Ordinario, expreso and microbus
An ordinario stops wherever someone waves it down. An expreso makes fewer stops and costs a little more. Microbuses are minivans that leave when every seat is full; they are the quickest and charge per seat, bags included.
The destination is painted or written on the front of each bus, and the conductor calls it out at the terminal.
Paying and luggage
On the chicken buses you pay on board once the bus is moving; keep any paper ticket you are given on long routes. There is no luggage hold: big bags ride at the back or on the roof, and some routes charge an extra fare for them.
Timetables and fares change
Many routes have no fixed timetable, only a first and last departure, and Sunday service starts later and ends earlier. Fares rise with fuel prices — cooperatives raised interurban fares in April 2022 — so treat any fare older than a year as a minimum.
During Holy Week some terminals stop running altogether; in 2026 Estelí suspended all interurban service on Holy Thursday and Good Friday.
When a driver makes more sense
With luggage, children, a flight to catch or a route that needs two or three changes, a private driver from door to door is often worth the difference. Blink quotes any route on WhatsApp before you commit.