Introducing Nicaragua
Smoking Volcán Concepción and her almost perfect cinder cone rise from silvery, pure Lago de Nicaragua to pierce the cloudy sky. 'Land of Lakes and Volcanoes' indeed, you think, as the rolling waves of Cocibolca (an ancient indigenous name for this 'Sweet Sea') rock your suddenly tiny ferry into unspeakable admiration. For these symbols of the nation - wind over water, fire from the earth - convey the elemental significance of Nicaragua's most powerful passions, poetry (don't get them started, unless you want to) and revolution.
If you climb Concepción you'll look out over gorgeous colonial Granada and her hundreds of tiny tropical isletas (islets), across the slender isthmus pockmarked with crater lakes to where the Pacific breaks hollow on sandy cove beaches. Beyond, red-and-black Volcán Momotombo towers above Lago de Managua - its counterpoint is Sandino's massive iron silhouette, conscience of the nation and solemn defining feature of the Managua skyline. Proud León also beckons with its churches and museums, while the cloud forests, frothing waterfalls and incredible coffee of cool, green Northern Nicaragua may tempt you upwards. Here, in the mountains and lakes, Central America's mightiest rivers begin their journey across the autonomous, indigenous-owned rolling hills of the Caribbean Coast, to the sea.
For visitors of a certain age, just the name Nicaragua - taken from a tribal chief of such wisdom and power that he may never fade from this nation's collective memory - evokes grainy footage of camouflage-clad guerrillas, punctuated by gunfire and a 1980s soundtrack. Despite having ended more than 15 years ago, leaving Nicaragua one of the safest countries in the Americas, the Contra War is too often our collective memory of the land of Nicarao.
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Sights in Nicaragua
Activities in Nicaragua
Granada & Around
Granada is Nicaragua at its most photogenic, a city of graceful adobes and elegantly proportioned porticoes drenched in rich tropical colors, Volcán Mombacho rising ragged above and shimmering Cocibolca (Sweet Sea; Lago de Nicaragua) arranged at...
Tours in Nicaragua
Managua
Sprawling along the silvery edges of Xolotlán, broad Lago de Managua, this is the nation's capital and nerve center, an admittedly unlovely urban expanse of unsigned, tree-lined boulevards and uninspired modern monoliths that almost never seduce...
Nicaragua destination guides
Granada
Nicknamed 'the Great Sultan, ' in honor of its Moorish namesake across the Atlantic, Granada was founded in 1524 by Francisco Fernández de Córdoba, and is the oldest city in the New World.
Hotels in Nicaragua
Budget Hotels & Hostels in Nicaragua
Guesthouses and B&Bs in Nicaragua
León
Refined, intense and politically progressive, León would be mildly offended if you referred to it as 'Nicaragua's second city.
Entertainment in Nicaragua
León & Northwestern Nicaragua
Steamy, volcanic and intellectual, the northwest is home to Nicaragua's best museums, oldest universities and finest churches, including the grandest cathedral in Central America (not to mention the refinery of one of the world's best rums).
Shopping in Nicaragua