Relaxing at One of the World's Most Beautiful Beaches: Playa el Coco, Nicaragua (Day One)

I'm not even sure at this point how I even first heard of Playa el Coco, a remote beach located near the bottom of Nicaragua. I assume I had been looking up a stay at San Juan del Sur during Samana Santa (Holy Week) in March 2016 and read that this was a crazy busy place to be during it's busiest week of the year, and extended my search a little further south.

Whatever the means of me finding it, hooo boy, am I glad I did.

Joining Ben and I on our trip to Nicaragua was my cousin Carly, a perfect travel companion for the two of us, as she's pretty up for the random adventures we have planned. This trip was one of our shorter international trips, as it came at the heels of my BFF's wedding in New Jersey, so we decided a week of "vacation" (as we don't typically consider trips to New Jersey vacation) was better than none at all.

We broke up the trip into two main components, Granada and Playa el Coco, with an add-on of Playas DEL Coco, Costa Rica (not to be confused with this Playa EL Coco here in Nicaragua) to help Carly catch her solo flight back to the US from Costa Rica, instead of backtracking up to Managua, Nicaragua.

And while Granada was charming and amazing in it's own way, it was also scorching hot and muggy, making a few relaxing days at the much cooler beachside the perfect anecdote for our previous city-dwelling days.

I'll admit, I had a lot more planned for my time down in this corner of Nicaragua, including a day trip to Ometepe Island, but all my plans melted away once I found myself here. And we honestly did nothing more than relax and enjoy the incredible scenery, whiling our time away between sitting besides the pool, or taking a dip in the ocean.

And considering this was the busiest week of the year, I was struck by how not busy it was the majority of our time here. I imagine in other times of the year, the beach is downright empty, making it an even more amazing experience.

This post, and the next ones (I will be breaking it up to not overwhelm each page with the copious amounts of pictures of the same beach, just in different lighting and contexts) will be a place to show just how special Playa el Coco, and to share about the guesthouse we stayed in, La Veranera, a truly special little spot in a far flung destination.

Enjoy!

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Arriving at La Veranara

I'll go into a bit more about the journey to Playa el Coco below, but suffice it to say, upon arrival at La Veranara, and subsequently Playa el Coco in general, it was such a relief to see how worth it the journey really was. We had been dealing with very hot temperatures for the past several days in Granada, but the beach area was much cooler (mid 80's F during the day). However, the idea of immediately jumping in the pool, cooling off and getting into pure relaxing mode struck us the moment we set foot on property.

Though La Veranara is a guest house and other travelers do share it with you, we were the only ones there, and we made sure to take advantage.

The property sits right at the edge of the beach, and all one has to do is walk out the little gate to be on the soft sand. La Veranara does offer 24 hour security of the property, and it truly did feel quite safe, despite this not terribly intimidating but rather quite charming border protecting us from the outside world.

Ben and I sprung for the El Mar Oceanfront room, which opened right up to the ocean, and included a relaxing lanai. Though the lanai wasn't exactly private, it did include a sofa, a few chairs and hammock that were for our personal usage. Carly sprung for the La Ola room, but she was welcome to use our lanai at her leisure.

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The Beach

Once we cooled off enough in the pool, it was time to check out the beach. I have to admit, I'm not exactly a beach person, though I've spent just about 100% of my life living about two miles from one. Still, I'm a sucker for a beautiful beach and inviting ocean scene just like most people, and if the conditions are just right, I am glad to spend hours upon hours at one.

Playa el Coco is one of those beaches that are "just right" for me. Though it has waves, they are not terribly high. In fact, you can sit on the shoreline and have the waves gently lap up upon you without knocking you over and sending you tumbling across the beach, bathing suit in all sorts of disarray (Big Beach on Maui, I'm looking a you). My favorite beaches tend to be the kind with a big reef out yonder that breaks the waves down, leading to a gentle shore experience (Baby Beach in Lahaina on Maui, and just about every beach in French Polynesia are the ones that jump off the top of my head). Though Playa el Coco is not quite the same conditions as those, it's pretty close.

The other thing you might notice about this beach and our initial visit to it is the lack of people. As I mentioned above, this particular week was Nicaragua's busiest week of the year for travel, but because we arrived on a Wednesday, we had the place just about all to ourselves for the first day or two. You'll notice in later postings the amount of people picks up, but hardly to the point where the place felt crowded.

Looking back towards La Veranara (above).

The emptiness of the beach reminded me of classic 1980s Jersey Shore commercials for a place called Jason's Furniture. To sum up, a big group of people would be gathered somewhere, and then Jason would look down, and poof, everyone would be gone. When he looked up, he'd inevitably ask, "Hey, where'd everybody go?" followed by a voice over saying, "They've gone to Jason's Furniture" (see a few examples) - "Where everybody goes!" This type of commercial was so popular and so prolific in my early years, that every time I go somewhere empty, I can't help but think of the catch phrase. (Kudos to the folks who made them back in the day - they have long lasting impact!).

Throughout the rest of the post, I share photos of the rest of our afternoon and evening, enjoying the quiet, relaxing setting that we were lucky enough to visit. Enjoy!

Horseback riding in this area was an option, but it's not an activity the three of us enjoy. However, it was amusing to see the horses and riders galloping along the shoreline.

One of the things I enjoyed was watching the ways the water would ripple through the sand, creating interesting patterns with each outgoing wave.

Ben made sure to take advantage of the hammock off our room to relax and admire the view.

What we would learn this first evening is that the sunsets are really something spectacular. Were they the most dramatic sunsets I've ever seen? No, but they are still magnificent and peaceful in their own way. The way the sun turns the water a pale greenish blue, the way the bougainvillea's pink flowers light up, and the calmness of the surrounding area made for a truly special way to end our first day in Playa el Coco.

And though we had plans to do so much more, it was these previous scenes that convinced us that perhaps it wouldn't be so bad after all to just stay still, and admire all the beauty we had already found.

Until Day 2!

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Getting to and from Playa el Coco

To get to Playa el Coco, we had to leave Granada and, via a hired car, we arrived in San Juan del Sur where we picked up our own rental car. In hindsight, we didn't need a rental car, however, because I thought we might take a day trip to Ometepe, that guided my decision. Honestly, if you're planning on going to Playa el Coco and aren't planning on venturing far, my suggestion would be to arrange transportation all the way there and enjoy your time at the seaside.

We opted to hire a car/driver for most of the trip due to hearing that the roads in Nicaragua have a lot of police stops, but they allow certain drivers to bypass them. This was something I can confirm for myself - we did see a bunch of road stops and police talking to random drivers, but we were never stopped in any of our drives from Managua all the way down to the border of Costa Rica.

However, the drive from San Juan del Sur is about 30 minutes long on a somewhat curvy (but not scarily so) dirt road. It's well traveled enough that it didn't feel like an adventure, but we still opted for a high clearance, 4x4 vehicle anyway. There are a bunch of other beaches along the way, many of them famous for their surf breaks, and one even famous for its turtle hatchings, so you may indeed find yourself wanting a car to explore the region. However, if you're looking to just sit back and relax, perhaps it's worth considering letting someone else take the wheel.

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Day of this trip: March 23, 2016