discoverCSG

I just booked this as:

IAD-PTY Monday, October 6
PTY-GEO Tuesday, October 7
GEO-PTY-IAD Friday, October 10

I'll use the PTY overnight to see the Canal and then find cool stuff to do in Guyana for the 2 and 2/2 days I'll be there.

And as a UA Gold, I'll take my chances with the upgrades - I already got bulkhead window coach seats on all four legs, so I'm not overly concerned if I don't get some/all upgrades.

Tblack15

I'm 6/6 with CPU's on Copa SCL-PTY.. back and forth. In fact, it's the only flight in the past 2 years that I received an alert 48 hours in advance as a UA Gold.

Now, with that I'll say I've seen a bunch of people on this thread coordinating and saying they'll be on the same flights, etc. So my guess is you'll be seeing more elites on these flights, thus lowering the opportunity for an easy CPU.

Palal

I was doing some research, this is what seems doable for covering all 3 countries:
Day 0 (mon) WAS-PTY, overnight in PTY.
Day 1 (tues) Arrive GEO around 2PM
Day 2 (wed) depart GEO, travel to Paramaribo (6-7 hrs, 5am-noon)
Day 3 (thur) depart Paramaribo, arrive Cayenne (6-7 hrs, 5am-noon)
Day 4 (fri) tour the space center and/or islands around cayenne
Day 6 (sat) cayenne - paramaribo
Day 7 (sun) paramaribo
Day 8 (mon) paramaribo- Georgetown
Day 9 (tue) GEO-PTY-IAD (possibility of overnighting in PTY)

Be aware of the crossing times for ferries on the country borders.

getmyassoutofdebt

That sounds awesome. I don't know much about traveling in those areas, let alone know many people who have traveled there. Let me know what you find out, and would love to meet up with fellow travelers.

mpattdu

Not as good as $296 but the fare only jumps to $397 in December and early 2015.

poverty.jet.set

I'm seeing YYZ-GEO for US$409 rt Nov 17-25 (it's an "Economy Extra" fare in U class, as "Economy Promo" is unavailable) but that's still cheaper than adding on a separate connecting flight to IAD.
On those dates, 19 hour overnight in PTY, and 1 hour in PTY on way back

Looks like most Mon dep in Sep/Oct/Nov/Dec with 7 nights for US$409 and 3 or 10 nights for US$432

7962 miles not counting the 25% bonus

Also, apparently rainy season starts in Nov so Aug-Oct is one good weather time to go

hobo13

We had 4 1K's in my party traveling on the Copa MVD deal last fall. We went 4/4 on all flights except MVD-PTY which we went 0/4 on. So it can be feast or famine.

vandrei

Augh! I totally forgot about that.

pbd456

i have similar plan except i am not sure if it is easy to go to space center. please let me know how you go. as i wont depart until Nov.

pbd456

i am at the after flight IAD - PTY.
i think we are on the same flights for the rest.

are you 1k?
i plan to stay in hostel, and follow to a similar trip to Palal to spend the week there.

Palal

Ended up not buying due to time constraints.

Fare expired. Current best price $397 from IAD

margaritahh

I booked it less than 5 minutes after I said the fare was dead (this always happen to me). Anyway, I ended up canceling my ticket. I wanted to use Guyana has a gateway into South America Caribbean'ish but the other flights within that area are expensive.

getmyassoutofdebt

Not 1k. Planning on hostels as well. Maybe I'll attempt to jump around too but I think I'll have to try to do some more research. Should be interesting.

IggySD

Just noticed this thread - I got in on the DL deal to GEO about 2 years ago and absolutely loved Guyana.

Georgetown itself isn't anything special, take a half day to wander around the downtown area but that's really enough.

But if you're there for a few days - definitely recommend to take the day trip out to Kaieteur Falls. I was there in the dry season and it was still pretty impressive. Plus you can add Roraima Airways to your flightmemory page.

Also spent 3 or 4 days in the interior - went to the Caiman Field House in Yupukari and found it fascinating. Although some of the more recent reviews on tripadvisor are pretty bad - perhaps there has been a management change. It is quite expensive though.

I also met up with some folks (I believe gil123 earlier in the thread was one of them) and we went to another jungle lodge that was an overnight trip from Georgetown. In my opinion it didn't hold a candle to going to the interior but for people who are only there for a day or two it's not necessarily a bad option.

Anyway, shame I missed this as I would love to go back. I think Guyana is truly a place where the more effort you put into your trip the more you're going to get out of it. It is not an easy vacation but it's a fascinating place.

But cheers to everyone who did make it - hope you enjoy. More than happy to answer any questions (although I think I've already said most everything...)

gil123

Hey Iggy:

Yeah, all the wasp bites on my arms and arse from poking around that plane wreck we passed in our jungle hike are just about healed now :-)

Agreed Guayana is worth the effort but anyone who heads out an a super-cheap ~ $300 fare should keep in mind that travel in the interior can be pricey. I think I spent almost as much to fly to falls for a couple hours as we did on the ticket down from NYC.

Also, another curiosity of Guayana that I still don't quite get is why virtually all of the restaurants there serve Chinese food. Almost half their population is of Indian descent, and only a very small number are of Chinese descent-- but I couldn't find a bowl of curry to save my life. Yet almost every restaurant, whether advertised as Chinese or local cuisine, seemed to served the same menu of bland Sino-Caribbean food. At one point I stopped an Indian local on the street and asked him where to get spicy Indian food and he said: we eat at home.