The story of Free Spirit is a wild one and the full story is best shared around a few beers, but in short this is how it all went… It was 2014 and 3 university friends who had just come back from a semester abroad in Poland, had the idea to save $100,000.00 together in 1 year, buy a minivan, sell everything they owned, and drive down to Nicaragua.

The goal: starting their dream hostel and surviving the road trip with their fathers. Yep, the dads.

Not long after arriving in Nica, they got lost and ended up in the remote fishing village of El Transito, where the waves could go unridden for weeks. Fast forward 3 years later, business was going incredibly well and the friends teamed up with more friends and managers of the Nicaragua location to expand and start a second hostel, this time in beautiful Ecuador.
After traveling Ecuador for a few months, they ended up in another remote fishing village, Puerto Engabao, where the waves’ consistency and empty point breaks was the perfect excuse to call this place home for a second time.

So that’s the short version. After 8 years of receiving guests with open arms in Nicaragua and 4 years in Ecuador, we believe we created one of the best hostels in the world. Amazing location right in front of the ocean, uncrowded waves, incredible food, sick vibe, but mostly dozens of new friends made every week.

The Free Spirit Family is created by travelers for travelers and we believe that it’s all about the experience you share and the people you meet along the way. We hope that sharing more time with people from all over the world will be the highlight of your trip.

We always love to share our journey, our traveling stories, and our experiences. Come and join us in our little paradise, there’s always an owner onsite making sure that everything runs smoothly and that everybody is having a great time. So, book your trip, jump on a plane and come discover our beautiful hostels and everything around