gigib

I have already posted this question on Lonely Planet and gotten some advice, now I'm looking for Fodorite advice.

We are arriving at the Flores airport about 6:30 p.m., so we are spending 1 night in Flores before heading to Tikal the next day for 2 nights. Then, we are flying out of Flores on an 8:30 a.m. flight back to GUA. The hotel at Tikal, the Inn, has quoted $60 per trip to fetch us in Flores and take us back for our early flight.

This is a bit steep, so I am wondering about finding shuttles in Flores. The LP people say No Problem, we can find something in Flores. I figure we can poke about for a reasonable way to get to Tikal, but I am nervous about getting back so early on our flight day.

Any recs for a shuttle company we could reserve with before we go? The usual ones online don't seem to offer the Flores-Tikal-Flores.

hopefulist

It makes no sense to me to go from Tikal to the airport the morning of your flight. If I was you I'd stay the last night in Flores. You'll save money, get to enjoy the town, and pay $5 for the trip to the airport. When I took the 8:30 flight a year and a half ago the airline asked us to be at the airport by 6:30 am so we were glad to be 5 minutes away. If you're staying the middle night in the park you'll get most of 2 days there including evening and early morning and could transfer to Flores late in the day if you wanted.

I've heard bad things about San Juan travel so you might want to avoid their shuttles. I've used Rainbow Travel successfully and this year I'll choose between Rainbow and Adrenalina for multiple shuttles and tours for a group I'm taking down. Both are easy to access through email and have bilingual folks to help you plan. Happy trails!

gigib

Thanks for the suggestion, I've sent an email to Rainbow Travel. We have already reduced our Tikal nights from 3 to 2, it will be full moon while we are there and we are looking forward to the nights in the jungle!

hopefulist

Please keep us posted about the full moon activities - they tend to herd folks out as it gets dark around 6:00 but maybe there's more going on during the full moon. Please post a trip report when you get home!

gigib

I sure will!

I ended up arranging our transport through Martsam agency, they have an office in Flores. $7 each for a mid-morning shuttle to Tikal, then $55 back to the airport because it's so early in the morning.

I am through planning, I think, now all we have to do is go and enjoy...