Santo Tomas to Tikal?

[SV-650-Girl]

I'm wondering if anyone knows if it's possible to get to Tikal from Santo Tomas? My BF has his heart set on going there so I thought I would try and surprise him. I admit, after doing some research I would also love to tour Tikal! I've been searching online for a while but so far I've been able to find a tour out of Santo Tomas. I'm hoping someone who has been there could give me some advice.

 

Thanks much!

[flashdog_1]

You did not mention what ship you will be travelling on. If it is Veendam, there is an excursion from Belize to Tikal offered by air at I think $449 each.

 

When will you be arriving in Guatemala? The reason i ask is because it may take lots of research to find the best way to get to Tikal, or to find out if it really is doable in one port day. If your ship goes to Guatemala before Belize, you cold ask a taxi driver what he'd charge for the whole day with the guarantee he'd get you back half an hour before your ship leaves. He would advise you if he could do it.

 

The other reason I ask is to know if you will be there during rainy or dry season. Those are relative terms, of course. If you are in a rain forest, there's going to be rain all year, but torrential rain during wet season, and have the potential of washed out roads etc. making the trip harder.

 

Some might advise you not to try it in one day since they spent 3 days there in order to see it all. Ideally, on a land vacation that is probably advisable.

 

Understand that there is transportation, but matching your schedule with the public transportation would be a problem. I see a taxi as the only possibility. the tour from Belize to Tikal by air would be faster and probably only a little more $.

 

I belong to a travel group and will ask there. There are several people who live on Rio Dulce at Fronteras (that is where you pick up the road to Tikal, or the nearest town, Flores, and the larger town the bus goes to: St Elena, with a 5 minute tut-tut ride into Flores and will find out if it is doable.

 

i asked. It is not doable from Santo Tomas with the short time in port using public transportation. Even if you were the first person off the ship, it would be impossible, & that is unlikely since ship booked shore excursions get off first.

 

It is a 3-4 hour bus ride from Rio Dulce to the nearest town to Tikal, and of course you'd have to get to Rio Dulce by water taxi first which would be an hour minimum(or spend over an hour on land by taxi getting to the bridge at Rio Dulce, or going by taxi to Puerto Barrios to get the bus to the bridge).That means you'd have to have perfect transportation connections and would still spend a minimum of 5 hours traveling.

 

Although the long bus ride is cheap, you would have absolutely zero time to spend at Tikal, you'd be totally reliant on the bus to get you back in time for the last launcha from Rio Dulce (5 pm) to Livingston, catch another launcha to Santo Tomas and the gangplank on the ship would already be raised or the ship might even be gone.

 

You would also have to know enough Spanish to ask about the transportation. It would IMO be a nightmare, and I speak Spanish.

 

As I see it, it would be a risk, even if you found a taxi driver willing to try it.

[SV-650-Girl]

Thank you, you are a wealth of information. After doing a bit of research I was beginning to think it might be impossible. It wouldn't be worth going there and not being able to spend an adequate amount of time exploring. We're going on NCL Sun the end of March. We do go to Belize but I don't recall Tikal being an excursion option. Oh well, there are so many other amazing things to do.....we'll just have to save Tikal for another trip!

 

Pamela