abeyro

We are planning to visit Guatemala-Honduras-Salvador-Nicaragua-Costa Rica-Panama early November 2013.
There will be 3-4 couples traveling together.
I would appreciate comments/suggestions to the plan we've invented so far:

Guatemala
Day 1: Arrival to Guatemala City
Day 2: Lake Attilan
Day 3: Cruise on Attilan
Day 4: Antigua
Day 5: Volcano Pacaya, thermal pools Santa Teresita and back to Antigua

Honduras
Day 6: Copan

Salvador
Day 7: Suchitoto & San Salvador
Day 8: Volcanos Santa Ana, Cerro Verde, leasure time on the beach and back to San Salvador

Nicaragua
Day 9: Managua
Day10: Granada

Costa Rica
Day 11: Ricon de la Vieja
Day 12: Monteverde
Day 13: San Jose

Panama
Day 14: Panama City
Day 15: Park Chagre, cruise on the lake and swimming at the waterfall
Day 16:The Canal & the Canal Zone
Day 16 (late night): flight back

Within this time-frame, do we cover all interesting places in these 6 countries?
There are border taxes, I believe, imposed on foreigners transfering from one country to another in that region. How much are they and are they at all the borders we will cross?
Should we carry cash or are ATMs reliable and easy to spot?
Which countries will prefer our dollars and which will rather want their own curriencies?
Are there any local dishes that are a "must try"? Are street vendors safe enough (like in Thailand, for example) for us to taste something local & special or should we rather stick to restaurants?
Any recommended places to dine & drink in Antigua, Managua, Grenada?

Thank you in advance.

SJOGuy

I'm exhausted just reading this. Slow down. Six countries in 16 days is too much. You seem not to realize how long it takes to get from place to place:

Antigua to Copan - 6 hours
San Salvador to Managua - 8 hours
Granada to Rincon de la Vieja - 5 hours (rough road up to Rincon)
Rincon de la Vieja to Monteverde - 5 hours (rough road back down from Rincon and really rough road up to Monteverde)
Monteverde to San Jose - 4 hours (Really rough road back down from Monteverde)
San Jose to Panama City - 12 hours

Some of the other segments are just as long. These are estimates, and I don't even account for possible backlogs at borders.

Seriously, cut this back to two countries, or even one. You could devote two weeks to just Costa Rica or Guatemala or Panama.

SJOGuy

You don't say: Do you plan to rent a car? Rental cars cannot leave any Central American country.

JohanSlam

Forgive me for being a bit vague but in the past I have entered El Salvador the customs agent has told me that I can enter the adjoining countries without further customs formalities. There was no charge to enter El Salvador, but have your yellow fever certificate for the airline.

manneca

On ATMs. At least in Guatemala. They are plentiful, but Visa put a fraud stop on mine that I was (finally) able to get removed so I could pull out $100 a day. Evidently the ATMs from particular banks are know to duplicate your ATM card numbers and pin. It was fairly awful.

I spend hours on the phone with my bank and then on hold as the bank talked to Visa.

EmailKid

+1

Take out Managua. There's just no there there. Go to the Masaya Volcano and take a trip on Lake Nicaragua, visit Ometepe Island.

Skip SJO, not much better than Managua - sorry SJOGuy - go to Nacional Parc Manuel Antonio.

Come to think of it, San Salvador is only marginally better, at least IMHO. Panama City, OTOH can be interesting.

But seriously, you'll be doing more driving that touristing*

EmailKid

* yes I know it's not a word

SJOGuy

No argument from me. I'd live at the beach if the logistics of my work permitted it.

higo

Your list includes many of the important places. But the time-frame is too short after factoring the international buses. It is not possible to rent a car in one country and return it in another country. Copán is really worth visiting, but it's not an international bus hub, so getting there is a bit more tricky than with the capitals. I suggest deciding between Copán and El Salvador.

Guatemala
If your flight arrives early to Guatemala, I'd suggest heading directly to Antigua and using it as your base town. From there it should be fairly easy to book day trips from Antigua to Atitlan, and the Pacaya Volcano.

Dining places in Guatemala City: Any of the places at "Ciudad Cayalá". It's artificial, yes, but the place has its charm.

Transportation between Guatemala and El Salvador
The best buses from Guatemala to El Salvador are operated by Pullmantur. They leave from the Intercontinental Hotel, Zona 10, Guatemala City, and arrive at the Sheraton San Salvador, in the Zona Rosa district. The bus company handles the border for you

San Salvador
The nicer parts of San Salvador, are nicer than the nicer parts of Managua. And Granada is nicer than Suchitoto. So I'd suggest, staying in San Salvador when in El Salvador, and staying in Granada when in Nicaragua.

The nicer parts in San Salvador are: Zona Rosa, Santa Elena, Antiguo Cuscatlán, La Gran Vía, Colonia Escalon. The international buses to the other Central American countries operated by Tica Bus, King Quality and Transportes del Sol now depart from la Zona Rosa, instead of the ugly terminal downtown.

The San Salvador volcano is the closest, its Boquerón crater is just a half an hour drive from the city.

If visiting the beach, I'd suggest "Beto's" restaurant. Located on Km 45~ Carretera a Litoral, near El Sunzal beach. About 45 minutes from the city. In my opinion, the nicest beach front restaurant in E.S.

Dining and drinking
In San Salvador, the trendiest restaurant at the moment is "Esperanto" at Zona Rosa. Arrive early or make reservations. Judging by the cars parked outside, it is the place were the El Salvador's 0.1% goes for dinner when not in Miami . $20 - $30 per person, not including alcoholic drinks. Their menu is really creative, and dishes usually mix local ingredients with foreign cuisine.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...epartment.html

If you are looking for somewhere that's less sophisticated and that attracts a younger crowd. I'd suggest visiting the Paseo El Carmen district in Santa Tecla, about 10 minutes from San Salvador. There are many places to dine and drink in all price ranges.

http://paseoelcarmen.com.sv/

In El Salvador and Guatemala ATMs are easy to spot in shopping centers, supermarkets and convenience stores at gas stations. Most of the ATMs are linked to the Plus/Visa network. The red ones from the Banco de América Central are affiliated to the Cirrus/Master Card network.

Visa is the most commonly accepted credit card, followed by Master Card and Amex.

Keep lower denomination bills at hand: 1s, 5s and 10s are easier to use, as saller stores may not have change for larger bills.

• Guatemala: US Dollars accepted in places were tourists are expected. Bills must be in good or normal condition. No coins accepted. Change will be given in Quetzales. Outside touristic places and shopping centers, stores are less likely to accept them.
• El Salvador: The country is dollarized. $50s and $100s are not accepted in stores but can be exchanged at banks.
• Honduras: US Dollars accepted in places were tourists are expected. Elsewhere, bills must be in very good condition. No coins accepted. Change will be given in Lempiras.
• Nicaragua and Costa Rica: US Dollars accepted almost everywhere. No coins accepted. Change will be given in the local currency, and sometimes, in dollars.
• Panamá: The country is dollarized. But Panama mints its own coins with the same size as American coins. The Panamanian coins are only valid in Panama.

Pupusas are the most famous dish in El Salvador, eaten for breakfast or dinner. You can find them everywhere, but quality varies from place to place. I wouldn't recommend eating from street vendors, so I'd suggest Típicos Margoth for trying pupusas and other local food.

abeyro

While I appreciate comments by SJOGuy, Joham Slam, manneca and EmailKid, my big "thank you" goes to higo.
Higo, thanks a lot for plethora of useful information as well as your precision (and time devoted) to answer in detail each question I asked.

startpacking

In short, no!

I have been to all the countries you mention on three separate trips to the region. I wouldn't attempt to visit the sights you mention in just 16 days.

Skipping Tikal in Guatemala is a mistake.

cmhua777

As others have said, it will be exhausting to get to all those places in just 16 days. Travel distances are not immense, but by land can be slow and by air can be expensive.

Here is what I might suggest:

Guatemala
Day 1: Arrival to Guatemala City
Day 2: Fly to Tikal (Flores, Guatemala)
Day 3: Tikal
Day 4: Bus to Lake Atitlan
Day 5: Cruise on Atitlan (optional; the lake is fairly small and not particularly clean. Consider just taking the lanchas to the different cities along the lake)
Day 6: Bus to Antigua
Day 7: Antigua
Day 8: Volcano Pacaya, thermal pools Santa Teresita and back to Antigua

Option 1 - Continue by Land
Day 9: Travel to San Salvador
Day 10: Suchitoto & San Salvador
Day 11 and 12: Volcanos Santa Ana, Cerro Verde, leisure time on the beach and back to San Salvador
Day 13: Travel to Granada
Day 14 and 15: Granada
Day 16: Managua

You could skip El Salvador and travel by land to Copan and then down through Honduras to Nicaragua. I am suggesting against this since Copan is a really mini Tikal, so I don't feel guilty telling you to skip it. However, if you prefer that type of site, do it instead of Granada, since that city is similar to Antigua, where you will have spent a fair amount of time.

Option 2 - Travel by Air
Day 9: Travel to either Costa Rica or Panama
Day 10 - 16: in either country

If serious about this option, I am sure SJOGuy can give you better suggestions than I can.

abeyro

startpacking, thank you. I know my question had been rhetoric so your sharp "no" was fully justified. Skipping Tikal is kind of intentional as I've seen other Mayan sites in Mexico already. It may not prove 100% acceptable to most of you but more often that not I have an uneducated, tastless you've seen one you've seen them all impression after seeing Palenque, Uxmal, Chichen Itza...

cmhua777, kudos for a load of useful info.

However, I'd like to explain a thing to those of you who took their time to bow your heads over my itinerary - I collect countries :-)
Whatever weird it sounds, having been to over 60 of them now, I have a plan to add 6 more in 16 days' time in November.
As to the rest I will be deprived of by this hectic itinerary, I can only say this: a moving landscape is more interesting to me than a static one.
From the mathematical point of view - a sleep will take some 6-7 hours, preparation for the journey 2-3 hours, a travel itself 5-6 hours a day (don't forget that moving landscape...) still leaving some 8 hours for me to explore my interim destination. And the next day - another destination.

I agree it may not sound as a perfect way to utilize 16 days of one's precious days off but people have various hobbies Additionally I have something up my sleeve. Namely, another pack of 14 days off available, for instance, for a motionless laid-back holidays like, say, St.Martin (although a temptation to visit Anguilla or Saba may not make it totally stationary), Cabo Verde, Madeira, Maledives (yes, islands where space restrictions limit one's mobility in greater scale).

I appreciate all the practical input you cared to contribute, although something about border crossing pain (if any), I will have to google myself :-)

cmhua777

I completely understand the idea of "stamp collecting." I can be accused of doing the same from time to time. You can certainly travel from Guatemala to Panama by land in 16 days. Just charge your iPod and get ready for a lot of time on the road.

In general, border crossing is uneventful (I am assuming you have a US passport). I have not crossed all of these border pairs by land, but typically you will just complete the paperwork and hand your passport over to the bus attendant. Not sure if you have to buy the tourist pass for El Salvador if arriving by land, but that is the only added fee I can think of, if it happens.

The trick to having a good time on your trip is going to be determining the "must see" destinations in advance. You are going to be at the mercy of the bus schedules/availability. So if there is a place you won't compromise on and must visit, make sure you leave yourself enough time to get there. My fear is that you will not be able to have meaningful time in all of your cities when you add in travel time.

Try planning out your bus schedule in advance by looking at the bus schedules online before you go:

Hedman Alas
Pullmantur
Ticabus
King Quality
Expresso Panama

These are the big ones, but there are others. Buses generally run on schedule, which is nice. You will find lots of travel agents in each of the towns that will have posted bus schedules and can help you with tickets (if you don't buy them in advance online). These agents are particularly prevalent in the touristy cities (Granada, Antigua) and in all the hostels throughout your journey.

chahchagua

Wow nice trip, i am from Costa Rica, and i do suggest to visit:
Ricon de La Vieja, Arenal, and back to San Jose. Montever is too far for one day or one nifgr stay.
Regards
www.arenalonline.com

abeyro

cmhua777 -many thanks for additional info.
I bet so :-)