Tierrs Tours Hiking & Coffee in Northern Highlands

It sounds like it would be interesting. Sounds a little too organized for me. We spent 3 night at Selva Negra and really enjoyed our time. Lots of trails to hike and birds and wildlife. Spent a night in Matagalpa also. Took the bus one day from S.Negra to Jinotega for the afternoon. Very Scenic. guess it depends in how much you like organized tours. At Selva Negra they do tours of the coffee operation and the farm.

likes2travel--

My original thought had just been to go to Selva Negra and stay there for perhaps 2 nights. Then I saw this hiking trip and started thinking about it. Please tell me your impressions of Selva Negra. It sounds like you are telling me I could just stay there and hike their trails and see a lot of the same types of things. You say you went into Jinotega. I've read that it is nicer than Matagalpa. Would you agree? Frankly, the Matagalpa day of the tour sounded the least interesting to me. Was 3 nights at Selva Negra too many for you? What did you do there, & how did you spend your time? I've also read the food there isn't the most appealing. True? Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Do a forum search for "Selva Negra" and you will get various opinions over the last few years, including my own postings. If you really want a "cloud forest" experience then I would plan to stay at the Hotel La Selva Negra at least one night. I would suggest looking at the Hotel Selva Negra website and perhaps basing yourself there for day trips to Jinotega, etc. I like the hotel restaurant food, but I am pretty basic. The restaurant setting is worth it in any case. It will be chilly there nights and mornings.

What did we do at S.V. ? Mostly, we spent our time hiking the trails. No, 3 nights wasn't too much. It was so nice to be in the forest after the heat of Leon.(Not that we didn't like Leon). It seemed that most people just hike the trail around the lake and leave. Hardly saw anybody on the trails in the upper forest. Don't know if Jin. is nicer than Mat. We just took the bus there and back and spent a couple of hours in Jin. The bus ride had spectacular scenery . It was nice to spend a day in Matagalpa . Think we only saw 2 other tourists. As far as the food at S.V. We had no problem with it. Pricey by Nic. standards. Don't know where you heard it was unappealing. Let me guess . Trip Advisor. The website for whiners who expect North America standards wherever they travel. Where the accomodation is more important than the destination. O.K. enough!!

Just make sure you dress appropriately as it is cold and the rooms are VERY damp. No heat or way to dry off. It's OK if the sun comes out, but if it doesn't, it can get to you. It was cloudy while we were there and most of the people left after one or two nites as they couldn't take the damp anymore.

Thanks all.

Perhaps it will be my origianal plan of a couple nights in Selva Negra for some hiking of the trails there. It would also be cheaper than taking the tour, which by the way was a private tour rather than a group tour.

#4 Your Trip Advisor comment made me chuckle. While I do look there, it seems many peoplea re looking for an American resort type of experience no matter where they are.

#5 Do you think people who are traveling in a tropical climate just didn't have the appropriate clothing for the dampness? Or, is it that really truly seep into your bones type of cold and dampness?

I had jeans, a sweat shirt and a nylon jacket. It was that seep to the bones kind of damp. The problem is the rooms are damp and the restaurant is open to the elements on the one side so there is no where to go to get out of the damp. After 36 hours or so, your ready to move on. If the sun comes out, you'll be ok. We had a car so we ended up sleeping in the SUV with the heat on the second nite so we could just get warm.

dollyd-

Can I ask you about driving in this area. Was it fairly ok, or in retrospect, did you wish you hadn't driven? We've thought about renting a car but keep hearing that the driving conditions are bad. We've rented and driven some pretty strange places before where people have said not to drive and did fine. That's why I wonder. Where all in Nicaragua did you drive? We are also contemplating visiting Finca Esperanza Verde in this area. Thanks for taking the time to reply to all my questions.

If you have driven in other developing countries, limit your driving to daytime only, avoid driving in Managua itself as much as possible, speak/read at least basic Spanish and have some tolerance for risk taking, renting a car at the Managua airport and heading straight to the northern highlands is not that big of a deal. I have personally never been stopped by authorities for a bribe, but that does seem to be happening more, although I think more from Managua and to the south. The rainy season is coming to its end, so if you are a skilled enough driver and the heavy rains of a month ago have not washed out the roadbeds, you can venture onto some unpaved roadways, but you do not advertise that desire to the auto rental company. Some roadbeds in the North, particularly the short cut between San Isidro and Leon are infamous for being more pothole than road. Unless you rent a small stickshift by the week, rental cars are expensive. Folks argue passionately on the subject of car rental in Nicaragua.