Granada

Granada claims to be the oldest European settlement in mainland America—founded in 1524 by Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba, who named it after the Spanish city recently conquered from the Moors. For five centuries this lake-adjacent city accumulated colonial architecture, Conservative political tradition, and conflict with Liberal Leon that eventually cost both cities the capital status they contested.

The colonial center that survives today represents Granada's defining asset: pastel-painted buildings, tile-roofed churches, and a central plaza that tourism has restored to prosperity. Tourists walk cobblestone streets that 19th-century filibusters, civil war combatants, and revolutionary armies also traversed. Lake Nicaragua—one of the world's largest freshwater bodies—provides the boat tours to volcanic islands that round out visitor itineraries.

Granada's tourism economy creates employment in hospitality, restaurants, and guide services that agricultural areas lack. Yet political uncertainty under the Ortega government dampens international arrivals, with visitors weighing colonial charm against authoritarian context. The city demonstrates how heritage tourism can generate sustainable income when political conditions permit.

By 2026, expect Granada's tourism to track broader Nicaragua travel sentiment, heritage preservation to continue benefiting from tourist revenue, and the tension between international sanctions and local hospitality economy to persist without resolution.