popoyo, ni
I don't know where to even begin here. Popoyo is my favorite place in Nicaragua, it's one of my few favorite places in all of Central America, and one of my favorite places in the entire world, — if not my favorite place in the entire world. We all know those places that you go and people say, "Man, you should have seen this place ten years ago!" Well, Popoyo right now, is that place ten years ago. I spent a few months here, and I will go back to spend more time. It's a place that has everything that a surfer and traveler could want. You have excellent waves, beautiful beaches, hostels all over the place full of surfers and other travelers, pretty good food, a nightlife scene, and you're living a lifestyle that's extremely free. It's back in time, in the best way. The waves are uncrowded, the locals are super-nice and welcoming, the people who are traveling there and living there from other countries are the good kind, — for now. It's just perfect right now. I will preface that if you aren't surfing, you would probably get bored here eventually. It's rural, remote, and there's really not much to do outside of surf after a few days. But it is really an unbelievable and special part of not only Nicaragua, but the world. It’s still almost entirely dirt road once you get into the Popoyo region. It's remote, — serviceless in a lot of areas. Horse draw buggies as transport, small huts are the norm for local housing. It’s hard to get around without a vehicle, but once you make it into one of the small surf towns you can easily get around on foot. It's wave-rich, there is nightlife, hostels, travelers of the highest quality. Beautiful relatively untouched beaches. Fresh fish bought straight from the beach, warm locals. I can’t speak highly enough of the place. Some of the world’s best sunsets, likely. I hear they are paving the road in. I don't know if that will ever happen because... well, it is Nicaragua after all, but we will see. The place is building in popularity and notoriety every day. It's probably just a matter of time before a Condé Nast article about it comes out. One of the few places I went on my trip where I am still considering moving to. Full time. An exhaustive overview of Popoyo is below.
Popoyo is located in Western Nicaragua. Further down in this section I will get into the details of how to get here. It is located in the southern section, and about an hour-and-a-half to 2-and-a-half hours away from Granada, depending on the route you are taking. It's all really bad dirt to get in, and there are certain routes that you will not be able to take during the rainy season given the rainfall and flooding. The high rivers make things almost impassable at times.
'Popoyo' is a name for an area. When we refer to Popoyo there are really a few places that fall under that umbrella. It's mainly 'Popoyo proper', and 'Guasacate'. I include Santana as well because it's important to note.
In the Popoyo area you will be going back and forth between Guasacate and Popoyo. But they aren’t that easy to get back and forth from. There’s a river between them, and you will get stuck on either side during high tide and can only really cross during low tide, — just a piece of advice. Below are some brief descriptions of the different areas.
HOSTELS, CAMPING, AND HOTELS (IF ANY)
'Popoyo proper' is to the south of the river. It’s a beautiful spot, with a slightly different vibe from Guasacate. It's slightly more upscale (other than Café Cerveza), and caters more to surf vacationers rather than backpackers. There is also an extremely large French Canadian presence. Often times you will hear more French than Spanish.
Popoyo itself is split in half by a river. To the north you have 'Playa Guasacate'. It’s a long and beautiful stretch of beach, with one dirt road and a row of houses and businesses on either side of the dirt road. Beach side and Jungle side. Guasacate is more budget, backpacker friendly. There are more hostels, and during high season more of a backpacker vibe.
Santana is the name of a surf spot that is one of my favorites in the area. It's also an area that has some places to stay, and a gated upscale community. You're going to hear the name 'Santana' or 'Jiquilite' when running around these parts, and I am just calling it out so you know where it is. I personally wouldn't stay there, — it's far from the action in Popoyo and Guasacate, but it is up-and-coming.
HOW TO GET HERE
Getting to Popoyo and the area itself is not an easy thing to do. Even if you have your own car it's going to be a very bumpy, very dusty, and at times of the year nearly impossible drive. After spending two months in the area, I had to rebuild the suspension of my car from overuse in general. I also, my first time on the way in got stuck behind a river, and was forced to turn around for the night and head back to San Juan del Sur to await the water level decrease. So that's where you are. You are in very, very rural Nicaragua. But the destination is worth it. Below are some ways to arrive.
- YOUR OWN VEHICLE - There are two roads in to get to Popoyo. I would personally take the longer route that goes through Rivas and Tola. The photo below is the route that I would take. You have a lot more paved road here, as compared to the route 62 road. This road is also frequently impassable in the rainy season, so you are playing with fire. Especially if it's your first time in the area, go through Rivas and Tola. Gas up, you have a bumpy road ahead of you. The road turns dirt, and things slow down significantly after the airport. The road will take about 2-and-a-half hours.
- BY BUS - Let's just get this out of the way now, if you are coming to Popoyo, there is no way to take a bus directly to your door. If you don't have your own vehicle, the ride will either include a relatively expensive taxi to your door, or a long walk from where the bus drops you off to your hostel. You're in it out here.
- If you want to travel by bus your option is to — first things first, — get yourself to Rivas. It's not the hardest thing in the world to do. From there you can pick up a bus here at the Rivas Terminal. It's going to be a chicken bus. There are two options:
1. Take the bus to Astillero and get off at the entrance to Guasacate Beach or the entrance to Popoyo Beach. From here you will have to walk to your hostel or hotel, which will be a few km's at least. Try hitchhiking — you might get lucky.
2. Take a bus to Salinas and try to find a taxi from there. There's like 5 buses per day. Taxis will be available, but not that widely available, and you probably won't have service.
- TAXI FROM RIVAS - The easiest and probably the most popular way. Just get to Rivas, then negotiate a taxi directly to your hostel. It's going to cost you about $50-60 probably.
Popoyo is downright hard to get to. Probably why it's still got the charm it does. But it's worth it in every way. I bet in the coming years it gets easier to access but for now, it's a hard slog.
There's a lot of places to stay in the area. A few hostels that are really good, and a lot of little surf camps and stuff like that.
The people who are coming here for a specific surf trip will likely be staying at a different place as compared to the backpackers. But regardless, you have a large selection of places to stay.
Below are my recommendations, they also are denoted after the name whether they are in Guasacate or in Popoyo. It makes a difference, as they really are two different towns.
The newest, and by far the nicest hostel in Guasacate. It’s on a level of its own. It's nearly brand new, right on the beach, and very well done. They have a bar, nightly dinners, and the dorms will run you about $25 with breakfast included. If comfort, fun and tranquil beauty is what you are looking for and you’re not on a shoestring budget, this is the place for you.
Good pizza, right on the water. Cheap dorms.
A strangely designed hostel that looks literally like an elephant that has melted. Probably the cheapest accommodation. Your dirt dogs and shoestring backpackers will gravitate here.
A big house that has dorm rooms. Not cheap, not expensive. Waterfront.
Small hotels are an option in Guasacate. You can find private rooms by asking around (that will have a fan) and go for ~$20 per night. A small place Guasacate is, you can walk around and find a deal. 'Casa Manglar' is a great example, and it is linked.
A really cheap option on the Popoyo side. It’s not nice by any stretch of the word, but you can get a dorm for $10. Restaurant in the place has good, local food, for not a bad price.
One of my favorite spots in the whole region. An awesome house owned by 2 great French-Canadian brothers. The hostel is the whole second floor. Private kitchen, chill area, and balcony. It’s not cheap, $35 a night, but it’s really a great stay if you can afford it. Food is also the best in the area. There’s a pool, and it’s on the beach, steps away from a pretty good wave.
A stunning spot on the top of a cliff, overlooking the entire area. It’s a hotel, — they might have dorms... I’m not sure. But it’s a good place to stay if you are a couple, and don’t have a budget really. Stunning views and sunsets, and if nothing else a great place to get drinks.
EATS
Surf camp and hotel. One of the types of spots you are going to stay at if you are looking to do a week-long trip, or a proper surf camp down here.
The only place that is actually in front of the Popoyo surf break. It's a little farm house, and they have some private rooms that you can rent. They aren't that expensive, but you are going to be pretty isolated here. Hard to get to anywhere other than where you are staying. If you just want to surf your brains out and be in front of the best wave, this is where to be. You have to just show up to book, — the hotel next to it is different than this.
You're pretty much in the middle of nowhere here. The food options are limited, but it's a growing surf town and with that you have some pretty good restaurants that cater to all of the surfers and tourists.
You have lots of local options, as well as a ton of foreign and international places that you can try.
After about a week you will have eaten everywhere in town, but the food options that you have are good. After about two months I can tell you that I was really excited when I first arrived in Granada with more options.
Restaurants
Awesome sandwich and lunch spot. Open seasonally.
Great nightly dinners and breakfast options. The food is pretty expensive though, but it is all great.
Really nice spot on the sand to eat breakfast or lunch type foods.
They have 3 nights of dinner per week. Owner of Red Pepper hotel started doing dinner a night a week during the pandemic, and it caught on. They have a curry night, ramen night and something else I forget, but it’s a great place for a meal.
They have amazing pizza here. Open a few nights a week, but it’s not to be missed.
A cool skatepark to hang out and drink in across the street from Popoyo. The food is pretty trash, but the vibes are good, and the beer is beer.
There’s two local spots at the end of the road with good and cheap food.
A small market, they have Pizza slices that are $1, and they are cheap and will fill you up when you need it.
They do really good food for brekkie and lunch. It’s expensive but good — especially the breakfast burrito. They have a weekly barbecue that attracts a crowd, and is super fun.
Pizza spot off the main road between Guasacate and Popoyo. I never went here, but I hear it's a good option. Just kind of in the middle of nowhere. — Picture here of Cesar loving it.
Simply the best local food in the area. Really, really good. And the price is right. On the main road nowhere near the beach, but certainly worth the trip.
There's good but expensive food up at Mag Rock. If you want dinner with a view, then come here.
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Good and cheap local spot on the Popoyo side.
Cafe Cerveza has some of the best and most affordable food on the Popoyo side of the river.
Good bar and restaurant on the Popoyo side. Burgers and such.
NIGHTLIFE
Popoyo isn't somewhere that is known for nightlife, — not quite yet at least. I think the nightlife scene is growing there, but for now it's still a pretty sleepy surf town.
Generally, you can get yourself into fun in the Popoyo area. People are drinking, trying to have fun, but there aren’t really that many established places. You just kinda gotta figure it out. Go with the flow, talk to some strangers, and figure it out.
A lot of the nights are just people drinking beer until they are tired, then falling asleep to be up early to surf.
Bars and Clubs
Bar right on the beach. Excellent spot. Probably the biggest nightlife spot in the whole region. DJs and stuff are a frequent occurrence.
Fun bar over in Popoyo.
There’s parties here on the weekends, and there’s usually a DJ and it's fun.
They throw good parties on the weekend.
A bar in a parking lot, essentially. Right behind Cafe Con Leche on the Popoyo side. People just sitting around drinking. The owner is a crazy British guy, — he is part of the draw to the place. But things get weird and the nights would start here sometimes. CLOSED.
Weekly party in Popoyo on an incredible little point right on the water. Probably the best party in the area. Put on in communion with Amahula. I don't know where it is on a map, so I linked their Instagram. Buy tickets weekly through Amahula.
SIGHTS
When it comes to things to do in Popoyo there aren't that many. It's pretty much to do surfing. Explore the areas different surf spots, hang out on the beach, and that's about it.
There's a few things that I will recommend below that are not surfing-related, but for the most part it's just surf, go to the beach, have a million Toñas, and then repeat it all over and over again.
There are some cool tide pools at the north end of the beach in Guasacate. You can just walk all along the beach to get to them, and swim around and have a good time. Bring some friends, bring some beers. Hang out for sunset — it's nice.
Mag Rock is perched up beautifully on this cliff. It's an amazing thing to do, and worth pointing out.
SURFING
Surfing in Popoyo. Well, it's what put this place on the map and is really why anyone is here in the first place. Sure, now there are people who come here because it's a growing tourist attraction, but in the first place foreigners came here because they wanted to surf unbelievable and uncrowded waves in middle of nowhere. So Popoyo was born.
They call Nicaragua 'the land of lefts', and this place is really no exception although you do have a few options here where you can go right. There's a bunch of waves in the area, and you can really take your pick of the litter. You have barrels, beach breaks, point breaks, A frames, a big wave spot, a world-class wave really, and then you have a bunch of stuff as well that is perfect for learning.
Popoyo has it all, in terms of surfing. The only negative is that it's just fucking difficult to navigate this place given how rural it is. The waves are far apart from one another, and typically super-difficult to access. So, for that reason a lot of the waves, and especially the better waves, are really only accessible by boat. Or by motorcycle, or by a really long ride in a bumpy-ass 4 wheel drive. That, is what I would say is the only negative to surfing in Popoyo, the general difficulty to access the best waves. But hey, that's also what keeps the crowds down.
— Amazing waves here. Don't come.
— Kind of a random thing, but someone is making these delicious frozen cookies, and they are called 'Popoyo cookies'. I think I had one per day. They are amazing. You can buy them at the market in Guasacate, and in some other places. Keep your eyes peeled.
The skatepark in Guasacate is worth mentioning as a place to go hang out. Whether during the day, or at night with some friends and beer.
