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Sliding down the slopes of an active volcano, watching the sunset from the rooftop of a whitewashed colonial church and learning about the tragic and violent revolutionary history of the city, there are so many amazing things to do in Leon Nicaragua.
Leon is my idea of a perfect city – not too big and surrounded by nature. Sitting just off the Pacific Ring of Fire volcanic belt, there are close to a dozen volcanoes within easy reach of Leon, and the Pacific Coast is just a short bus ride away.
We watched a magical sunrise next to a volcanic crater at Telica Volcano, spent the morning exploring the crumbling colonial streets on a walking tour and enjoyed the sunset from the beach in Las Peñitas all in one day!
There really is something for everyone in Leon and we loved every minute of our time here. To help plan your trip, these are the 18 best things to do in Leon, Nicaragua.
To make this list more digestible, I’ve broken it up into two sections:
- Things to do in Leon’s city centre
- Day trips and things to do around Leon
Planning a trip to Leon
Before you keep reading this list of things to do in Leon, I’d recommend reading our Leon travel guide first. It covers all the other 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 Leon, Nicaragua
Things to do in Leon Nicaragua: in the city
1. Free Walking Tour
The Free Walking Tour León “The Original” is the best walking tour I have ever done, anywhere in the world.
The city of Leon has an intense, violent and fascinating history. It was the home of the Sandinista uprising that overthrew the Somoza dictatorship during Nicaragua’s revolution in the 1970s.
To understand the city you’re seeing today, you have to understand the context of its history and this walking tour was the perfect crash course. This needs to be the first priority on your things to do in Leon list!
Our guide Leo was honest, knowledgeable and balanced in his telling of the city’s history, political views and modern-day society. It was so nice to get an authentic insight from a local, into life in Nicaragua both in the present-day and in the politically charged events of the 20th century. All while getting to explore the city at the same time.
Leo answered every question we had in-depth, and his tour was the foundation for our entire experience in Nicaragua.
The tour runs in English every day at 9:00 am and 4:00 pm. You meet in the centre of the city adjacent to Parque Central (the walking tour has a pin in Google Maps) and will spend almost 3 hours walking around the sights of the city.
The tour is free, but you must reserve your spot online in advance via GuruWalk. Please remember to tip your guide generously for their time.
If you’d prefer a tour just for your group, you can book a private walking tour of Leon.
2. Sunset from the rooftop of the Catedral de Leon
Officially called the Real e Insigne Basílica de la Asunción de la Bienaventurada Virgen María (Cathedral-Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary), say Catedral de Leon (Leon Cathedral), and everyone will know what you mean!
This grand, white-washed cathedral is the biggest in all of Central America and has earned UNESCO World Heritage Status. It has an interesting history, and this opulent design was supposedly destined for Lima, Peru which was a much more important city at the time. Apparently, a pared-back set of plans was submitted but somebody pulled a cheeky switch and the city ended up with this stunning sanctuary instead.
You can go inside the cathedral for free and look around at the interior, which is elegant but understated, and home to the tomb of famous Nicaraguan poet, Ruben Dario.
The real drawcard is the rooftop. For a fee of 148 Cordobas or $3 USD, you can climb a narrow, spiral staircase onto the cathedral’s roof where you walk amongst the domes.
Time your visit for sunset to enjoy the soft, golden light and avoid the heat of the day.
It was absolutely beautiful to stroll around the white-washed roof, with the light illuminating the figures on the belltower, and casting a glow on the horizon, where you can see the chain of volcanoes surrounding the city.
The rooftop is open Monday – Saturday from 8:30 am – 12:00 pm and again from 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm. On Sundays, it is only open from 9:00 am – 1:00 pm (no sunset).
If you buy your ticket and enter before 5:00 pm (make it closer to 4:45 pm to be safe), they’ll usually let you stay on the rooftop until about 5:45 pm to enjoy the sunset.
You purchase your tickets on the east side of the building opposite the market and enter the staircase to climb to the rooftop on the southeastern side. You’ll be asked to take your shoes off to preserve the roof.
3. Museo de la Revolucion
This was one of the strangest museum experiences we’ve ever had, but it was profound and impactful and well worth a place on your list of things to do in Leon.
I would recommend taking the walking tour first, so you’ve got some background to the Nicaraguan Revolution and the role Leon played, as a Sandinista (FSLN) stronghold.
The museum is housed in a decaying building that was once the city’s communication centre but was taken over by the revolutionaries during the war. You can still see the bullet holes in the walls.
The museum was unlike anything we’d visited before. It’s staffed by the revolutionaries themselves, mostly older men who experienced things we couldn’t even imagine.
The ‘exhibit’ is not much more than a series of curling newspaper articles and fading photos. Your guide will use these as cues to talk you through the history of the revolution, including their own traumatic anecdotes and experiences.
The tour concludes with a visit to the building’s rooftop, overlooking Parque Central and the cathedral. Symbolic of the entire museum, a jaunt onto the rooftop involves dodging sharp and rusting tin sheets and avoiding the ginormous holes. Follow the spray-painted arrows and your guide very carefully.
The majority of these guides only speak Spanish. We stumbled our way through using the information in the newspaper articles to fill any gaps we couldn’t translate from our guide’s quick and unclear pronunciation, thankful we already had some context from the walking tour.
If you need an English-speaking guide, it would be worth popping by in advance of your visit to confirm what time you could come back. Some guides do speak English, but they’re not always available.
The museum is open Monday – Saturday from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm. Entrance is 100 Cordobas, but it’s a nice gesture to also tip your guide.
4. Explore the city’s street art
Street art is a common and recognized form of political expression in this city and symbolises Leon’s independence from the government. You will find murals celebrating the revolutionaries all over the city.
You’ll see a few murals on your walking tour, but the same group also runs a specific street art-focused tour, explaining more about the revolutionary murals you’ll find all over the city.
Parque Héroes y Mártires is home to the Mausoleo a los Héroes y Mártires, a monument to the revolutionaries with an eternal flame, and the street that runs north from here is known as Avenida Héroes y Mártires. The next street across to the west, 1ra Av. NO, has even more murals and memorials to the fighters. The local basketball court is on this street and has some of the biggest murals.
If you’re into art, you can see an incredible collection off the street at the Museo de Arte Fundación Ortiz-Gurdián. I’ll admit, we didn’t visit, but we have heard rave reviews and with hindsight, I think we missed out. The museum is open Tuesday – Sunday from 10:00 am – 5:00 pm, and entry costs the equivalent of $3.50 USD for foreigners.
5. Mercado Central
Leon’s central market is a small but authentic local market full of fresh produce, home-cooked treats and tables of meat, fish and other questionable animals that will no doubt make your stomach turn.
The eastern end is more for shopping with an array of stalls selling souvenirs, clothes, shoes and other home goods.
It’s a nice place to stroll around for a glimpse of local life, and the market is primarily designed for the city’s residents, not its visitors.
We particularly enjoyed buying a fresh coconut to drink and stocking up on all the tasty tropical fruits, and my sweet tooth loved the sopa de leche, a flan-style sweet treat served on a banana leaf. I went back many times for more!
If you’re keen to learn more about the local cuisine, I’d highly recommend taking a food tour through the market.
🥑 Book a food tour in Leon’s Mercado Central
For a typical Leonese dinner, return to the western edge of the market in the evening to try a fritanga. I have the location pinned on my Nicaragua map.
A fritanga is a typical Nicaraguan street food option, usually a local stall grilling up meats with all the trimmings. In Leon, BBQ stalls line up behind the cathedral in front of the market at night, cooking up an array of carne asada with all the sides, like gallo pinto, plantains and all types of deep-fried goodies like cheese, yucca, potatoes etc.
6. Thrift shopping
Leon is a fantastic place for thrift shopping! If you’re on a broader trip through Central America and are getting sick of your clothes, you can restock. I picked up a raincoat as we were approaching the start of the rainy season!
A lot of clothes are donated from the United States, so you can find big-name brands for very cheap prices in stores all over the city.
There were a lot of options on 2da Av. NE (aka ‘backpacker alley’ where you’ll find ViaVia and Bigfoot Hostel). We particularly liked La Nueva Broadway, but basically, any clothes shop you find is probably second-hand, with good prices.
7. Enjoy the pool at Coco Calala
One of the best restaurants in the city, Coco Calala is an iconic plant-based eatery.
The food and drinks are delicious, but that’s not what makes this one of the best things to do in Leon.
The cafe is located in a lush plant-filled courtyard with a swimming pool. Great on a hot, hot Leon day, you can eat in the restaurant and swim in the pool! It’s the perfect spot to laze during the heat of the day, especially if your accommodation doesn’t have a pool.
The fee to use the pool is 100 Cordobas if you have breakfast or lunch at the restaurant.
Coco Calala actually has a few rooms for rent on Airbnb, and we stayed here during our time in Leon. Having unlimited access to the pool and stunning gardens was heaven!
8. Sunset drink at El Mirador
Most of my food and drink recommendations for Leon are in my Leon travel guide, but I wanted to specifically call out a sunset drink at El Mirador.
This grungy student bar is as basic as they come. The drinks are cheap, the food is average, but the sunset views are excellent and the vibe is raw and authentic.
If you’re kicked off the roof of the cathedral before the sun actually sets, make a beeline here, grab a Toña and watch the sun slip below the horizon. (Don’t bother with a cocktail!).
9. Visit the city’s other churches
The Leon Cathedral gets all the attention, but Leon has more churches per capita than anywhere else in Nicaragua!
You’re bound to come across plenty of beautiful churches and cathedrals as you wander around the city, but some of the more noteworthy ones are:
- ⛪️ Iglesia de la Recolección: a mustard-coloured, baroque-style church. It has stunning and ornate swirling columns.
- ⛪️ Santuario de Nuestra Señora de La Merced: a pretty pastel facade in soft yellow with burnt orange trimmings, this is a gorgeous church with a leafy adjacent park.
- ⛪️ Iglesia El Calvario: in the east of the city, this vibrant red church is always visible on the city’s skyline and you get a particularly great view of it from atop the cathedral.
10. Other sightseeing
If you take a walking tour, your guide will point out other significant buildings, but there are a few sites I wanted to specifically mention:
- 🌲 Parque Central: like all great Latin American cities, Leon’s Central Park is the heart of the city. You’ll pass by it multiple times a day. It’s a typical plaza with the cathedral on one side and government buildings on the other. It’s a hive of activity with locals gathering, plenty of street food stalls and daily festivities. It comes alive in the evening when the sun drops and the temperature cools.
- 🌳 Hotel El Convento: a former convent turned boutique hotel, you can wander into the stunning gardens in the internal courtyard, aka Patio El Convento. There is a restaurant on-site and non-guests are allowed to pop in for a coffee and a snoop.
- 🎓 Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua: aka UNAN, this is Nicaragua’s oldest university and the breeding ground of many revolutionaries! It’s worth strolling past the campus. Our guide pointed out a tiny balcony where students proudly get their photo taken when they receive their masters.
- 🚶🏻♂️ Pedestrian streets: Leon has a handful of very pretty pedestrian streets, branching out in all directions from Parque Central. The naming conventions of streets and addresses are unnecessarily confusing in Leon, so I will try and list all the names used for each street, but I’ve pinned them all on my Nicaragua Google Map.
- 🪧 Avenida Central Norte: running north from the plaza, I’ve already mentioned this street which is known as the Avenida Héroes y Mártires, with the monument and memorial to the heroes and martyrs of the revolution.
- 🪧 1ra Av. NO: one street to the west of Avenida Héroes y Mártires, also running north, this street has even more memorials to members of the FSLN. It’s also home to the city’s basketball court, Cancha 23 de Julio which has some fantastic murals and is also a great spot for people watching.
- 🪧 Calle de Ruben Dario: this road runs west-east just north of the park. The small section between Parque Central and Parque Ruben Dario is particularly lovely, lined with flags.
- 🪧 Avenida Central Sur: running south from Parque Central, our walking tour guide referred to this as ‘Romance Lane’ for its position between an old boy’s school on one side and a girl’s school on the other.
Things to do in Leon: around the city
11. Volcano boarding at Cerro Negro
The most iconic thing to do in Leon, and the reason for many people’s visit to the city, volcano boarding is exactly what it sounds like – boarding down the side of a volcano!
This thrilling activity occurs on the slopes of Volcan Cerro Negro (Black Hill Volcano), which is one of Central America’s youngest volcanoes. It has a very unique look, with intensely dark, black volcanic gravel covering the conical-shaped volcano.
Volcano boarding is best done with a tour operator from Leon. You’ll be transported 1 hour to the base of the volcano, where you get your toboggan-style wooden board, your protective outfit consisting of fashionable overalls, goggles and gloves, and get ready to hike to the top!
It takes about 1 hour to walk to the summit, where your group will line up on the gravelly slopes, and wait until it’s your turn to hurtle down the side of the volcano! It was slower and less scary than I thought, but it was such a fun and thrilling experience.
I’ve got a complete guide to volcano boarding at Cerro Negro, with everything you need to know about this bucket list experience, comparing the different times and tour companies.
🌋 Best volcano boarding tours
- Cerro Negro and Volcano Sand Boarding from León
- Private volcano boarding tour
- Volcano Boarding with Volcano Day
- Bigfoot Hostel Volcano Boarding
12. Sunrise or sunset at Telica Volcano
While volcano boarding is on every backpacker’s hitlist in Leon, Telica Volcano offers a quieter, more nature-based alternative. I think for us, this was even better than Cerro Negro!
Telica is a very active volcano, with a huge crater over 700 metres in diameter. It’s constantly fuming with steam billowing up from the depths of the crater, over 100 metres deep.
There are a couple of different trails to reach the volcano, the easiest being around 45 minutes and not too strenuous at all. From the summit, you can look down into the crater, and get a view of the other volcanoes along the Cordillera de Los Maribios.
The easiest, and really the only way, to visit Telica is on a tour from Leon. There is no public transport to the volcano, and the road to get there is long and incredibly bumpy. The tour companies use 4×4 vehicles or trucks.
You can choose between sunrise, sunset or an overnight camping experience at Telica. We went for sunrise and it was truly one of the most magic experiences of our time in Central America!
We didn’t see any glow of lava in the crater, but apparently, if you camp overnight you might be able to. We saw lava at Masaya Volcano near Granada instead.
I’ve got a complete guide to Telica Volcano with everything you need to know about visiting.
🌋 Best Telica Volcano tours
- Bigfoot Telica Sunrise, Sunset or Camping
- Volcano Day Telica Sunrise, Day or Camping
- Telica Sunset Private Tour
13. Hike El Hoyo Volcano
After Telica and Cerro Negro, El Hoyo is the next most accessible volcano from Leon.
Meaning ‘The Hole’ in English, El Hoyo gets its name from its huge sunken crater. Sitting in the middle of the chain of volcanoes, there are excellent views from the summit overlooking Momotombo and Lake Nicaragua.
This is a tough, uphill slog with little shade. It only takes around 2 – 3 hours, but once you’ve experienced the heat of Leon, you’ll realise that’s quite an undertaking (and for us a hard no in May).
It’s nothing like the shady cloud forests we hiked on the slopes of Volcan Mombacho in Granada.
As with all the volcanoes, joining a tour is easy and affordable. A range of operators in Leon offer sunrise or sunset tours, it’s also possible to camp overnight at El Hoyo, seeing both sunset and sunrise! Most camping tours include a visit to Laguna Asososca the following morning, a nearby crater lake.
🌋 Best El Hoyo tours
- Volcano Day El Hoyo Sunrise, Day or Camping (inc. Lake Asososca)
- El Hoyo Volcano One-Day Hike
- Bigfoot El Hoyo Sunrise, Sunset or Camping
14. Other volcano adventures
I know volcanoes are exciting and you might be tempted to cram in as many volcano hikes as possible, but the reality is there are only so many volcanoes you can see. There are dozens in Nicaragua alone, and if you’re doing a broader trip through Central America, you’ll likely still have plenty of volcanoes to come!
Plus, the heat in Leon is no joke. The idea of trekking all day with a heavy pack in the blazing sun will quickly become very unappealing once you’ve had a day or two of sweating it out in the sauna-like city.
Should you have the time and the inclination, and you get through all the other things to do in Leon, there are a handful of other volcano hikes you can tackle. Its position on the Cordillera de Los Maribios, a volcanic chain part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, means there are plenty of volcanoes to choose from.
In addition to the three most popular (Cerro Negro, Telica and El Hoyo), you can also hike:
- 🌋Volcan San Cristobal: the tallest volcano in Nicaragua, this is quite the challenge. You should expect a 5 – 7 hour hike to the summit. It can be tackled in one day, but camping overnight spreads the load a bit.
- 🌋 Volcan Momotombo: the volcano that destroyed the original city of Leon (Leon Viejo), Momotombo is another challenging hike, at least 3 – 4 hours to the summit (not always accessible due to volcanic activity). You can do it one long day, or camp overnight.
- 🌋 Volcan Cosigüina: this volcano is quite a drive from Leon, located in the north of the country near the Gulf of Fonesca. The attraction here is the huge, blue crater lake inside the volcano. The hike is lengthy but not as steep as some of the others. You can do it in one day, but given the driving distance, I think camping overnight is a better option.
For these more distant, challenging volcanoes, I’d recommend booking your hikes with Volcano Day.
15. Have a beach day at Las Peñitas
Just half an hour’s drive from the city is the chilled-out beach town of Las Peñitas. Home to a handful of hostels, palm-thatched restaurants along the sand and some decent surf, it’s a great place to spend the day and escape from the heat of the city.
While it’s possible to take a cheap local bus to the beach (they leave from the Mercadito de Sutiava), we actually recommend using the beach shuttle run by Bigfoot Hostel.
The reason is that the shuttle returns from the beach at 7:00 pm, allowing you to enjoy the sunset without rushing offer to find the last chicken bus. It’s $5, free for guests and I believe discounted if you’ve taken a volcano tour with them. It leaves Bigfoot in the city at 2:45 pm daily.
Las Peñitas is adjacent to the neighbouring town of Poneloya. Poneloya is slightly bigger than Las Peñitas and generally attracts Nicaraguan families vs travellers. If you’re on the chicken bus, it will first go into Poneloya and then turn around and go to Las Peñitas, so don’t panic and hop off!
We combined our trip to Las Peñitas with our sunrise hike to Telica Volcano, and it was the perfect afternoon activity after a 2:00 am wake-up. Brayden rented a surfboard and spent a few hours out on the point. I strolled the dark sand beach, played with sweet dogs, read my book in the sand and enjoyed some sunset beers.
Sadly we were in the majority of travellers who overlook this part of Nicaragua’s coast, saving our surf and sand for further south, in destinations like Popoyo and San Juan del Sur.
After visiting both of these destinations and not really loving them, I wish we had dedicated a few nights to Las Peñitas. There wasn’t anything particularly alluring that we discovered on our day trip, it was just a nice, quiet vibe. Especially if your visit would be during turtle season (more below!).
If you’ve got a couple of nights to spare, these are the best places to stay in Las Peñitas:
16. Mangrove tour at Isla Juan Venado
Located in Las Peñitas, this can be combined with a beach day if you’re happy to sacrifice some of your surf and sand time, but I wanted to mention it separately.
The Reserva Natura Isla Juan Venado is a long, thin sand island bordered by the Pacific Ocean on one side and a vast wetland and mangrove area on the other. It’s full of wildlife like birds, crocodiles and turtles.
You can kayak through the canals, take a boat tour with a local guide, or during the turtle nesting and hatching season (July – January), you can take nighttime turtle tours to see mama turtles laying their eggs on the beach or visit a hatchery to see the babies emerge from the nest.
If you’re coming from Leon for the day, you can join an organised tour like this one by Volcano Day, which includes a stop at a turtle hatchery from November – January. If you can get yourself to Las Peñitas independently, you can go directly to the ranger station, Estación de Isla Juan Venado, and find a boat there.
17. Visit Leon Viejo
The city of Leon wasn’t always in the location it is now.
The former city was founded by the Spanish in 1524 on the shores of Lake Managua. It suffered a series of earthquakes before the final nail in the coffin was an enormous eruption of Volcan Momotombo, which buried the city in ash in 1610.
The city wasn’t rediscovered until the 1960s and has since earned UNESCO World Heritage Status. They’re not of the calibre of some of the other ancient ruined cities you’ll see around the region, but a visit adds some context to Leon’s coloured history.
To visit from Leon you’ve got two choices:
- 🚌 Visit independently: you need to take a bus to La Paz Centro, where you can connect with another bus to Puerto Momotombo where the ruins are located. It should take about 1 – 1.5 hours assuming the connections are quick. Entrance is $10 USD for foreigners and I believe includes a guide.
- 🚐 Join a tour: if a multi-bus trip sounds too complicated, you can join an organised tour from Leon. Not only will a tour take care of transport, but it also combines the ruins with a visit to Laguna Asososca, a beautiful crater lake, perfect for a swim in the heat. (For another stunning crater lake, we absolutely loved Laguna de Apoyo near Granada!).
Note that the ruins are closed on Mondays.
18. Flor de Caña distillery tour
Flor de Caña Rum is one of the most well-known brands of rum in the world, and one of Nicaragua’s most iconic exports.
The distillery is located in Chichigalpa, about 45 minutes from Leon between there and the other big city in the region, Chinandega.
They offer distillery tours on the weekends, where you will spend 1.5 hours touring around the facilities, learning the history of the brand and the production process. It includes a tasting of Flor de Caña 18 (aged 18 years) and a drink of Flor de Caña 12.
To visit from Leon you’ve got two choices:
- 🚌 Visit independently: to get to the distillery independently, you need to take a bus from the Mercado La Terminal in Leon to Chichigalpa. Most buses bound for Chinandega stop by the distillery, but ask around before you board. You must book your tour in advance directly with Flor de Caña. The standard tour is 730 Cordoba (~$20 USD).
- 🚐 Join a tour: if you’d prefer the ease of transport, you can take a guided tour from Leon.
Distillery tours are only offered on Saturday and Sunday.
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Final thoughts: Things to do in Leon Nicaragua
Leon is the perfect city for people who don’t really love cities.
I was surprised by how fascinating I found the history of the city and its political ideologies. We loved wandering the colonial streets, enjoying the sunset from the rooftop of the cathedral and finding all the murals.
Equally, we loved getting out of the city and some of our most memorable moments in Nicaragua were around Leon. Seeing the sunrise from the top of Telica Volcano, and watching it set from Cerro Negro before flying down its slopes was truly epic.
Be sure to dedicate plenty of time in your Nicaragua itinerary to Leon. We much preferred it to Granada! Don’t forget to read our Leon travel guide for all the other travel info you’ll need to plan your time here.
MORE LEON POSTS
- Leon, Nicaragua Travel Guide: The City of Revolution
- Epic Volcano Boarding in Nicaragua at Cerro Negro Volcano
- Hiking Telica Volcano in Nicaragua: A Magical Sunrise
