Central America Journey - G Adventures

stickinikki

Hi all,

I've wanted to "do" Central America for a while now and will finally have the time next August to spend 4-6 weeks travelling through. Initially had thought of organising the whole trip independently but it seems like a hell of a lot of work given I have a) no experience backpacking and b) never been to Central America. So, following some internet searching I've more or less decided to go with G Adventures on the 33 day "Central American Journey" trip.

I'm trying to keep costs down as obviously this whole endeavour is pretty expensive. Flights and the trip itself are fixed costs but the variables are the optional activities and budget for food.

With that in mind, a few questions for those in the know:

1) Do people always do those optional activities and/or how much are you likely to spend on them?

2) G Adventures recommend budgeting approx $1000 for food - is this accurate enough or can you get away with spending less?

3) Should I leave booking to last-minute ish when there may be discounts or is that a risky move?

4) Is there an optimum time for booking flights? e.g. last minute or well in advance?

5) If all else fails, assuming I follow exactly the same route and roughly the same activities, am I likely to spend much less money by organising this myself or is it worth paying G Adventures for the tour guides/ease of not having to do any planning?

Any help or even general advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

Nikki

solerina

stickinikki wrote: »

Hi all,

I've wanted to "do" Central America for a while now and will finally have the time next August to spend 4-6 weeks travelling through. Initially had thought of organising the whole trip independently but it seems like a hell of a lot of work given I have a) no experience backpacking and b) never been to Central America. So, following some internet searching I've more or less decided to go with G Adventures on the 33 day "Central American Journey" trip.

I'm trying to keep costs down as obviously this whole endeavour is pretty expensive. Flights and the trip itself are fixed costs but the variables are the optional activities and budget for food.

With that in mind, a few questions for those in the know:

1) Do people always do those optional activities and/or how much are you likely to spend on them?

2) G Adventures recommend budgeting approx $1000 for food - is this accurate enough or can you get away with spending less?

3) Should I leave booking to last-minute ish when there may be discounts or is that a risky move?

4) Is there an optimum time for booking flights? e.g. last minute or well in advance?

5) If all else fails, assuming I follow exactly the same route and roughly the same activities, am I likely to spend much less money by organising this myself or is it worth paying G Adventures for the tour guides/ease of not having to do any planning?

Any help or even general advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

Nikki

G adventures are excellent, we travelled around Peru with them a few years ago, we used a lot less money than they advised as we found food very cheap, although that obviously depends on the country. I didn't do any optional activities, nor did any of my group, we didn't see the need too. The guides were all local to the area and were excellent. We found it beneficial as we got to cover a lot of ground much faster than we could have done alone and we had only a limited window of time available. I will head back some day and see more of Peru and will probably do it without a tour group.