Hi, my friend and I are going to take a trip to Central America from post-Thanksgiving to pre-Christmas this year and we're trying to decide where to go. We were thinking of sticking to two countries, so that we can truly experience the places we go to. We're experienced travelers and can get by in Spanish (we know each other from living previously in Buenos Aires), so off the beaten path places with less tourists are always great (though if something is really worth dealing with the tourists, we don't want to miss that).

From what we've heard, Guatemala seems to be at the top of a lot of peoples lists, as well as Costa Rica. Would you recommend those two or another two? Possibly Belize instead of Costa Rica? We'd probably bus from place to place, since we are on a budget. If we did Guatemala and wanted to do Costa Rica, would you recommend spending a couple days in Nicaragua and Honduras on the way, or to just stick with two neighboring countries?

Thanks for the help!!

We're going to Central America for a month, splitting between Nicaragua and Belize. Our circumstances are a bit different though, we own a place in Belize....

I think we could easily spend the entire month in Nicaragua. There are lots of areas we won't have time to see.

I'd probably do neighboring countries. Maybe Nicaragua/Costa Rica or Costa Rica/Panama. Although I bet you could easily spend a month in Guatemala, with maybe a few days in Belize.

Unless you're going to fly between countries, I'd also suggest two neighboring countries. As Jean suggested:

Guatemala + Belize
Costa Rica + Panama
Costa Rica + Nicaragua

Any of those combos could easily fill up a month.

Probably Belize+Guatemala. Cutting out air fare is one way to help with the budget, and there's plenty to see between those two places.

Guatemala/Belize or Guatemala/Honduras would be my votes.

Guatemala, Belize and Costa Rica are the most visited. However, my three favorites are Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador. There are fewer tourists, low prices, good food, friendly people and loads of sites to see.