Nicaragua Beaches Gaining Popularity Among Busy Americans

Tico Travel's Rob Hodel Says Area is Close, Yet Unspoiled

NICARAGUA – Tico Travel, long known for its tours to Costa Rica, announced today it is expanding its Nicaraguan operations by offering additional tours to the Central American country. A list of new packages is on the tour company’s website, www.ticotravel.com.

In a related development, the Central American regional airline Grupo TACA recently announced it has permanently reduced its fares as much as 50 percent for destinations in Central America and Mexico. The price reduction will affect fares for flights between Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Belize and Mexico.

Tico Travel says a growing number of customers like Sean Keating, a bond trader in New York City, are choosing Nicaragua.

When Keating was trying to decide where to spend his precious vacation days this year, he wanted to go somewhere off the beaten path but not spend a day getting there.

Keating, who works in the high-pressure world of bond-trading in downtown Manhattan, wanted to get far away from the busy streets of New York. He decided due to its proximity to the US to go someplace in Latin America, but he found many of the tour companies offered packages to the same standard list of locations.

Then he heard about Nicaragua.

“I never considered Nicaragua but the more I heard about it, the more it sounded like what I was looking for. All I remember was what I heard as a kid about the revolution, but once I went, I am really glad I did,” said Keating. “It is unlike anyplace I have ever been. They have authentic colonial towns, really active volcanoes, and the beaches are like out of a movie. I even learned to surf on a beach where we did not see anyone else for three days. The Nicaraguan people are super friendly and the tourists you meet there are different too. Most have traveled to places all over the world but they all love Nicaragua.”

Keating is not alone. With virgin beaches, low prices and its close proximity to the United States, Central America as a whole has become more popular with American tourists. But until recently, Nicaragua was one of those often left off the list of countries tour operators were offering to their clients.

Keating did, however, find Tico Travel (www.ticotravel.com) and CentralAmerica.com, companies owned by brothers Steve and Rob Hodel, who offer tours and packages to Nicaragua and are expanding this part of their growing tour business.

Rob Hodel first traveled to Nicaragua in 1987 from Costa Rica despite the ongoing civil war.

“I was young and invincible then, and was invited to a party in Managua so I went from Costa Rica by bus. It was not the best idea, so I was lucky that it was not worse,” he added. Hodel gives few details of his adventure 17 years ago other than to say his guardian angel was with him. But today, he is very bullish on Nicaragua.

“After I got out in 1987 I swore I would never go back and now I own two houses in Granada,” he said.

As a specialist on Costa Rica and Central America, Rob Hodel now travels year-round throughout the region, dropping in unannounced on hotels and tour operators that are part of his Tico Travel network.

In the year 2000 Hodel was visiting Nicaragua again to check on progress of their destinations there when he made the leap from visitor and tour operator to homeowner.

“I was visiting some friends in Granada and was very impressed with the progress. I could see it had really turned a corner and I wanted in,” said Hodel. “I could not decide between two houses but since they were such a bargain, I bought them both. I made 30 trips by car from my house in Costa Rica and spent nine months restoring one home in the traditional way. It was a great experience.”

The town of Granada is a designated World Heritage Site by the United Nations. Most homes have tile roofs 30-foot high and three-foot thick walls with charming indoor courtyards. As the oldest city in the Americas, Granada is like a museum in and of itself, and has seen more than its share of marauding pirates, privateers and revolutions. Most of the homes in Granada were in poor shape just four years go, but there is a revival going, partly due to foreigners like Hodel who are helping bring them back to life.

The experience also gave Hodel a chance to become familiar with what Nicaragua has to offer and develop relationships with those working in the tourism sector.

Hodel’s expertise has also made him a valuable resource for the region. Hodel has just returned from Nicaragua after a consulting assignment with Carana Corporation, a leader in economic development throughout the world. Carana is working under contract with US AID in Nicaragua to promote the huge potential in the tourism sector.

Hodel says there are a number of unknown positives about the country that deserve notice. For example, in just the past couple of years 43 private nature reserves have been created in Nicaragua and nearly 20 percent of the country’s land is protected by law.

“For investors, the incentives could not be better, and for visitors the value is enormous, so it’s just a matter of time before it’s the next Costa Rica,” he said. “The only difference is that Nicaragua does not have to attract tourists all the way from the United States like Costa Rica did, Nicaragua just has to get them to come over the border from Costa Rica to take a peak.”

Hodel should know. He and his brother Steve were pioneers in the Costa Rica travel business when they started Tico Travel more than 10 years ago and have witnessed Costa Rica evolve from being confused with Puerto Rico to the most popular destination in the region. He also says that some of his oldest customers of Tico Travel are now mixing Nicaragua into their visits to Costa Rica.

“Its not that they don’t enjoy Costa Rica as much as they are nostalgic for the days when there was nobody else on the beaches and you rarely saw another tourist.”

According to Hodel, this probably won’t last very long. Several hoteliers with properties in Costa Rica have already set up shop in Nicaragua and more are on the drawing board. For anybody contemplating traveling to or investing in Nicaragua, Hodel has this advice.

“If you want are looking for an authentic experience right in your own backyard, then the time to visit Nicargua is now.”
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Rob Hodel’s Nicaragua Resource List

Tico Travel –for surfing, fishing and tours of Colonial Granada (www.ticotravel.com)

CentralAmerica.com- for Nicaragua hotels, tours, and car rentals

Hotels

Morgan’s Rock (www.morgansrock.com)

Pelican Eyes (www.piedrasyolas.com)

Hotel Colonial (www.centralamerica.com/nicaragua/hotels/colonial.htm)

El Gran Francia (www.centralamerica.com/nicaragua/hotels/francia.htm)

Tour Operators

Tico Travel (www.ticotravel.com)

Solentiname Tours (www.solentinametours.com)

Mombo Tours (www.mombotour.com)

Grayline Tours (www.graylinenicaragua.com

Real Estate

Sandy Perkoff of Perkoff Realty
perkoff@cablenet.com.ni

Nicalandia Realty-Larry Hustler
www.nicalandia.com