Are you trying to get from El Salvador to Nicaragua? Does the idea of spending 14 hours on a bus sound like your worst nightmare? Have you heard one too many sketchy stories about Honduras and you’re totally scared out of going? Are you British? Whatever your reason, it sounds like you have dilemma on your hands. Luckily, Mario has the solution.
If you’ve been planning a trip to Central America, chances are you are planning to get from anywhere in El Salvador to León in Nicaragua (or vice-versa), and for whatever reason, don’t plan to stop in Honduras. After a quick google you’ve got three options.
The first option, the Tica Bus from San Salvador to León, which takes around 14 hours and crosses two borders. It’s relatively cheap, reliable and you can purchase the tickets online. You can also do this by shuttle. It’s slightly quicker because you don’t stop as often. It’s also more convenient, as the shuttle companies will pick you up from your accomodation. I even saw this journey advertised by travel agents in Antigua Guatemala. Woof.
The second is to fly from San Salvador to Managua, but why would you want to do that? It’s an extortionate amount of money for a journey that takes less than an hour, and ultimately is a very boring way to travel. It can also, depending on when you travel, mean a layover in either Panama City or Bogota, at which point you may as well take the bus.
But you’ve heard about another option.
A boat. It only runs on certain days, and the only information you can find online about it is from a collection of TikTok’s and some blog posts from around 5 years ago that describe it as some Narcos-esque escapade you can only organise with some bloke named Mario via WhatsApp. Does it even exist?
Well I’m here to tell you it does! And it is a lot more straightforward a process than you might think!
What is the boat from El Salvador to Nicaragua?
The crossing runs from La Unión in El Salvador to Potosí, in Nicaragua (and vice versa), and takes around 2 hours to cross the Gulf of Fonesca, completely bypassing Honduras. The company will even organise onward travel from Potosí to your final destination, as Potosí isn’t the best connected place.
The crossings began in 2009 during the coup d’etat in Honduras, when the Nicaraguan-Honduran border was temporarily closed. Seeing dozens of tourists stranded, a group of fishing boats decided to ferry them across the gulf to Nicaragua. This became a regular occurrence and the company, Ruta del Golfo, was established.
It used to be a less travelled and wilder way to cross between the two countries that few people dared to do. Now, however, it’s a well established, efficient (by Salvadoran standards) operation. Frequented by many, but mostly by British backpackers who need to bypass Honduras.
Now, between the boat and the bus, the boat is usually the pricier option. A ticket for the TicaBus, booked a week ahead, averages around $47. The price for the boat can depend on whether you book direct or via a transfer company, but as of Spring 2026 the price for the boat alone is around $60, but you will likely end up paying a bit more for a shuttle on one or either end. So if you’re on a tight budget and you’re strict about it, I’d opt for the bus.
However, the boat does have a couple of advantages over the bus.
Why you should take the boat
The obvious one is the speed. As mentioned earlier, the estimated journey time from San Salvador to Leon is fourteen hours. Even by Central American standards, that’s a long time to be sat on a bus. And that estimate doesn’t take into account the time spent at borders. You have to cross from El Salvador into Honduras, then out of Honduras into Nicaragua. And neither of those borders are known for their speed. Particularly Nicaragua. I’ve heard stories of people getting stuck at the Honduras-Nicaragua border for up to 6 hours, due to delays in processing entry fees, bag searches, or someone not having the correct documents in order.
In comparison, the boat itself takes between 90 minutes to 2 hours to cross the Gulf of Fonesca.
Granted, you may have a long journey on either side of the boat. But unless you’re going straight to Ometepe or San Juan del Sur, you’re unlikely to spend more than 6 hours or so on the bus.
And look, I’m no stranger to taking a much longer route to save a bit of money. Literally two weeks after I did this crossing, I opted to take an 8 hour bus from Peñas Blancas to San José, spend a night there then fly to Panama. All because it worked out $50 cheaper than flying direct from Managua. But something about sitting on a TicaBus for 14 hours gives me The Fear, I can’t explain it.
The second is the vibe. I don’t know how to better sum it up in one word, but it is a much more pleasant journey. If you catch it on a pleasant day, a boat is undeniably a very cool way to cross a border. At the risk of sounding ridiculous, there’s something very adventurous, very Race Across the World about hopping on a repurposed fishing boat to cross into a different country.
Also, the customs arrangement in Potosí feels a lot less intense than the land crossing.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s still Nicaragua. Your bags will be rifled through, you will be questioned and you will be there for a long time. But it’s a much more informal affair. The customs officers have literally set up a fold out table at the beach. Admittedly, this feels a bit surreal when you’ve been travelling since 2am.
Finally, the legality. I have the immense privilege of having been born in Wales. This means I hold a UK passport, which is incredibly powerful. However in Central America it puts you at a disadvantage. As of August 2024, all British nationals require a visa to enter Honduras. To be honest, upon googling this it seems this was a bit of a retaliation. The UK started requiring visas for Hondurans entering the UK a few months earlier, so I can’t really argue with it.
Getting a visa seems like a pain. I met a couple in Guatemala who had managed it. They said it took two whole days in the Honduran embassy and an intervention from the Honduran ambassador himself to get it sorted. I was living in Cardiff at the time, so the cost of travelling to and staying in London alone is a lot. And that’s before the visa fees.
If you have a second passport, use it with caution.
I have an Irish passport, and I was quite smug about getting to bypass the “Brit Ban”. I waved my shiny maroon passport in everyone’s faces until someone in Valladolid told me a story. He’d heard a story, similar to mine, of a dual British/EU citizen. He’d tried to enter Honduras from Guatemala, but his passport, like mine, listed his place of birth as Great Britain. He was denied entry, and it was too late in the day to get a bus back to Antigua. So ultimately he ended up paying nearly $80 on a taxi back to Antigua.
Is this story true? Like all stories on backpacker trails, maybe a little bit. More likely, this guy entered the CA-4 zone (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua) with his UK passport and tried to enter Honduras by land with his un-stamped European passport, got a bit embarrassed about his cock-up and told this grand story where he came off as a jilted hero. But it worried me enough to swallow my pride and get on the boat.
In true British fashion, though, it has become one big self-deprecating joke. As far north as Flores, Guatemala, people were calling this journey the “Brexit Boat”. This was in March 2025. And when a friend of mine took the same journey in September, he referred to it as the same. And since then, I’ve seen countless TikTok’s from British backpackers documenting their eventful crossings referring to it as such. That’s not useful information, I just thought that was funny.
I want to make something very clear: this is in no way me telling you to skip Honduras.
Everyone I met who did travel through Honduras made me green with envy at how much they enjoyed themselves. My initial plan was to actually skip El Salvador and travel through Honduras. Crossing into Copán, then to Lago de Yojoa, La Ceiba then finally to Utilla before doing the mammoth day overland to León. However, due to the visa restriction and, ultimately, a lack of time, I had to skip it. I’ll get there, one day!
My experience on the Brexit Boat
I did this journey in May 2025, as part of a super long travel day from El Tunco, El Salvador to León, Nicaragua. I want to preface this with two disclaimers.
One: I 100% recommend you be in La Union the night before the crossing. I’d met a friend in El Tunco and we had fairly limited time in Nicaragua, so didn’t want to waste a night.
Two: I didn’t really have any other choice. I can’t enter Honduras, so I’ve never taken the bus and can’t truly comment on the experience except for what friends have told me. But what I have been told is that it is loooong.
We were travelling from El Tunco, which is about three hours from La Unión.
Given how early we knew we’d have to be in La Unión for the boat, we decided to travel by shuttle. You can book directly with Mario via WhatsApp. But we decided to book with Gekko, as we needed picking up from El Tunco early in the morning.
A pre-requisite for travelling with Gekko is that you need to have filled out the pre-immigration form for Nicaragua before you travel. The driver did check this as we got on the bus, so consider this a word to the wise. I paid $90 all in for pick up from El Tunco, boat crossing to Potosí, and onward transfer to León. A tough hit to take, but ultimately worth it, in my opinion.
So, at 3am we were sat on the side of the highway, clutching our bags and waiting to be picked up. Once we were, however, the driver took us on a bit of a magical mystery tour around La Libertad, before finally hitting the highway near San Salvador airport. We did get to stop for a quick breakfast at a gas station about an hour outside of La Unión.
At this point, our driver and his friend decided it was time to wake up.
It was late enough in the morning in his opinion, so he started blasting some salsa compilation on Youtube on full blast. I’d been in Central America for a few months by this point, so was used to it. I had a driver on a shuttle from Antigua to Santa Ana watching Red Hot Chilli Peppers music videos on an iPad taped to his dashboard, so this felt quite tame in comparison, so I went straight back to sleep. For my travel companion, who had just landed in El Salvador around 12 hours before, this felt like some weird trial-by-fire introduction to Latin American travel days.
When we finally arrived in La Unión, the drivers directed us into a queue of travellers all queuing outside the immigration office. Mostly Brits. At this point staff presented us with different coloured wristbands to correspond with our departure time. I’ve read online from people who have done this trip pre-2024 who describe it as a bit ad-hoc, only running once Mario turns up to the port.
I can safely say that is not the case at all anymore. He has a team of staff helping with operations, and there were two full boats running the morning I was there. We didn’t have any copies of our passport with us, which is a requirement to get into Nicaragua. But when I mentioned this to the woman in charge of organising our group, she waved us off and told us she’d “sort it out”. Not really sure what this meant but she had my passport in her hand so I took her word for it.
They collected our passports and took them into the immigration office to be processed
Then they called us to collect them one by one. Interestingly, they don’t stamp you out of El Salvador. I asked an immigration officer if this was normal, and he told me people sometimes get turned away on the Nicaraguan side. Apparently it happens often enough that now they just note your details and if you don’t come back on the boat, they log that you’ve left the country. And if you have to come back, you don’t have to go through immigration again. My Spanish isn’t fantastic but that’s what I understood from the conversation.
When the previous boat returned, they made us take a group photo with the immigration official outside the office, which happened to me a lot in El Salvador. Someone in our group jokingly asked if they were taking a photo in case we sank in the gulf. The officer just laughed and waved us off. Not exactly a no, is it.
Finally, we were led down the pier to the boat. I won’t lie, I’m not sure what I was expecting. But a boat that looked more like one of the lanchas on Lake Atítlan. The back two rows were full of petrol canisters that smelled so strong I briefly wondered if I was going to make it to Nicaragua without some kind of neurological deficit. But, of course, once we started moving, it didn’t actually matter.
I’d heard some horror stories about the crossing itself.
It’s bumpy, its wet, there’s no shade, it’s long. Honestly, my experience was quite pleasant. Maybe we got lucky with the conditions, I don’t know, but the crossing was fairly smooth, and quite dry. The boat also had a cover, so it didn’t feel like I was being cooked alive.
They also gave us lifejackets and told us not to take off until we were tied off in Potosí. Which, to be fair, is a step up from every other boat I’d taken elsewhere in Central America where they tell you to get on and maybe pray to your saint of choice for safe passage. We managed to get a glimpse of Isla del Tigre, in Honduras, the forbidden land! I have to be honest though. At this point my early morning caught up with me and I actually slept for most of the crossing. Of course this may have had something to do with the gasoline.
About 2 hours later we pulled up in Potosí. The crew tied us off to a pier that has seen better days, and we very carefully disembarked. I’ve seen photos and videos that show people disembarking on the beach itself, so I think we were very lucky to be able to tie off and avoid getting wet. Especially given we were about to face the legendary Nicaraguan customs process.
I mentioned earlier that the immigration process in Potosí feels like an informal affair and I wasn’t kidding.
You’re helped off the boat and led to what is literally a fold-out table on the grass just off the beach, where you have to fill out another immigration form. Meanwhile, a customs officer goes through every part of your bag methodically. Some people will say this is the same form you fill out online, and it is similar, but it’s not quite the same, so having done it ahead of time won’t save you. If you’re crossing in the morning, you will likely arrive in Potosí around 10/11am, and there isn’t much shade anywhere here. So make sure you have enough water as you will probably be here for a few hours.
I think we caught the customs officers on a good day. He searched everything methodically and asked us all lots of questions, but he was smiling and cracking jokes the whole time. He pulled a cuddly toy out of one girls bag and told her that she couldn’t bring mascotas into the country. Unfortunately, like everyone else, she’d read about people getting turned away for tiny infractions, and panicked for a second at the thought of getting back on the boat. Until he cracked up laughing at his own joke. Hilarious.
Bag searched, it’s time to actually get into Nicaragua.
It involves yet another round of questions, this time in a building next to what looks like a repurposed baseball diamond. You have to hand over your passport and the confirmation email of your pre-arrival form, if you’ve done it. It cost me around $10 to enter the country, but I did pay less for my entry fee than those who didn’t (they paid around $18), so that’s your incentive to fill it out.
You can only pay the entry fee in US dollars, not Cordoba. They also gave me what I thought was a receipt but was actually my tourist slip, which our shuttle driver told me very sternly not to lose it, as I’d need it to leave the country. No idea what happens if you lose it, I looked after that receipt like it was my own child.
If this is your first time in Nicaragua, this is where you might start to feel a bit warm. Nica heat is different to anywhere else in Central America. I can’t explain it, it just feels oppressively hot all along the Pacific coast. Luckily for me and you, there are often locals at this point selling ice creams and cold drinks. Yum. If you have any dollar coins left at this point,use them here. You can’t use them in Nicaragua. Two dollars down and a coconut ice cream later, we bundled back onto the hottest minibus in Nicaragua for a two hour ride to León. We arrived at our hostel just after 3pm. Just in time for a late lunch, sunset and a couple of drinks before crashing out in bed around 9pm like a couple of wild party animals.
How you can cross the Gulf of Fonesca by boat!
As I said earlier, I booked this crossing with Gekko Explorer. We needed picking up from El Tunco, so we didn’t really have any other option. Ruta del Golfo, the company that runs the crossings, didn’t offer that service at the time. However, if you plan to be in La Unión the night before, you can book directly through Ruta del Golfo. They’ll also organise your onward travel as well for a fee. If you can be in La Unión the night before, I do advise it. Setting my alarm for 2:30am made me feel physically sick.
If you’re going from Nicaragua to El Salvador, I’m not too sure how this works. I only met people who booked via Gekko Explorer, and didn’t meet anyone who stayed in Potosí overnight. La Union is more set up for tourism, given it’s the base for the Conchagua volcano and the jumping off point for the various Salvadoran and Honduran nature reserves around the gulf. Potosí, however, is less so. However, you can book this trip with pick up in León online, so that may be the best option.
If you’re booking direct with Ruta del Golfo, you can do so by sending them a WhatsApp.
They do have an email address. However, like with literally anything else you’ll need to book in Latin America, you will get a quicker and more reliable response via WhatsApp at +503 6956-1217. They also have an office in La Unión. But the boat doesn’t run everyday, and the crossings book out days, sometimes weeks ahead so you’ll need to have it booked way before you arrive here.
When you arrive in La Unión the Ruta del Golfo staff direct you to wait outside the immigration office, where someone from the company takes your passport in to log it. You’ll then, depending on how many people are travelling with you that day, be given a wristband to correspond with which boat you’re taking.
When you arrive in Potosí, you’ll first have your bag searched at a customs checkpoint on the beach. I recommend packing your back the night before in a way that makes this as easy as possible. You’ll also have to fill out a form and bring it to the immigration office. Pay the entry fee, and the officer will give you a slip of paper. Do not lose this paper! You have to present it when you leave the country if you’re leaving by land into Honduras or Costa Rica.
Finally, your driver will either load you on to a pre-booked shuttle.
Or they’ll direct you into town to catch the bus to Chinandenga. From here, you can get onward travel to León and Managua.
If you’re doing this journey in reverse and you want to travel by public bus, onward travel from La Unión is super easy. Most journeys further into El Salvador will require changing in San Salvador. Catch the 304 bus, which will take you to the capital. From here, onward travel to El Tunco, Juayua and Santa Ana is super easy.
Tips
Leaving El Salvador
- There is no exit fee for El Salvador. Leaving via La Unión, you’re unlikely to get hustled for one as everything is handled by the boat company.
- Arrive as early as you can. These boats book out days, if not weeks ahead, and the immigration office is tiny. If you arrive late they may refuse you boarding.
On the boat
- The gulf can be quite choppy. They’ll pack your bags under a waterproof cover but that doesn’t guarantee they’ll stay dry. Pack any electronics and valuables in waterproof bags, and consider bringing a waterproof jacket
- Equally, it will probably be incredibly hot and sunny. Bring a hat or some other way to cover your head to stay out of the sun.
Entering Nicaragua
- If you fill out the pre-clearance form, you can expect to pay around $10 to enter Nicaragua. If you don’t, the entry fee is around $18.
- They also may turn you away at the border if you don’t complete it.
- Expect to spend at least two hours at this border, to allow for your bags to be searched, documents to be checked etc. If you’re travelling onwards with a shuttle you need to wait for everybody to clear the border which can take forever
- However, you should be prepared to be here all day. Nicaraguan border crossings are famously strict and can be unpredictable, and they turn people away often.
- Look up the list of prohibited items for Nicaragua before you travel. It’s a long travel day to fall at the last hurdle.
- Equally, certain occupations are… frowned upon. If you work in journalism or for any kind of charity or NGO, you might want to consider bending the truth a bit if you get asked. I’m not condoning lying to immigration officials, just suggesting you get a bit creative if they ask you.
General Tips
- Pack bug spray and sun cream – You’ll spend a lot of time sitting around on either side. I found La Unión, like most seaside towns, to be very mosquito heavy. And there is little to no shade in Potosí.
- Further to the above, bring lots of water. There are stores in La Unión near the immigration office. In Potosí there was a guy selling drinks and ice creams but you can’t get to him until you’ve cleared customs, which takes ages.