 Making up my itinerary |
AfricaAntarcticaAsiaCentral America CaribbeanEuropeMiddle EastNorth AmericaOceaniaSouth AmericaOceans and SeasMaking up my itineraryCentral America Caribbean » Guatemala | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9 full days in Guate and looking for advice - any advice on my route plan welcome | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 catarinamaria catarina Post Count: 32 Msg: #1 361 days ago, November 26th 2008 | Hi everyone, | I'm going to Guatemala for a few days with my fiancé next february. We are obviously arriving and departing from Guate city airport and will have nine full days there. I need advice on how to travel around and what to see... we will stick to the south of Guate I think, nine days will go by very quickly! Here is our temporary route: -from airport, directly to Antigua (we are arriving at 10 PM, will it be possible to take a cab to Antigua so late? is it safe to travel around by night?) days 1 and 2 in Antigua, including half a day trekking on a volcano -days 3 and 4: Panajachel,cruise on Lake Atitlan and excursion to Imixche (sorry about the spelling - might not be right) -days 5 and 6 Coban (with excursions to Biotopo del Quetzal, Semuc Champey and Grutas de Lanquin) (I missed out one day, possibility to spend one day more in one or the other destination) -days 8 - 9: Guate City What do you think? Should we miss out Guate City and only return there on the 9th day to see the most important and take our plane, and instead include another town in our route? I would love to go to Nebaj, does that seem possible in this short time? Am I missing out something? Another question: how do you travel around Guate? I heard about minibus from travel agencies that are quicker than chicken buses? Does anyone know the routes of these buses? In this short time, would it be better to rent a car? If yes, is it expensive in Guate? Any advice welcome!!  Browntown Sam Brown Post Count: 16 Msg: #2 342 days ago, December 15th 2008 | I've heard it is pretty complicated to rent a car. I was in the country for about three weeks last year, me and a friend drove our own car down there. Your itinerary looks pretty good. We actually got to all those places. Don't skip Semuc Champey it was one of the highlights of my 4 month trip in Central America. There is a "cave tour" there that you have to do. I know the chicken busses are safe and all that and they are much less expensive than the mini-busses. But since it is a short trip it might be worth paying a little more for the mini-busses because they get you to places much quicker. The mini busses are easy to find and yu may end up paying like 15 dollars to get from Anitgua to Panajachel, or something like that. The City of Xela is pretty cool as well and you might think about spending a day or two there instead of Guat City (which is kinda big, noisy, and not the safest place of all time.) San Pedro, on Lake Atitlan is a pretty out of this world hippie town that is a pretty cool thing to see... anyways, i hope you enjoy yourselves, you can check out my blog too its got some pictures and descriptions of most of the places you have listed... | catarinamaria catarina Post Count: 32 Msg: #3 340 days ago, December 17th 2008 | Thanks very much for the advice | -yes we've given up the idea of renting a car, it is too expensive anyway... -we will definitely try to take minibusses: as you say, it is a VERY short trip -I will consider Xela in my itinerary then - have you been to places in the "highlands" such as Chichicastenango or Nepan? Am I missing anything by not seeing these places? About Guate City, I think we'll only spend our last day there, to get ready for our return flight and see the city center a bit. 4 months in Central America must have been very nice!! Which country did you prefer? I've heard Costa Rica is also wonderful... Browntown Sam Brown Post Count: 16 Msg: #4 338 days ago, December 19th 2008 | I loved Belize but was only there for like five days... | Southern Mexico, particularly the states of Oaxaca and Chaipas were the highlight of the trip. They had beaches, mountains, and jungles... we didn't make it to the highlands at all. If you end up in Xela check out the Quetzaltrekkers website. They lead one or two or three day eco tours. We did a three day one that went from Xela and ended up at Lake Atitlan.... again, enjoy yourselves....  Michele in Playa Michele in Playa Post Count: 17 Msg: #5 334 days ago, December 22nd 2008 | We are planning a three week road trip (our own car) through Guatemala which will coincide with semana santa and Easter. I'll be following this thread to draw ideas from for our trip. I hope when you return, you will come back and post on your experiences! | We spent 16 days driving through Belize last spring. It was an amazing experience and I was able to blog most of the way through. I would highly recommend Belize as a country to explore. The people were lovely and the country is easy to navigate. Number of Users: 3 | Number of Posts: 5 | |||||||||||||
