San Juan del Sur is a small fishing town on Nicaragua's Pacific coast, about 140 km south of Managua and close to the Costa Rican border. It was for a brief period in the 1850s one of the busiest ports in the Americas — the Atlantic–Pacific route across Nicaragua, running from Greytown on the Caribbean up the Rio San Juan to Lake Nicaragua and then by stagecoach over the 20 km to San Juan del Sur, was a key shortcut for gold-rush travellers heading from New York to California before the Panama Canal was built. That lively moment passed, and for a century San Juan del Sur was back to being a fishing village. In the past twenty years it has reinvented itself again, this time as the surfing capital of Nicaragua and the country's most popular beach destination for international travellers.
The town itself is a single palm-fringed crescent of beach wrapped around a protected bay, with a low-rise strip of bars, hostels, hotels and seafood restaurants along the waterfront. Swimming in the main town beach is pleasant enough but the real surf is on the beaches to the north and south, reached by shuttle buses and 4x4 taxis that run from the centre all day. Playa Maderas, Playa Majagual, and Playa Remanso are the most popular; further out, Playa Hermosa and Playa Yankee are quieter. The town is famous for its Sunday sunset ritual: almost everyone climbs to the giant white Cristo de la Misericordia statue on the hill above the bay (the tallest Jesus statue in the Americas after Rio's) to watch the sun drop into the Pacific.
Beyond the beaches, La Flor Wildlife Refuge 20 km south of town protects one of the most important sea-turtle nesting beaches in Central America — every year between July and January thousands of olive ridley turtles come ashore to lay their eggs, often in spectacular synchronised mass-nesting events called arribadas. The refuge is only lightly managed and night visits (with a local guide) are allowed during the season. San Juan del Sur is also a convenient base for day trips to Isla de Ometepe (the twin-volcano island in Lake Nicaragua, reached by ferry from nearby Rivas) and to the colonial city of Granada two hours north.