San Juan del Norte is a small town and municipality in Rio San Juan department of Nicaragua.
San Juan de Nicaragua (a.k.a. San Juan del Norte or Greytown) is a small port town of 1500 people, on the Caribbean coast of (south-east) Nicaragua. It has a long history as a port town but its glory days are long over. Back in the middle of the 19th century its strategic location at the mouth of the Rio San Juan made it the starting point of one of the only feasible transcontinental crossings of the Americas. Cornelius Vanderbilt invested here and people such as Mark Twain have passed through and written about it. But after the USA built a railroad to California in 1869, the town slowly fell into a slumber from which it seems to not have awaken until now. However as the jungle just out of town and the fish in the river might draw an adventurous traveller, the Nicaraguan government decided to do something and has built an airport which makes the ride in a small lancha from San Carlos a thing of the past. The airport replaces it with a smooth scenic flight across half the country with views of Ometepe and the river.
Despite being connected by land to the rest of Nicaragua, there is no form of overland transport short of you hiking through the jungle.
There is an airport with regular flights to and from Managua via San Carlos. For more see La Costeña's website.
You can get there from San Carlos with a 6-hour boat (fast one, slow one 11 hr) which leaves San Carlos Tu Th F at 06:00.
You can reach San Juan del Norte from Bluefields once a week as well. This boat leaves San Juan del Norte for Bluefields on W 08:00. However, this schedule is very liable to change, as the boat is the same one that connects Bluefields and Big Corn Island and may be down for maintenance or out of order without prior notice.
There are plans are to connect San Juan del Norte with Puerto Limon and Tortuguero in Costa Rica.
The town is entirely walkable and everywhere, where you can't walk you will have to take a boat.
You can also visit the indigenous Rama living in the Indigo Maiz.
San Juan del Norte is popular with fishing tourists.
If you like seafood, you're in luck, almost all restaurants offer at least one variety of camarones (shrimp) or fish. A Caribbean specialty that can be had here is rondon. Try it.
Primary administrative division