I understand why this Selina has such poor ratings on hostel world and booking.com. it has such great potential but needs some loving. The location and amenities are great and it's a nice get away from town. It's a 10-15 not so nice walk to the beach or a shuttle that only comes 5 times a day and cost $5. There are only 2 sun beds around the pool for the entire hostel. The food and drink is ridiculously expensive and bad value for money. They add 25% for tax and tip to everything that's already well over priced. It's C$115 + 25% for a bottle of beer. The food menu is so small and is basically burger and chips at C$295+25%. The included breakfast is not worth it. Unlike other Selina's where you get a big choice here you have 3 choices, nica breakfast, fruit with toast or fruit with granola. The hostel is very run down, everything is needing some loving and a paint job. It's half empty with not many guests so don't expect to have a massive atmosphere. The coworking and yoga space is very nice! Personally unless you have your own transport then it's not worth it as you are so secluded.

We were so excited to stay at Selina Maderas because of all the great reviews and the popularity of the chain, but we were greatly disappointed by the actual quality of the hostel. The staff was not very friendly. My friend and I agreed that they seemed like they could not care less about the guests being there, and answered our questions with only the basic level of politeness. The hostels location is okay, only a short walk to maderas beach, but there is a pretty good sized hill leading up to the beach that you have to go up and down each way. There are also not very many restaurant options and you are kind of out in the middle of nowhere. There was one cafe and hush maderas for food options nearby, and each of these you had to brave a hill for. It was worth it though, because the food at Selina was mediocre at best, and half their drink menu is unavailable because they don’t stock ingredients. If you’re staying here, just take the hill to hush maderas for much better food at the same price. The cleanliness of the hostel is also not that great. We were not provided towels in our room, so we asked for some and the staff handed us some of the most disgusting towels I have ever seen. They had stains and holes and looked like they were being used as rags. We also found stains on our bed sheets and it just made us question the cleanliness of our room as a whole. Beyond that , the pool was not very clean, and the community refrigerator was packed and smelled like it had not been cleaned in months. We tried the laundry service and they lost one of my socks. I asked at the front desk the next day about whether they had seen it and there were no acknowledgements of their fault, no apologies and no sympathy for the situation. To his credit he did go to the laundry area and at least pretended to look. They did have a shuttle service that wasn’t too bad. It came fairly regularly, if not at slightly inconvenient times, and was priced pretty reasonably. The one thing that seemed to redeem the whole place was the AC. In all, the issues at Selina Maderas were small, but frequent and just seemed to add up during our two night stay. We were so excited to stay, but found that out of all the hostels we stayed in in Nicaragua, Selina was the worst for double the price. I’m chalking it up to bad management, and I hope this isn’t the standard for all Selina’s.

We were there during the end of September which is off-season. The restaurant was only open for breakfast. The bar was not open too. This is not fair on guests considering there are no supermarkets and not many restaurants nearby. We were stranded when we realised this was the case with an artisanal farm shop (expensive)which was the closest for groceries closing in 15 minutes after we returned from the beach. We were never told we wouldn’t be able to get food there and were left with no option but to find food elsewhere (there is very little around). For playa Maderas, it is about 20 minutes walk up and down a very steep hill - not recommended with a surf board under your arm. The rooms are nice and clean and it was very affordable considering it was not peak season. The free morning yoga is a bonus. Playa Maderas is a must if you are wanting to surf but I would take the inaccessibility into account. We thought we would get the Selina standard, after staying in a few of their others but this one just missed the mark. It would’ve been really helpful to inform us of the closure of restaurant beforehand. It was quite unprofessional to not pre-warn about no food being there, as we would’ve gone to a supermarket before leaving for Maderas, where there are none. No matter how busy it is, it’s not fair to close the restaurant when there is nearly nowhere in the surrounding area for guests to get food.

Me and my friend had pretty high expectations for staying at this selina but they were all let down. First of all the location. Although it wasn’t a big deal having to walk to the beach, a little honesty when it came to the location would’ve been nice. It’s about a mile walk to the beach, up a steep and dusty hill. For us it was not big deal but I would’ve preferred knowing about it before booking. Another thing was the fact that the restaurant was below average food at very high prices with half the stuff in the menu not being available. At one point we went to go ask for some waters to purchase (since you’re in the middle of nowhere with no markets to purchase from anywhere close) and they only had a couple water bottles available. If you’re going to have a location like this it’d be good to be stocked up on snacks, but at least water. The fridge has also not been cleaned out in an extremely long time making it very difficult to be able to find space to store food, but honestly it was so gross in there i didn’t want to store anything in there. The staff was also unhelpful many times. I went to buy some of the overpriced snacks and the staff member accidentally charged the card reader the wrong price. So she had to do two charges. Which for me isn’t a huge deal, but if i had to deal with foreign transaction fees i would not have been happy. They also just did not seem to care about the people who were staying. While i don’t need them to go above and beyond when it comes to being nice to me, i would like a little bit of friendliness. We received towels that were stained with holes all over them, which was absolutely disgusting. And our sheets were stained as well. And we were so happy we found laundry service for a good price here, but they ended up losing an item of my friends clothes. The pool is nice but pretty unclean, and there’s not many places to lounge. The shuttle to and from playa maderas is nice, but it’s not even organized by them. It’s organized by a hostel in san juan del sur- casa de oro. And for all of this, you’re paying over double what you’d pay at another hostel just staying in san juan del sur and taking a shuttle every day to playa maderas. Overall I was extremely disappointed in our stay here. I had such high expectations for the selina hostels and honestly since it’s my first one, i don’t know if i’ll end up staying at and more in the future. Save your money and stay elsewhere.

Eh.... this place is just okay. Better than the worst places. The rooms are cramped but very clean. It is not quiet here. A long, dusty, intense hill to walk to the playa also. And be prepared to compute the exchange rate yourself at the restaurant between Colones and Dollars because the staff does not know how to do it. They once tried to charge me 30 dollars for fried rice dish. The food is just okay. I would not stay here again.

I stayed 7 nights and I had to ask 4 times (waited for 2 days..) to get toilet paper. We lost electricity 4 times in a day which is horrible when you book this hostel because they are known for their cowork place. I had book a hike to the San Christo and they cancelled saying it was minimum 6 people and we were 4. 2 days later an other employee tells me the minimum for this activity is 4..... Finally, the food was ok. I ordered quesadillas and the cheese was not good anymore (they did gave me a 10% discount to apologize). I also made a deposit of 30$ and never got my money back. It is a beautiful place but the staff need to do something. I was quite disappointed since i had an amazing experience in the other Selina's i went.

The staff of the hotel are amazing, from the first day until the last one I felt at home, the room where I stayed it was cute and clean. The breakfast was on time and not complain at all 🤍🤍❤️

Really comfortable rooms. Located 10 min away from the beach if you walk. Pet friendly at an extra charge. The staff are really friendly and always willing to help. Food is nothing special, but expensive prices range from $8-$15.They have a kitchen for guests to use if you feel like cooking!

Rooms are nice and clean. Food is not great. Location is not great either, it's located in the middle of nowhere and it's hard to get by any cabs/transport. We ordered a shuttle with Selina to La Virgen, driver was a Selina employee, arrived 20 minutes late, tried to charge us double and was verbally agressive. Do not recommend staying here at all.

I'm an older traveler so I probably expect a little nicer room for the money but it was fine. There was almost no hot water or water pressure. Rooms are pretty dated but clean. Restaurant was good and service was great. Wifi is excellent. The beach is pretty close and there is a shuttle. It's 20-30 mins into town. Not much around as far as other restaurants. It did feel quite safe

Honestly don’t know why this place has so many bad reviews. The only bad thing i can say about this place is the massive hill you have to walk up to get to the beach but that has nothing to do with the hostel. The dorm rooms were awesome and each bunk had privacy curtains. They also had ac in the dorm rooms and private bathrooms. The pool was clean and the staff was friendly. It’s also in a great location. Not super close to town but it’s by a beautiful beach with a couple restaurants. also it has cute kitties everywhere. I would definitely stay here again and recommend it.

Enjoyed with my stay! Really appreciate Angelo’s help in getting my shorts back to me in Granada that I left by accident in Maderas.

Close to beach, friendly reception staff and chill surfer vibes. The food is terrible. I ordered pasta on the first day and couldn't finish it. I then ordered a quesadilla and it was equally bad. I spent the rest of my stay planning my trip around how not to eat there.

This selina has a great space and the rooms are clean. It took a few days for the staff to open up but once they did they were really friendly. However, the location is much further form San Juan than we had hoped and the shuttle service is rather inconvenient. The hostel is unorganised, often organising events but then not running them or not communicating with people. One night we did partake in a beer pong tournament and the welcome drink was run properly but other than that the events seemed to fail. The kitchen needs attention, as it wasn't very clean. Maderas beach isn't too far, so if you're looking for a chill day by the pool, maybe some yoga and some surfing... its definitely a cool place to hang out and has a lot of potential

Best hostel in Nicaragua !!! The pool with the slackline its so niiice Near the the beach !

Awesome for surfers and lovers of the seas ! The walk to the beach is 10-15 min maximum and the service is cool ! Slackline over the pool and everything is a vibe 🤘

Access road is terrible. The place is nice but you can’t come in a sedan car, need an SUV to travel here. To make matters worse we arrived at night. In the morning it was beautiful and service at breakfast was very prompt and staff very nice

You get what you pay for. 27 bucks per person. Bunk beds. Etc.

Our stay was awesome! We enjoyed our time here really! The staff is really friendly and helpful! Especially with Walter who shows us jiu jitsu moves! Never had that kind of sport in any other Selina, but it was great! Also Alex Avendaño was so cool guy on the bar! He was so helpful and great! Thanks again for the amazing time! 👏🏼👏🏼

I had an amazing stay at Selina Maderas. I had a shared room which was very clean and with AC. The rest of the place is very beautiful, and I loved the yoga platform. Maybe there’s a few items missing in the common kitchen but you can still cook well there (just think about buying your food before coming because there isn’t any supermarket close by) Thank you to all the Selina Maderas team for giving me an amazing stay, and more particularly to José, Maribel, Silvio and Efrain who were always here to respond to my questions and give me the best tips 😀

Okayish location, realtively expensive, no hostel vibe, extremely tiny Teepees (bed + 20cm x 1m). But the locals working here are super nice! Oh and prices in the Selina app are about 50% higher (they are supposed to be lower there!!!) than on booking.com or other sites

Cool place for surfers and young backpackers . Close to one of the best surfing beaches in the world. Well priced for an upgraded hostel like atmosphere. Very friendly staff ,decent food and well kept grounds.

Check in time was clearly written as 3pm, we arrived at 3:20pm and were told our room was not ready. We assumed we were going to wait for a few minutes....at 5:30pm we were still waiting with our stuff on one side of the pool ... Guests giving the looks to us like what are you doing there, my wife and baby were extremely tired and grumpy... Check in wasnt a good experience and ussually things go down if you start with the wrong foot

Was a Great experience there, as well close to some beaches ⛱️ and staff were Nice, professionals I liked the peace and good food there! Well good area! Close to Marsella Beach and Maderas.. super Nice..