Learn Spanish. Live the Culture

This horse carriage tour around the old downtown in Granada city, known as the Great Sultan will take you back in time; you will easily have the feeling of traveling to the past by using this old way of transportation. The tour includes riding through old historic and famous city streets where you will appreciate the majestic colonial architecture of old houses and buildings. The tour includes the Central Plaza, the Central Park, the Old Railroad Station, the Old San Francisco Convent, the Xalteva Walls and Park, and La Pólvora old fortress.

Right at the beginning of Calle Atravesada, one of the historic Streets in Granada and right across from the Parque de los Poetas, remains alive a historic beautiful old building recently restored. This is the old railroad station whose construction started in 1882 and was finished in 1886, that is the year when the first train arrives at this train station in old Granada. When the U.S. Marines occupied Nicaragua, it was remodeled by them in 1912. The building architecture has a neoclassical style, with a strong English and French influence. The old train station was restored with the cooperation of the International Cooperation Agency from Spain and at the present this building hosts a technical vocational school but there is still some old train equipment and the old Presidential train carriage in permanent exhibition.

Known mostly as Parque Sandino, this park in Granada at present time it is a nice place where children are brought by their parents to play at sunset. It is located across from the Vieja Estación del Ferrocarril de Nicaragua. The park was built in 1939 and it has been remodeled many times through all these years. It was restored and renewed in the year 2005 and renamed as Parque de los Poetas in memorial of great Nicaraguan poets. The first International Poetry Festival of Granada took place in 2005 and the local city hall authorized this change. Every year for each poetry festival, a new sculpture of a poet is placed in the park. The park was restored last again in 2013.

Interesting excursion to the summit of Mombacho Volcano, a rain forest reserve. The excursion is done by truck from the station down to the biological station on the summit. Once up there a tour around the crater is to be done by walking. Wild animals can be seen according to weather conditions.

Travel by cables or zip lines on top of the trees and enjoy this exciting guided tour in the forest of Mombacho Volcano. Wooden plattforms are set in some of the trees and persons literally fly from one tree to another using the zip lines. This is an exciting activity for adventurous people looking for intensive extreme actions. The Canopy Tour is open most of the weekdays.

La Merced church was originally built in 1539. It was sacked and burned by pirate Henry Morgan in 1670. It suffered massive destruction in the civil war of 1854 and was demolished by fire in the National War. The church was restored in 1862. It is located a few blocks from the Central Park in downtown Granada. Panoramic views of the city, Lake Nicaragua with the islets, the Zapatera Island and the Mombacho Volcano are fantastic from the bell tower of the church. The Iglesia La Merced is a lovely example of Colonial and Baroque styled architecture in Granada

The Cathedral of Granada, located on the east side of the Central Park, is one of the most prominent buildings of the city. It was originally built in 1583 but throughout centuries it has been destroyed countless times. The building was completely destroyed by filibuster William Walker in 1856. The most recent version was built in 1915. The church has neoclassical style. The central park and downtown around are part are part of the nice view from the bell tower.

This is an interesting visit to the Mansion del Chocolate located in Granada downtown. It is a place for chocolate lovers. The chocolate museum offers a short tour in the location to show the cocoa trees, the process of making some chocolate, and a brief history of chocolate, and you can even taste some! And buy dark fresh pure chocolate!

This is an interesting visit to a butterfly farm near Granada. The farm is located at about 20 minutes from downtown. It is surrounded by nature and it is located in a peaceful rural area. In the farm there are many different butterfly species. There are big and beautiful, blue Morphos, as well as bright orange, yellow, and white butterflies. There are butterflies of all sizes and colors, you can easily observe many of them from a short distance