With its culturally rich colonial cities and a wide variety of scenery, from spectacular volcanoes, to beautiful beaches Nicaragua has a great deal to offer tourists. The diverse country can be explored independently, on an inclusive tours, or through a combination of solo traveling and taking advantage of well chosen short excursions.

The main advantages of taking a tour is the ease and security with which you can enjoy some of what this country has to offer. Itineraries organized by local experts allow you to experience a great deal in a relatively short space of time, while eliminating the hassle of doing too much organizing yourself. This is even more useful if you don’t speak much Spanish. In some cases, particularly on the Caribbean side of the country, organized tours can provide access to places that would be almost impossible to get to independently.

These comforts and advantages come at a price -- an organized tour will undoubtedly cost more that arranging all the individual elements of your trip independently. Booking any tour from outside the country will always be more expensive that arranging things in Nicaragua through one of the many tour agencies that operate in all the major cities. As a general rule, the closer you are to the place you want to see, or the activity you what to take part in, the cheaper the trip will be.

Nicaragua has a great variety of tours on offer that attempt to cover all aspects of this very varied country. It is worth spending some time and figuring out which tour best suits your individual requirements. Tours range in length from one-day excursions to places of interest, to several week organized itineraries that include all accommodation, food, drinks and transport.

Before paying for any tour try to find out the exact details of the trip. Ascertain exactly what you are paying for. Does the tour include food? Refreshments? All your transport? An English speaking guide? Entrance fees to any museums, or national parks, you may be visiting? Also find out how many people will be joining you on your tour. In general, the larger the party the cheaper the tour will be. However, a big group may decrease the quality of your trip.