Hi my family and I are planning to drive between San Cristobal and Palenque via Agua Azul in April. I would be keen to know about how safe it is - especially as we are travelling with our children. Any tips would be great! We are planning to hire a car in San Cristobal. Be also good to know if there is any threat of getting malaria down there at this time of the year. thanks!

Hi, Marylou -

I can't answer your question, but thought I'd mention that the road is quite vertigenous - you might want to take something to prevent motion sickness before heading out!

Enjoy!

great thanks the kids will hate that! Does it take long to do the trip? And where did you stay in Palenque?

Thanks again

Mary-Lou

Honestly, I wouldn't do the drive myself. Bandits target rental cars on the road between SC and Palenque. And it was only a couple of months ago that a tourist bus was hijacked near Agua Azul.

That said, many people make the trip--even in rental cars--and are quite safe. So it's your call. But the guidebooks do talk about this ongoing problem, as do the people you meet in the area. So, IMO anyway, it should be taken seriously.

I would take a tour that goes from SC to Palenque and stops at the waterfalls. The one we took actually toured Palenque and then returned to SC that same day--a torturously long day in my view. (And yes, that road is beautiful but sickness-inducing.) We parted from the rest of our tour, settled in to Palenque, and toured the ruins the next morning--certainly the best way to do it.

The drive from SC to Palenque is about 7 hours.

We stayed at Marguerite and Ed's in el Panchan, between Palenque town and the ruins. We recommend it highly, but it was hard to reach them to make reservations in advance. Hopefully, they have cell phone service back in place.

Seek out the waterfalls in the national park. (And make sure you've paid admission for that day at the entrance--they do check.) Quite idyllic, but talk about safety with the kids in advance so they don't slip--easy to do, to which I can attest.

Thanks for that I think we might just take a normal bus there to Planque stay a couple of days and come back. It really is good to get some first hand recent advice.