If you go to Guatemala

By Susan Whitney
Deseret Morning News
Published: Saturday, Nov. 18, 2006 7:41 p.m. MST
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The phone number of the Guatemala Tourist Commission is 888-464-8281.There are three hotels at Tikal and several restaurants. Camping near the site is less than $10 a night. (First come, first served. Pay at the visitors center.)

My husband and I stayed in Belize and took a daylong tour, with a guide and a driver, crossing the border into Guatemala early in the morning, driving 60 miles, touring the site for half a day, eating lunch, stopping on the way back to buy table linens and still getting back to our lodge near San Ignacio in time for dinner. It is also possible to tour Tikal from a base in Guatemala City, although the highway seems to be better between Belize and Tikal than between Guatemala City and Tikal. Many tourists fly into an airport in Flores, about 40 miles from Tikal, and then take a van to the site.

Our guidebook recommended leaving valuables in the hotel safe in Belize, as armed robberies of tour vans, while not common, are not unheard of in the Guatemalan rain forest. Some Belizean rental-car agencies discourage tourists from driving into Guatemala, even to the point of saying the car is not insured over the border. Still, several U.S. tourists we met did drive across and had no problems.

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For several hundred dollars per person, you can take an organized tour from the Belizean towns of San Ignacio, San Pedro, Caye Caulker, Belize City or Placencia. A less expensive method would be to take a bus from Belize City or San Ignacio to the border, walk across, and then hire a driver to take you to Tikal. Admission to the site is around $7 U.S. You can hire a guide at the site for around $20 U.S.

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