanks for the report, LilDenver--there are not enough posts about Nicaragua on this board. Our time there overlapped with yours, and we also enjoyed it. I hope to post my own trip report later tonight. We actually found the Pelican Eyes staff very attentive. The sailboat was booked so we didn't get to take part in that--definitely will next time! And interestingly, we didn't experience any power outages. That road to SJDS was an adventure, wasn't it?

Pete1222

Hi Denver,
We're looking at a family vacation to Granada in March. Easter weekend will probably be a mad-house so not sure if we can pull it off or not.
Anyway, our 16 year old daughter is begging us for Spanish lessons in that part of the world. What was your husband/son's experience like?
If you feel comfortable recommending (or not) the school they attended that would be great.
thanks,
Pete
(Our 13 year old daughter was born in Louisville, Colorado. She's a Jersey girl now...)

ttraveler

Thanks for your report. I went in Oct. with four friends and we had such a wonderful time. We only got to visit Granada and San Juan Del Sur and I would love to go back. We also got to sail with Pelican Eyes. They couldn't find enough people to go so we finally decided to pay the extra and go anyway. We were so glad we did. It was money well spent and we had such a delightful day. The food was a nice little extra treat.

LilDenver

Pete,
My husband and son took Spanish lessons at a school in San Juan del Sur. I beleive it was called "San Juan del Sur Spanish School." He had a private isntructor ($8/hour) and it was pretty casual (conversational Spanish walking through the town). However they offer more formal classes too.

LilDenver

Correction to trip report: Restaurant's name in San Juan del Sur that we really liked: El Colibri.