From the ferry ride to the volcanic Island of Ometepe. The weather looks fine to me!
Trip planning is a tedious task with the amount of factors to consider; price, safety, location, culture, language, and climate. When planning last fall's off-season trip to Nicaragua, weather was a big factor.
Nicaragua's climate is divided into two seasons, summer and winter, or dry and rainy, respectively.
Summer, or dry, season is January-June. Besides being low on storms and rainfall, the fact that it also takes place during our popular summer travel months, makes this the busiest season for the country's tourism.
Conversely, the winter wet season takes place the rest of the year, July through December. In addition to falling on the tail end of our summer vacation months, the reports say that this is a less than ideal time to visit the country due to the rainfall.
Photo: vianica.com
I was planning the trip for the end of September into October, despite the concerns about rainfall. Since this was an off-peak travel period, my miles went far and it only cost me $100.
My trip was 6 days. How many times was I stymied by rain? I can only remember once (in a kayak, which you can read about here)
The rain seems to peak in different areas at different times, as noted in the graph above. So In the region around Managua, just north of Lake Nicaragua, September and October aren't even at their peak in rainfall, making this a fine time for travel with off-peak travel rewards (how I did it for $100, here). Even when there was rain, it was a brief afternoon shower, nothing that would set you back for the entire day.
A note about temperature: it was still plenty hot through the day for this 'winter'. No chills this close to the equator!
The best travel moments are uncovering the culture of the destination, not being one more tourist in a swamped industry! So yes, dig a little deeper into your weather research before deciding against Nicaragua's OR any countries' winter.
Beach time on the west coast in the famous surf town, San Juan del Sur. Looks fine to me!