Name: Hostel Clandestino Maderas
Address: Playa Maderas, 48600 San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, San Juan del Sur, San Juan del Sur, San Juan del Sur, 00000, Nicaragua
Rating: 10

Garden

Terrace

Outdoor furniture

General

Luggage storage

Services and amenities

Common kitchen

Kitchen

Kitchenette

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet access

Internet

Spanish

English

Languages Spoken

Picnic area

Sun Deck

Recreation

Next to the beach

Pool and beach

Location

At the hostel

Hostel Clandestino Maderas

Absolutely loved staying here. Within the first hour I extended my 5 night stay to 10 nights. It strikes the perfect balance of lush forest nature with a laid back beach vibe. There's a family of howler monkeys which frequents the property and stops for a snack in front of the beautiful outdoor kitchen. The staff was awesome, a big thanks to Philip for organizing game nights, taco night at a nearby restaurant, and bringing everyone together for sunset at the beach. The people were awesome, they had beer stocked in the fridged, there's motorbike rentals down the road, they have a skating bowl with outdoor pizza oven, and a shuttle to and from SJDS every 1.5 hours or so. I was also fortunate to be there at the same time as other amazing people, it was just super awesome. Other reviews mention the hike down to the beach as being brutal..... It's really not bad at all, I did it everyday, multiple times per day..... It's literally 5 minutes from the beach and super safe, there's a cafe on the way, surf shop, and I didn't think anything of it to be honest. If you have 2 legs and flip flops you're good to go. Stay here and you'll be super happy you did. 

And you will not be disappointed. Superchill owners, nice rooms and facilities and as a skateboarder, traveling with my board, i was surprised to find they had built a bowl on the terrain! Awesome skate and grillsessions, oh and I’ll hope you will get there for pizzanight too! 

My girlfriend and i reserved at first 2 nights, but then stayed 8 nights, because we liked it so much directly at first sight. We arrived very late, because we started our ride to the hostel from San Jose (CR) in the afternoon. The street to the hostel is very difficult and only possible with a 4x4 ride. Also not recommended to travel here with bigger suitcases, only backpacks is way more easier. As we arrived there at 11pm, the arrival was a bit difficult, but we managed it as a other guest/volunteer woke up and helped us out.
The hostel, in general, is fully built into the jungle, which looks absolutely amazing. Nearly every facility is outdoor like the kitchen and the bathrooms. We stayed in 4-bed-dorm and enjoyed it. Especially the lockers in the dorm are very useful. The reception is as well very well made and provides water and coffee for free. There also a small fridge with sodas and beers for nice refreshment (1$/drink). The yoga/workout platform is also very well placed and amazing, when doing something at sunrise/sunset. The hostel in total was very clean and lovely decorated.
The hostel owner couple (fluent in German, English and Spanish), from Germany, is very friendly and helped us out in every situation. Sometimes, we also spent some time together with a relaxing beer in the evening or at the “pizza evening” (whole hostel made pizza in the stone oven together). The volunteers were as well very friendly and always for a
surf together available.
The beach “Playa Maderas” is about 5min by walk and perfectly for everybody. You can go surfing with some good waves around the high tide and also ho swimming or just relaxing at the beach. There are also a couple more beaches next to, which have some nice restaurants.
To the hostel comes twice a week a food truck, which some delicious fruits and vegetables. The city is actually quite far away. There is a shuttle from the beach or you also can go easily to the city by hitchhiking.
Summing up, probably the best hostel i’ve ever seen so far.

the only place I truly LOVED on my trip to central america. clandestino is such a magic place, also if you're a surfergirl working on the road on your computer. I met so many lovely people during my two-months staycation and made friends for a lifetime. please keep this place calm and inspirational - stay for a few weeks or months, but choose another hostel, if you only need a bed for a night or two. if you love clandestino as much as I do, follow me on @austriansurfergirl to find places similar all around the world. :)

Good price, Good Quality, welcoming & kind hosts, homey atmosphere, stunning nature, close to the beach, peaceful & calm
Perfect place if you want to go surf, do yoga, eat and sleep 
Usually no party people and really good vibe

i travelled a lot in the last 5 years and this is still my most favourite hostel!
Although the hostel is just 5 minutes away from the Maderas beach, you feel like you are in the middle of the jungle! What makes the place so special are probably the owners and their kids: Corinna and Stephan are super friendly, funny, and helpful with everything!

An awesome place to stay!  Located about 25minutes out of San Juan del Sur. 

There is a big converted open back farming truck that acts as a shuttle from San Juan de Sur to Playa Maderas beach. It is a $6us return ticket. Alternatively, a taxi is about 20-25us$ (note: the taxi must be 4wd as the accomodation is at the top of a big hill). We had a beautiful open living cabana that was about 40$ per night. It was amongst the treetops and absolutely beautiful. It was 2 levels, with the top being an open air bedroom with mosquito net. The place is very, very chill, and about a 5 minute walk from the beach. There are cooking facilities and a beautiful yoga deck, no hot water but it’s very hot here so not much of a problem. Would definitely recommend as a relaxing place to visit!

Hostel Clandestino was a cool landing spot for our stay in San Juan del Sur. We had one of the self-contained cabins, which was a nice retreat, especially since it rained the whole time we were there. The location is great. You definitely need to bring your own food - There is a small fruit market and corner store in San Juan Del Sur otherwise there’s more food available at the supermarket that you pass on your way to Playa maderas. Otherwise Machete is a lovely restaurant. 

However, there were a couple of issues that could have made our stay more comfortable. The host didn’t adequately explain the road conditions to us, which had been washed out by a storm. It was impossible to pass without 4WD, and most local taxis don’t have this capability. A simple recommendation for the shuttle or contacting Miguel for transport would have saved us a lot of trouble. Instead, we ended up stranded in the dark, rainy night with our luggage, having no idea where we were. Later, we discovered we were near Machete restaurant, but we had to hike all the way with our bags.

The only other downside was the pillows. While the facilities were great, the pillows had a strong, unpleasant smell. After two nights, I started having an allergic reaction, which is unusual for me. When I removed the pillow covers, I found black mold covering the pillows. While I understand it's difficult to manage in a humid environment, this was really concerning.

On a positive note, we had a visit from a baby toucan, which was a delightful touch! Overall, Hostel Clandestino is a cool place to stay, but it could benefit from better communication regarding transport and a closer look at the bedding hygiene.

I had made reservations for the hostel on facebook as that was the only way I found to do it.  We arrived on the day of the reservations, after several chicken buses and a hike up a substantial hill to the hostel we found they did not have our reservations :(  It also was not easy to find the owners to check in.  I waited awhile in the common area and then wandered around the property, finally I went to their house.  Katarina? the owner ended up finding our communication on Facebook and was obviously upset at the mix up.  There is not a lot of places to stay in Maderas and you are pretty isolated from San Juan del Sur where it may have been easier to find another room and we were pretty exhausted already from chicken busses and hiking with all our belongings on our back.  We waited in the lounge area for a bit, which is really nice, open air with howler monkeys playing right there, for the owner to ask around.  It happened that someone had checked out a day early, so the owner cleaned the room herself and we were able to spend one of the two nights we had booked there.  It was not the room we had booked but it was great anyway.  A little cabin/palapa roof with a deck and hammock.  Its very rustic but we really enjoyed it.  The communal shower/bathrooms are clean and pretty much outside which I liked.  The owner had found a room at another place at the bottom of the hill for the next night.  But the next day we found out that room had been given away.  Katrina made several calls and found us a place in the next beach town over in Playa Marsella and the owner of the place we were supposed to spend the night drove us over there.  Everything turned out fine and I really appreciated how much effort went into solving the problem.  As our only full day was disrupted by trying to find new lodging and then getting over there we weren't able to spend the day surfing as we had hoped and that was a real bummer.  The high marks I give are for the hostel itself and the efforts made to fix the issue of our lost reservation. There is no food available but a nice communal kitchen, but bring food with you.  Playa Maderas is small and there are a few restaurants but no markets. Free filtered water was available at the hostel and beers to buy which was nice.  We had several and they ended up being comped due to the problems we had which was a nice gesture.  All in all I would return again but just confirm my reservations (even though I did that before) it's a lovely place with a really relaxed atmosphere and beautiful scenery.

Hostel Clandestino Maderas

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