Central America Holiday

lom112

My boyfriend and I are both poor Masters students who will be graduating this year. We would like to go travelling around central America in celebration of this... but on a tight-ish budget.

We are looking to go from November 2015- end of January 2016

I have a couple of questions:

1) where is the cheapest place to fly anywhere in this area (so far the cheapest I have found is to Cancun, Mexico with Thomas Cook for about £300 one way)

2) any tips for cheap travel once there/best places to visit

3) any helpful tips for this kind of trip or recomendations would be appreciated

Voyager2002

Firstly, if you are really poor you might look at Southeast Asia, where costs are a good deal lower.

Secondly, have a look at guides like those from Lonely Planet or The Rough Guide.

Voyager2002

You mentioned perhaps flying into Cancun. To get from there to places that interest you would involve either flying (even domestic flights in Mexico are ridiculously expensive) or taking a bus. Sadly, there is quite a high risk of armed robbery on buses in Mexico: a Mexican friend of mine laments that this is not possible, and that taking a cheap flight to Cancun is not a feasible way of getting even to Mexico City.

richardw

Having travelled to south East Asia and also Mexico and Colombia, I agree with the above points, the fear of crime in SE Asia is much less and it's great value for money.

Tuesday_Tenor

My only experience of Central America:

25 years ago I spent 3 weeks travelling around Costa Rica, and had a wonderful time. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/costa-rica

Experience and 1990 prices now out of date of course, but for what it's worth:
It's a relatively small country, so once there you use buses, no extra flights.
Local buses were extremely cheap.
E.g. To go to the Arenal Volcano the only access was on an official bus tour from San Jose; cost me £12. That one tourist trip cost more than I'd spent travelling around the country on local buses for 2 whole weeks!

I enjoyed San Jose itself, and my trip included the Monteverde Cloud Forest and the Manuel Antonio National Park. Pacific beaches, toucans, massive blue butterflies ...

I was travelling as a Servas traveller and spent about half my 22 nights staying with local people. (Google Servas)

Do you speak Spanish? I was getting away from the tourist areas, and definitely needed my Spanish there.

All the best, wherever you go.

Edit:
OK, perhaps not cheapest place to fly to, as there are no direct flights.
http://www.cntraveller.com/guides/south-america/costa-rica/costa-rica/how-to-get-there
I was already in South America so flew from Colombia to Costa Rica via some Colombian islands in the Carribean. (As you do ... on the trip of a life-time!).

Peccary

In 2013 hubby and i went from Panama to Guatemala by bus so i will share my thoughts:

Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala are much cheaper than Panama, Costa Rica and Belize (skipped El Salvador)

Bus travel is OK, we took everything from luxury coaches to chicken buses. Bus stations and borders can be sketchy but we had no problems. As a whole, the big cities aren't worth lingering in when there are many lovely colonial towns. Speaking Spanish is a massive bonus with buses and borders as it isn't always obvious whats going on.

Flights, via the US is usually cheapest to CA. Open jaw is worth considering so you don't have to retrace your steps. STA website will let you search this. I have done the trip to Guatemala (only as far as Flores near the Mexican border) from Cancun (10 years ago now so the situation could have changed) I went via Belize, it was a long slog, it is possible but would be better to fly somewhere more convenient.

What are your interests? Here are a few places to see:
Tikal, Guatemala Amazing Maya ruins in the jungle
Manual Antonio, Costa Rica, a national park on the Pacific with guaranteed sloths and monkeys
Bay Islands, Honduras - A different, Caribbean vibe with cheap diving and lots of partying!