Activities in Central America
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FEATURED
Panama Canal Partial Transit Sightseeing Cruise
6 hours (Departs Panama City, Panama)
by Viator
See for yourself how the Panama Canal works as you transit the Miraflores Locks, one of three locks used along the canal. The construction of the canal was one …Not LP reviewed
from USD$144.99 - All activities
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Academia de Español Antigueña
A highly recommended school, only hiring experienced teachers. They can arrange volunteer work in hospitals for social workers, lab assistants and child care workers on request. Also supports an educational project in San Antonio Aguas Calientes.
reviewed
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Habla Ya Language Center
The reader-recommended Habla Ya Language Center offers both group and private lessons. Five hours of group/private lessons starts at around US$50/around US$75, though significant discounts are given for lengthier programs - 25 hours of group/private lessons is only around US$200/around US$300. The language school is also well-connected to local businesses, so students can take advantage of discounts on everything from accommodations to tours.
reviewed
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Volunteering in Quetzaltenango
The Quetzaltenango area has many nonprofit organizations working on social projects with the local K'iche' Maya people and others that need volunteers. Volunteer jobs can range from teaching math to village children, to designing websites for indigenous organizations, to developing sustainable agriculture, to medical work in clinics, to working in orphanages for disabled children. For anyone in a giving frame of mind, the possibilities are endless.
You can volunteer part time for a week or two while also studying Spanish, or you can live and work in a close-knit indigenous village for a year. Obviously, the more Spanish you speak the better, but in a few weeks at one of X…
reviewed
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Raggamuffin Tours
Three-day sailing trips to Placencia depart every Tuesday and Friday. Raggamuffin has a reputation as a party boat!
reviewed
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Spanish Panama
This immensely popular language school gets rave reviews from travelers. It has a similar structure to ILERI's: four hours of one-on-one classes daily and homestays with meals for around US$380 per week (long-term discounts are available). It also offers a 'backpacker special,' which includes classes with dorm stay for US$275 per week.
reviewed
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Proyecto Montezuma
Kerri Bowers and César Benavides of Proyecto Montezuma run an innovative volunteer program that not only gives to the community, but fosters cultural exchange, pays fair wages to its employees and gifts you something for giving of your time and energy. You choose the project in which you’d like to participate, such as teaching local classes or removing trash from the beach and jungle, and you also sign up for a sustainable adventure tour around Montezuma. Long-term opportunities are also available; hit the website for details.
reviewed
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Río Locos
A popular local company does rafting as well as other area tours.
reviewed
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Boquete Mountain Cruisers
This expat-owned outfit offers two daily tours through some scenic back-country roads in its open-air trucks. The first leaves at 08:30 and makes a number of stops in and around Boquete - highlights include coffee, basalt formations and waterfalls. The second tour departs at 14:00 and heads straight for the Caldera hot springs. Both tours last four hours. There is no booking office, so call for reservations; trips include pickup at your hotel.
reviewed
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Sabine’s Smiling Horses
Run by Sabine, who speaks English, French, Spanish and German, Smiling Horses offers a variety of treks, from US$15 per-hour day trips to specialty tours, including a Full Moon Ride. Several multiday treks are also on offer, and Sabine may also take experienced riders on the Castillo Trail, weather permitting. This outfitter has been highly recommended by readers year after year.
reviewed
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Alton’s Dive Center
Longtime local shop – ‘Alton’ is Alton Cooper, Utila’s mayor until 2010 – with good equipment and a laid-back atmosphere. Courses include four night’s accommodation – in little, basic, cold-water rooms right at the shop – and two fun dives. The service can be a bit hit and miss. It also offers NAUI courses.
reviewed
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Cooperativa Spanish School
Run as a cooperative (therefore guaranteeing fair wages for teachers), Cooperativa Spanish School comes highly recommended. A percentage of profits goes to needy families around the lake. After-school activities include videos, conferences, salsa classes, volunteer work, kayaking and hiking. The office is halfway along the path between the two docks.
reviewed
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Arena Caliente
Everyone loves this locally owned and operated shop, which rents boards and arranges inexpensive group transportation to the best breaks. It also offers budget surf packages where prices vary depending on your choice in lodging (or camping) and other options.
reviewed
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Cacique Tours
The affable Oscar Cortés offers a variety of wildlife tours, his specialty being an early-morning bird-watching walk.
reviewed
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Costa Rica Ríos
Offers week-long rafting trips that must be booked in advance. It’s 25m north of Parque Central.
reviewed
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Diving Sites
Roatán has dozens of dive sites and most shops do a good job of making sure divers who buy multi-dive packages don't end up going to the same place again and again. If there's a site you are keen to try, don't be afraid to ask. At the same time, weather and water conditions dictate most site selection, and some dives aren't practical or diveable for days at a time.
Some favorites - among many, many others - include: Mary's Place: fissures in the coral form a deep, sheer-faced maze at this one-of-a-kind site. Winding through, you'll likely see jacks, lobsters and crabs, and huge schools of silversides; near the mooring, keep an eye out for seahorses. Mary's Place is near …
reviewed
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Cecocafen
Like the Ruta de Café without the luxurious haciendas, this community-based initiative for small-scale, sustainable tourism arranges visits and homestays in small coffee-producing villages. Cecocafen, three blocks east and one block south of the Museo de Café, not only arranges tours, but also supports women's groups and builds schools while it promotes Fair Trade coffee.
Although it can work with individuals, Cecocafen is set up for large groups, who usually contact them well ahead of time about visiting communally operated coffee producers, who work small family plots (averaging only five manzanas), such as Cooperative El Roblar, a women's organic coffee and veggie-gr…
reviewed
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Rainmaker Aerial Walkway
Rainmaker was the first aerial walkway through the forest canopy in Central America, though it is still regarded as one of the region’s best. From its tree-to-tree platforms, there are spectacular panoramic views of the surrounding primary and secondary rainforest, as well as occasional vistas out to the Pacific Ocean. The reserve is also home to the full complement of tropical wildlife, which means that there are myriad opportunities here for great bird-watching as well as the occasional monkey sighting.
Tours with naturalist guides leave hotels in Manuel Antonio and Quepos daily except Sunday; reservations can be made at most hotels or by calling the Rainmaker office.…
reviewed
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Scuba Coiba
Run by an experienced Austrian dive master, Scuba Coiba offers divers a chance to experience some of the spectacular marine life around Isla Coiba. Two-tank dives start around US$70 per person, though diving in the park costs more since the distance is much greater.
Scuba Coiba also offers day trips (around US$130) as well as two-day trips (around US$320) to Isla de Coiba, which include entry into the national park, lodging at the ANAM station on Coiba and meals; there's a two-person minimum for these trips. You can also get PADI-certified here for around US$230, and snorkeling gear is available for hire (around US$6 per day). The dive shop is located on the main road int…
reviewed
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Finca el Cisne
Finca El Cisne is the well-run tourism arm of a century-old family farm, located 25km north of Copán Ruinas; trips combine beautiful scenery with an inside-look at a working finca and include horseback riding through coffee and cardamom fields, swimming in the Río Blanco, soaking at Agua Caliente hot springs and a stop at the coffee-processing plants (February to October). Lodging is in a homey solar-powered cabin. Per person costs (minimum two people) are: day trips L$1000; overnight L$1300; and two-night stays L$2100; they include transportation to/from Copán Ruinas and meals. The finca shares an office with Basecamp tours, opposite ViaVia Café in Copán Ruinas.
reviewed
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Kaqchikel Tours
Kaqchikel Tours is a well-run, locally owned outfit specializing in volcano ascents and other great-value hikes, with camping along the way on some trips. Two-day Tajumulco trips cost around US$40. Kaqchikel also offers full-moon ascents of Santa María (around US$15) and challenging two-day Santiaguito trips (around US$66 with a minimum group size of four), camping on a small hill as close as is safely possible to the active crater.
A three-day Quetzaltenango-Lago de Atitlán trek is around US$70, and a five-day Nebaj-Todos Santos jaunt across the Cuchumatanes mountains is around US$130. Prices include transportation, food, equipment and a guide.
reviewed
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Canopy Adventure
The Canopy Adventure is a suspended ride that uses cables, pulleys and a harness to allow you to view a rainforest from dozens of meters above the jungle floor. You'll be in a harness dangling among jungle trees as you ride from one platform to another (there are six in all), at times gliding over Chorro El Macho. Although its ecological merit is somewhat questionable, there's no denying the rush you'll get as you soar through the air with your legs flailing to and fro.
Of course, unless you like to expose your private parts to strangers, don't do this in a dress or short shorts.
reviewed
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Reserva Natural Cerro Apante
This must be among the easiest-to-access reserves in Nicaragua, with walking access (for hearty souls) right from town. Or, you could even hitch most of the way to the top of the cool, misty 1442m peak on the access road.
Either Intur or Marena may be able to find guides, if you'd prefer, and Matagalpa Tours offers Guided Hikes (Reserva Natural Cerro Apante) to the top.
There are two other entrances to different sectors of the park; one is just north of town on the road to El Tuma, the other on the road to Guadalupe-Samulali, off the Matagalpa-Muy Muy road.
reviewed
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Monteverde Cheese Factory
Until the recent upswing in ecotourism, Monteverde’s number-one employer was this cheese factory, also called La Lechería (The Dairy). Started in 1953 by Monteverde’s original Quaker settlers, the factory produces everything from a creamy Gouda to a very nice sharp, white cheddar, sold all over the country, as well as other dairy products such as yogurt and, most importantly, ice cream. If you’ve got a hankering for something sweet, our favorite treat is the coffee milk shake. Reservations are required for the two-hour tour of the factory.
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Volcán Santa María & Santiaguito
With early starts, Volcán Santa María (3772m), towering to the south of the city, and the active volcano Santiaguito (2488m), on Santa María's southwest flank, can both be done in long morning hikes from Xela.
You start walking at the village of Llanos del Pinal, 5km south of Xela, from which it's about four hours up to the summit of Santa María (then three hours down). Getting too close to Santiaguito is dangerous, so people usually just look at it from a mirador about 1½ hours' walk from Llanos del Pinal.
reviewed
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Canopy Tours
Canopy Tours provides a canopy tour with a 20-cable system about 500m past Sambo Creek, east of La Ceiba. The 20-cable tour (two to three hours) starts with a 35-minute horseback ride up a steep road to the first station and includes a stop at a natural hot springs where you can smear yourself with the possibly therapeutic, definitely sulfur-smelling mud there. Any east-bound bus from La Ceiba can drop you at the entrance; a cab there will cost around US$30.
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