It’s no secret that hostels are budget friendly and great for budget travelers. When you stay at hostels you get what you pay for. If your room costs five dollars, you know to expect nothing more than a bed, a mattress, and some sheets if your lucky. This is typical of hospitals and is particularly expected. Oasis Granada in Nicaragua is a far cry from the cookie cutter hostels found in central America. This five-star hotel can easily be accommodated up to a hostel. Oasis Granata is an open air spansih style structure with more than enough places to sit and read, eat, or just hang out.
Now there are dorm rooms in the hostel. These rooms are about seven dollars a night and worth every penny. These dorm rooms are pure luxury compared to other places I’ve stayed in Central America. The beds are made into a shelter by the study of strong wood. This is super nice because most hostels have cheap metal shelter beds that make a lot of noise and pain getting out of the top of the shelter. Those in the Oasis of Granada are the complete opposite. They are comfortable, quite, and in the perfect place to rest at the end of the day.
The rooms house about eight bunk beds. Each bed comes with its own lock and lock. The goats are large enough to fit into a normal backpack style if needed. Otherwise, there is plenty of room for your valuables. There are also 2 or 3 fans in each room and the temperature at night time is very comfortable.
The hotel also offers many freebies to attract the budget traveler. There is free internet in the middle of the hostel. There are 6 to 8 computers that can be used until 11 at night, after the hotel security closes them at night. Computers are in pretty good shape, but if you’re not up to speed on your typing skills, you’d be in for some trouble. The keyboard keys are only used to type most letters to the right.
With over 200 DVDs to choose from you are almost garuteed to find the movie you want. There are two different places to watch your movie. If you have a few people who all want to watch the same movie, you can use the biggest tv that is above the pool. There are some tables and chairs here you can sit or watch from inside the pool. There is also a smaller tv where two people can plug in the provided headphones and watch a movie on the smaller tv in the lounge area. That all his free will be great. There is a hotel down the street from this one that instructs its customers to watch movies or .
Another nice thing the hospital offers is free 15 minute phone to the US and Canada. They aren’t even really strict on the time. As long as someone is not waiting to use the phone. I spent about an hour calling friends and family without any problem.
There is a kitchen in the hotel, but as far as I can tell it only serves breakfast. The breakfast meals are all very good and very cheap. Most lunches are between two and three dollars. There is also free coffee with milk and sugar all day. If you want some soda or water, they have it for sale at the front desk. Im not sure if its ok to use the kitchen though. I have had several experiences with this. Sometimes I use the kitchen for nothing. But then one time the lady guard took the food from me and demanded to cook it, saying that I was not allowed to use the kitchen.
The showers were hot, a luxury I rarely had in Central America. But this was a different kind of air. Most hostels don’t like it. I didn’t really meet when I was there. Usually I’ll meet half a dozen people in a matter of minutes at other venues. I’m not sure if it’s because of the environment or if maybe people just pass by here so they don’t have to worry about making friends. I don’t really know, but I can’t talk to anyone. The only downfall to this hotel is that, once it’s quiet time at 11pm, everything is closed. No TV, internet, or phone calls. One of my friends even hung out in one of the hammocks until late at night and found security guards sleeping in the tent next to him one night!
