Our Itinerary: Guatemala City to Semuc Champey
from our experience in March 2022
1. Land in Guatemala City and head to the hotel
For the first day in Guatemala, we decided to take a flight in and stay overnight. The details of the hotel we stayed at are below. We did this is because the travel up to Lanquin (where Semuc Champey is located) takes quite awhile and most transportation only leaves first thing in the morning from Guatemala City.
2. Take a shuttle bus to Lanquin from Guatemala City
The next morning we decided to take a small bus from Guatemala City to Lanquin. The price was quite affordable (about $37 per person) and there was about 15 other people on the bus. We will include the link below for the tour company that we used. The trip started at around 9:30AM and we arrived in Lanquin by 3:00-4:00pm. This time can vary due to traffic along the way. Regardless, be prepared for the travel to Lanquin from Guatemala City to take an entire day.
We also used the same tour company when we left Lanquin to head to the city of Antigua.
Bus Ticket Info - Guatemala City to Lanquin
3. Arrive at your accommodation in Lanquin and make sure to have a plan for how you are going to get to the park of Semuc Champey
Let us explain…Semuc Champey is a national park located about 10km outside of the city of Lanquin. There are plenty of hostels and a few AirBnBs you can stay in that will provide a good home base for your journey to Semuc Champey. For our trip we stayed in the AirBnB we have listed below and worked with our host to get transport booked to and from the park. One thing to note is that your ride from the town to the park will probably take you 40min-1hour being it is a very bumpy ride to get down to the park.
If you decide to book this AirBnB we stayed in, it is a bit of a walk to the actual town of Lanquin and the walk is up-hill. You can grab a tuktuk to and from as many of them stop at the gas station. But, the gas station store definitely does not have much when it comes to meals. But, that didn’t stop us from eating some delicious cup-of-noodles for a few meals while we were there.
