A five-minute walk from the bus station on the west side of Granada lays the hostel Oasis Granada. Coming from either Costa Rica or Ometepe, exit the bus, and if it's during the day, don’t get a cab; just ask anyone where the Oasis Granada is, and they will be happy to point you in the right direction. But if you arrive at night, do take a cab, because the streets are rumored to be dangerous at night. During my stay in Granada, I never felt intimidated or frightened of the streets, but the more people who are out at night, the more of a chance you have of getting messed with. And, like most places in Nicaragua, the Oasis works on an honor system when getting drinks and movies.

The Oasis has FREE Internet, coffee, DVD rentals (with over 100 selections), FREE calls to the US and Canada, cable TV, swimming pool, sun lounge, and laundry facility. All employees are friendly, and half of them speak English. A dormitory is $6 a night, and private rooms run from $10-$38, depending on how luxurious you want your room. All beds have thick comfortable mattresses and come with a pillow. The showers are nice and clean, with warm -- not hot -- water. All eight computers have flat-screen monitors and digital camera-ready ports. They also have fast network Internet and all Microsoft Office utilities. The pool and lounge areas are in outside areas within the hostel. The pool is surrounded by two stories of dorm rooms, and the spiral staircase on the 2nd floor leads to the laundry area, which has a washboard to wash your own clothes. Oasis also has two TVs to watch DVDs on, which you can rent for free by giving the front desk your passport. You also get your free call the US or Canada every day; sometimes the quality of the phone call is bad, but it is FREE.

Every morning, they serve breakfast for less than $3, including pancakes, toast, egg sandwiches, fruit, coffee, orange juice, etc. Breakfast is served from 7am to 10am, so there's no need to get up really early to try to catch the kitchen before they close. The staff is so nice that a couple times, when I tried to cook, they came into the kitchen and took over and cooked my meal for me. Even after I said "I got it", they still wanted to cook for me. I went back and forth through Granada during my stay in Nicaragua and stayed at the Oasis every time, and I wouldn’t recommend anywhere else.

There is free Internet and a nice indoor/open-air pool. There are two TVs with DVD players and hundreds of movies to watch. You can watch a movie on a large TV by the pool and dining area or you and one other friend can watch a movie on a 13-inch TV with headphones. This is a nice thing to do during quite time. In fact, it’s the only thing to do really. There are also free 15-minute calls to the U.S. and Canada. There is also a wonderful breakfast available for only $2 to $3 and free coffee available all day with milk and sugar.

I haven’t quite figured out what’s going on with the kitchen situation, though. It doesn’t mention anything in the flyers about using the kitchen. It would seem to me, though, since they only offer breakfast, that you would be able to use the kitchen. However, sometimes I use it with no problems, but other times I get kicked out, and sometimes the lady forced me to let her cook my food for me, so I hope you can figure that out. They also let you get free ice, but the kitchen lady sometimes doesn’t let you get water from the tap, even to cook with. It’s all kinds of crazy.

The showers were warm, which was a nice luxury I’ve rarely had in Central America. There was a different kind of atmosphere here, though. It wasn’t like most hostels. I didn’t really meet anyone while I was there. Usually I will have met half a dozen people in a matter of minutes at other hostels. I’m not sure if it’s because of the environment or if because maybe only people stay here to pass through, so they don’t worry about making friends. I don’t really know, though, since I didn’t really get to talk to anyone.

The only real downfall to this hostel is that, once quiet time starts at 11pm, everything is shut down. There is no TV, Internet, or phone calls. One of my friends also hung out in one of the hammocks until late into the night and found the security guard asleep in the hammock beside him!