Driving from Costa Rica to Nicaragua
Introduction
I am a very happy-go-lucky (hence the blog name), no stress, figure it out as we go, ‘wing it’ kind of person. Because of this, I have made all of the mistakes that you could possibly make with driving from Costa Rica into Nicaragua and Panama by car, including being turned away at the border. It turns out, you cannot ‘wing‘ a border crossing in Costa Rica if you plan on bringing your car with you (otherwise sure, you’ll be fine).
By now, I have driven across the border from Costa Rica to Nicaragua several times, always in my own Costa Rican vehicle. I live out of my car, so I cross with kayaks, surfboards and everything I own. The process is actually fine once you know what you are supposed to do. The problem is the first time you go no one tells you, and there are no signs or instructions on what these steps are.
This is the blog I wish I had found at the time. Honestly, this is the topic that prompted me to start this blog in the first place, to share the valuable information that I could not find elsewhere. Here, I will explain in detail exactly what you need to do to successfully drive from Costa Rica to Nicaragua in your own car, up to date with recent process changes.
Let’s start with the basic information you are looking for:
- Yes, you absolutely can drive your own vehicle from Costa Rica to Nicaragua
You need to complete paperwork in advance at either the Registro Nacional (6 offices in the whole country) or Correos de Costa Rica (national post offices).
- No, you cannot drive a rental car from Costa Rica to Nicaragua or vice versa
How to get to the border
There is only one official land crossing from Costa Rica into Nicaragua: this is the Penas Blancas border. It is located about one hour north of the city of Liberia, which is a common airport to access Costa Rica, especially from the states, Canada and even Zurich, Switzerland.
As you continue north past Liberia to the border on Route 1, also known as the Pan-American highway, you will meet a large queue of trucks stopped on the right side of the road. In a car you can skip the queue of trucks by driving around them, they have their own system.
The Penas Blancas border is not open 24/7. It’s generally open between 6am – 10pm, but closes at 8pm on Sundays. Over the holidays it may even close earlier (5:30pm). The often post monthly opening hours on this Facebook page.
Price of driving from Costa Rica to Nicaragua
It will set you back roughly 50 USD to get the documentation needed to drive your car across the border. This needs to be done in advance at a Registro Nacional or Correos office (more details below).
It is an additional 20 USD or so per person to cross the borders, this applies whether you travel by car or not.
Step by step guide for driving from Costa Rica to Nicaragua by car
There are several steps and documentation involved in crossing the border from Costa Rican into Nicaragua. Below, I have divided the process of travelling by car across the Costa Rica to Nicaraguan border into three stages:
- what you need to do before you go to the border
- what you need to do at the border
- what you need to do once you’ve crossed successfully
Before your trip (24,000 colones or 48 USD):
1. Before crossing the border with your car, you must either go to 1) one of the 6 Registro Nacional offices in the entire country or 2) to a local Correos de Costa Rica days before your trip to get your permission documentation in order for your car.
NOTE: You can only do this at Correos if you have a Cédula or Dimex card. If using your passport, you must go to a Registro Nacional. The person who is named as the car owner must do this step.
2. In the office, find or ask for the ‘Salidas del País‘ form (leaving the country)
3. Pay around 10,000 colones (20USD) to the Timbres (stamp duty) person. Cash only
4. Go up to the desk with your filled-out form, timbres receipt, your car’s título (car title) and your driver’s license (if you haven’t found the timbres person, the desk will direct you)
5. Pay the 14,000 colones (28 USD) fee. Cash or card accepted
6. They stamp and sign your form, and print a sheet out for you to bring to the border. Check your name and car details are correct, and the length of time you are allowed to leave the country for
7. Print a few copies of your passport and licenses
Optional: you can additionally pay your personal exit tax (5 USD) in advance inside most Costa Rica BCCR banks on the machines (called “pago del impuesto de salida terrestre“). You do not need to have a bank account in Costa Rica to do this. NOTE: this step is NOT car related, but something each person has to pay before exiting Costa Rica. This can otherwise be completed AT the border: there is not usually a queue at this part of the border crossing.
Arriving at the Peñas Blancas border:
Here is my interactive map of the border set-up to help, it is not at all sign posted and you will wander around like a lost puppy and there is noone to tell you where to go. Fun!
- Drive to Penas Blancas, you can drive past all the trucks queuing to the right, they have their own system.
2. Park up. There will be borderline aggressive men or women in hi-vis jackets telling you that you have to pay for parking, and they will watch your car. They won’t, so we always just park here (marked P on map) for free instead, on the right-hand side of the Costa Rica main immigration office.
3. First (point 1 on map), you must pay your exit tax of 6,000 colones (10 USD) before heading into customs. This is the teeny house across the street to the right of the custom’s office. They will give you a receipt.
4. Second (point 2 on map), go into the custom’s office you parked outside, show them your exit tax and your passport. They will stamp and sign you out of the country. You don’t have to pay anything here.
5. Finally (point 3 on map), for the car you will have to go to one final teenier house to the left and across the road from the central customs building. Queue here outside the house and have your título, car exit form and passport ready to go. No payments here.
6. Get back in the car and start driving from the Costa Rica to the Nicaragua side! You will be stopped on the Costa Rica side by a police man to check you have all your stamps, completed documentation, exit taxes and everything in order to drive across to Nicaragua border control.
Crossing to the Nicaragua border (19 USD)
Strap in, this is where it gets complicated and super counter-intuitive! However, everything centres around the Nicaragua border control building.
You will be instructed to drive through a car sanitisation area to your right that looks like a car wash. You can just drive straight through slowly, no need to stop.
Park up, there are a tonne of parking spaces outside the main Nicaragua custom’s building that is right in front of you.
1. First, you must have your car checked and afterwards bring all your luggage into the building to be scanned and signed off.
Before entering the building, you must find your Aduanas person (customs person) to check your car out in the car park. This person may be wandering around outside in an orange hi vis. Sometimes there is only one aduanas person, sometimes two.
They may already be inspecting other cars, and depending on how busy it is, they may already have a queue of people like you following them. Yep. No one tells you this by the way. There are no signs, but trust me, this is the first step on the Nicaragua side. Join to queue, or if you’re lucky, ask them to come look at your car: “¿Puedes revisar nuestro carro por favor?”, and guide them to your car where all the luggage is.
The aduanas person will ask you how many bags you have (“¿cuantas maletas?”), and mark down what you say on their little form. The expectation is that however many bags you say, are the number of bags you will have to bring into the building to run through the scanner. I have gotten away with leaving small bags and shopping bags behind, but that’s up to aduanas.
Pack your car well. You might get away with leaving food items and sports equipment in the car. I just ignore it in my count and pretend they don’t exist during the checks, it has worked every time since I stopped asking. The aduanas person will give you a slip of paper once their check is complete.
Now you must bring the number of bags specified on your form inside the building to be scanned. You will need to show your slip of paper signed by aduanas and have it signed by the people inside at the scanner (make SURE they sign it – they don’t always know who has a car and who has not).
2. Second, head inside the building with your slip of paper, your passport, your license, your car title, photocopies heck bring everything just in case.
You will have to pay 1 USD to enter the building. During COVID times there was a window to the right we had to go to first to show our COVID certs. This has not happened in the past years since though.
Inside of the building, go to the right side of the and queue up for your entry stamp. Here, you will be asked where you are staying and for how long you will be in Nicaragua. They will likely ask for proof through a ticket that you are leaving, which is nuts because you are travelling by car. You can wing it and buy a bus ticket on the fly if they ask, just say you are looking for the confirmation and step out of the queue. Pay the 13 USD entry tax to Nicaragua here, it’s cash only and tey accept dollars or cordoba.
3. Finally, there are some additional car specific queues you must present at.
After the scanner, on the back left side of the building there are 2 queues and one more car fee and final documentation to show. I know, it never ever ends. The queue here is normally quite annoying and long. Here you need your license, car title, passport and copies of all three. They have a sign called ‘Tramites Vehiculos’.
Now, go to the queue to the far right of this one to pay a few dollars (I don’t remember exactly, maybe 5 USD) for the sanitising of your car that happened when you drove in.
Finally, you can get back in your car and start driving from Costa Rica into Nicaragua! Give yourself a HUGE pat on the back.
After you cross (around 5 USD)
Driving out of Peñas Blancas and into Nicaragua, a final police man or woman will stop you to check all of your documentation was completed correctly. Beware the aggresive people at this point, upon leaving the border and entering Nicaragua. This is my least favourite part of the crossing by a mile. If someone tries to make you stop, only stop for police or folks in a hi-vis.
You must buy car insurance on the Nicaragua side. If you get stopped by police in Nicaragua (and you will), they will ask for your license, title and insurance. This is actually super easy and super cheap. Immediately as you exit Peñas Blancas, park your car on the right and go to the little ‘seguros’ desk. Pay cash for insurance. I think it’s around 5 USD.
Lessons I have learned in the border crossing from Costa Rica to Nicaragua
Our first experieince of driving from Costa Rica to Nicaragua could not have been worse. We were turned away at the border crossing and had to wait 3 days to return to cross again. When we did actually cross we made even more mistakes. Here’s all the dumb shit we did so you hopefully don’t have to:
Lesson 1 – You need to have your Título (car deed or title) with your name and passport information on it to cross the border.
Once you buy a car in Costa Rica, you meet with a lawyer and the old owner signs over the tile to the new. However, you need to head into a Registro Nacional about a week later to pick up the title in your name. I don’t think I fully understood this from the lawyer, so technically I didn’t even have the Título (car deed or title) in my own way.
There’s absolutely no driving from Costa Rica to Nicaragua without that. It’s free, you just need to collect it once your lawyer gives you confirmation that it’s ready.
Lesson 2: Make sure the passport information that’s on your car título matches your current passport information.
If you have gotten a new passport after purchasing your car, you will need to go to a Registro Nacional to update your título with your new passport information before your trip.
Lesson 3: You must go to the Registro Nacional office or Correos (post office) before you attempt to cross the border by car.
The first time my partner and I drove up to the border we decided to wing it, and see if we could cross by car. We couldn’t find good enough information online on whether we could or not in our own car but it seemed possible. It was Friday evening, and we were turned away because we did not get the paperwork we needed.
The office for the paperwork is only opened during normal business hours from Monday – Friday. We had to wait until Monday for the office to re-open to get the paperwork. An expensive mistake.
Lesson 4: Pack your car well before you go!
Make sure everything is in a bag, and that there are not a tonne of loose bags or items in the car. You will be expected to bring everything inside to be scanned once at the border, and they will check your car and count your bags (even boards) Don’t be like me. Pack it well.
We live from out of our car, housesitting as we go. This means no homebase or storage unit. We have 3 surfboards, two kayaks and a tonne of loose bags and suitcases everywhere. The first time we crossed, our car was a hot mess.
Lesson 5: Make sure to bring dollars if you don’t have the local Nicaraguan currency.
We did not bring any USD to the border with us, only some Costa Rican colones and our bank cards. This was a mistake. On the Nicaraguan side, we only had colones and they did not accept bank cards. We had to be escorted to Nicaragua (ironically, without visas) to exchange some of our dollars to Nicaraguan córdoba.
Lesson 6: Bring photocopies of your licence, passport and car title.
At the next stand, we realised we did not bring photocopies of our passports and the car title (título). They will not print them for you at the desk. Luckily, someone escorted us over to Nicaragua (again) to a small kiosk to get photocopies.
Lesson 7: Crossing during the holidays.
Avoid crossing around Christmas and Easter. The border gets super busy and there are shorter opening hours. It took us 10 hours to cross on Christmas Eve into Nicaragua.
Lesson 8: You can not bring a drone in or out of Nicaragua – it is illegal.
Drones are illegal in Nicaragua and it will be confiscated, and you may even be brought in for heavy questioning by the border police. It is not worth it, save yourself the hassle (or hide it super well).
FAQ
How long can you cross the border for?
Previously it was two weeks, but in June 2024 this changed and all certs are valid for 6 months out of Costa Rica! A huge win.
How long does it take to cross the border by car?
It totally depends. It tends to be quiter during the day midweek, but really you can get lucky or unlucky.
The minimum it’s taken us is is 2 hours, the maximum it’s taken us was 10 hours on Christmas Eve. Avoid travel around Christmas or Easter Week if possible.
Is there a way to speed up the crossing?
Yes, you can pay a local Nica or Tico in a hi-vis jacket to escort you through the crossing. They know the process in and out, which desk you need to go to and in what order. Often they will queue for you and even skip the queue (they have a deal with the workers) speeding up the crossing for you.
We did this one time only, the first time, because I was near crying with frustration that I could not understand or figure out what we were supposed to do at any moment. After that we understood the process, and crossed on our own from then on. However, if I was in a big rush one day I would take the hit.
Is there Wifi at the border?
Yes, there is free Wifi at the border that is not password protected, which is a rarity in Costa Rica. This is super for buying a last minute proof of exit bus ticket if you forgot in advance.
Can you cross the border by car on a tourist visa?
Yes! In 2024, there was a super exciting news announcement that you could now get your Tramite (visa) of permission to drive from Costa Rica to Nicaragua or Panama with your car in any Correos de Costa Rica (any national post office). Unfortunately, this only applies if you have a cédula (national identity card). This means only Ticos or residents.
If you are on a tourist visa, you will have to go to a Registro Nacional office for your paperwork.
Is driving from Costa Rica to Nicaragua safe?
Yes, once you very strictly observe the rules of the road. No speeding, no overtaking where you shouldn’t. All of that goes in Costa Rica, not in Nicaragua. The police will find any reason to pull you over and fine you.
If pulled over, you need to show all your documention, license and car insurance. Your options are to pay the fine on the spot (normally between 15 – 40 USD), or they take your license and tell you to go into the office and dispute or make the payment. Who’s going to do that? What if you’re not here when I come back? A good trick is to have an extra wallet with only 40-50 USD in it and show them that it’s all you have.
Useful Spanish vocabulary
El carro – the car
La frontera – the border
El título – the car title (deed)
La licencia – the driving licence
El dueno/la duena – the owner (male)/the owner (female)
Aduanas – customs
La cédula – national Costa Rican ID card
La dimex – foreign residency card
Los documentos – the documents
Salir de país – to exit the country
Any questions or concerns on the process?
Comment below! I would be happy to answer – I know how stressful the drive across the border can be.
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