Has anyone used the shuttle service run by Gekko Trails Explorer to get around Central America? Their shuttle from Leon (Nicaragua) to Antigua (Guatamala) looks perfect for our needs, but we can't find much about them on the internet (eg are they reliable). The only postings we can find are from the company promoting themselves - no travellers appear to have reviewed them (good or bad).
Many thanks
fush
Do you have a link to them? Did you check Trip Advisor maybe...
You can take the Tica Bus between the Capitals too...
Link: gekkotrailsexplorer.com/shuttle-service/schedules/
Thanks for the tip on Tico bus - we've already looked at the schedules for Tico and others, and while they'll get us there, the Gekko options looks more direct for our needs.
regards
[http://gekkotrailsexplorer.com/shuttle-service/schedules/]
I am not sure if this is the same Gecko agnecy as past reviews from time to time that were very positive. The website is kind of sketchy on my end and not all pages are in english or download correctly, and where are the rates?
But, they sure have a nice shuttle service serving Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, between prime and popular areas...I wonder if there has to be a minimum, or if its always running regardless. Be careful with that, as they may take your booking and money, and then they cancel the shuttle due to not enough people...many have 4 people minimums in the region. Also, 10 hours on a shuttle van is not always so comfy, and do they have good insurance, safe drivers and vans in good working order, tires etc...??
The run from Leon leaves at 3am, not ideal to be on roads late night in this region, IMO, unless on a nice big VIP Bus.
Well we ended up going with Gekko Trails Explorer, so thought I'd better post our thoughts on them in response to my own question.
Overall, we had a really good service from these guys - admittedly, the trip is long (advertised as 15 hours - our experience was 16.5 hours due to traffic jams on San Salvador and Guatemala City), but if we want to get from Leon to Antigua and miss out the bits in between, then I'd highly recommend this shuttle. From what we could establish from others, Tica bus (and similar) would have required an overnight in San Salvador and would have lengthened the trip to around 30 hours (including the stopover). While Gekko were US$79 and therefore more expensive than Tica, we saved on the night's accommodation.
Positives:
- they picked up on time and from our accommodation (a real positive when it's a 3am start in a dark, deserted town)
- comfortable, executive class, shuttle buses
- all luggage kept inside bus
- movies/pop videos played for journey (although thankfully not for the early morning leg)
- smooth border crossings - we only had to leave the bus to enter Guatemala - all other crossings were handled by the driver or a border official coming to the bus
- friendly drivers, who speak english
- regular comfort breaks and stops for breakfast and lunch
- air conditioning - a bit too cold at 3am, but certainly not at Tica bus levels of coldness
Negatives:
- the 3am start (but necessary to get you to Antigua by early evening)
- if one person has a problem with immigration at the border, then the whole bus waits (same with Tica bus)
- no on-board toilet (but enough breaks during the trip)
- they drop off only in one (central) place in Antigua - you're then on your own (while Antigua streets are laid out in a straightforward manner, they don't have street signs at every intersection)
Overall, we're really glad we took this shuttle - it was perfect for the journey we wished to make, and the service was great. Recommended.
Just a quick addendum to the above. We've been planning our onward travel from Antigua - our plan was Leon -> Antigua -> Copan (Honduras) -> Coban -> Tikel. However, we haven't been able to find a collectivo shuttle service from Copan to Coban - the only choices are either local buses, or a mix of shuttles and buses (hoping you make the connection/they remember to stop for you).
With hindsight, we should have gone from Leon to Copan (Honduras) with Gekko, and then used the many shuttle services from Copan to Antigua, then Antigua to Coban (and onwards to Tikel).
Gekko trails explorer should be perfect for shuttles moving through central america... unfortunately you could find neither professionalism or honesty... we booked for tickets León-Antigua at 5 pm, telling them the hotel where they have should collect us next 3 am (this is included) with the same minivan for heading directly to destination. They called us in hotel at 9 pm telling that couldn't come to pick us up before because: at first the shuttle was too much charged to go there ( the hotel is just a little out of centre of León)... well, it wouldn't have been so with two of us, the luggage, till Antigua? Then they changed reason... the driver didn't know so much León! ... the hotel is on the main large street which takes to and from León, exactly the same we should have do to leave the city heading to north, to Guatemala... anyway, their solution was to take a taxi from the hotel to the collecting point... but it's not east at all to look for a taxi at that time in the night. Our hotel staff (so kind) tried to do this, but couldn't find anyone, and gekko didn't have any intention to resolve this problem... ! They just said we could get our money back next morning. We went to the office, they gave us back tickets money, but didn't like, at all, to apologize pay for the lost day of travel nor for a more night to spend in León. I really cannot find the reason why of all this... Because all of their answers were totally unreasonable. I don't mean they always play this way, I'm just saying that gekko trails explorer is not a serious agency to travel, you could have problems like these making you waste time, money, energies. There are others travels agencies in León working the same trips, please find them. I am not diffamating them. I just told my experience and I still have with me the tickets to show I am not coming from a rival agency, we are just tourists from Europe. Sorry
You better not use Gekko Trail Explorers. We went with them from Nicaragua to Guatamela and we got robbed on the way there in Guatemala.
The police suspect that the travel organisation is involved because it happend already 3 times before us.
While we were in Antigua, Guatemala the minivan from Gekko got robbed twice again.
I already wrote this on this forum but my message got deleted. Please forum admins. You can let it on here, the tourist police of Guatemala said I should spread the word around: Don't use Gekko Trail Explorers!!
Gerry
Hey everyone !!!
Sometimes it is not easy to understand why a company asks us to do something along our travels, and we believe that what they do is just because they are trying to deceive us.
But I think, in the first case, probably there were not only two passengers, probably there were 20 passengers, and if the bus goes to a place 10 minutes from downtown, pick up the passengers (ten minutes more) go back to the downtown (ten minutes more). So we are talking about 30 minutes easily.
This means that the other passengers would arrive 30 minutes later at their destination.
In the second case, create a fake profile just to discredit a Corporation, I think it is not the objective of pages like this, check this up:
It is the Youtube channel of the Company:
Enjoy Central America !!!