After our most recent Costa Rica to Nicaragua border crossing in February 2022, we’ve fully updated this post to make things as streamlined and stress-free as you travel from Liberia or San José to San Juan del Sur or elsewhere in Nicaragua!

The vast majority of travellers going from Costa Rica to Nicaragua (and vice versa) will travel via the Peñas Blancas border crossing.

Across two trips to Central America, we’ve done the crossing about eight times: sometimes it was planned, sometimes it was to refresh our visa, sometimes it was to return to a cheaper country, and sometimes it was simply because travel plans changed.

On the most recent crossing, it was to go from Liberia to San Juan del Sur and its surrounding beaches for days of sun, sand, and surf, but you may be heading to the magical Isla de Ometepe or colonial Granada first!

This is a border crossing you can easily do independently and in a single day, but it requires some paperwork, is rife with a few little scams on top of official fees, and commonly sees theft attempts on the onward journey to San Juan del Sur, so we’re writing this no nonsense step-by-step guide to get you sorted in advance.

We depend on travellers like you to let us know in the comments when fees, entry requirements or bus prices change. If you notice a shift, please let us know down below or via email so we can keep the post as relevant and useful for other travellers!

If you’re reading this but actually travelling in the opposite direction, you should read this article instead!

Note | At time of writing, Nicaragua requires evidence of covid vaccination or a negative test result.

For vaccinated travellers, you must show evidence of two doses or more at the border (one if Sputnik Light or Janssen/J&J).

Unvaccinated travellers must show evidence of a negative ’COVID RT PCR’ test taken a maximum of 72 hours prior to entry (92 hours if arriving from Asia, Oceania, and Africa). These can be taken in most traveller hubs in Costa Rica (we did ours in Monteverde), but costs vary from $80 USD-$150 USD, with some places having a limited number of clinics. Please factor in enough time to take the test and receive the results before you attempt this border crossing as it is checked and you don’t want to get stranded.

If you are travelling at the moment, or cross the border and things have changed on prices or the any requirements, please let us know in the comments below so we can keep the article fully updated for other travellers like you. This is the most reliable website we know for relatively up-to-date official announcements on covid-related entry requirements.

Step One | Travel to Liberia

Wherever you are in Costa Rica, all roads lead to Liberia (Google Maps).

This is a city in northern Costa Rica through which most people simply transit, or occasionally spend a single night. We actually had a really enjoyable afternoon and evening in Liberia, including some of the best street food we’ve ever had in Central America, so don’t feel that you have to try and rush to the border in the late afternoon (any border crossing done independently is always best done in the daylight and with time on your side).

To reach Liberia from elsewhere in Costa Rica, typical travel times by bus are:

From Monteverde | 3-4 hours. No direct bus, but you can connect at La Irma on the highway - we’ll write a routes post detailing what we did.

From San José | 4-5 hours

From Tamarindo | 2 hours

From Uvita | 6 hours, likely requires transfer in San José

From Liberia Airport, you can simply take a taxi.

Most of you will arrive at the Terminal de Buses Municipal de Liberia (Google Maps), which is handily also where buses for the border depart. However, there are a few other bus stations in the vicinity for fancier companies like Pulimtan, so you may arrive a five-minute walk away.

There are a bunch of places in the market directly opposite the bus terminal where you grab breakfast or lunch, and several basic to good accommodation options only a 3-5 minute walk away from the bus station as well - Hospedaje Dodero and Hostel Pura Vida are the best options, but we had to stay in nearby Hospedaje JJJ (acceptable for one night but not recommend) as the others were both full when we turned up on the day.

Step Two | Prepare For The Border

There’s some essential admin to take care of before travelling from Costa Rica to Nicaragua, and we recommend having it sorted or prepared before you get on the next bus.

· Check your nationality’s entry criteria and / or requirements for Nicaragua.

· Pay the Costa Rica exit fee | This is an official charge of $8 USD per person, payable to the Banco de Costa Rica (BCR) state bank. We explain below how you can do this at the border, but it costs 20% extra when the machines aren’t working there (which they often aren’t). You can pay in person at a bank branch, but the easiest way is online here on the bank’s website. Remember to have a screenshot or PDF download of your receipt / confirmation.

· Get official approval to enter Nicaragua | An online approval of your entry application by the Ministry of the Interior is mandatory since 2017, but isn’t always necessary or checked. Find out more in our short guide to the application here (published soon).

· Sort your money out | Spend any excess colones you won’t need for the bus journey to the border, but keep some back in order to exchange on the other side. It’s always a good idea to carry emergency US dollars with you on your travels in Central America, and it’s the best currency to pay your Nicaragua entry fees. Small bills are best, and you can also exchange these for Nicaraguan cordoba on the other side for your onward journey.

· Know the exchange rate | This is something we do for every border crossing to reduce confusion over prices and make sure we get a decent rate on any money we change - take a screenshot or make a note before you travel. Check the notes and amount you’re given by any money exchange guy before handing over your own, and don’t trust their calculator all the time.

· Accommodation reservation | Not mandatory but you’re often asked where you’re staying at the Nicaragua border crossing, so it’s sensible to know a place and hostel, even if you haven’t reserved.

· Covid-19 paperwork | As mentioned above, you need to display evidence of your covid vaccinations or a negative’COVID PCR RT’ test if unvaccinated, taken a maximum of 72 hours prior to entry. It’s best to have your paperwork printed out to display at two checkpoints (save it offline on your phone too, but a print out is what they want at the desk).

· Yellow Fever | Nicaragua requires International Certificates of Vaccination for yellow fever if, less than 11 days prior to your planned entry into Nicaragua, you’ve visited countries designated by the World Health Organisation as places with the potential for active transmission of yellow fever - see the list here.

Step Three | Bus from Liberia to Peñas Blancas

There are very frequent daily departures with Transportes Liberians del Norte S.A, and the timetable we saw in 2022 listed departures beginning at 5am, then leaving every 45 minutes thereafter (e.g. 5.45, 6.30, 7.15, 8am etc etc).

There’ll be a man shouting ‘frontera, frontera, frontera’, so just stick your bags underneath, and pay you fare on the bus. There are money exchange guys at this bus station, and this may feel like a better, easier environment to change your Costa Rican colones or some US dollars into Nicaraguan Cordobas than at the border.

Travel time is about 90 minutes, tickets are ₡3,300 (if prices increase, please let us know in the comments).

Step Four | Exit Costa Rica

You’ll be dropped off just outside the large immigration office. If you’ve already paid your Costa Rica exit fee, then go straight in to get your exit stamp.

If you haven’t paid it yet, you have three options:

Go on your phone to pay it online.
Inside the office, there are BCR machines where you can pay the fee. These were not working in 2022 however, and can’t be relied upon.
Walk to two small houses on the left hand side (away from the office), with big signs advising that this is where you pay your exit fee. It’s cash only and costs $10 ($8 exit fee + $2 service), with the person simply taking your passport and entering it on the above website.

We were too focussed on our negative PCR admin that we forgot to pay the fee in advance, and the machines we’ve used before were out of operation. The border official helpfully directed us to those houses in order to pay and, when we returned to the immigration office, it was very frustrating to see at least three signs with a QR code saying we could pay the bank online whilst waiting; the fact that the official chose not to point those out made us think there’s potentially another reason for lots of travellers being directed to that hut (we weren’t the only ones, and everyone we spoke to later about the border crossing did the same). Paying $2 extra may seem harmless and something to just accept, but extrapolate that over hundreds of travellers each day for 52 weeks a year*, and it begins to feel like a grift industry.

So, if you’re reading this, remember you can pay in advance online here.

After you’ve got your Costa Rica exit stamp and paperwork, walk out of the office, turn left, and continue on foot toward Nicaragua. This five minute walk along the border’s no man’s land is a bit unclear, and there may be one or two more checks by official along the way, but absolutely no money needs to change hands.

You’ll eventually see a large blue and white building on the right hand side, and that’s what you should cross over to in order to officially enter Nicaragua.

*based on 100 travellers per day, that’s $72,800 USD.

Step Five | Enter Nicaragua

At present, with the 72-hour test required, your first stop is a window on the right hand side just outside the entrance where a person checks your Covid results and provides a signed piece of paper - don’t lose this.

The queue outside the office will potentially see someone asking you for $1 - in whatever currency, at a rate of her choosing - for the ‘municipal entry fee’ and/or an entry fee for the building. No Central American queuing or entering is asked for it.

Lots of travellers question the fee but end up handing over whatever combination of USD, cordobas, or cólones they have in their pockets (according to the woman, 2,000 colones was our fee in place of $1, which was actually around 600 colones). I said we’d pay it at the official desk, and she moved on, coming up to us later then remembering we had already said no, and didn’t ask for the fee again. Neither was it asked for by the border official.

This is another small-scale Nicaragua border crossing grift which seems like small fry, but amounts to a lot when you think of the potential volumes in normal times of travel. It’s been going for a long time, and we fell for it once years ago. If you can’t be bothered with the hassle or don’t speak Spanish, then feel free to pay it if you’ve got a dollar bill. But just note that when the tickets are all counted up at the end of the day, the cut is getting split and the action continues (and it isn’t charity).

Update | A reader recently let us know that this scam now has more official-looking accoutrements, but is still not asked for at the border desk. The person can also become aggressively insistent).

The modern Nicaraguan border office has about 13 or so border official kiosks, but they are not always manned and queues are common. Note that you don’t have to wait in a single queue outside the main entrance - simply go in and join the shortest queue (some people don’t realise this and stand outside for longer than necessary).

At the kiosk, you have to pay $10 USD for a tourist card (tarjeta de turismo) and $3 USD for the ‘Immigration Office’ - these fees are mandatory, cash only, and helpfully listed on torn pieces of A4 on each booth. This is the reason why it’s best to have US dollars with you and, ideally, three dollar bills for the exact total. The desire to give out change was dependent upon which border official you were with, and a lot of people ahead of us paid over the odds because a couple of the officials said they had no change (they absolutely did). One girl was treated really poorly on this as she wanted the change from a $20 bill, with the guy refusing and saying he would keep her passport unless she moved on or found the exact money.

You can pay in US dollars or Nicaraguan córdoba, and any change you do receive in local currency from your USD payment will be at a rate chosen by the border official. If you have none of the above, you may be able to pay in Costa Rican currency, but we’re not 100% certain.

Nicarauga is a member of the CA-4 group of countries - alongside Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala - and the visa/stamp you receive gives you 90 days which applies to all four of those countries in total. Find out more in our short explainer guide to the CA-4 visa (published soon).

After the border guards, you’re required put your stuff through the x-ray machine - it’s worth noting for any photo/videographers that drones are ILLEGAL in Nicaragua and will be confiscated (that’s why we didn’t take ours on this trip).

Step Six | Travel Onward To Rivas, San Juan del Sur, or Ometepe

Every land border understandably attracts a small number of people trying to take advantage of your confusion on connections or currency exchange rates; it’s not a place where you should trust what everyone says. We’ve done lots of border crossings in Central America, and our scepticism in this post is to help you get across and on to your next stop in the safest, most direct way possible, rather than to make you think we’re jaded or overly cynical.

As you walk the 5 minutes straight ahead to bus station (Google Maps), a few people may follow you at uncomfortably close quarters or insist you take their taxi - it can be intimidating. When you cross, this may not be an issue, but it’s just a heads-up for solo travellers that it may not be a bad idea to walk this stretch with others.

There’s a couple of places to grab a drink or snack, as well as several money exchange guys. If you haven’t done so already, now’s the time to change enough money for the bus journeys and any ancillary costs along the way ($10-20 USD is enough), until you get to an ATM in your final destination. Remember, they won’t give you the pure exchange rate you see on XE or other sites, and they need to make money on every transaction to make a living, so anything within 5-10% of the interbank exchange rate is a good deal.

When you’re in the bus station, the hassle can continue for a little bit but you’ll be welcomed by the big old school buses which are the main mode of public transport here (and bloody brilliant!). Jump on the next one for Rivas, a transport hub town for this part of Nicaragua.

Sit on the right hand side and you’ll get a tremendous view of the two volcanoes which form Isla de Ometepe, but please WATCH YOUR STUFF! There are guys who target this bus route and sit behind you from the border to steal stuff, so keep your daypack on your knees or beside you at all TIMES!

If San Juan del Sur or Playa Maderas is your final destination, then ask for ‘La Virgen’, an intersection which is about 20-25 minutes journey away. You’ll be dropped off on the right hand side of the road, and need to cross over to this point (Google Maps) where the buses pass by on their way from Rivas to San Juan - a bus kindly waited a couple of minutes for us to get off and get over, but note that you may face a wait of 30-45 minutes by the side of the road. There may also be taxi drivers there who insist that there’s no bus.

For Granada, continue on to Rivas and connect there; we’ve shared specific details on the onward journey with the ferry to Ometepe here.

(click on the links above for our travel guides to these destinations).

Multiple taxi drivers will offer you a ride from the border, and this is definitely not a bad idea if there are 2-4 solo travellers who want to share a ride and the cost. $25 would be a fair price to San Juan del Sur (30 minutes), about $15 for Rivas.

The cost of the bus from the border to Rivas is really down to whichever day of the week it is and how much the guys wants to try and get out of you (a common thing in the south of Nicaragua, but not in the lesser visited north - we explain this more in 23 Things To Know Before You Visit Nicaragua). It should really cost no more than 20-30 colones, but we had to pay C$50 colones each for the 20-minute ride and then C$20 colones each for 20-minute ride from La Virgen to SJDS.

So, that’s how to do the Costa Rica to Nicaragua border crossing! We hope you find it useful, and make sure to check out our curated travel guides below for all the information + inspiration you need to travel more, travel better in Nicaragua!