Buses can be a very useful and cheap way of traveling around and visiting Nicaragua. There are many pick-up points across the towns and cities that are willing to drop you off virtually anywhere you require along the given bus routes.

Each bus tends to have their destination in the front window of the bus; however some buses just use numbers either in the front window or painted onto the side of the bus. The routes for these numbers can be located at the bus stops on boards. If unsure of the bus' route, a friendly Nicaraguan is usually more than willing to help you with your needs and so to are the bus drivers who will also help you out with where to stop off.

Buses tend to lack the normal conveniences and most buses operate with a rope to pull in order to alert the driver that you would like to stop off.

The main central point for bus journeys in Nicaragua is in Managua where you can find 5 different international bus companies offering a variety of prices and destinations. When traveling further south to Costa Rica or Panama buses can easily be caught from Granada, Rivas and Masaya.

There are 2 main types of bus in Nicaragua for public transportation, regular buses and express buses. The regular buses are usually big yellow ex-school buses. They tend to be very slow and have many drop-off and pick up points along the way but are fairly frequent and very cheap. The express bus is a lot smaller but doesn’t have as many drop off and pick up points so they tend to be a quicker option albeit a little more expensive.