Penas Blancas: Costa Rica to Nicaragua Border Crossing - All the details you need to know
Early morning border crossing adventure from Costa Rica to Nicaragua! After tons of research, I'm sharing our complete experience and crucial tips that will save you time, money, and stress. From catching the right buses to handling immigration surprises, this is your start-to-finish border crossing guide.
Let's start with the most important tip: GET TO THE BORDER EARLY! We arrived at Peñas Blancas at 8am thinking we were too early - we weren't. Even though our first bus from Liberia never showed up, being early saved our day. There were other people that arrived later and missed their buses because they were full.
Here's where it got interesting - we had a unique situation at immigration with our Romanian passports. The officer wasn't sure what to do (guess they don't see many Romanians!) and it seemed like they wanted to issue visas we didn't need (I later noticed that on Mike's passport). Took an hour to sort out, but staying calm and patient made all the difference.
The chicken bus experience was absolutely worth it! First bus to Rivas, then onto Granada - showing you exactly which buses to take, where to find them, and what to expect. Plus, those views along the way? Incredible!
Found the perfect spot in Granada - Hostal Azur. I was super happy with this place, where we also booked all our tours.
Detailed breakdown of our journey:
Best time to leave Liberia
Which bus station to use
Exact costs for every step
Immigration process explained
How to find the right chicken buses
Time expectations (and why they matter)
Where to exchange money
00:00 Intro
00:22 Arriving at our hostel in Granada
00:33 How crossing the border was for me
00:50 From which city in Costa Rica we started
01:00 What's one of the biggest problems of this border CR-Nicaragua?
01:16 How to avoid those problems
01:30 Liberia and why I don't recommend staying for more than 1 night
01:42 Bus from Liberia to Penas Blancas info
01:54 Our bus never came! + important tips about this
02:08 Which bus we took
02:27 Price for Liberia-Penas Blancas bus
02:48 Very important tip about the buses!
03:19 The Costa Rican border
04:14 No man's land
04:19 Officers on the street that will stop you and check your documents
04:30 Official Nicaragua border
04:44 They kept us waiting for a long time - why?
05:06 Very important info about the luggage and what you should not bring
05:30 Price to enter Nicaragua
05:40 How to find the chicken buses or taxi
05:50 How we got great deals for a SIM card and money exchange
06:05 What surprised us about the people at the border
06:23 How we took the chicken bus
06:38 How to make sure you get the correct chicken bus
06:59 The chicken bus you should not use and which one to enter instead
07:18 Chicken bus price & did they give us the correct price?
07:30 Did we feel safe? Luggage info & more details
07:50 How to get to Granada
08:22 Price to get to Granada
08:42 Do I recommend chicken buses?
09:09 Thank you
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