Itinerary Opinion: Little Corn and ____?

Thank you for the great suggestions, melton. The B&Bs look lovely! As I learn more about Granada and the surrounding areas, however, I'm finding myself considering staying somewhere outside of Granada, perhaps Masaya or the shores of Laguna de Apoyo. Or even in one of the Pueblos Blancos. I am just concerned that I might find the strong tourist and ex-pat presence in Granada a little too comfortable and typical. Granada seems beautiful and a unique part of Nicaragua (and Central America) but I might prefer to be pushed a bit more outside my comfort zone. At the same time, Granada offers an easy home-base for just a couple days' activity and eating. It offers plenty of buses to/from Managua and certainly a lot of dining options (we prefer traditional-regional fare in comfortable atmospheres.) If anyone would like to give their two cents on the matter (Granada v. Masaya and other local alternatives,) please do.

We'll have two full days flanked by two half-days (travel days) to spend in the area and get a taste of Nicaragua to contrast our experience on Little Corn. Kayaking, scuba diving, sailing, hiking, a canopy tour, horseback riding, bird-watching, food markets, flora, fauna, and dining are all active interests. But we enjoy being quiet observers too. We like to see everyday life-- work and play.

Also, as per suggestions, we've decided to spend our last island night on Big Corn just to assure we'll be able to catch the flight the next day.

The "real" Nicaragua might be outside of Granada but there is precious little to do in Diria or Diriomo unless there's a hipico going on. Then you're in for some fun. Though on the plus side, if practising your spanish is what you are after, you'd be in a good spot - though you'd do as well in Granada - spoken english is still the exception here. The Laguna is strictly for relaxing in or looking at. There's nothing out there really. It's tranquilo no doubt, but there nothing going on. The tourists are really concentrated on Calle Calzada and the area around the parque. Outside of those areas the tourists really are quite scarce. This isn't Disneyland by a long stretch.

Oh geez, I wrote a detailed response to 11 where I decided we should stay with Granada and just do excursions, but I must have failed to post it. HOWEVER between then and now, I've discovered a lot more about Ometepe and although it is going to make things a lot more complicated for us (on an already short schedule) I think that we still must go there. It sounds, literally, just perfect for us. Abundant wildlife, ultra-cheap horseback riding, lots of hike options, less tourism, gorgeous views... the only thing we'll be missing is our first canopy tour, oh well!

If the boyfriend agrees that Ometepe is the way to go for us, we might try to make this happen:

Sat: BOS-MGA arriving 1:30PM. Overnight in Managua.
Sun: Managua to Little Corn.
Mon-Thurs: Little Corn.
Fri: Little Corn to Managua, then onward to Granada. Overnight in Granada.
Sat: Granada to Rivas, then onward to Ometepe.
Sun: Ometepe.
Mon: More Ometepe. Last ferry to Rivas. Overnight in Rivas.
Tuesday: Early bus to Managua. MGA-BOS departing 2:45PM.

This is mid/late May. Do I need to make lodging reservations for anything besides our first flights to/from Little Corn? It would be good to have plenty of flexibility should we have transportation complications for all that indirect travel between Little Corn and Ometepe.

I'm also going to nicaragua with a similiar itin. One thing we did was push LCI to the end of the trip so we wouldn't have that awkward day in managua- instead, spending the afternoon and morning in Leon before heading to Granada and Ometepe. Then off to LCI!!!!!