Travel
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Panama or Nicaragua
We're starting to kick around ideas for our 10-year anniversary trip in the winter/early spring of 2014. I love active adventure excursions- hiking, rafting/kayaking, biking, etc. H likes music. We usually plan our trips so that we spend about half our time doing active recreation and half exploring the arts/history/culture of the area. We'll probably spend 10-13 days. I've been reading TA forums trying to get an idea of how others spend their time in each of these locations so I'd love to hear about experiences or advice related to Panama or Nicaragua. TIA!
Re: Panama or Nicaragua
I've been to both. In Nicaragua, we went to Granada and Big Corn Island. I absolutely LOVED Granada. Loved it! In Granada, we wandered around town, did a zip line tour, climbed to the top of a church bell tower, did a tour of the Masaya volcano, artisan market and a pottery studio. Zip line was fun, volcano was cool, artisan market was touristy and so-so, pottery studio was pretty awesome. We got some beautiful pieces for cheap and they packed them up really well. We also spent a lot of time sitting outside cafes and people watching. On Big Corn Island, we did a whole lot of relaxing and walking on the beach collecting sea glass. Pics are here. Trip report is here.
In Panama, we did Panama City, Bocas del Toro and Boquete. We saw the Panama Canal. In Bocas we did a snorkel tour, spent an afternoon on an uninhabited island and drank 50 cent happy hour beers. In Boquete we didn't do much. I ended up coming down with a nasty cold so we just took scenic drives and lots of naps. We could have done a zip line or white water rafting or hot springs but I wasn't up for it. Pics are here. Trip report is here.
If I had 10-13 days, I'd do Nicaragua. I'd spend more time in Granada and go up to Esteli and see the coffee farms. If you want some beach time, you can do San Juan del Sur if you don't want to deal with flying to the Corn Islands.
An American Girl's Travels
I, too, would pick Nicaragua. My husband and I went there for a week with our then 8 year-old son in November 2011. We spent 3 days in Granada and the rest on the west coast, and had a fantastic time. It was beautiful and relaxing, and we loved it. The beaches were awesome, although could get pretty rough. My favorite thing we did was spend the day at Laguna de Apoyo; it was paradise. Nicaragua offers everything Costa Rica has, at a much cheaper price. Also, it's the second poorest nation in the Americas (after Haiti), so if you spend your money wisely there, it can really help the people pretty directly.
I've also been to Panama, but only on a layover (Panama City). To be honest, I'm biased against it because I became very sick after drinking the water at a roadside eatery there (rookie mistake, it was my first trip to Latin America) and it ruined at least 5 days of my following trip to Chile. (After that, I've flown through there another few times, but haven't had the opportunity to leave the airport, so those trips don't count.) That being said, I never left the city, but the countryside looked beautiful, and I've heard wonderful things about it. I keep toying with the idea of doing a real trip there one day, and maybe I will, but I'm more of a mountains and cooler-weather person, so it will likely only be if the rest of my family is looking for more of a relaxation/beach trip. I realize this is probably the least-helpful review of Panama out there, but I have been to both, and loved Nicaragua, so that that for what you will.
ETA: We loved the Masaya volcano in Nicaragua, even thought we were there during the daytime (because they said a recent eruption had left debree covering the opening, so you couldn't see any flowing, hot lava even if we did the night-time tour). However, we hated the artisan market. It was one big racket, from the guys "watching and washing" our car, who demanded US$20 for the service and then tried to get more than another US$20 in tips when we returned less than 2 hours later, to the "tour guide" who insisted on following us through the market, even though we repeatedly declined his services, and it was clear was demanding a cut from the merchants we visited (it was all very mafia-/gang-like). You can get the same products, sometimes with much better quality, if you just go to some of the more local stores without feeding into this tourist trap that clearly strips its own people of their hard-earned profits.
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