This exact question “How to cross the border between Cost Rica and Nicaragua” came up when I was planning a day trip from Liberia, Costa Rica to Granada, Nicaragua. Soon after I read about the logistics of the trip, I came to realization that a day trip from Liberia to Granada is doable, but no practical. We decided to take a tour to Nicaragua from Costa Rica instead to save time and maximize our time in Nicaragua. Here is how to cross the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
Visa requirements
Nicaragua Visa requirements: US , Canadian, EU, C4 (Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala) do not need a visa to enter Nicaragua and can stay in the country up to 90 days without visa. If visa is required, it can be purchased on the border, the price is $25.
Costa Rica Visa requirements: US , Canadian, EU citizens as well as the citizens of central American countries do not need a visa to enter Nicaragua and can stay in the country up to 90 days without visa.
Other land entry requirements:
Nicaragua: Printed Hotel reservation
Costa Rica: Printed hotel reservation, airline ticket for you return flight out of Costa Rica.
Check the visa requirements prior to your trip.
How to cross the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua
Leaving Costa Rica entering Nicaragua
Costa Rica:
Once you get off the bus you will need to walk to the border. Once by the border, you will need to stop by the kiosk and pay Cost Rica Departure tax, $8 at the moment of writing this post. Make sure to save the receipt as you will need to show it later in the immigration building.
The next building you will see on your left is the Immigration building. As you get inside, there will be several windows open with the lines near each window. Make sure to get in line right away as the line might get long when tourist groups cross the border. The officer will collect the departure tax receipt from you and stamp your passport. This concludes formalities on Costa Rica side of the border and you are good to are good to cross the border.
Nicaragua:
After you cross the border, the officers in Nicaragua check your passport and direct you to Nicaragua Customs, large relatively modern building on the right. Once you enter the Customs building, you will see several windows with a line of people by each window, similar to Costa Rican customs. Again, make sure to get in line right away. You will be required to pay Nicaragua entry tax($10)and another $2(migration tax) and $1(border tax) paid on entry and on the exit. Somehow, we were not asked to pay immigration tax on exit.
The officer will stamp your passport and direct you to pass to the luggage screening area. The luggage screening concludes Nicaragua customs formalities.
Leaving Nicaragua entering Costa Rica
Very similar process as above, but much cheaper (free in our case)
Nicaragua:
We got to the border by 10 pm and the entire customs process took less than 5 minutes. We got inside the Nicaragua Customs building that was totally empty, got our passports stamped and got out in no time.
There is no departure tax for Nicaragua, just $2 migration tax and $1 border tax. for some reason $3 were not collected from us(may be cashier was just done for the day 
). We were also not required to go through the luggage screening When leaving Nicaragua.
Our passports were check one time by officers outside as we walked to Costa Rican border.
Costa Rica
Once we got to Costa Rica, there was also no line at all. I have done a fair research and expected to stay in line for several hours. I was pleasantly surprised on the border. We got our passport stamped again (4 stamped again (4 stamps in one day !!!) and were asked by the officer if we have any fresh fruits with us. We answered “no’ and got back to Costa Rica.
As we were walking from the customs building to the bus I realized that all this time I was holding a clear bad with fresh cut coconut in my hands.
What to bring with you:
- The Passport – obvious, but I’ve left the passport home too many times not to mention it here
- The Pen (just in case). We did not have to fill out any custom declarations
- Small US bills. It is easier to pay all the exit and entrance fees in USD
- You printed airline ticket to your destination from Costa Rica. (Required for Costa Rica re-entry)
- Your printed hotel reservation in Costa Rica. (Required for Costa Rica re-entry)
- The patience. We were super lucky with crossing the border both ways. We spent about 45 minutes all together on our way to Nicaragua and about 20 minutes on our way back to Costa Rica. I have read a lot about other people experiences that were not so lucky and had to spend 2-3 hours on the border both ways.
Final thoughts
Whether you are travelling with group or solo, knowing how to cross the border between Costa Rca and Nicaragua in advance will help you to plan your trip better. Expect to spend at least two hours on the border both ways just to be safe. It’s better to be pleasantly surprised than late.
If you have two-three days to spare for Nicaragua trip from Costa Rica, you can totally organize this trip on your own and I strongly recommend doing so. However, if you are planning to do a day trip from Liberia to Granada, your best bet here is to take an organized tour, which will allow you to maximize your time spent in Nicaragua. You will be able to see several more points of interest in addition to Granada and the tour operator will assist you with crossing the border.
