Visiting San Juan del Sur with kids is probably going to be on most Nicaragua family itineraries. It’s the town closest to the Costa Rican border and it offers a lot for family travel. But is there more than just beaches for the win? Read on to discover more about travelling to San Juan del Sur with the kids.
Best beaches around San Juan del Sur
Firstly, let’s start with the beaches. There’s no other place to start! But what are the best beaches around San Juan del Sur to visit as a family?
Now, let’s start with the bad news. San Juan beach itself is nothing special. In fact it’s quite dirty and we wouldn’t recommend staying in the town for its beach. But all the other beaches listed below do have accommodation on them – the downside being you will need your own vehicle, and ideally a 4×4 to get there.
Moving from south to north, we stayed on Playa de Coco – the best beach in Nicaragua in our opinion. It’s 18km south of SJDS, taking around 40 minutes due to the slow road. The fast road they are building (as at 2025) will definitely make moving along this coastline easier.
Playa el Coco is a small town with only has a handful of pulperias (drinks stores) so you will need to bring food and drink with you for the time you plan to be here. There is also one restaurant on the beach – but that’s it. And that’s the beauty of this magical place. We had a long stretch of beach to ourselves for our week there. We made campfires on the beach at night to toast marshmellows.
The kids ran and ran in the masses of space. We explored the beach coves to the south, clambering over rocks. We played in the waves, were mesmerised by the pelicans and even saw a humpback whale from the beach! Aside from this, do nothing during your time here except enjoy the amazing beach and wildlife and the slowest pace of life imaginable.
There is also a turtle sanctuary on the next main beach down from Playa de Coco – we went to visit but got a slightly grumpy man who told us there were no turtles and wanted to still charge us $15 to go to the beach. But we’ve heard when there are turtles it is worth a visit.
Moving north head to Playa Hermosa – this is back towards San Juan de Sur but 3km down a dirt path and you come to the beach. This is ‘controlled’ by a restaurant and spa so there is a $3 charge per person (we didn’t pay for the kids). But you get sunbeds, food and drinks delivered to you and the beach is long and wide. There is also the option for surf lessons and board rental on this beach, starting from $6 for a board. Food is around $6-$10 for a main meal – the pasta dishes were enough for 2 kids!
Closer to the centre again, you’ll hit Remanso beach, a curved bay perfect for surfing for beginners and intermediates. There is one ‘container’ style hotel and various Air Bnbs, 3 restaurants and a similar number of surf schools which all offer lessons, rental and all the gear. We surfed with ‘Surf Nica’ who were great instructors with the kids. We paid $25 for each of them for a two hour lesson. One warning in that Alicia did manage to stand on a stingray which then stung her on the foot – she was fine after about 4 hours, but was in a lot of pain initially.
North of SJDS is Maderas beach which is longer and straighter, but with a steep hill to go over and down again for access. As with Remanso there are several surf outlets where boards are $10 to rent, but for none surfer and younger kids there is more to explore here. There’s rocks to climb, pools to peer in, masses of long empty space to run and view for miles! It’s much bigger than Remanso but was also probably the busiest of the 4 we list here. There’s 2 restaurants and also a couple of hotels if you wish to stay here and it definitely carries a more backpacker vibe. The food here was good, reasonably priced and great portions!
Visit Jesus Cristo
For non-beach activities in San Juan del Sur, we recommend visiting the Jesus Christ statue that overlooks the bay. It’s a steep hill again but you can drive almost to the top, and then there’s a short steep walk for the last bit. Visit around 4.30 for sunset vibes – it closes at 6. There’s a $2 entrance fee – again the kids were free when I asked. The views are amazing, you may spot a whale, and you’re up as high as the birds fly.
Get a Day Pass to Treecasa
TreeCasa resort is another good day out for families in Nicaragua – this hotel resort has day passes every day but on Wednesday it is free to enter. It’s located about 10 minutes’ drive from the centre, but there is a free shuttle from town if you go to their welcome centre. There’s 2 pools, a lake with turtles to spot, water slide and a waterfall to jump off. The food is delicious, but of course this is pricier. Whilst it was free to enter we spent £75 on 4 main meals and drinks for the day – still less than £20 per person and we think it is worth it.
Ethical Whale Watching
The highlight of our week in San Juan was going on a research expedition with ELIA – the whale and dolphin association located here. The boat holds around 10 people and is a 4 hour trip. We paid $65 each. This is not guaranteed sightings at all, the whales are completely wild, but we saw 4 during our time. The researchers stop to take data readings and use the sonar boom to try and track the whales, so you learn a lot during your time with them as well. Nyle even had a snooze on the boat, but if you have kids younger than him (6) it may be too much sitting still and for 3 of the 4 hours we saw nothing! We enjoyed the views of the coast as well though. Take a raincoat if you have one – we all got wet!
Grab some great food and drink
One real positive of San Juan del Sur is there are a lot of eateries and drinking holes. Our favourite restaurant was Dale Pues, located towards the ‘back’ of the town but with amazing food, plenty of veggie options and a lovely relaxed setting welcoming families. We would really recommend this restaurant if in San Juan del Sur with kids.
There’s also an incredible bakery on the sea-front road, called La Tostaderia. It’s worth any queue for it’s pastries and coffees. And for the kids enjoy the best Fro-Yo going at Beta Fro-Yo in the centre of town. Not only is the yogurt good but the toppings are plentiful!!
