riding cabs at night

I plan on flying into Guat City soon, and will take a cab to Antigua. How safe is it for a woman to take a cab alone at night though the countryside around GC? I understand the ride is about 40 minutes long.

Gail

Should be fine. There's also shuttles that do the same trip. Try to hook up with someone on the flight and share the ride. I've met and traveled on with quite a few folks in the same manner. My brother and I even met up with a top notch Central American lawyer this way!!

You don't say what time of night, nor which night of the week. So I'll assume about 9pm and other than a Saturday night. So from the airport to Antigua by taxi, yeah, about 45 minutes to your doorstep. The going rate is now about $30, slightly less in quetzales. You might find someone in the immigration line to share a cab. Ask around. Maybe ask on the plane. Or you might join someone who has a reserved car or van. If you join you will likely be expected to pay the driver something, maybe $10. That's just the way the system works. There may be taxi touts right outside the airport. There is no need whatsoever to tip them. The first part of the journey is a major highway (the Pan American Highway that runs from Panama to Alaska), and it will be pretty busy even at night. The second part is good clean highway without any traffic congestion. Though I consider it to be well within the realm of safe enough, I'm a guy, so I'll defer to the women on here to comment on that.

Buen viaje!

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<hr>So I'll assume about 9pm and other than a Saturday night. <hr></blockquote>

Is 9pm on a Saturday night bad? That's about when I'll be leaving the airport for Antigua!

I am going on a saturday night. Is that particularly bad?
gail again

Safety in numbers (anywhere - even in NYC!). Try to hook up with another traveller to share the cab with. Or take a shuttle. Shuttles are about $10 - takes about the same amount of time.

No, a taxi on a Saturday night is not bad. May be more traffic on the highway, as city people head to Antigua for dinner, or in the case of the young crowd to drink and dance. There used to be a charge to enter Antigua on a Saturday night, to discourage the young crowd from coming. Don't know if they still do that or not. Ask around on the plane if anyone is going on to Antigua, and can you share their ride. The drivers of hired vehicles usually expect to be paid for additional passengers.

Buen viaje!

note - 1/2 the respondees are men.

i'm a female & i wouldn't. probably alot of traffic on sat. nite in GC. if you use the minivans w/others fine.
i came in on a sun. 7am & it was bliss 0 GC traffic, btw i did travel by myself to antigua from CG but done it before, broad daylight, etc...if the male driver would have vered/pulled off the highway at any point [not to antigua] i woulda known it.

I'd really like to hear more about this supposed charge for entering Antigua and how exactly they enforced that. I lived there for several years and never heard anything about that.

I am female and I travel alone alot. I have come in at the Ahora airport at all hours and I have traveled to Antigua by private van, shuttle van and taxie and I am still alive. This next trip I will arrive at 6:15 am but I imagine I will as usual get to where I am going okay. To see Guatemala see my website wolfcalls.com

They only charge the entrance in Antigua for cars during Semana Santa. Is that what you were asking for??

lucy, I wish I could tell you when this happened, but I can't recall the year, nor did I ever know for how long they kept it in force. Must have been about 4 years ago, just not sure. Good chance it was about the same time the town powers were shutting down a bunch of bars and clubs, and made other bars stop serving hard liquor. The town powers were upset with the large influx of car fulls of young city males, many teenagers, coming into town on Saturday night, getting drunk, and racing around the parque central. Plus, a bunch of them were probably Carrie Nations about any sort of drinking. At various times they did a number of things to stop it. One was the noted bar and club closings. Another was passing rules that imposed early curfews on the bars and clubs. I remember when they, without any prior notice, made Mono Loco and others close on Sunday nights at some ridiculous hour, something like 8 o'clock. Another was charging a fee to come into town on Saturday nights on the road from the city. I think the start time for charging was 7 or 8pm. Residents were probably expempted. In fact the fee collectors probably let lots of people through if they didn't fit the profile. There was a little guard house on that road right at the edge of town. I'm also trying to recall how much the fee actually was. Seems like 25Q?

That town power clique is the same group that ran the mayas out of all the parks and open church yards. Now they have tuk-tuks and giant baby strollers all over place. That is God's way of punishing them for their actions......;-)

CAgal.....Maybe the cab driver was veering off the road to stop and receive his "gift".Just like a man!

oh yeah! his gift woulda been a knife stab in his ¨family jewels¨.

the last thing in the world i´d do if i´d never been to GT before is take a cab ride to a city i´d never been before to stay in a hotel i´ve never stayed before nor have any clue where it is (that i may or may not have reservations for- not that that matters here - as on many previous posts many people have noted that it doesn´t matter if you have a res or not if a big group comes to town your little res gets ¨lost¨) schelepping around at night for a hotel when most hotels lock up their doors at 9pm- it´s on any recommended list especially when you can´t even see the signs for hotels in antigua. the tiny signs (because of historical designation) are hard to see in broad daylight 4 feet away!

If you really want to be safe- contact Christian- Servicios Turisticos Christian- Cell 58986846. Email gerardos_christian@hotmail.com. We have recently returned from Guatemala- had to spend a month in GC to await recovery of son to return to Aus. We stumbled upon Christian at the airport in the middle of the night after a very long flight from Darwinand he is marvellous. Obviously will cost a bit more than public transport- but he is a totally trustworthy person with all the local knowledge and is passionate about tourism in his country and about tourists having a very positive experience whilst there. He has contacts and knowledge about accomodation all over the country- and travels wherever you want to go. We were a mother and daughter travelling and Christian and his contacts helped us enormously. Cheers Jacky

Book you hotel in Antigua ahead of time and ask them to send a private van for you if arriving really late and nervous about a taxie.