Completed an independent driving trip around Guatemala, with a stop in Honduras, through El Salvador & back into Guatemala - Feb-Mar 2026. Driver: 54yr year old from London, UK, travelling with my wife.

For anyone contemplating anything similar, here's my experience:

1. The big takeaway - for all the stories and official warnings about armed hold-ups & carjackings - is that for us it felt safe at all times.

2. The four border crossings we made - from Guatemala into and then out of Honduras at El Florito, from Guatemala into El Salvador at Anguiatu, from Salvador into Guatemala at Hachadura - were all incredibly fast: in and on our way in less than 30 minutes. No-one bothered to check out formal paperwork of the car permits organised by the hire car company.

3. In years of driving in foreign countries, it was by far the cheapest car hire I've ever had. A pretty new Toyota RAV4 from Enterprise at Guatemala City Airport for 35 days, at about 40 USD a day. Plus, only Enterprise was willing to fix the permits for me (and in advance). They were fantastically helpful - and really nice people too.

(Why so cheap? In part, I have annual global car insurance from Swinton in the UK that covers CDW Plus, etc etc for all hire car trips, and it only costs me 175 USD a year. So if you travel just a moderate amount, it is much cheaper to have this and go for the most basic insurance only with the rental car.)

4. Use Waze - simple on Apple CarPlay. It tells you about all the very many speedhumps and potholes. Check the routes using Google/AI to avoid known danger spots, and Waze always gave me a route choice on those days anyway.

5. Filling up is never a problem. Guatemala must have more petrol stations per road km of anywhere in the world! You can't move for Texaco, Puma, Shell etc. Even in remote spots like Lanquin.

6. The road conditions are variable:

Some great new roads - smooth and fast Coban to Lanquin, ditto the road Flores to Tikal, pretty much all of El Salvador.

Some harder twisty mountainous sections, where you just have to be pretty assertive and overtake the super-slow trucks, when safe rather than round blind corners like the locals. Note the fast very high twisty motorway CA1 to Panajachel is memorably "engaging" given traffic and other hazards.

One or two days each with maybe 100 speedhumps, some vicious where you have to slow almost to a stop. A 4x4 for this was handy.

For us, Waze timings were about right. A marginal optimism bias on the longest days only - it took longer to get to Lanquin and to Flores. We left early, driving in the day only, so that we would always arrive before 3pm so I had clear time to replace a tyre myself if we got a puncture. I checked the spare tyre jack & wheelnut spanner before we left. (And CarPlay - always do this before leaving the hire company, I've had issues before and needed them to swap to another car).

7. Route plan in advance. I adjusted by asking AI about specific crime safety risks eg don't drive the direct route El Paredon to Atitlan, or around the south of Atitlan, don't stop on the CA9 when you are in Zona 18 on the outskirts of Guatemala City.

8. I am glad we were (excessively!) paranoid about security. Our car had dark tinted windows and we kept it locked at all times driving, windows closed, maintained an escape gap when caught in jams. I had a main "dummy wallet" I could afford to lose with an easily cancellable card, a spare card hidden in the sole of my shoe, a thin money belt hidden on the small of my back etc, a spare phone with local SIM in my sock, cash dollars split between bags. It made us feel confident that even if we were robbed/carjacked, we would be OK.

9. Our route:

Guatemala City Airport to Lanquin for Semuc Champey.

Lanquin to Flores

Flores to Tikal

Tikal to Rio Dulce

Rio Dulce to Copan Ruinas in Honduras

Copan Ruinas back into Guatemala and into Suchitoto El Salvador

Suchitoto to Lago Coatapeque (for Volcan Santa Ana)

Lago Coatapeque to El Zonte

El Zonte to Juayua (Ruta de las Flores)

Juayua to El Paredon in Guatemala

El Paradon to Panajachel

Panajachel to Antigua

Antigua back to Guatemala City Airport

10. An aside of highlights.

Semuc-Champey was fabulous. We were first in swimming at 8:30am, which was really magical. Viewpoint stunning especially during the peak morning crush. Got quieter again at lunchtime, great for more swimming then.

Tikal super, worth a whole day at least, I think the viewpoint from the tallest temple in the Lost World was better than the classic sunrise temple viewpoint. Not very busy even at weekend.

The hot water waterfall - like a pounding very hot shower - at Finca el Paraiso 30 minutes from Rio Dulce was a real one-off experience.

Liked Suchitoto. Worth the easy hike up Santa Ana. El Zonte delightful surf spot especially beach-walking the hour before sunset. Salvador felt super-safe, armed police everywhere even at the top of Santa Ana.

Just loved our lazy week in Atitlan, village-hopping, hiking, swimming. Santa Cruz best spot to stay.

Overall highlight was at the end - overnight up on Acatenango watching Fuego erupt every ten minutes or so. Just wow.

I hope this post was helpful and do feel free to ask me anything.

Hi iandodgelondon—

Thanks for sharing your experiences in the Northern Triangle. I’ve been to some of the spots you mention: Copán Ruinas, Antigua, Suchitoto, Lago de Coatepeque, trips that were eye-opening, enjoyable and memorable. Trips I treasure to this day! I travelled by buses in that part of the world; glad to know renting a car worked well, even with the multiple border crossings; you really covered a lot of ground too!

Best wishes,

Daniel

Another thanks for posting this report! I've made trips to Guatemala and mainland Honduras in recent years, as well as earlier trips to those two countries, and elsewhere in Central America, over the preceding decades; and despite all the "bad press" the region gets, I have consistently found Central America to be a safe and welcoming place to visit. I was pleased to see your positive trip report.

You weren't joking about being "excessively paranoid" about security (point #8). But I don't blame you, and it was probably a good idea -- I'll admit I've come to feel fairly comfortable in Central America, and probably no longer see this region as do first-time visitors (as I will assume you were). But I also wear a money pouch inside my pants; I travel with spare cash and a spare credit card; and of course I always stick to what we call the "usual precautions." (Well, most of the time, but I'll recommend "always"!)