San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua Review

Overall 5.00 of 5 (by 1 user)

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mrkstvns
Austin, TX

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All Waves Lead to San Juan del Sur...

love nature, on the beach, livin' la vida loca

Pros

beautiful beaches, pristine nature, very inexpensive, very friendly

JUL

2008

Development has been slow coming to San Juan del Sur, despite the pristine beauty of its dozens of stellar beaches, lying for dozens of miles in either direction of the town itself. Surfers and the die-hard cognoscienti were the only people who seem to have figured out the secret of San Juan del Sur, though the area seems poised to take off.

It's a shame to see it change, but the town is too beautiful, too friendly, too low-key, too natural to stay secret for too much longer.

Already, prices seem to be edging up to nearby Costa Rica standards.

Okay, so maybe they're not that insane, but the days of $50,000 bargain basement beachfront lots are pretty much gone. As you cruise through town now, you see signs for $300,000 off-beach condos and you find $1 million villas close to the town.

Don't get the idea that San Juan del Sur is expensive though. It's not. In fact, a trip to San Juan del Sur just might end up being the cheapest vacation you ever had! Half the buildings in town (including shacks, sheds, and old boathouses) have signs proclaiming themselves to be "hospedajes". Beds for the night can be had for $10 without looking very far. 80 cent beers are the norm in many waterfront bars. Lunch cost me about $5. An hour of broadband internet access in one of the town's cibers is less than $1.

A cheap traveler could live very well for quite a long time in San Juan del Sur.

In town, there are also several boutique bed and breakfast inns where you could do pretty well for $50 a night. At the very top of the hotel room food chain is an eco resort called Morgans Rock: it's actually on one of the beaches north of the town itself --- very remote, and very environmentally sensitive. Luxury travelers who prefer being in town (or at least close to paved roads) should check in at the Pelican Eyes / Piedras y Olas.

Eating is excellent in San Juan del Sur. The dining room at Piedras y Olas is the ritziest place in town, and there are a couple of places in the town itself that have very nice dining rooms (and $15 lobster tails). Along the beach is a string of palapa-style open-air dining rooms. My favorite was El Timon and their seafood soup was enormous and a relative bargain at about $6. Add another buck for a chilly brewski and you start to see how it's VERY hard to spend too much money in San Juan del Sur.

Although you're seeing signs of diversification right now, it's still surfing that draws the teeming throngs of young visitors. Beaches up and down the coast are famous for their dependable waves and there are several surf shops that make a business of keeping up with the latest surf reports and getting their clients out to the best waves before everybody else finds out about them. Some surf shops have enormous 8-wheel drive trucks that can navigate the rough, muddy backroads, while others load up a panga launch and motor across the bay.

San Juan del Sur has some of the best surfing beaches in Central America. These beaches include Playa Marsella, Bahia Majagual, Bahia Ocotal, Playa el Coco, Playa la Flor, and Playa el Ostional.

Aside from the surfing, there's a new zip-line canopy tour that just opened a few months ago just a few hundred meters off the dirt road headed towards Playa Marsella. There's also a dive shop right on the waterfront and there's a stable just outside town where you can arrange rides on the beach or on remote jungle trails. There's just one car rental shop in town (Alamo), but a couple places that will rent you dirt bikes or ATVs (a much more practical way to navigate some of San Juan del Sur's roadways, if you ask me.

The town itself is a joy. Very friendly and impossibly mellow. It's a great place to visit, and I could be very happy never leaving this little slice of Pacific coast heaven.

Last edited on Jul 24, 2008