I was this last weekend in Xela and decided to check out the Fuentes Georginas hot springs. I found that there was many places including my hostel offering the tour, with prices going from Q40 (US$ 5.5) to Q75 (US$10) for the round trip.
Even the Q40 price was not bad at all, my friend and I decided to have a bit of adventure and go with public transportation. After asking some people around, we find out we needed to head to the town of Zunil first, and once there we needed to find a pick up to take us to the hot springs.
The buses from Xela to Zunil depart every 30 minutes from the corner of 9a Av and 10a Calle (Is a gas station there for reference) south east of Parque Centroamerica. Even is only 10 km away from the City, it might take you from 20 to 30 minutes to get there since the bus will go slow trying to pick up more people. But this particular ride is really nice and colorful with the bus full of locals and Mayan woman using their beautiful traditional costumes.
The bus will leave you at the entrance of Zunil, where usually you can find a pick up willing to take you to Fuentes Georginas. They will start the price a bit up, but here you can bargain, and if you are with someone else to share the ride probably you can drop the price to Q15 (US$2) per person each way or even lower if you are with more people.
You can also arrange with the driver to pick you up at a certain time, just keep in mind the last bus to Xela from Zunil goes around 6:30 pm. And if you can manage to go to Fuentes Georginas on Monday, I would advice you to check out the market in Zunil early in the morning and then head up to the hot springs in the afternoon.
Even at the end I pretty much spend what the cheapest tour from Xela cost, I was really happy I did it this way. I really enjoy the bus and pick up ride, as the chance to be able to have my own schedule.
Comment by ronald at Sep 24th, 2008 3:20 pm ↑
Pampa, let me add that in that same gas station is a good spot for hh. Actually, me and couple of friend stood there for about 15 min and get a ride to Zunil. Funny thing was that when I approached the driver to say thanks, he said to me: “son Q.3 por persona”, so be sure to make things clear.
The place itself is amazing, but the day we went wasn’t. It was independence weekend, so the hotsprings were full! anyways, we had a great time and we even hitch a ride all the way to Xela!