Nicaragua is Safe to Visit – My Personal Experience

holly beck, surfing, nicaragua, empty waves, safe to travel

SWA founder Holly Beck talks about returning to her home in Northern Nicaragua for the first time since protests erupted into civil unrest last spring, causing us to temporarily cancel all Nicaraguan Retreats.

Traveling to Nicaragua

I was in Costa Rica running retreats last spring when civil unrest erupted in my adopted home country of Nicaragua. I’ll be honest that even despite hearing from our friends – both local and expat – that now it is all safe and fine to visit, I was just a little bit nervous about coming, particularly since I had two young kids with me. I hadn’t been back in 8 months and had been following the social media accounts of protestors that made things on the ground seem scary. As usual what you see on the news is only a tiny piece of the story. The majority of the unrest has passed. The violence has stopped. Protests are now minimal and confined to the cities. Things look a lot like the US where the majority of the population isn’t happy with their president. Throughout even the worst of the unrest, the beaches never experienced any issues. Now everything is completely peaceful at the beach. The roads from the airport to the beach are free and clear, totally normal. It’s true, I saw it for myself!

Continue reading “Nicaragua is Safe to Visit – My Personal Experience”

Nicaragua is So Hot Right Now

Perceptions of Nicaragua are finally changing. Many of you may have been met with surprise or doubt when telling friends, parents, etc. about your desire to travel to Nicaragua. For some reason, uninformed people think it’s dangerous! Having lived here for several years now, I totally disagree. Surfers have been claiming Nicaragua as a hot spot for years, but recently the mainstream media has been catching on. Nicaragua has graced the cover of the New York Times Magazine’s 2012 Winter Travel Issue

18well-nicaragua-tmagArticle

In January 2013, again the New York Times focused on Nicaragua, listing it as #3 on the 46 Places to Go in 2013

Finally, the Today Show added Nicaragua to it’s list of the Hottest Travel Destinations for Americans to Visit in 2013.

Come see for yourself why surfers and everyone else finally agree on something. Nicaragua is awesome!