Santo Tomas Guatemala

We just returned from a cruise that included a stop in Santo De Tomas Castille, Guatemala. We chose the Discover Rio Dulce excursion. In this excursion, you will travel by boat across the bay and enter the Rio Dulce River. The canyon walls should amaze you. You will be taken to a spot where manatees eat and if you are lucky, you'll get to see them do just that. If you don't see them you will still be surrounded by local children in small rowboats selling you their wares. You will then head to Livingston where you will have a chance to shop for souvenirs and/or eat lunch. We chose the latter which left no time for shopping, unfortunately. All in all, we were very happy we chose this excursion and we got to see some of the nitty gritty that coastal Guatemala has to offer. Our tour guide - Edgar was fantastic. Although we booked the excursion thru the ship, you can probably find out more about the tour company by searching for "One Blue Planet" tours. I'm glad we chose this informative tour over a pool and/or beach break.

Hi Kathy

Did you find a good tour in Santo Tomas? I'll be there in Feb and have been communicating with Gus. Curious to hear of your experience, or anyone who did an excursion in that town.

Thanks

Hi Cathi

Did you end up taking a tour in Santo Tomas? Do you recall who it was with and how it was? Thanks

I am looking at an NCL cruise going to this port the end of this year. I can only find one shore excursion??

We are stopping at this port with HAL in spring; I didn’t give it much thought when I booked the cruise because of the other ports on the itinerary. Typically there is always something to do in port, right? But that doesn’t seem the case here.

I found virtually nothing on Trip Advisor, not even a restaurant. I will reserve judgement until I have actually been there but it doesn’t look too encouraging. It makes me wonder why any ship even stops there.

Pretty much the only thing at the port is a large warehouse where some of the residents set up a market. Other than that there is nothing. It's an industrial port, so there isn't that typical port shopping district you see elsewhere.

We ended up staying on the ship, however everyone I spoke with who went on excursions said positive things about them.

Be very very careful when hiring a taxi they are a bunch of crooks they tell you one price and then they want tips or tell you that you agreed to pay a different price never again will I get off the ship in Guatemala

We will be calling at Santo Tomas de Castilla, Guatemala on a HAL cruise in November and would like to visit Tikal. HAL requires payment in advance when signing up for their shore excursions. This one is not cheap. I would like to wait until we're onboard to book so that we can pay some of the cost with our onboard credit. But I'm afraid that it might sell out first.

Is the shore excursion to Tikal one that is popular enough to sell out in advance?

Will the tour guide allow us to climb to the top of Temple 4?

We will be calling at Santo Tomas de Castilla, Guatemala on a HAL cruise in November and would like to visit Tikal. HAL requires payment in advance when signing up for their shore excursions. This one is not cheap. I would like to wait until we're onboard to book so that we can pay some of the cost with our onboard credit. But I'm afraid that it might sell out first.

Is the shore excursion to Tikal one that is popular enough to sell out in advance?

Will the tour guide allow us to climb to the top of Temple 4?

If you only have the one day, this is not an easy thing to do from Santo Tomas. There is no guarantee that the ship's excursion won't sell out since it involves a flight to Tikal. There are not a lot of spaces. If it is something that is a must do for you book ahead. If not there are land tours that do all of the Mayan sites in Guatemala and the 10 or 11 day tours may not cost you what the ship's excursion would cost you. IMHO!