Semuc Champey Natural Monument — Attraction in Lanquín

Only a 8-9 hour cramped bus ride from Flores (Tikal area) to Lanquin (25Q). Then. A CRAZY 9km pickup truck ride (15Q..45min) to the most amazing swimming holes, caves, cliff jumps, hidden grottos, vista hiking, water tubing, natural park I’ve been to! Totally worth it. But. Know that this is can be a dangerous place. Here’s some tips, in no order:

1. Take the FULL cave, tubing, waterfall, hike, Semuc tour. You will not be disappointed. You will miss 90% of the experience if you just go swimming/hiking around the pools.
2. The candle light cave portion is super precarious, requires swimming, and minor upper body strength, and is amazing, but will certainly push most people to uncomfortable places (i.e. 20’ rope climb up a waterfall, 10’ slide into a water pit, 15’ optional climb/jump),
3. DO NOT wear flip flops. Wear sneakers or other study shoes that you can trust your life with. And are ok getting 100% wet.
4. Don’t do anything you aren’t comfortable with. But know you will likely be pushed outside your comfort zone here, more than once. But I saw 8 year olds and 70 year olds doing this.
5. Don’t pay more than 10Q for a beer anywhere in the park.
6. Bring big spray and a towel and water. And did I mention sturdy shoes?
7. The Mirador was probably the least impressive part for me. Especially on a super crowded day. You’ve seen the photo. The water is better up close. The hike up is hard and sweaty. 20-25 minutes.
8. This will be a long day and a tough work out.
9. My favorite part was the 30’ and 40’ jumps near the waterfalls at the end of SC.
10. Our guide was Pepe, and he was solid, with super impressive knowledge of the area. And impressive jumping/caving/swimming ability.
11. If you book a tour, ask if the lunch is included in the price, and get it in writing on your receipt.
12. Probably the most important: Book your bus/shuttle out of town with your hostel/hotel SEPARATELY from a package (i.e. NOT with an out of town travel company). Lots of travelers seems to have been stranded each day in Lanquin, with their booker bus never showing up. Myself included. Then, they need to buy a second bus at a higher rate (I paid 175Q to get to Guatemala...

Pretty place, but if you’ve seen other limestone pools or karstic landscapes/caves elsewhere before (China (Huanglong, Jiuzhaigou, De Tian…), Laos (Kwang Si), Thailand (Erawan), Vietnam (Phong Nha), Philippines, Croatia (Plitvice) etc.), you might find Semuc Champey incredibly underwhelming and overrated in comparison. I was very disappointed to see how tiny it was (you can see all of the pools at one glance, and walk from the first to the last in about 5 min), and because it’s so small, it gets crowded very quickly. It was still a nice place to stop by, and swimming in the pools was fun, but it is nowhere near as spectacular as other limestone landscapes you would find elsewhere. I am honestly very surprised such an average place gets all this hype and rave reviews. You might enjoy it more if you haven’t traveled much before, or have never done caving/tubing before.

As for the caves, they are nothing special either: no beautiful rock formations, very dark rock, very few stalactites, and if there are, you can’t see them anyway because the guides make you go in with a candle (no headlamp), so it’s extremely dark and you can’t see anything. I did caving many times in my life and this was by far the least interesting cave I’ve visited, but also the most unsafe, with the most unprofessional guides. Instead of ensuring your safety, the guides make it unnecessarily unsafe and difficult to explore the caves (forcing you to swim and climb rocks with a burning candle, not providing any headlamps/helmets/ropes/proper gear…) to spice things up, probably because if we had proper gear, it would be too easy and underwhelming (there is nothing to see… you probably have better caves near your hometown tbh). It felt like the whole point of the experience was to take unnecessary risks to earn bragging rights for surviving this. Some people in my group hated it, but still felt compelled to follow the group, because they didn’t want to be the boring odd one out/the one who’s scared to do it. Do check the bad reviews on TripAdvisor (some people were abandoned by their guides alone in the dark and almost died when the cave was flooded with rain) and proceed at...

Semuc Champey itself is absolutely incredible! I have been to 35 countries and as far as natural beauty, is one of the most amazing things I have seen in my life. I enjoyed my time here. Highlights include tubing down the river below Semuc Champey, swimming under the waterfalls and, of course, swimming in SC. The hike up to the viewpoint might be hard for some people, so bring a lot of water! The tour guide was pretty good too. Not amazing but not bad either.

However, there is ONE DOWNSIDE to this experience: Most people will use Lanquín as a base to further explore Semuc. The issue is the transportation between Lanquín and Semuc (about 8 to 10 km) is horrendous, the worst I have seen in all of my travels. It is dangerous, unethical and disrespectful to all of the paying customers and locals alike to pack them in, like cows, into the back of a pick up truck (everyone standing). The metal bars will hurt your back if you are pressed against the sides as this is a bumpy ride. Any way, from Semuc back to Lanquín I counted THIRTY-THREE people in the back of the truck, many hanging on for dear life, including a child hanging OUTSIDE THE TRUCK. That is what pissed me off the most, the poor kid! How is this ethical in any way or acceptable? It is my hope to bring this to the attention of more people so something can be done about this. Please develop better transportation that is (more) respectable to everyone involved.

IF you decided to go to Semuc Champey, totally do it BUT verify with the tour guide or whoever you are talking to that you will not need to use a pick up truck (they WILL be over crowded) as considering the roads, they are dangerous the way they are being used....Demand better transit between the town and Semuc and if they cannot give it to you, walk, find someone...