Cheap Car Rentals in Managua (MGA)

Puerto Salvador Allende is a port in the city of Managua. It is a breezy lakefront complex is now a destination for tourists and locals alike. With around 20 dining venues - ranging from casual food stands to more elegant restaurants - plus playgrounds for children and pathways for strolling, it's a good bet in the afternoon or evening, especially around sunset when the views over the lake are particularly lovely.

Inside the Palacio de la Cultura y Biblioteca Nacional is the national museum. The timeline starts only 500 million years ago, as Nicaragua is one of the newest places on earth, and takes visitors through the formation of the lakes and volcanoes – not to mention gold mines – before getting to pre-Columbian statuary and one of the best pottery collections in the country, all well signed and explained. Other exhibits whiz through the Spanish-colonial period before landing in the Sandino and the Sandinista eras.

The Arboretum Nacional are modest gardens, inconveniently located halfway between Barrio Martha Quezada and the Plaza Monumental on Av Bolívar (well, it’s convenient if you’re making the hot 40-minute walk between them), features more than 200 species of plants, divided into Nicaragua’s five major life zones. Of these only the dry tropical forest and central lowlands look happy. Your fee includes a guided tour, where you’ll see a madrino, the national tree, and sacuanjoche, the national flower.

An important square for Nicaragua as this is the place where the Sandinistas celebrated victory after they overthrew the Somoza dictatorship in 1979. The USA government was not amused when the pictures were broadcast all over the world and their ally was forced into exile. Bordering the square are the old cathedral, the national palace, casa de los pueblos and Parque Central with three eternal flames burning at a memorial for three national heroes, Santos Lopez, Fonseca and Borge (Commandantes of the FSLN). There also are statues of Sandino and Ruben Dario, the national poet.