Getting from Livingston to Bay Islands (Honduras) by boat
 

Can anyone give me feedback about the practicalities of doing this? I read a travel blog by someone who managed to get from Livingston to the Honduran Bay Islands by taking boats. I would much rather do that than take buses, but I wouldn't have a whole lot of time. Can it be done in a day? Are there regular boats or is it the kind of thing where you can't know in advance if there will be a boat or not?

thanks!

mp413

There aren't regular boats so you'd have to set it up once you were there, I'm afraid. Also, boating across the Rio Dulce and busing from there, crossing the border into Honduras and clear to La Ceiba and taking a ferry to an island is not likely doable in a day, either. Good luck!

Nothing scheduled. It's the sort of thing you'd have to arrange once you're there, as hopefulist says. I think the big risk is that there won't be anyone who is willing or able to take you there.

aaaaargh! i read a travel blog from just a few weeks ago where 2 people took boats the whole way. it didn't sound that complicated, so i was hopeful. bummer! but thanks to both of you for the useful, if disappointing, info!

I admire your research and planning - I just love that part of traveling myself. The problem is, you're reading about spread out, diverse places you want to see - many of them off the main transportation loops - and wishing you could see them all in a limited time frame.

Getting from place to place is slow even on the beaten trail in CA. In the US we look at a road trip of 240 miles and think, "That's about 4 hours." In CA I'd say at least a day if it's main roads and probably 2 or 3 if not. Often the people who are doing those off the beaten trail adventures are spending lots of time in an area, making things up as they go, keeping flexibility in their schedule and going on to Plan B or C or D when Plan A doesn't work. Or maybe they just get lucky, hooking up with the right people at the right time, but you can't count on luck.

You need to keep in mind that the places on the beaten trail are there because they're amazing. In both Guatemala and Honduras seeing rarely visited sights and villages is sometimes possible with little movement off the main track, but the more of that you do the fewer geographical regions you can visit. If you look at my photos you'll see that many were taken of remote villages while I was staying a week or more at a base nearby.

In my opinion you'll have a more interesting, less stressful trip if you don't try to do too much. I just figure anything I don't see this trip is an excuse to go back!

by the way, I don't necessarily mean one single boat the whole way, boat taxis from place to place would be fine, e.g. from Puerto Barrios to the border, from the border to Puerto Cortes, etc. Does this make this any more doable?

Nope - sorry!

In order to do what you're suggesting, you'd need a lot of time to hang around and wait for someone to take you, even segment by segment. I'd guess the people who wrote the blog had a lot of flexibility built into their plans. From your original post, it doesn't sound like you have it.

Even if you could arrange boat transport, that's a rough stretch of water to do in smallish boat. Even going across the bay between Livingston and Puerto Barrios I find to be pretty choppy. I'd want something big to travel out on that open water.

Actually the blog I read made it sound like they did the trip in 1-2 days max. Maybe they were just lucky? Anyway, thanks for the advice, I'm not going to take any chances since my itinerary is quite tight.

Will let you know how it goes! I probably won't bother trying to get to the Bay Islands, it's too much distance in such a short trip. I was just really hankering for my beach fix :(

From Livingston, Belize would be easier, I think.

It sounds like everything just clicked for those bloggers. They were lucky. It could just as easily have happened that they'd have to hang around the docks for days waiting for a ride. That sounds romantic only if you have a lot of time. :)

Hopefulist is right. What about Belize? It's close. There's scheduled transportation from Livingston or Puerto Barrios across the bay. It has nice beaches.