one week in central america advice
 

Hi, I have one week vacation end of Feb. and I wanted to know where in Central America would be a good place to visit. My roommate and I were thinking either Panama or Belize. We are two girls and we like everything from beach islands to hiking volcanoes. (I have already been to Nicaragua) We are budget travelers. I saw the Belize link and that was helpful but I couldn't find any on Panama. We are open to the other countries as well, we have not bought our plane tix yet.

Thanks!

two girls? DEFINITIVELY recommend Costa Rica :cool:

If you fly into LIR you are very close to beaches and one of our coolest volcanoes

http://www.costarica-nationalparks.c...ionalpark.html

(that one is off the beaten path , Arenal volcano is considered a must see , if you go there you can do canopy / there are some caverns with bats......and also a nice waterfall )

If you have anything in particular that you would like to do ,post back, chances are we have it down here

Belize and Tikal
 

Thank you for your advice. That place looks awesome! I was also suggested Irazu Volcano/ Turrialba how does that compare?

We actually decided to do fly into Belize and stay in San Ignacio and do stuff around there and cross over to Tikal. Any suggestions on must see/must do activities? Unfortunately my friend does not scuba dive so I will have to save that for another visit.

The Irazu Volcano pretty much looks like a light blueish-green lake inside a crater. The Arenal Volcano is much more impressive and you can often see the red lava flowing out of the top at night and smoke or ash coming out in the day (that is when the view isn't obstructed by clouds).

The lake in the Irazu crater is probably dry now, that one and his brother Turrialba have been acting up lately, as a result, you can no longer get right up to the crater of the Turrialba , who was extinct not that long ago , I have pictures of me standing right in the crater of it

Now there is a real time camera in the Turrialba cause........its best to keep an eye on it ;)

Totally cloudy as I type this http://www.ovsicori.una.ac.cr/vulcan...ideoturri.html but this is a picture taken by a good friend of mine (he has lots of cool pics in there)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertowachong/3926670255/

All in all, the Arenal (and the Rincon de la Vieja) are the most impressive ones

Panama. US dollar is used, huge plus.

You can hike Volcan Baru and see both oceans from the top - way cool. Serious hike though.

Great beaches, and you mentioned beach islands - Bocas del Toro... is heaven. Its where all the rooms are "floating" out in the ocean.

Costa Rica is over played. A week in Panama is too short... but you'll have a blast if you chose it. Plus, extremely safe country too.