This article contains affiliate links, that may earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you. For full information, please see our disclaimer here.
Masaya Volcano is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Nicaragua and easily one of the coolest things we've ever seen!
Protected inside the Masaya Volcano National Park, this complex of volcanoes and craters is famous for being one of the only places in the world where you can see glowing lava.
The hyper-active Santiago Crater constantly spews out clouds of gases, with a bubbling, incandescent lava lake at the bottom of the crater. It’s an experience like no other to look down into the steaming core of the earth!
Night tours from nearby Granada are the most popular way to visit the volcano and see the lava, but it’s possible to experience the park during the day, hiking trails along lush and green extinct craters.
In this post, I’ll lay out all your options for visiting Masaya Volcano – day vs night, independent vs tour – as well as share some essential information about the park, the latest updates on the constantly changing conditions of the volcano and our experience taking a night tour.
About Masaya Volcano
Volcan Masaya is one of the most active volcanoes in Nicaragua. It’s a complex of two volcanoes and five craters, including the famous Santiago Crater which holds one of the only lava lakes in the world.
The complex is protected as part of the Parque Nacional Volcán Masaya (Masaya Volcano National Park), the oldest and largest national park in Nicaragua.
This highly active volcano is technically erupting all the time, with constant gases billowing from the crater and the lava bubbling and churning.
The last major eruption was in 2008, with increased ash and steam spewing from the crater, but the most impactful eruptions occurred back in the 1700s, creating the expansive lava fields you see around the park today.
Seeing lava at Masaya Volcano is one of the most popular things to do in Nicaragua. It’s a rare spectacle to see glowing, incandescent magma and this is one of the most accessible places in the world to see it. There's no hiking required, you can drive right up to the edge of the crater and peer down to the depths below.
The lava was present at the time of the Spanish conquistadors, and they named the crater La Boca del Infierno (The Mouth of Hell). They put La Cruz de Bobadilla (Bobadilla’s Cross), named after the priest who planted it, on a hill above the crater to exorcise the devil. I can certainly understand their fear!
In stark contrast to the smoking, bubbling lava, you can also take a short hike up the extinct San Juan and San Fernando craters, covered in green vegetation with expansive views over the dry forest in the park, Lago Masaya, Laguna de Apoyo and the surrounding volcanoes like Mombacho and Momotombo.
Masaya Volcano 2024 updates
Masaya is an active volcano that is constantly changing! Visitors get frustrated that they don’t get the same experience as what they’ve seen on the internet, but this is not a static tourist attraction. It is a dynamic volcano and conditions change every single day.
What could be improved is how the park communicates these changing conditions, but c'est la vie, you’re in Nicaragua, and communication is not a strong suit.
In March 2024, a landslide dropped tons of rock into the crater, concealing the lava lake. It blocked the crater’s vents and increased the chances of an eruption. The park was closed for a few months as small earthquakes and continued landslides made the crater rim very unstable.
As of November 2024, I think the park has reopened, but you currently cannot see the lava lake and access to the Santiago Crater area is restricted.
Because of this, I believe the park is only open for visits during the day, not at night (if there is no lava, there is no point in visiting at night).
Nobody knows for sure when the lava lake will become visible again. There have been plenty of documented periods where the lava was visible, then concealed and then increased activity brought it back again. There is a very good chance you will be able to see the lava lake again, they just don’t know exactly when.
It’s a dynamic and everchanging environment and the national park has no updated online presence to communicate the current situation at the volcano. The best source of information is on the ground, with a tour operator in Granada. Check in with them before booking to confirm the current situation.
Regardless of the latest incident with the lava lake, the conditions of the volcano are still everchanging. The park can often be closed unexpectedly due to increased activity, and sometimes there are strict time limits in place for how long you can stay near the crater due to the sulphur and gases.
All these rules and regulations are designed to keep you safe. It is an active volcano after all, and we should be thankful that it’s even possible to see such an incredible natural spectacle.
Do your research and check with an on-the-ground source before making any plans.
Masaya Volcano National Park information
- ⏰ Opening hours: 9:00 am – 4:45 pm and 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm
I think it depends on the day as to whether they will make you leave the park if you enter during the day slot but want to wait for the night slot. You could offer to pay for both entrance fees when you arrive so you can stay if that’s your plan.
- 💰 Entrance fee: day visit $4 foreigners | night visit $10 foreigners
- 🚗 Access: the ticket office is located near the main entrance by the highway, but the craters and most popular trails are more than 4 km (2.5 mi) uphill and you are not allowed to walk.
I have read the park is now offering free transport to the top, but I can’t confirm this and their practices are inconsistent. If this isn’t available, you’ll need to hitchhike, take one of the many taxis waiting around, or come via a tour. Just remember, however you get up to the summit will be how you get down so don’t lose track of your ride!
- ⏳ Time limits: depending on the activity of the volcano, your time at the crater may be restricted due to toxic gases. Some visitors are only allowed 15 minutes. This changes the experience quite a lot, and you can expect more time waiting in lines and tighter regulations, versus visiting when there are no time restrictions in place. It’s not really something you can plan for, but you should be aware that this is always a possibility.
Getting to Masaya Volcano
The Masaya Volcano National Park is located in Masaya, halfway between Nicaragua’s capital city Managua, and the colonial tourist city of Granada.
I’m assuming most of you will be coming from Granada (Managua is not really worth a visit), so this transport information is from Granada.
- 🚐 Tour: the most common way to visit Masaya Volcano from Granada, especially at night, is with a tour that includes transport from the city. You don’t have to worry about getting to the park, or from the entrance to the crater, it’s all included.
- 🚌 Bus: if you’d like to visit independently, you can get a bus from Granada to Managua, asking to be let off at ‘la entrada de Volcan Masaya’. Managua-bound buses depart from this terminal just off Parque Central in Granada.
The bus will drop you off on the highway, from where you’ll have a short walk to the ticket office. Then you’ll need to work out how you are getting from the entrance to the crater (walking is not allowed).
You can use the bus to get to the park for a day or night visit, just note that the buses slow down after around 7:00 pm. I think you would be able to get a bus back to Granada in the evening, but you might be waiting a while. It depends on how comfortable you feel being out and about in the dark with no set bus schedule.
- 🚕 Taxi: the other way to visit Masaya is to organise a taxi/private driver to take you from Granada, wait for you and drive you back. Unless you’re a group of 3 (maybe 4) people, this won’t be cheaper than a tour. Expect to pay at least $40+ depending on your negotiation skills, plus your entrance fee to the park is not included.
- 🚗 Car: if you’ve got a rental car, that is the easiest way to visit independently. The drive is 45 minutes from Granada and you can go all the way to the top of the crater.
How to visit Masaya Volcano
DAY VS NIGHT
🌞 During the day: if the crater is closed and lava is not visible (as in 2024), a day visit becomes a lot more attractive. You can spend some time checking out the museum at the visitor centre, looking at the old lava flows and hiking a few of the trails around the extinct craters. You should still be able to get a distant view of the smoking Santiago Crater, but at the time of publishing, you won’t see lava. The exact trails you can hike differ each day, as they close depending on the volcanic activity, but the staff can advise. Some require a guide, which is offered by the park.
🌚 At night: when the lava lake is visible, the best way to visit Masaya Volcano is at night. You can enjoy a beautiful sunset over the crater with an outlook over Lago de Masaya and surrounding volcanoes, before staring down into the depths of the earth to see the glowing lava when it is dark. You won’t have as much time to hike the trails, but if you arrive right at 5:00 pm and don’t have any time restrictions on your visit, you can squeeze in a short hike to the extinct San Juan and San Fernando craters. You’ll then have time to enjoy the sunset and get back to the Santiago Crater as night falls to see the lava.
TOUR VS INDEPENDENT
🚐 Tour: if you want to visit at night, a tour is the best option. They take care of all the transport from Granada, which can be tricky to coordinate (and uncomfortable not to have organised) after dark. They include the entrance fee to the national park ($10), which is great value. The tours are often crowded and a bit rushed, but the entire experience feels that way in the evening, given it’s a small space and everyone wants to get a view! Personally, I don’t think visiting independently at night would make it any better, just more complicated.
🥾 Independent: If you’re visiting during the day, I’d recommend visiting independently. It’s easy enough to get to the park (bus, car, taxi etc.) and with no pressure of nightfall, you’ll be able to depart the park just as easily. Given the entrance cost during the day is lower, joining a tour becomes a lot less valuable than the night slot.
You can also visit independently at night, but I think it’s more complicated and if you don’t have your own vehicle, it probably doesn’t save you any money. The buses are much less frequent at night if you’re relying on public transport, and it can be a bit disconcerting to be on top of the volcano in the dark with no plan. If you’re a bigger group, organising a taxi to bring you to and from Granada and wait at the top would be the best option for a night visit and might be slightly cheaper than a tour if there are 3 or more of you (remember you will have to pay for your entrance fee separately).
If I had my time again, I would plan to visit both during the day and at night. They’re really two separate experiences and both are worthy. I’d visit independently during the day, and possibly try and coordinate to meet a tour at the base of the volcano for the evening session or organise a taxi at the park.
Masaya Volcano tours
If you’ve decided that taking a tour to see Masaya Volcano is the easiest way (it is!) there are a few different options from Granada.
Some are purely a night tour to see the lava, but others combine nearby attractions during the day before heading to the volcano in the evening.
Note: a lot of the normal tours are not available right now because the lava lake is not visible. You will find an influx of tours re-appear online when you can see the lava again.
- Masaya Volcano Tour from Granada (Minimum 2 People)
- Masaya Volcano Night Tour and Apoyo Lagoon
- Night Tour to the Masaya Volcano from Granada
- Full-Day Tour: Masaya Volcano, Art Market and White Villages (daytime)
You can also book a night tour to Masaya Volcano from any of the hostels in Granada, usually for around $25 – $30. Try Selina or Hostel Oasis.
Our night tour experience
I can’t expand too much more on the experience of visiting during the day or hiking the trails, as we opted for a night tour. We were lucky enough to visit Nicaragua prior to the landslides in 2024, so the lava lake was visible in the Santiago Crater.
I don’t write this to try and trick anyone into thinking you’ll see lava. As of late 2024, you won’t! But volcanoes are constantly changing, and there is a strong chance the lava will be visible again in the future. Hopefully, it will be back before I even have time to update this post! Tour operators in Granada are the best source of information for checking this, as the national park is hopeless with updates.
We booked a cheap and cheerful tour with Hostel Oasis. I knew it wasn’t going to be anything special, but it was the easiest and most affordable way to get there and back in the evening.
We left the city at around 4:00 pm, and after some faffing around lining up in the van at the park entry and waiting for our guide to organise the tickets, we drove up to the Plaza de Oviedo. This is the carpark area at the top of the park near the craters.
It was mind-blowing to me that we had just driven up the side of a volcano, on a very nicely paved road mind you, and parked in a manicured car park NEXT TO A SMOKING CRATER!
As soon as we stepped out of the van, we got a strong whiff of rotten eggs – sulphur – and it wasn’t long before we identified the source of the smell. The Santiago Crater was right in front of us and it was spewing out gas and steam constantly! It was like nothing we’d ever seen before.
We beelined straight for the rim of the crater, and looking down at the steep walls, layered with textured rock was insane. It’s no wonder the Spanish thought it was the mouth of hell. And we hadn’t even seen the lava yet!
If you listened carefully you could hear the lava bubbling below. There were a lot of whooshing noises and distant ocean-like sounds. Insane.
We could see La Cruz de Bobadilla perched above the crater, but the trail to walk up to the lookout was closed at the time of our visit.
The guide led our protesting group away from the smoking crater, on the promise that we would return after sunset and see the lava glowing.
We followed a short trail up a peak adjacent to the crater. The rocky, molten landscape was replaced by green grassland as we explored the extinct craters. It wasn’t quite as lush as the cloud forest we had hiked in Mombacho Volcano a few days earlier, but still a very stark contrast to lava and rock.
We walked around the rim and soaked up some epic views as the sky was turning golden. There was a neverending sea of scrubland in one direction, and the outline of conical volcanoes in the distance in the other. We could see Mombacho, Momatombo and Lago de Masaya, and an expansive aerial view of the billowing crater.
Although the lava was special, I loved this part of the tour. The sunset was so beautiful and seeing how life has reclaimed the once perilous, now extinct craters was fascinating.
We made our way down as night was falling and returned to the crater. There are two small platforms with barriers at the rim of the crater, and as you can imagine, it gets crowded.
This part of the tour was exactly as I expected, a terrible display of human behaviour with people pushing and shoving to get their shot. Unfortunately, you do have to shove back a little to get your time right at the rim. I still think it was 1000% worth it to see the lava.
I could not believe what I was looking at. We could see the lava bubbling. The red and orange tones were so vibrant it didn’t feel real. I had to pinch myself that we were staring down into the core of the earth! Volcanoes are so fascinating and humbling and mind-blowing, it was truly spectacular.
The atmosphere and ambience were nothing compared to the magical time we spent at Telica Volcano, with no one else around, but, you can’t see bubbling, magma lava like this anywhere else so that’s the price you pay.
After about 15 minutes we dragged ourselves away from the view to find our group. We weren’t on a strict time limit and there were no enforced lines, but our guide had left at this point and we were the last ones back in the van.
It doesn’t sound like a long time, but you can only really stand solitary on the viewing deck, once you’ve seen the lava, you’ve seen it. I always find that group tours feel rushed, which is why we avoid them as much as possible, but there really is no other way to experience Masaya Volcano at night. It’s a very confined space, that is a very popular tourist attraction, so there’s no avoiding the crowds and you have to be quick-ish so everyone gets a turn.
The short hike plus the sunset plus the lava rounded out the experience and made it special.
Our trip back to Granada was uneventful, mostly spent looking at the photos on our phones and cameras still amazed that we saw LAVA! MAGMA!
What to bring to Masaya Volcano
- 🥾 Comfy shoes: if you’re visiting during the day, you’ll want comfy shoes for a lengthier hike. If you’re going at night, I’d still suggest sturdy, closed-toe shoes but hiking boots or runners aren’t required.
- 😷 Face covering: the sulphur gases coming out of the crater can be quite strong, and some people get headaches from them. If you’ve got a mask, buff, scarf or just a spare t-shirt, it’s worth packing something to cover your face in case you’re sensitive to the smell.
- 🍪 Water and snacks: there aren’t any food options around the craters and only a very small shop with drinks at the visitor centre, so pack your water bottle. If you’re visiting for the day, I’d pack a picnic lunch. At night, maybe just a snack as you’ll return to the city for a late dinner.
- 💰 Cash: I believe you can pay by card for the park entry (if you're not on an inclusive tour), but it’s always safest to have cash just in case!
Planning a trip to Granada
Planning a trip to Granada? Don’t forget to read our Granada travel guide too. It covers all the important info you need to know about the city, like getting there, getting around, where to stay, the best places to eat and other handy tips to get your bearings.
🌻 Everything you need to know about Granada, Nicaragua
Masaya Volcano: Final thoughts
Taking a nighttime Masaya Volcano tour from Granada was quick, easy and affordable.
As with all tours, it was crowded and rushed, but that is exactly what we were expecting, and the nature of the volcano and its tiny viewing platforms means there’s no real way to avoid the crowds.
Seeing the bubbling lava was absolutely worth the pushing and shoving at the crater rim, and to this day, it’s a spectacle we haven’t seen anywhere else!
It’s definitely one of the best things to do in Granada and it was another volcano experience to add to our repertoire, after volcano boarding down Cerro Negro, watching the sunrise from Telica and seeing the cloud forests of Mombacho.
MORE GRANADA POSTS
