Hotel Contempo

A Private House Off the Carretera a Masaya

Managua is not a city people plan a holiday around. It is where the plane lands, where the road to Granada and the road to León both begin, and most visitors treat it as a night to be got through. Hotel Contempo is the argument for treating that night properly. It stands four hundred metres off the Carretera a Masaya at kilometre eleven, inside the residential streets of Las Praderas, and it was built to feel like a private house rather than a hotel: a small number of rooms, no atrium, no conference hum, and a design idea carried through every one of them.

Why It Works

Three reasons. The scale, first: this is a house-sized hotel and it behaves like one, with service that recognises you by the second morning. The design, second, and it is not decoration: each room is laid out differently and takes its cue from a Nicaraguan theme, so the building reads as a set of ideas rather than a corridor of repeats. And the kitchen, third. Restaurante Azul cooks Nicaraguan-inspired food from organic local produce and does it well enough that guests eat in, which in Managua, where dinner usually means a drive, is worth a great deal.

Why This Location

Las Praderas is residential and quiet, and the four hundred metres between the hotel and the Carretera a Masaya are what buy that quiet. The Carretera itself is Managua's spine for restaurants, galleries and shopping, and it is also the road south: Masaya and its crater, the craft market, the Pueblos Blancos, the Laguna de Apoyo and Granada all lie along it, in that order. The airport sits on the other side of the city. As a base for a day of Managua and an early start towards the colonial towns, the position is close to ideal.

Fast Facts

• Price: Luxury

• Vibe: Design-led, residential, intimate, cosmopolitan

• Rooms: Three categories, Contempo Standard, Contempo Deluxe and Junior Suites, with every room designed individually around a Nicaraguan theme and the feel of a private residence

• Best For: Couples, design travellers, anyone starting or ending a Nicaraguan trip in the capital

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: That no two rooms repeat, so a second stay is a different stay

• Dining: Restaurante Azul, Nicaraguan-inspired cooking built on organic local ingredients

• Amenities: Pool, sauna and hot tub, fitness facilities, air conditioning throughout, wifi, private parking

• Attractions: The Carretera a Masaya restaurants and galleries, Masaya volcano and its craft market, the Pueblos Blancos, the Laguna de Apoyo, and Granada at the end of the same road

Restaurante Azul and the Organic Kitchen

Azul is the reason most guests stay in for dinner. The kitchen works with organic local produce and cooks Nicaraguan-inspired dishes, and the room is treated as part of the experience rather than as a breakfast hall. In a capital where the good restaurants are scattered along a highway, having a table of this level inside the hotel changes the evening: no driver, no timing, no negotiation. Breakfast happens in the same room and sets the tone for the day.

No Two Rooms the Same

The room list runs Contempo Standard, Contempo Deluxe and Junior Suite, but the categories only describe space. What distinguishes the hotel is that each room has been designed on its own, with a Nicaraguan theme behind it, so the building has no repeated interior. This has two practical consequences. First, it is worth asking what is available rather than booking a category blind. Second, a second visit is not a repeat, which is unusual in a city people pass through more than once on the same trip.

Using Managua Well

The way to use this hotel is as a hinge. Arrive, eat at Azul, sleep, and leave in the morning down the Carretera a Masaya towards the crater and the colonial towns; or come back the other way at the end of a trip and spend the last evening by the pool rather than in an airport hotel. Managua rewards that approach more than it rewards sightseeing, and this is the address that makes it pleasant.