Exploring Nicaragua With A Dog
Dog-friendly Destinations & Getting Around
So you’ve decided you want to take a vacation with your dog and you are thinking that Nicaragua might be the place. Make sure to also read my article about what paperwork you will need and the entry requirements for your dog. I’ll outline here how to get to get around the country with a dog as well as which corners are the perfect paradisical escape for you and your dog. From volcano boarding to wide open beaches, there are no shortage of adventures to experience with your dog in this beautiful country.
Surfing on a remote beach in Nicaragua
Moving Around the Country With A Dog : Renting A Car Vs. Hiring Drivers
If you are flying into the country like I did, there are a few options for airports. You can fly into Managua and then hire a private driver to take you to San Juan Del Sur. This will cost between $60-$80 USD depending on the driver. The buses will not allow you to bring a large dog on board (only very small ones that fit in carriers at your feet and must stay in carriers at all times). Hiring private drivers to get around gets expensive and you have to pay more for a larger car to fit the crate. If you can unscrew your crate and fit it in the trunk of a regular car, then that would be ideal. That way it will be easy to bring your crate around while your dog rides up front with you. If you are wanting to see a lot of the country in a shorter amount of time, then you can rent a 4x4 vehicle for about $1000 per month. We did 3 months in Nicaragua with our dog and we didn’t rent a car because we were spending about one month in each place so it didn’t make sense as it would have costed too much to rent a car for 3 months. Instead, we hired a driver for the longer travel days (since they were only happening once per month) and then we rented scooters and hitch-hiked to explore the areas we were staying in. If you are trying to see the whole country in one month, it would make a lot more sense to rent a car so that it’s easy to get around and go off the beaten path with your dog.
Here’s what our transportation costs for the longer drives in a private car with a driver were over the span of 3 months: Managua to San Jorge in Rivas (ferry terminal to get to Ometepe) : $85 USD
Rivas (ferry terminal) to San Juan del Sur: $30 USD
San Juan del Sur to Managua : $70 USD
Managua to Leon: $70 USD
**Make sure to shop around with different transport companies to get the best price. Most of them use whatsapp. Prices are always quoted in USD but you can pay in either the local currency or in USD.
Where & Where Not to go in Nicaragua with A Dog
While I had an amazing time seeing this beautiful country with my 4-legged best friend, it wasn’t all compost and butterflies. I am writing this so that readers can get an idea not only of the best places to visit with your dog, but also places to that might be a bit stressful to visit with a dog. There was no guide like this that I came across when choosing where to go, so I really hope that this will help people prepare and be ready so that they can have the best time abroad with their dog! Firstly, I wrote a whole article on why San Juan Del Sur is the most dog-friendly destination in Nicaragua and perhaps even the Americas, but that’s not to say the whole country is suitable for exploring with your dog. If you are planning on staying in the country for a long time (i.e. 6 months) then you may decide after this that there are areas that you want to explore without your dog and the best thing may be to leave them with a trusted person who does over night dog care. As a generality, if you are going to a rural, less built- up area, be sure that your accommodation has a lot of outdoor space for your dog to get its exercise because it is in these areas that it’s not so fun to be walking down the road with your dog past other properties/farms that have territorial guard dogs.
Surfing Turtle Lodge - Los Brasiles
This was one my favourite places to visit with my dog! If you are looking to walk along a deserted stretch of coastline for hours and not see a single other person, then this is the beach for you. Every evening we saw the most spectacular sunsets. The accommodation is dog-friendly, budget-friendly and they have a few other dogs on site. I kept Ducky on leash for about 2 hours after we arrived so they could get used to her. After that, she was free for the remainder of the time we were there to play and run and watch me surf!
Getting to Surfing Turtle Lodge
Located in the north of Nicaragua along a stretch of pristine, untouched coastline and cut off from the mainland by the lagoon, sits Los Brasiles. Getting here involves taking a boat from the small village of Poneloya and then a horse carriage as there are no cars on Los Brasiles.
From the city of Leon, you can take a taxi to Poneloya for about 400 cordobas ($15). It’s a half hour drive. Tel the driver you want to be dropped off at Chepe’s bar. This is where you can catch a boat across the lagoon to Los Brasiles. This boat ride costs about $1. Then you can walk along the beach to reach surfing turtle lodge (about 15 min walking on the beach and there are no other buildings around to confuse it with). If it has been arranged/if there is someone at Chepe’s to notify the lodge of your arrival, then after you get out of the boat there will be a horse-drawn wooden carriage to pick you and your things up. The horse will take you down a path through the jungle to get to the lodge. Ducky is a big dog and she couldn’t fit on the cart with us and our things so she got to run behind and she was very excited about that!
Surfing turtle lodge has everything you need to relax, unwind, disconnect and take it the breath-taking scenery. The waves are perfect for surfing. There is a bar and a restaurant to order all your meals from. There is also a lot of choice for room types. The second story dorm has an incredible view of the ocean. There are private rooms with washrooms and private rooms without for a bit less money. There are also huts that sleep two and beach cabins with private washrooms that sleep four.
Volcano Boarding near Leon
Volcano boarding is a must-do adventure when visiting Nicaragua. Hiking up an active volcano for incredible views and then sliding down it? Yes! Can you bring your dog? Yes! From Leon, you can do it as a day tour and it costs about $30. There’s a few different companies organizing these tours and you can most likely sign up through your hotel.
My dog Ducky and I preparing to slide (and run) down the volcano.
What To Consider Before Going To Ometepe or The Corn Islands With A Dog
Two places that I visited with my dog that were challenging were Ometepe Island and the Corn Islands. But you definitely need to experience both of these places and I just want you to be aware so that you can plan where you stay accordingly. If you do need to bring your dog to these spots, make sure that you are staying on a large property where your dog can roam free because you will not want to take them on leashed walks off-site of wherever you are staying. Both of these areas have many, extremely territorial dogs that are not actually strays. People always ask me about the strays and they think that the strays are the problem. No. The strays everywhere I have been in Mexico and Nicaragua are the least of my problems! They are usually very timid and will give me and my dog lots of space when I am out walking with her. The problem is almost always the dogs that belong to people - they are the ones who are territorial and aggressive towards unfamiliar, new dogs that they have not met before. They are protective and they will smell your dog as you walk down the road before you even see them. Then they will bark and come running out off of their property and onto the road. In doing so they will alert all the neighbours’ dogs and before you know it you will suddenly have seven dogs all from different households running toward you barking, growling and flaring their teeth. You will have to walk around with huge sticks and rocks (don’t throw them) because if you don’t your dog will be attacked and because you are holding your dog by a leash, it will feel as though they want to attack you as well (even though they do not). Now if you walk down that same street, on the same day, WITHOUT your dog, the exact same dogs will completely ignore you and may even walk calmly up to you for pets on the head. And you’ll think ‘wait a minute, earlier when I had my dog you wanted to eat me!’ When you are in more built-up areas, such as San Juan del Sur, people have their dogs behind fences, so you don’t have to worry about this drama. On Ometepe, there is a lot more poverty and it is much more rural so the dogs that belong to people don’t stay behind a fence and if their house is alongside the road and the dog is not properly trained (and most are not), well it’s not a good time to be the person walking by with their dog. To give you a bit of context, my dog is a spayed female who never barks or growls at other dogs. So it’s not like these dogs are smelling a rival alpha or anything like that. When they are being aggressive, she doesn’t make eye contact and walks calmly on as if nothing is happening and it’s up to me to defend us!! I definitely did not foresee this problem and it made a few situations very stressful. If it does happen to you, bend down and pick up a rock and make a hissing noise (this is what the locals showed us). I never had to actually throw a rock at a dog or hit it with a stick, but they know what the rock means so if you bend down to get one, they will stop advancing on you. They will keep barking, but they won’t come closer.
The Corn Islands were a similar experience to Ometepe in terms of the dogs. On both the Corn Islands and Ometepe, we booked accommodations with huge properties so that it didn’t really matter - our dog didn’t need to leave for a walk because she had so much room on property to run on the beach/in the jungle. Our property on Ometepe was especially perfect because we could do hikes through the jungle right from the property, which was a permaculture farm where she could run free all day long. So if you want to bring your dog to Ometepe, be sure to book something similar (i.e. not a hotel in a town, but a space where your dog can play and explore without leaving the property. I only took my dog off the farm once and as soon as I made it about 5 minutes down the main road before I had to turn around because of all the dogs chasing us! So when we wanted to go into town or off the property, we left our dog on the farm after that and then we would have no problems walking down the road if she wasn’t with us.
The Corn Islands are a little bit different. I spent most of my time on Little Corn Island, which has no motorized vehicles. So when you get off the boat, you have to walk to your accommodation which means you will most definitely be passing by dogs who belong to people, but are roaming free. These are the ones that will follow you, barking and snapping while you wave a stick to keep them away from your dog. Obviously not all dogs here are like this, just some. But enough to make it stressful. And there are some that are curious, friendly and playful - so of course those ones would come up and sniff/play with my dog. If you are planning on staying a long time or even living on the Corn Islands temporarily, then the other dogs would get used to yours or you could just make sure to stay at a property with space on the beach for your dog to play and walk. If you are just going for a week, you may find it’s less stress to just find a trusted dog-sitter on the mainland and then you can fly to the Corn Islands from Managua rather than taking the boat (which can take 2 days). But whatever you decide to do, definitely do not miss the Corn Islands because they were one of my favourite places in Central America! If you want to read more about how to get to the Corn Islands, where to stay and what to do, check out my article I wrote on the Corn Islands.