Hints Archives ⋆ Page 46 of 255 ⋆ The Passenger

March 5, 2023April 16, 2023

Colonial house

Hotel El Arca De Noe, Granada (Nicaragua)

The Hotel El Arca de Noé is the perfect starting point for a trip to Nicaragua. Located in the city center of Granada it is situated in a former colonial house with a garden in its center. Once you’re overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of the streets you can enter this oasis and relax in one of the many hammocks or rocking chairs. The rooms are all located around this patio and in the mornings they serve you breakfast there: either the traditional Gallo Pinto (beans and rice) or pancakes with bananas.

March 4, 2023April 16, 2023

Lago Cocibolca

The Cocibolca or Lago de Nicaragua is the second-largest inland lake in Latin America after Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and Peru. It stretches from the border to Costa Rica in the south to the city of Granada in the north. The water of the lake runs through the Río San Juan into the Caribbean Sea and this river can also be used by larger ships. That was discovered in 1525 by the Spanish, but also in the 17th century by pirates attacking the city of Granada.

March 4, 2023April 17, 2023

Aeropuerto Internacional Augusto C. Sandino

The airport of Managua, Nicaragua, is a rather small one: it has only one runway and six gates, but it transports more than a million passengers every year. The Aeropuerto Internacional Augusto César Sandino (MGA) is the only international airport of the country and located next to the Panamericana, 11 kilometers afar of the capital city. Most flights are operated by Copa Airlines from Panama, but there are also connections with Aeroméxico, with the three largest airlines of the USA (Delta, American, United) and you can go to La Habana and Caracas.

March 3, 2023April 16, 2023

Museo Nacional de Antropologia

The indigenous people that settled in the Americas before the arrival of European colonialists fascinate many of us today. In Mesoamerica these were the Maya, Aztecs, Olmecs and Toltecs; they left many traces on the continent and much more than just temples. If you’re interested in that you should use a trip to Ciudad de México to visit the Museo Nacional de Antropologia. It hosts a large collection of artefacts and is located in the Chapultepec area.

March 3, 2023April 16, 2023

Chapultepec

In the east of Ciudad de México you’ll find Chapultepec, the hill of the grasshoppers. It is a large garden and an important recreation zone for the people living in this vast capital city. It was a settlement area of the early cultures of the Toltecs and Aztecs. Today it contains a lake with many restaurants, a zoological garden, a botanical garden, a castle and lots of museums – including the famous Museo Nacional de Antropologia.

March 3, 2023April 16, 2023

Zócalo

Do you remember the opening scene of Spectre by Sam Mendes? When Daniel Craig as James Bond hunts terrorists on the Día de los Muertos in Ciudad de México? The filming location was the Plaza de la Constitución, most often referred to as the Zócalo. It is the main square of the city and a tradition of colonial times: Latin American cities all have such a central square (that is most often called Plaza de Armas). In CDMX this place once hosted a memorial for Spanish king Carlos IV during colonial times which was removed after the Mexican independence and only the base or socket (Spanish: Zócalo) remained.

March 3, 2023April 16, 2023

Shuttle gurus

Fiesta Inn Aeropuerto CDMX, Ciudad de México

Due to a change in the flight schedule of Aeroméxico we had 25 hours of layover in Ciudad de México. The perfect option to have a look on the capital city and to warm up with Latin America. But where to spend the night? There are two hotels inside the airport building, but staying there is costly and you probably can’t get out of the hotel easily. Fortunately, there is the Fiesta Inn close to terminal 1.

March 2, 2023April 10, 2023

Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de México

The international airport of Ciudad de México (MEX) is named after Mexican president Benito Juárez and has one specialty: it is very close to the city and only 6.5 kilometers afar from the Zócalo. The airport was opened in 1931, has two runways and two terminals (terminal 1 is for international flights, terminal 2 for domestic and local flights). If you have tickets for a connecting flight you can change between both terminals using a train that is running around the airport.

February 21, 2023April 10, 2023

They’re all mad there

If you’re going on a business trip to Frankfurt you can decide to do it the standard way and sleep in a shiny modern business hotel. Or you go for the crazy option and book the 25hours close to the main railway station. Yes, the red light district is not far and the atmosphere surrounding the hotel isn’t the best – but the hotel compensates that with lovely decorations, unusual facilities and great food.

February 19, 2023April 10, 2023

One hundred forty steps

When you’re at Göttingen and want to see some animals, you don’t have too many options: the next zoological gardens are at Hannover and Frankfurt and the city just has the Kehr with some deer, wild boars and squirrels. A good option is the amazing Tierpark Sababurg at Hofgeismar, belonging to Hesse. But there is also an underrated option not far away: the Wildpark Hardegsen. It is owned by the small city of Hardegsen (7,500 inhabitants) and you don’t have to pay an entrance fee.