19-05-2025
Could Nicaragua Be the Next 'It' Destination?
'The dried fruit alone…' My friend Kim's eyes fluttered closed as she recalled her recent visit to a tiny resort on a private island in Nicaragua. 'It tastes like candy.'
Kim, a fashion editor whose spot-on taste dictates a good half of my clothing purchases, library holds, and video streams, now had the fix to my family's post-White Lotus spring break problem. We wanted to go to Costa Rica, following in the footsteps of seemingly everybody else we know—but given the Costa craze, the shortest flight we could find involved a nine-hour layover in Winnipeg.
A trip to Nicaragua, Costa Rica's northern neighbor, was a little more realistic. Once a magnet for intrepid backpackers and surfers who were willing to overlook the nation's political turbulence and the State Department's alarming travel advisory, Nicaragua is shaping up to be the next 'it' destination for those seeking sun and sand.
The Nicaraguan travel scene started to take flight right before the pandemic. After a few shaky years, it has caught up to where it left off—and then some. The menus are getting more intricate and delicious. The luxury experiences are getting more luxurious. Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander recently retreated to what Salman Rushdie called a 'beautiful, volcanic country' in his account of a three-week visit. So did Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Margot Robbie went there for a yoga and surfing retreat (and encountered a human foot on the beach, but that's another story).
Like electrolytes or Nutrafol, Nicaragua is one of those words that you can't stop hearing about once it lodges in your mind. 'It was a slow recovery, but we're back in the game,' Howard Caulson, the general manager of Jicaro Island Lodge, a thoroughly idyllic getaway, told me. 'Having a time out gave us a chance to up the ante. Beforehand, what we were providing was really good. Now it's even better.'
