Hotel Casa San Francisco

How a Three Day Visit Turned Into a Hotel

Terry Leary and Nancy Bergman came to Granada for three days in 2002. They left having bought a semi ruined house that had belonged to a prominent local family, and two years later they opened it as a hotel. Both sisters had served in the Peace Corps, one in Sierra Leone, the other in Suriname, which is not the usual preparation for hotel keeping and shows in the result. The name came from two directions at once: their own San Francisco Bay Area, and the convent standing diagonally across Calle Corral. What the restoration kept is the texture of a Granada house, ivy along the walls, mosaic tiles underfoot, patios that open to the sky.

Why It Works

An owner-run house behaves differently from a managed one, and you feel it here within an hour. The scale helps: fourteen rooms spread over eight grades, which means the hotel can put a couple, a family and a traveller who needs step free access under the same roof without pretending they want the same thing. The second reason is the kitchen. Bocadillos is a tapas bar in its own right rather than a hotel dining room grudgingly kept open, and it changes what an evening here looks like. The third is the roof, which most Granada hotels of this size do not have.

Why This Location

Calle Corral sits a couple of blocks off the main square, diagonally opposite the Convent of San Francisco, one of the oldest churches in Central America and now the museum that holds the pre Columbian statues brought from Zapatera island. Having that across the street is the argument for this corner: it is the sight most visitors reach on their second morning, and you can reach it before the coaches. Parque Central, the cathedral and the top of La Calzada are a short walk away, and the lakeshore beyond that. The street itself is residential and quiet after dark.

Fast Facts

• Price: Premium

• Vibe: owner run, leafy, quietly bohemian

• Rooms: fourteen, in eight grades from Standard Double to Deluxe rooms with balconies, plus a family room and a room with disability access

• Best For: couples, families who want a small hotel, travellers who care where they eat

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: the rooftop terrace over the tiled roofs, best taken at the end of the afternoon

• Dining: Bocadillos Tapas Kitchen and Bar for small plates built on local produce; breakfast in the garden patio, from American classics to Nicaraguan dishes, vegetarian options included

• Amenities: swimming pool, garden courtyards, rooftop terrace, air conditioning, airport shuttle, step free room available

• Attractions: Convent and Museum of San Francisco, diagonally opposite; Parque Central and the cathedral, a short walk; La Calzada and Lake Nicaragua; Mombacho volcano

Eight Grades, and What Separates Them

The room list is longer than the room count, which tells you the house was converted rather than designed. Superior queens and twins sit alongside a standard double, deluxe rooms that add a balcony, a family room and one built for step free access. The differences are real: a balcony over the street is a different stay from an inward facing room, and it is worth naming the grade you want at the time of booking rather than on arrival. All of them keep the same materials, tile, dark wood, white plaster, so the choice is about light and outlook, not about décor.

Bocadillos, and the Case for Eating In

The tapas kitchen is the part of this hotel that locals also use, which is the useful signal. The plates are small and the menu is put together from what the market gives, so it changes; the bar runs alongside it. Breakfast is served between seven and nine in the garden patio and moves between American and Nicaraguan, with vegetarian dishes on the list. Given that Granada asks you to walk in the heat, a hotel where dinner is downstairs earns its keep.

What to Do With the Hottest Hours

Granada empties out in the early afternoon and there is no point fighting it. The pool is small and shaded and does the job; the patios hold the cool; the roof is unusable at two and excellent at five. Check in is from half past twelve, out by eleven, and the desk arranges the airport transfer from Managua, which is the one piece of logistics worth handing over here.