Semuc Champey- Guatemala’s ultimate adventure destination
So, you’ve either decided to bite the bullet and accept the 12 hour travel days on each end to venture deep into the Guatemalan jungle and witness the natural wonder that is Semuc Champey - or you’re looking for info on it and I’ve scared you away in the first sentence. WAIT. PLEASE STAY! Let me do my very best to convince you that 24 hours of travel (both in and out - killer I know) is actually more than worth the gem that exists in the middle. So let’s get into it.
But first - what even IS Semuc Champey, and why is it worth such a long trip? Semuc Champey is a stunning natural phenomenon that formed as a result of the Cabahon river running through a valley and coming into contact with a large quantity of natural limestone. Over time, the raging river eroded the limestone, and has not only created an insane network of underground caves (Just wait - we’ll get to these caves in a minute and spoiler - they’re insane), but there’s also a 300 meter stretch where the river ate away at the base of the limestone but left the top layer, essentially creating a limestone bridge over the (now underground) river. A small portion of the water still flows over the limestone and the pools that were subsequently created are the postcard-worthy, turquoise blue waters of Semuc Champey that everyone can recognize.
Okay - it’s hard to explain, and I really didn’t believe it til I saw it: So here’s a few photos of where the river dives below the limestone “bridge” at the very top of Semuc Champey - there’s a huge safety fence to keep people from getting so close, so I fear they still might not convey the whole picture - but TRUST me. It’s crazy.
If you’re willing to make the trek out into the jungle of Guatemala, you’ll get to not only see these pools from a bird’s eye view, but also spend an afternoon swimming in them and getting some sun, cliff jumping off of waterfalls, tipsy tubing down the river, and exploring underground caves by candlelight. And when you’re not exploring Semuc Champey itself, you can spend a few days enjoying the gorgeous hotels of Lanquin, swimming in infinity pools, and watching some of the most beautiful sunsets you’ve ever seen.
Are you convinced yet? If so, keep reading for all the best things to do in Semuc Champey. If not…. plz keep reading. You’ll be convinced in 10 minutes, I PROMISE. I might lose you for a second while I talk about what it takes to get there but stick with me and we’ll get right back to the fun stuff in a minute.
How to Get To Semuc Champey
You have two main options when coming from popular Guatemala hubs: Antigua or Flores. I’m not going to lie - neither journey is what one would call “luxurious,” but hey, if it was easy, everyone would go, and then it wouldn’t be such a hidden gem. You can’t have it all folks.
Option 1: From Flores (Approx. 10 hours on a good day) - Your best bet is to hop on a shuttle, which will pick you up from your hostel in the early morning. The first half of the ride is smooth sailing on paved roads, but don’t get too cozy. Let me set the scene so that you can fully understand what I was going through on the second half of this journey:
The shuttle is sold out. For whatever reason, my hostel is the last stop on the pickup route in Flores - and I’m in the jumpseat. For those of you who are lucky enough to not have to know what a jumpseat is - it’s the fold-down chair that turns the bus aisle into an extra seat. Once we hit the windy, curvy roads, my seat is halfway folding back up every time we go around a right turn, dumping me into the poor person’s lap next to me. (no matter - they became a friend I’d meet back up with in El Salvador - the ways we solo travelers make friends - amiright). The driver is going so fast the trees going by the windows are reminding me of Star Wars hyperspace. I make the reference and multiple people agree - the ones by the walls are gripping onto the little handle things in the ceiling. I kid you not, the driver is blasting Eye Of The Tiger on repeat. This goes on for at least 3 hours. You cannot make this up. Once we were deposited in Lanquin, our transportation sent a 4x4 jeep to transport us the rest of the way. There we were, piled in the bed of the jeep, driving on gravel roads the rest of the way.
I PROMISE - the accommodations here in Lanquin are literal sanctuaries - and after this chaotic journey, it did feel like a reward finally getting to my peaceful little jungle haven. And honestly, now that I’m talking about the journey, I can only remember how hilarious it was. No bad memories here.
Option 2: From Antigua (Approx. 10 hours) Again, you’ll be taking a shuttle, which means you should prepare for another long journey. Expect multiple stops, road construction, and a chance to bond with fellow travelers as you collectively question your life choices. I did the journey linearly, from Flores to Lanquin, and then from Lanquin to Antigua. It’s a 20-24 hour journey in and out no matter where you come from or go to, so I wouldn’t really say that one option is better than the other.
Where to Stay in Semuc Champey
Semuc Champey is remote, meaning your accommodation options are limited to the nearby town of Lanquín or the few jungle lodges closer to the pools. To be honest, you’re in Lanquin just for Semuc Champey - so out of normal character for me (and you won’t hear this often from me) - where you stay DOES matter!
Usually I preach that the hotel is just a place to sleep and that hotels and hostels are a place to save money - but luckily, most of the accommodations in Lanquin are both cheap AND stunning.
As always: solo travelers and people on a budget - a hostel will be your best option! But in a strange turn of events, the hostels here area some of the only options. To those who have never stayed in a hostel: never fear, all these hostels have private rooms, and they’re all stunning.
The main two are Zephyr Lodge and Greengos - both are beautiful - but if you’re looking for a higher end option (think infinity pool and a view) go with Zephyr. Your trade off is that you’re 45 (bumpy) minutes from the pools themselves. On the other hand, Greengos is a little more rugged (there’s still a nice pool and the restaurant is actually to die for), but you can basically walk to Semuc Champey. I personally went with Greengos, as Semuc Champey was my priority, but to each their own.
(Pictured above is Greengos, pictured blow is Zephyr.)
Things to do in Semuc Champey
Even though Semuc Champey is the the only reason that you’ve made this hair-raising journey - there’s a surprising amount of things to do with your time here. I would recommend staying at least three nights to give you two full days - but If I hadn’t been so pressed for time I honestly would’ve stayed two more nights! It’s such a long journey - you might as well spend more than just one day enjoying this incredible wonder of nature.
1. Swim in the pools of Semuc Champey
Duh - the star of the show! Really - you’ll never be at a loss for what to do in Semuc Champey, especially when simply spending the day soaking up the sun and swimming around in crystal clear water in the jungle of Guatemala is an option every day.
These tiered limestone pools literally look like something out of a fairy tale. it’s so much fun to just swim around in a pool, and then jump off the mini waterfall into the next section. It really brought out the inner child in me - it felt like playing mermaids in the pool, just on steroids. Semuc Champey is such an OASIS - if mermaids and fairies existed anywhere - It’s here. When I think about how places like this even exist in nature, like NATURALLY - my head hurts. simply cannot comprehend.
2. Hike to the Mirador
Okay - but to truly enjoy the pools of Semuc Champey to the fullest extent - you need to earn it (lol - as if the 12 grueling hours you journeyed to get here wasn’t enough) And while the pools are GORGEOUS, they are ~so~ cold. It’s so much more enjoyable to first hike up to the viewpoint, get all sweaty, get the anticipation up, and then hike back down to spend the rest of your day cooling off.
It’s a short but steep trek, and it really had me and my friend Georgia questioning our fitness levels (especially as we were hiking the famous Acatenango volcano the following week - stay tuned for that one) But the view? Absolutely worth it. You’ll get that classic aerial shot of Semuc Champey that you’ve seen all around - but I promise: seeing it with your own eyeballs is a whole different ballpark. It’s such a crazy feeling to see something that you’ve seen so many pictures of, but in real life this time. This was one of those moments for me.
3. Explore the Kan’Ba Caves
Remember earlier when I said that the river had created a massive network of caves and underwater rivers? Yeah - you can explore those too.
Most tours that you book through any hostel will have an option to explore the caves, and I would say that’s your best bet! I simply signed up for the cave tour the next morning at the Greengos reception desk, and it cost around $12.00 USD. SO worth it. If you’re into planning ahead, book a tour in advance here!
One of the craziest things about these tours is the absolute lack of safety equipment. To some, that sounds like a turn-off, but to me, it was kinda hilarious. Go canyoning in the Philippines or in Costa Rica and you’d have a hardhat, ropes and harnesses, a headlamp, and the works.
Here in Semuc Champey, you have a bikini and a candle. Yep - you heard me right. A CANDLE. Okay, to be fair, they do require you to wear water shoes - but that’s about the only piece of safety equipment you’ll get.
Spoiler alert - I am alive and well. No injuries sustained - so I wouldn’t worry too much! The GoPro footage is actually the worst videography I’ve ever seen in my life - but if you want a little more insight into what these cave tours look like, check out my TikTok vlog about it HERE!
To start, you enter the cave, and the first stop is the quintessential face paint station - just about every tour does this to help everyone get into character and make the experience more fun overall - and it actually IS so much fun. There’s a rumor that the “face paint” is actually bat doodoo - but the guides told us it was actually natural minerals and you know what? I’m choosing to believe them - LOL.
The guide did me dirty and gave me a mustache, but honestly the funnier the better.
Our guides led us through the caves, freezing cold, chest-deep water, up underground waterfalls (Using little ropes tied to the top!) and through super small tunnels. There was even one hilarious moment where the guides literally took our candles from us, picked us up and shoved us through a tiny hole in the ground into a pool even further underground than the tunnel we started in, and then passed our candles back to us through the hole in the ceiling. Again, if you’re looking for a more comprehensive understanding of the caves - watch the TikTok I made of it HERE!
Oftentimes you couldn’t touch the floor, simply treading water with one hand on a rope and the other keeping your candle from being extinguished in the water. The whole experience was just WILD.
4. River Tubing
After we emerged from the cave, shivering, war paint smeared all over our faces, but high on adrenaline and laughing at all of the GoPro footage playing back, we had a few pitstops before we began our tubing journey.
The first was a rope swing that went from the trail in the woods, through the trees, and into the river - feet first, if you were lucky. It wasn’t the type of swing that you hold on to, it was an actual wooden swing that you sit on. This meant that at the peak of the arc, you had to shove yourself off the little wooden seat and into the water.
The momentum this took resulted in some GNARLY bellyflops - so participate at your own risk! Our guides were casually doing backflips and making it look easy, but the rest of our group could tell you: it’s NOT. No belly flop for me, thank God, but I did sit there for three minutes before getting the guts to push off.
The last detour before our tubing adventure was the larger waterfalls I mentioned earlier. There were three levels of cliff jumping they gave us options to do - 5 meters, 8 meters, and 11 meters. One thing about me is that if there’s something to jump off of, I will be jumping. Probably multiple times. In fact you could just leave me there and I’d entertain myself for the rest of the day. Unfortunately we have no photos from this gorgeous waterfall, as we had all left our phones out of fear that they would get lost amongst the tipsy tubing. You’ll just have to take my word for it.
After we were done launching ourselves off of things, the guides shoved a rubber inner tube in each of our hands and led us off to have a lazy day tipsy tubing on the river. This portion of the river is located after the limestone “bridge” that makes up the pools - if you make your way to the very last pool, you can look over the ledge and see the bigger waterfall (the one we jumped from earlier!) that then leads into the river that emerges from the underground and then carries on with normal river behavior.
I’ve read this back and decided that I’m the worst describer in the world - but when you go, you’ll understand exactly what I’m trying to say. Regardless, now we are past the pools and tubing farther down the river.
Listen - I’m always a fan of tipsy tubing, and this river is not exactly lazy. The current is quite strong, which always makes for a hilarious scramble of paddling to try and stay with your friends. Add locals literally standing on the banks of the river launching beers at you with all their might, frantic paddling to secure said beer, and trying to keep your open cans river-water-free (trust me - do NOT get this water in your mouth. You will get sick), and you get a fun filled few hours on the river.
Is Semuc Champey Worth the journey?
Absolutely. Sure, getting there is an ordeal, and you’ll probably have bruises from the bumpy ride, but it’s one of the most beautiful and adventurous spots in Guatemala. I’m so glad I took the time and effort to add Semuc Champey to my Guatemala itinerary, and my only regret is that I only had three nights there. If I had to do it again, I’d do a minimum of 4 nights, and a max of 5.
I think about this little pocket of paradise quite often, and all the belly laughter that came with exploring caves by candlelight with bat poo smeared on our faces, hiking up to the mirador and being so sweaty it looked like we had already gone swimming, and the pub quizzes that happened at Greengos every night. Mind you - I was a solo traveler when I visited Semuc Champey - and had the time of my life. It’s truly incredible how places like this and experiences like the caves can bring you together with strangers - you already know that you share a love of travel and adventure, so it’s just easy to connect on other things as well.
Whether you’re planning a trip with your significant other, with a group of friends, or setting off alone, you’ll have the time of your life at Semuc Champey.
