How to Visit to Semuc Champey (By Yourself or With a Tour)

Welcome to Semuc Champey Guatemala! This detailed travel guide explains everything you need to know about how to visit Semuc Champey on your own or with a tour…

This travel guide is based on our ride through Guatemala during our round the world motorcycle trip. The guides on this website are constantly updated with info from contributors to keep them current, up-to-date and as helpful as possible for you.

How to Visit Semuc Champey

By Andy Davidson

Mad or Nomad - RTW motorcycle travellers

What is Semuc Champey?

Semuc Champey is a natural limestone bridge. Over a thousand years, the Cahabon River carved its way through the limestone and now passes underneath it. What we’re left with is a 3,000 metre long ‘bridge’ covered in stunning crystal clear turquoise pools. And you are going to love it!

Is Semuc Champey worth it?

Semuc Champey is beautiful. However, the question of whether it’s worth it or not depends on how you’re getting there, where you’re starting from and how many similar places you’ve seen.

In our case, we have our own motorcycles, plenty of time and needed to get from Tikal to Antigua, so we plotted a route which took in Semuc along the way.

We would recommend that it’s only worth visiting if you are also travelling between those two destinations because it’s such a long way otherwise.

For example, if you are already in Antigua (because you’ve flown there or taken a bus there) and are not heading to Tikal, then it’s a long trek for a nice swim.

Where to stay?

You have two options to stay when visiting Semuc Champey. Firstly, you have Lanquin town which is where most people stay as a jumping off point to visit Semuc. From Lanquin, it’s a 10km ride. Any hotel in Lanquin will be able to organise a tour for you Semuc.

Lanquin accommodation

We recommend staying in the town because there’s more options for accommodation, it’s easy to get between the two and there’s more to see and do here as well as food and hotel options.

The hotel we stayed at and highly recommend is El Retiro Lodge. It’s roughly £25 per night, the restaurant is great and they can provide pack lunches if you’re going alone or tours if you want to go in a group. There’s also a beautiful river running past the restaurant you can swim in. They’re also in the process of building a swimming pool. There’s plenty of spots to chill out here with decent WiFi.

Recommended hotel: El Retiro Lanquin

Semuc Champey accommodation

If you want to stay right by the park entrance then we recommend staying at Greengos. Just bear in mind there won’t be much to do in this area as the main hustle and bustle is in Lanquin.

Recommended hotel: Greengos Hostel

How much does it cost to join a tour to Semuc Champey?

Most hotels in Lanquin will offer a fully-guided tour. This will include transport to and from Semuc Champey, a visit to a waterfall and a cave tour where you’ll get to go back in time and wade through with fire torches. After the cave tour you’ll be taken to Semuc and your entry fee is included. You also get lunch (usually a burito, cookie and water included too.

You can expect a tour to cost £25 per person. This is a very reasonable price considering what you get. Alternatively, you can book a tour online and get a pretty good deal.

How much does it cost to visit Semuc Champey without a tour?

The entrance fee to Semuc Champey is £5 per person. And you’ll also need to pay £1 to park your motorcycle (maybe slightly more for a car). There are no extra fees to enter Semuc.

However, bear in mind that there is a cave nearby but it’s not part of Semuc. Entrance to the cave is included in the tour, so if you also want to see this then head to the cave and there will be a few guides there who will ask for a small denomination to take you in. You can’t enter the cave without a guide otherwise.

We recommend checking out these deals for Semuc tours on Viator as they seem to be the cheapest and best run.

How to get to Semuc Champey by yourself

The benefit of going to Semuc Champey without a tour and by yourself is that you can arrive early. Tours get to Semuc for around 9:30am, however the park opens at 8am. We arrived at 7:45 and they opened the ticket office to let us in. We were the only people on the hike up to the mirador and the only people swimming in the pools after. The first tourists showed up around 10am. This makes this option worth it.

Using your own transport

The road to Semuc Champey is 10km from Lanquin town. They are currently paving the road, so soon it will be a very easy ride. Currently as of June 2024, the first 6kms are perfectly paved and the remaining 4kms are hard packed easy gravel. It’s only the last 150metres from the bridge to the Semuc Champey car park that are in bad condition and the last 20metres are steep. If this sounds like something you don’t want to ride, then you can always park on the street at the bottom or in one of the hotel car parks and walk up.

However, if you’re up for it, then ride all the way into the car park where there’s a barrier and you’ll be right at the entrance. If you’re not sure, simply ride to the bridge and assess the situation for yourself.

You’ll get a ticket for your motorcycle or car when you arrive. It seems pretty safe there as there’s a barrier and lots of locals around.

Using a tuk-tuk

If you don’t have your own transport and you don’t want to join a tour, then you can simply ask any tuk-tuk driver or ask at a hotel, shop etc and they can arrange it for you. I asked at a small tienda when buying a bottle of water how much the owner would charge to take us in his tuk-tuk and bring us back (and wait for us for around three hours) and he offered his services for £15.

What to see when you’re at Semuc Champey

There are toilets in the car park, we recommend doing the mirador hike first and so it’s a good idea to use the loos in the car park before entering the park. The next toilets are by the pools.

Mirador hike. This is the Semuc Champey viewpoint. It takes around 30-40 minutes to get to the top at a slow pace and we highly recommend doing this first because it’s steep, hot and sweaty and you do not want to be clambering up those stairs in the mid-day sun. Hike to the top first and then your reward is jumping in the pools after.

There are wooden stairs to climb and a few sections with rocks, but it’s well maintained and relatively easy so long as you take it slow.

Semuc Champey pools. This is the main attraction. There are three main levels of pools. You’ll see and hear reports of people mentioning that one pool is prettier than the other. We don’t think that’s the case at all. They’re all very close to one another and there’s wooden footbridges to access each of them, so walk to the end and see which one you fancy, or get there early and try all of them!

Toilets, changing rooms and seating

There are toilets and changing rooms just before you reach the first pool. And there are wooden lockers (bring your own padlock) at the third pool. We didn’t use the lockers and just left our bag on the side within view.

Note that there’s not really any seating areas so don’t expect to bring a picnic and have a nice lounging area to relax in. It’s more perching on rocks and spending time in the water.

What to take with you

Insect repellent is always a good idea.
Sun glasses, hat, sun cream.
Towel, swim wear, flip flops, trainers for the hike, change of clothes.
Padlock for the locker if you need it.
Waterproof phone case if you want to take your phone in.
Plenty of water!

Food and drink

As you’re not on a tour you’ll need to also factor in brining/buying your own food.

We brought a packed lunch with us. This was very easy to arrange from our hotel. We simply said we were going by ourselves to Semuc and wanted a packed lunch for the morning. A full lunch cost £4 per person (sandwich, fruit, cookie and a drink).

However, you only really need to take a packed lunch with you to the park if you plan on spending the entire day in there. If you’re only staying a few hours, then simply take some snacks and when you leave and return back to the car park there are plenty of locals offering food and drinks.

Note, there’s nowhere to buy food or drinks (not even water) once you enter the actual park, only once you exit back to the carpark.

Safety and security

We felt very safe at Semuc Champey. We left gear on our motorcycles and everything was still there when we got back.

There are staff standing by at the pools. We’re not sure if they’re lifeguards or security but there are plenty of people about.

We left our bags by all of the pools and didn’t have a problem there either. If you are concerned then use a locker. But it’s easy to put your bag within sight.

READ MORE:

Read more on travel in Guatemala and Central/North America

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