The night bus from El Salvador to Nicaragua

Bas

6 years ago

Street markets in 2a Calle Poniente in San Salvador. In the background the cathedral and Iglesia El Rosario can be seen

Yes, there are cheaper options to go from El Salvador to Nicaragua in one day. But using public transport is not easy and definitely not fast. Take my advice: spend some extra money and take a long-distance international bus, which is still an adventure.

The two best options probably are Platinum and Tica Bus. The best idea is to visit their offices in San Salvador: Platinum is in a dodgy area very close to the city centre, Tica is in the swanky Colonia San Benito in the western part. Take your ID with you and find out when buses actually leave, because personal experience learned us the information found online wasn’t really accurate.

Night buses

We only had the option of evening / night buses, probably to avoid longer queues at the borders. ‘Borders’ is plural, yes: don’t forget Honduras is still in between El Salvador and Nicaragua. So around 3pm we boarded, jumped on the luxury bus, made a 90 minute detour for some tanking… and off we went.
The first part was visually stunning, as you see the impressive San Vicente volcano from a distance and then cross the mesmerizing Rio Lempa. But – after a small sandwich package – things got dark and boring, and you had no idea where you were…

No Man’s Land

This is when you seem to enter No Man’s Land near border town El Amatillo, after several hours of driving. You will be driven out of the bus, into a customs building. Get your Salvadoran stamps, and off you go again for a couple of minutes… Same programme, in the suffocating Honduras customs building in the sticky heat. And then the ride continued, for another two hours probably.

You would wish the experience at the Nicaraguan border was as uncomplicated. It actually was for our fellow travelers from El Salvador. But the Europeans got a special treatment. Needed to explain where they came from. Where they were going. Whether they had booking confirmation. How much cash did they have? How did they know eachother? And this all by the stereotypical macho customs official who was obviously in charge of the team.

We had to pay 12 US $ entrance fee. After we showed we only had a 20 $ bill, he went backstage. Let us wait for twenty minutes… Came back with a huge pile of one dollar bills. Counted them one by one, looking at us after each one. But we obviously didn’t give in to his flagrant attempts of corruption… and so could finally continue into Nicaragua around midnight.

Destination check

Check beforehand whether your bus will actually go to your desired destination. Ours made a quick stop at the edge of our final destination Leon. From there we could take a taxi into town. But some international buses head straight to Managua (or take a detour through Esteli). Anyway, you made it here… so enjoy Nicaragua!