Border crossing: El Salvador to Nicaragua

Trip date January 2026 1GBP = 1.32USD & 49.63Cordoba (C) April 2026

TLDR at end

There are two main ways to cross from El Salvador to Nicaragua. The longest way goes through Honduras, and the other is a simple crossing on a boat. We decided to cross from El Salvador to Nicaragua via the sea border. If we hadn't required a rather awkward-to-get visa for entering Honduras, we would have gone that way, exploring as we went... as it was, the sea was our easiest route.

Before we could think about crossing we needed to do two things:

1. Get to La Union - this is where El Salvador's ocean border control is located.

2. Book ourselves onto a boat.

   
   

Getting to La Union was the easy part. Buses depart from Terminal Nuevo Amanecer in San Salvador every couple of hours, and only cost $6 for the 4 hour journey. Although La Union isn’t really a place we’d want to stay, the 7am meet time at the migration office didn’t give us many options except booking a hotel for the night before we left.

Organising the boat wasn't quite as straightforward.

We found two ways to book a boat from La Union (El Salvador) to Potosi (Nicaragua)

• either through the terribly rated Gekko Trails

• or by WhatsApp-ing a man called Mario (+50372824362).

It felt a bit sketchy to arrange international travel via WhatsApp but he was quick to answer and sent all the information we needed. For a little more money, he could either arrange for transport starting in El Salvador ($90pp) La Libertad ($75pp) or just the boat ($50pp). We went for the cheapest option. All we needed was to send him photos of our passport photo pages, we'd pay on the day.

So here's everything we needed to enter:

• $50 in cash each for the boat

• Our passports

• This form filled in and completed a week before travel.

• $13 for the Entry fee - $18 if you don't fill out the above form in time.

• Water and snacks for the journey.

Out of the list money was actually the hardest to get, it took us trying 3 different ATMS in La Union before we found one with any money. As we needed the cash not only for the boat but for the entry fee and exchanging on the other side (there are zero ATMs in Potosi) it might have been better to have gotten it out in San Salvador to be on the safe side.

We arrived at the migration office at 6.55am and the area was already packed with travellers milling around. I had assumed by booking via WhatsApp that Mario was some small independent Capitan with a good reputation, but judging by the staff welcoming and directing us wearing Capitan Mario merch, he'd moved far past that.

We signed in with the boat staff, paid our fees and were directed into the migration office where we handed our passports in to be processed. We were given some customs forms, these needed to be filled out and handed back in straight away - there were only so many pens and clipboards to go around. At this point, things were running smoothly if not a bit slowly.

Then 8am passed… and 9am soon followed.

What was going on?

Eventually, some one went to find out. Turns out it was too windy. The boats weren't going. Or they might. Just not now. Maybe later. It was confusing, the answers weren't the most forthcoming, and we wanted clarity.

People started looking up other options, but they quickly hit a snag. Our passports had already been processed, we'd technically and officially left the country, all without ever being a few feet away from the Migration office. As this was the case, if the boats were completely cancelled we couldn't go anywhere until we had been processed and stamped back in... and this seemed to be an issue.

Half of those waiting were Brits, so they headed to the nearest supermarket to grab a load of tinnies to occupy themselves with until we could leave - you can imagine how that helped keep things calm. Around 11am, after several hours of brash lads loudly declaring they didn't mind getting a little wet, we finally got a tentative go ahead.

As we were first in queue to hand in our passports, we were on the first boat. We were slightly apprehensive, going first made us guinea pigs - the other boats would depart depending on our success. Rough seas on a tiny boat didn't seem like something I wanted to be a part of, but we didn't have a choice. Just before we left we were handed our passports and had to stand for a group photo, that didn't seem ominous at all.

We trailed behind our guide like ducks as he led us through the streets towards the sea. He handed around plastic bin bags to wrap around our day bags, we were going to get wet it seemed. Perhaps if we had left at the proper time the sea would have reached the pier, as it was the tide was far out so we needed other transport to the boat. Rather than a dingy like I would have expected, we (along with all of our belongings) were bundled into human-pulled carts. The pullers then dragged us straight into the sea. It was honestly one of the strangest ways I've ever been moved from one spot to another.

When we reached our boat we awkwardly climbed aboard. I sat near the front, I'd read online that the seats nearest to the Capitan get soaked even on the best of days. Before we could leave, food and drink sellers waded their way through hip high water offering us their wares. At this point, nothing was surprising anymore.

Actually, I didn't realise the woman closest to us was selling raw sweet potatoes, I am a little surprised by that.

We eventually got moving: the ride started out mild, a few bumps but nothing bad. We were getting splashed but the sun was shining, drying us off quickly. When we left the protection of the harbour the bumps turned into leaps, strangely at this point we stopped getting wet, the poor guys at the back however were practically swimming. Imagine log flume levels of water every time we crashed into the waves. The Capitan definitely had it the worse.

When the deckhand (who had until this point been standing at the prow pointing the way) decided to sit down we knew it was getting bad. The leaps were joined by sways as we rode along the sides of huge rolling waves. It was about this time that the deckhand collected up our passports once again, tucking them into a waterproof bag. We gritted our teeth, leaning into the boats motion as much as we could despite being flung around like rag-dolls. We laughed through it as much as we could, keeping up a positive attitude, but after the first thirty minutes it certainly wasn't fun - my butt and solar plexus were annoyingly sore for the next couple of days.

It would have been a gorgeous journey in calmer seas, oh well, at least we made it in one piece.

We were dropped off in the sea, and waded through shin high water to make it to the beach. We didn't mind, at least we were off the boat. We gathered our luggage off of the sand where it was deposited, and headed to plastic trestle table blocking the path away from the beach that was acting as a security checkpoint. The field behind the officers had loose horses wandering across its sun-browned and patchy grass - very official. We had to wait for our names to be called out, then assist the customs officers in rifling through our bags. Maybe I was too keen in helping my guy look for contraband as he quickly told me to pack back up and be on my way. The girl next to me had no such luck and as I left she was awkwardly trying to explain birth control pills to a guy with limited English.

On that note, what they were really looking for was drones and fancy camera equipment, free journalism and tools that can aid this are banned in Nicaragua.

The path from the sea and customs check to the migration office.

From there we headed up the path to the tired looking migration office where our passports had been left. The entire time we had been with the customs officers a bus ayudente (assistant) had been yelling at us to hurry up if we wanted to make it to the bus. We had been planning on getting that bus as the next wasn't for several hours and we'd have to walk 20 minutes to get it... but we needed our passports too.

For some reason, it took about an hour to get our passports processed and stamped. As we had filled in the entry form, we only had to pay $13 each as a entry fee. None of the others had, and they were surprised to be faced with an $18 fee instead. Two girls didn't have quite enough on them, so we lent them our change - we'd all spent enough time at migration offices for one day already.

We'd survived, we crossed the rough seas, made our way through migration and were officially in Nicaragua. This, unfortunately, wasn't the end of our journey.

If we'd have known what a long day it was going to be, we probably would have picked one of the options that included a tourist shuttle to Leon. We did consider haggling for a lift, but with the rest of the boats still to come in, the earliest they would be leaving was in 90 minutes, it was only an hour wait for the local bus. Before we started our walk into town, we made use of the fine sanitary facilities available. A tree for Ben and a lightless, toilet-paper-free barn toilet for me. At least in the pitch black I was unable to see the horrid state it was in.

The walk to town went quickly, we planned on buying some refreshments at the shop (it was astoundingly hot) but first we need some local currency. Opposite the two bared shops on the crossroads was a bar which also did money exchange and banking for locals. As the rate was far from market price, we only exchanged $20 into Cordoba. This would see us through the journey.

Feeling parched we headed to one of the two small shops where I promptly got overcharged for the world's smallest Coca-Cola. Oh well, we needed the sugar and we still had 30 minutes of waiting in the hot sun before our first bus would finally arrive. While we waited it slowly dawned on us how very rural Potosi is, the most traffic we saw was a herd of thin cows that were slowly corralled up the street. As the bus arrival time drew closer, more people turned up eager not to miss the last bus of the day.

The rest of the day was boring hours of staring at slowly changing scenery as our transport trundled along.

Our first ride was barely holding together, the ex-school bus was completely rusted through in places and held together with acro-props - we could literally see the road through the floor. We wheezed our way towards Chinandega, slowly dusting the countryside with diesel fumes for the 3 hours it took. This uncomfortable ride cost us 60C.

From there we got a rickshaw to the colectivo station - our driver here also tried to rip us off, stating the "50" he quoted us was in dollars not cordoba! After a small argument and another rickshaw driver throwing out random amounts he finally accepted 100C - clearly realising his ploy wasn’t going to work.

Next we entered the modern world and grabbed a minivan colectivo, this also cost 60C although the journey was only two hours.

Finally (Finally!!) after 12 hours of traveling, we had one last trip to make. This time just a 10 minute taxi from the bus station to our accommodation.

Was it the easiest travel day? No, not in the least! Had it gone to plan and we left when we were supposed to from El Salvador, it wouldn't have been so bad. We would have jumped on the first bus from the Potosi migration office and although that wouldn't have cut down the amount of different changes we would have to do, it would have cut out a whole lot more waiting.

Would I recommend it? Actually yes... but maybe not how we did it! Although it didn't go to plan for us, I can imagine the boat journey being beautiful on a calmer day. As a money saving travel plan it wasn't too horrible, but if I was to do it again I might pay for a shuttle to go along with the boat. The two buses, one rickshaw and a taxi worked out fine, but having just one shuttle going from Potosi to our hotel door would have saved a whole lot of organisation and a whole lot of travel time.

TLDR:

• Book the boat journey with either Gekko trails or a bloke called Mario (his WhatsApp +50372824362) - we went with Mario

• There's options for pick up in El Salvador or La Libertad.

• Drop off is either Potosi or Leon.

• If doing the basic journey, arrive at La Union the night before.

• 7am sharp at the Migration office

• Things to bring - $50 Boat fee (for only La Union to Potosi) - Passport - $13 - $18 for the Nicaragua entry fee - it's $13 if you fill out the from in the next line. - This form filled in and completed a week before travel. - Water, snacks, suncream.

• If you bring a drone they will take it off you at border control and maybe decline entry.

• It will take a strange amount of time to process the passports.

• There is a bar in Potosi, opposite the two small shops where you can exchange $.

• To get to Leon without a tourist shuttle. - Bus to Chinandega. - Taxi or rickshaw to Colectivo station. - Colectivo to Leon station. - Taxi into town centre.