The main terminal in León is a classic busy bus station. All of the regular buses line up in one area and microbuses each have their own zone. Buses are constantly coming and going as are regular and pedal taxis. Much of the streets surrounding the terminal are clogged with little market shops and traffic.
The terminal is about a 15minute walk from the city centre touristy zone. A taxi should cost you about 20C$. I don’t know why I do it to myself, but every time I have just walked it … and then half way through I am trying to remember why I am. It’s not a horrible walk, but León is hot and a taxi is pretty cheap. Treat yourself! If you are leaving from the station by taxi see if you have the address of your hotel available. There are so many hotels and hostels don’t be surprised if you taxi driver isn’t familiar with a lesser known one.
León to Managua
Microbuses arrive at the UCA.
Expreso (bus) every 30minutes, takes 2.5hrs and costs 52C$.
(microbus) leaves when full, operates between 4am and 7pm, takes about 2hr and costs 61C$
León to Chinandega
Buses arrive at the Mercado Bisne.
(microbus) leaves when full, 31C$, about 45min (4:30am – 8pm)
(bus) every 20 minutes, ~18C$, 1.5hr (4:30am – 6pm)
León to Matagalpa
From León there are 3 express buses per day to Matagalpa. I’d arrive early just in case. The schedule according to the driver is 4:20am, 7:30am, 2:45pm, 88C$, 2.5-3hrs. We are told there are also microbuses that make the trip but we don’t have any info at the moment.
León to Estelí
The trip takes about 2.5hrs and costs 95$C. Have a read through the comment below for some great trip info! There are mini buses to Estelí in the morning but another option is to route through san Isidro and link up to another bus headed to to Estelí or Matagalpa.
León to Las Peñitas
Here is some advice from a fellow travellers. Thanks, Melanie!:
“We took a bus from Leon to Las Penitas. It should leave at every hour but honestly it just goes when full, which in our case was 30min later. It is really cheap, around NIC10 and even though there are shuttle services from Leon to this lovely beach for around US $4, If you are on a budget the local bus is a nice experience and it didn’t even take much longer than the shuttle (about 30min). Note: the bus first goes to Poneloya, but if you want to go to the Las Penitas just stay in the bus, it will turn around to stop in front of Barca de Oro (bigger hotel) and some other stops in Law Penitas too”.
León to Rota (Cerro Negro)
5:50am, 11am, 3:30pm, 2.5hrs, ~40C$
*I need to double check this one – let us know if you have taken this bus.
León to Granada
To get to Granada you route through Managua. It’s very easy and door to door you are looking at about 3.5hrs and a total cost of 79C$ (2016) when going by microbus. First head to the Main Terminal in Leon and get the microbus going to Managua. You will arrive and depart from the UCA terminal in Managua so it’s easy!
León to Masaya
Same as above, you need to route through Managua, but when you get to the UCA look for the microbus headed to Masaya. Microbuses leave when full from 6am to 9pm. From Managua to Masaya they cost 24C$ and the trip takes 0.5hr
Tica Bus
You can now finally purchase your tickets online with Tica Bus! Or you can buy your ticket from a very nice and helpful travel agency in town called Benitours (505-2315-2349) see map. Be aware that you need to get to the highway on the outside of town to catch the bus. If you don’t speak Spanish then best to have the travel agent at Benitours write the location of the Tica Bus stop on a piece of paper which you can then give to the taxi driver. I met one traveller who missed her bus in the morning after the taxi took her to the wrong spot, so it’s good to have this info just in case! The bus stop where the Tica Bus will pass is indicated on the map above but you can also find it by using the landmark: El Restaurante Caña Brava (google maps). The bus will stop about 50 meters north from here. It will stop in en frente de la entrada de la Ceiba.
Other destinations
San Isidro (46C$), Nagarote, Salinas Grandes (20C$, 1.5hrs – see comments below for more info).
If you have taken these buses, share your information below!
Help your fellow traveller
If you have taken any of the buses on this page, please drop us a comment below about how the trip went, what time you left, how long it took and what it cost. And, definitely let us know if we have anything wrong.
Lets help each other in our travels!
Hello! There’s a bus from Leon to Managua, but is there a Centro Coasting bus from Managua Airport to Leon? If so, how much is it, and what does the schedule look like? Thank you!
I read this article and it helped me so I wanted to provide an update!
It is February 10, 2019 and we paid 95 NIC per person to get from Leon to Esteli. We arrived at the bus station around 8:50 and got straight on a bus, but ended up waiting until about 9:20 for the bus to fill up. They did strap our gear to the top of the bus. I don’t think it filled up as fast as the previous comment because we were outside of tourist season.
The ride took approximately 2.5 hours.
I hope this helps a future traveler!
Hi all, we took the chicken bus from Leon to Salinas Grandes this week. The price was 20$/person, it takes around 1.5 hrs. The bus leaves from the old train station at 11:30 – 13:00 -16:00. There is also an earlier bus, probably at 8:00.
It is an odd bus station, but taxis know where it is. Taxi rides are always 30$, so if unsure just grab a cab.
The terminal is not too far away from the main bus station. I added the bus stop on Open Maps, look up “station for salinas grandes”.
I plan to take Tica bus from San Salvador and get off at Leon. On the Tica bus website, I was asked to select the town to get off and behind Leon, it says Bahia del Sol. I googled Bahia del Sol but didn’t get anything that seems related to Leon. I read your paragraph on Tica bus, is it the same place? How much would a taxi cost from there to city centre eg. Cathedral? Thanks.
Hi Anita, best to contact Tica Bus directly to find out.
The bus stop is approx. in the middle of the bypass of León. Taxi to the center, depending on negotiating skills, between 30 and 40 C$.
Hi Josef! Is the bus stop outside the gasolinera Petronic, and not the entrance to La Ceiba…?
Hey mate, all of this is very helpful u never imagined there will be such a page like this for Nicaragua. You have saved my trip. 🙂
Sweet, thanks!
Hi there, and thanks for such a helpful site.
We used your tips to get from Santa Ana (El Salvador) to El Tunco and it all worked perfectly – the photos were very useful too! (Although the microbus was pretty full and it was quite an interesting journey juggling our backpacks between our legs whilst the driver was taking curves at 100 kms/hour!)
This morning we wanted to get from Leon (Nicaragua) to Matagalpa. After doing some research here as well as on Nicaragua’s official bus timetable website and asking at our hotel, we realised everyone had a little conflicting info. The lady at our hotel said the bus leaves Leon at 8am and that there is no afternoon bus as it was Sunday. Later on her husband told us that the bus was at 7am – as he is dropping us off for the 8am bus?!
We still don’t actually know when the buses direct to Matagalpa go, but got on a bus that was on route to Esteli, which was leaving in literally 5 minutes (I think these leave fairly regularly throughout the day), then changed near San Isidro junction (the men on the bus will tell you when to get off) and waited for 10-15 minutes for the Matagalpa bus. The whole journey took approx 3.5 hours this way and costs us 80 Cordobas (US$ 2.57) in total.
Thanks for the info and the nice words about Centrocoasting 🙂 So happy to help. And yes, getting correct Schedules to Matagalpa from Leon is hard! I walked around and asked the bus driver and then also the taxi driver and then someone else and got different info, haha classic! The times I wrote above is what the driver of the Matagalpa bus told me. I am glad you made it and sounds like the bus change was easy. Good job on goign with the flo!
We recently took the bus on sunday from Leon to Matagalpa, it went at 7:30 am 🙂
The price from Léon to Managua is now 61C$.
Hi, I’m looking to get from Managua to Leon early morning of Good Friday. Do you know if the holiday will affect the minibus schedule?
HI Lynsey, there usually are some changes to bus schedules around easter but I can’t say for sure this far in advance. If you are staying at a hostel in Managua before you go then I would ask them as they would know or can call someone who does. There is a little add above for Nicatime shuttles, you could always book a shuttle that day to remove any stress about buses.