Planning a 4 weeks itineray around Guatemala

Hi all!

I will spend 4 weeks traveling around Guatemala starting November 7. I have been reading and searching this forum for the last months, and now I got an itinerary draft and a lot of doubts. :)

I'm a 52 yo. solo traveler from Spain, so I speak Spanish, and I'm interested mainly in culture and people, but also landscapes, villages and mayan ruins. I'd like trekking but not so hard.
I'd prefer to use public transport when possible. And also like to find a balance between travel slowly and go to as much places as possible.
I like to be as close as possible from the airport the previous days to come back home so I've choose to travel in a anti-clockwise sense, then the lake it's my last destination and start with Copán. Livingston, Tikal, etc.

Then these are my plans.
I'd like to ask you for any kind of help, hint, comment or suggestion about it. Even where you'll spend more or less time. Maybe this is a long post but need to explain the whole plans to ask for every place.

1.- Arriving Guatemala on Nov 7th late at 22:45 then I've booked room in Casa Cristina in Antigua and also a private shuttle from the airport to there. Spend next day in Antigua and book transportation to Copán.

2.- From Antigua to Copán seems to be better to go by shuttle that I suppose I can book at the hotel or some agency, to arrive as soon as possible to Copán. Then stay a couple of nights to spend a day and a a half for the ruins and the village.
Then next day go to Quiriguá to visit the ruins and spend the night there.

3.- Next step, going to Livingston via Puerto Barrios for 2 nights. The second day I' try to do some tour like the Ecological & Culture Garifuna village tour from here
http://www.bluecaribbeanbay.com/Hostel_Livingston.html
Next day boat trip to Río Dulce. I'm thinking in going to El Estor for 2 nights and spend some time for visit some places at Izabal lake like Bocas del Polochic or El Cañón del Boquerón.

4.- Then going to Flores/Tikal. The idea it's to arrive to Tikal on the same day and be hosted there, maybe at the Tikal Inn, stay the night and be there for sunrise. For the second night going to Flores and spend 2 nights there, maybe doing some other tour, perhaps Yaxha, maybe just to relax me a little. :)

In places like Tikal or Livingston do you wear long sleeves to prevent mosquito bites?

5.- I'm thinking to stop at Sayaxché for 2 nights and visit Ceibal and Aguateca ruins. Did asked Lanchas Don Pedro for availability because as I travel alone it can be too expensive for me if I must to pay the whole boat, but the answer was confused. They said they are always booked but asked me for the final date to check if it was possible to make a reservation. Then I'd try to contact again and stay there if seems it's possible to go the ruins. Or going directly to next destination.

6.- Semuc Champey. Not interested in wet caves so probably just going to the pools and stay one night in Lanquín.

7.- Nebaj. Want to stay about 4 nights there, to visit nearby villages and do some trek. Not sure if I can reach Nebaj from Lanquin easy on same day. Did check the Guías Ixiles website and seems to be fine. Maybe also some trek or village by public transport by myself.

8.- Quetzaltenango for 3 nights. Also mainly to visit nearby villages. Did check several agencies for guided tours that can explain me culture details but all of them have just 3-4 hour tours to go 3-4 villages and back, so not sure if the tours are worth enough, then maybe I'll go to the villages by myself.

9.- Chichicastenango on sunday for the market and stay one night there.

10.- Lake Atitlán. Maybe 4 nights or so. I'm thinking to stay in San Pedro and from there spend days in visit other villages and surroundings. Suggestions are welcome.

11.- Back to Antigua, probably 2 nights, before take my plane back on December 7. Enjoy the city and wait for my flight.

Thanks for reading, and comments are welcome!

Best regards,
Colegota

Hi Colegota,
First, I think you will find that if you plan on spending 3 nights in each place, the result will be much more realistic. If you spend only 2 nights, then the first night is basically just getting in, eating, sleeping, maybe a little sightseeing; and the last night is all about getting ready to leave early the next day. So this only leaves you one full day to explore. Second, You never know who you will meet or what will happen, so a bare minimum of extra time at each spot will become indispensable. Third, I would just keep a rough outline of all the stops that you would like to make keeping in mind a 3 night minimum. Nothing should be written in stone. The best things happen, the people you meet who may suggest something different to do as a group...it tends to happen unexpectedly. Finally, Travel as light as possible, leave each place as early as you can and always get to where you are going before nightfall.

As for 1 I agree 200%. That is also the same way I travel. On the subject of early starting I remember a post not so long ago. A shuttle full of people were kidnapped raped and robbed under the cloak of darkness. I think it was going from Antigua to Coban. There was an issue over disclosure of the identity of the shuttle which was suspect of collaboration.

Colegota
I have sent a private message. I will go to Guate next week... from Spain

Too bad you already booked Casa Cristina... If you want to use public transport to get to Copan you can do that from Guatemala City so you could just have spent your first night there. Rutas Orientales (21 Calle 11-60 Zona 1) has buses to Chiquimula. There you transfer to a bus going to El Florido (the border) where shuttles will be waiting to take you into Copan.

I would not spend two nights in Flores. If you are thinking of visiting Yaxha, you could do that straight from Tikal. From Tikal we took a minivan to El Remate and got dropped off at the cruce. Then we waited and hoped another minivan or bus would go by on its way to Belize. We got a ride in an empty tourist van. It dropped us off at the road leading to Yaxha. There we waited again and a military jeep picked us up.

In those areas I wear long sleeves and/or use bug spray. Mosquitoes love me.

Semuc is great. Hike to the viewpoint. If you are staying in Lanquin, visit the bat caves at dusk. I do think you need two nights in Lanquin so you have a whole day for Semuc.

Lanquin to Nebaj is a long travel day but can be done. First Lanquin to Coban. In Coban find the bus station for the minibus to Nebaj. We got on along the road somewhere and it took a while as the first buses that passed us were full (and when they say full in Guatamala, they mean full !). We finally got onto a minibus to Uspantan. We decided to spend the night there. Nice town. Then on to Nebaj. I recommend walking to Acul and Cocop.

Xela : if you do only one volcano hike, choose Santa Maria. It is hard though. Less strenuous and still amazing is the hike to the Santiaguito viewpoint. The hot springs (Fuentes Georginas) are great. Nice views. If you go, don't miss the hot springs just before the entrance (hike down the trail). Beautiful setting. If you are in Xela on a Friday you can visit the market of San Francisco El Alto, very large, hectic, colourful. Also nice views. There are many Maya villages around Xela that are worth a visit. They are all an easy bus ride away. Laguna Chicabal is great too.

As for the lake : I would suggest visiting Santa Catarina Palopo. You could walk there from Pana. You can just follow the road. It is a nice hike, great views and Santa Catarina is a traditional quaint village. Make sure to climb the streets in the village (maybe all the way to the onion fields). You can take a pick-up back to Pana.
The walk from Jaibalito to Santa Cruz has amazing views as well. Both villages are also worth a visit.
Don't forget Maximon, the church and the weaving museum in Santiago.
I also highly recommend the Solola market (Tuesdays and Fridays) : hardly any tourists, lots of Maya people from the surrounding villages. You can take a chicken bus there and back (10-15 minutes from Pana).

greggo and skoldpadda thanks for your hints. That 3-nights-rule it's fine while it's easy when you have 2 or 3 months. Anyway I'll try to bear in mind before finish my schedule.

Sonia, thanks for so many and useful information.

Too bad you already booked Casa Cristina... If you want to use public transport to get to Copan you can do that from Guatemala City so you could just have spent your first night there. Rutas Orientales (21 Calle 11-60 Zona 1) has buses to Chiquimula. There you transfer to a bus going to El Florido (the border) where shuttles will be waiting to take you into Copan.

Well, this is not a big problem at all. I will spend about 20 hours to fly around the world and arrive late and tired to Guate. I'm 1,98m tall and for me plains and buses are uncomfortable so I decided to stay one day in Antigua before take buses again to Copán. Also it's good to know a little about the country, take money from ATM, make plans...

I would not spend two nights in Flores. If you are thinking of visiting Yaxha, you could do that straight from Tikal. From Tikal we took a minivan to El Remate and got dropped off at the cruce. Then we waited and hoped another minivan or bus would go by on its way to Belize. We got a ride in an empty tourist van. It dropped us off at the road leading to Yaxha. There we waited again and a military jeep picked us up.

Looks fine but then I'll carry all my baggage with me. My first idea was to spend one night in Tikal and another in Flores. The second night in Flores was thinking in a "relax day" but I was thinking also in Yaxhá. Not sure what to do.

In those areas I wear long sleeves and/or use bug spray. Mosquitoes love me.

They love me too. I also carry repelent and will take cloroquine.

... We finally got onto a minibus to Uspantan. We decided to spend the night there. Nice town. Then on to Nebaj. I recommend walking to Acul and Cocop.

Did read your report somewhere some time ago. Will try to do it more or less.
Take note also for Xela and the Lake.

At this time my main doubts are about if stay at El Estor or Sayaxché. Probably I'll finish choosing El Estor as there are several ruin places.

Try to stay at least 3 or 4 nights on every place while sometimes must choose between more nights by place or more places.

This can be my itinerary by now. It shows the places where I will spend nights but for Chichicastenango because my day 22 it's sunday 30 and the idea it's sleep in Chichi the night before, or juts go for the market from Xela on sunday or from the lake on next Thursday 4 (my day 26).
0 Home->Antigua
1 Antigua
2-3 Copán
4 Quiriguá
5-6 Livingston
7-8 El Estor
9 Tikal
10-11 Flores
12-13 Lanquin
14 Uspantan/Nebaj
15-17 Nebaj
18-20 Quetzaltenango
22 Chichicastenango
23-26 Lago Atitlán
27-28 Antigua
29 Antigua->Flying home

Of course it's still open to any comments and suggestions.

Best regards!
Colegota

1,98 m tall ! It will be hard for you to fit in chicken buses (my husband is 1.82 m and hardly fits). As for minibuses : if you have to stand you will be bent over. And you will certainly feel like a giant at any Maya market :-)

You can always decide to stay somewhere longer or leave sooner than you thought you would. A little flexibility goes a long way.

Which ruins were you thinking of near El Estor ? Not that I can help you as we did not visit El Estor (only Livingston and Rio Dulce). We always thought it would be neat to visit Ceibal and Aguateca (from Sayaxche) but it seemed expensive.

We actually liked the Solola market (Tuesdays and Fridays) better than Chichi. But I am sure not everyone would agree.

Casa Cristina is our favorite place to head straight from the airport - did that again on Wednesday, lovely. If you figure 3 nights average, as above, you will still be moving a lot but at least have 2 full days to explore each area. Averaging 2 days/stop would mean transitioning half the days of your trip.

My photos with blog, travelogue, and review links on the main page of each collection are below in case you're interested - all my recommendations are embedded there.
Happy trails!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/staceyholeman/collections

@Sonia

1,98 m tall ! It will be hard for you to fit in chicken buses (my husband is 1.82 m and hardly fits). As for minibuses : if you have to stand you will be bent over. And you will certainly feel like a giant at any Maya market :-)

Yes, I know it. I'm used to have the same problem around Asia, specially withe the really small and crowded ones mini-mini vans or trucks in Myanmar or Indonesia.
And of course in all kind of plains.

You can always decide to stay somewhere longer or leave sooner than you thought you would. A little flexibility goes a long way.

Ok, but I have no enough time to spend 3 nights on every place I want to stay. Then if I choose to stay more days in a place I will stay less days in others. We all know it, just try to figure what places sacrifice and what not.

Then my 3-nights places list can be: Antigua, Nebaj, Xela and the lake.
And thinking in "areas" the list can be extended to: Copán-Quiriguá, Livingston-Río Dulce, and even Tikal-¿Yahxá?-Flores.
The rest of my possible destinations are: El Estor/lake Izabal, Sayaxché, Semuc Champey. All seems to need 2 days.

I like to travel flexible and if I arrive some place and I like it, then stay more days and if not, continue to next place. But lately with the use of Internet in some places it's difficult to find rooms because are booked before by Internet. Specially the single and cheaper ones. so that force to book some rooms before go and that fixes your itinerary a little more.

Which ruins were you thinking of near El Estor ? Not that I can help you as we did not visit El Estor (only Livingston and Rio Dulce). We always thought it would be neat to visit Ceibal and Aguateca (from Sayaxche) but it seemed expensive.

No sorry, I mean that I will see several ruins (Copán, Quiriguá, Tikal, and maybe Yahxá) so I can go to El Estor to see nature instead ruins and skip Sayaxché.
BTW El Estor it's expensive too if you want to hire a boat to go places at the lake. Specially one morning around Bocas del Polochic (550Q), Cañón del Boquerón and Finca Paraiso it's cheaper.

We actually liked the Solola market (Tuesdays and Fridays) better than Chichi. But I am sure not everyone would agree.

No much problem with markets. I will try to go San Francisco el Alto on Friday and Sololá on Tuesday, for Chichi has two options too, so I suppose that at least I can go to 2 of them.

Thanks again!

@hopefulist did already seen your photos and will see again, thanks!

No need to book rooms ! We were in Guatemala in November-early December as well. We did not book rooms ahead. We like budget rooms in simple hotels/hostels and did not have a problem at all. Our itinerary at that time was : Biotopo del Quetzal, Coban, Lanquin (Semuc), Chisec, Flores (Tikal and Yaxha), Coban, Uspantan, Nebaj, Todos Santos, Xela, the lake and Antigua. On later trips (January-March) we went to Livingston, Rio Dulce, Copan... also without booking rooms. Enjoy !