Central America with SITA

Like many travelers, my wife, Patti, and I had been to only a couple of the seven countries in Central America. We had been hesitant to go on our own after hearing all the reports of crime and gangs, not to mention, most recently, the Zika outbreak in many tropical countries.

We saw that SITA World Tours (Encino, CA; 800/421-5643, www.sitatours.com), a regular ITN advertiser, was offering a 14-day “Discover Central America” trip to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. While it looked a bit pricey at first, once we dug down to see what was covered, we realized it was priced fairly. We went Feb. 11-24, 2016.

The price of $8,350 (at time of booking) for two included internal airfare between Nicaragua and El Salvador, private drivers/guides, deluxe hotels, breakfasts, airport transfers and all admissions. A few hotels changed after our booking and have changed again, according to SITA’s website. This is not unusual, and the substitutes were excellent. 

On the tour, the security at every turn was reassuring. Anytime we had luggage or personal belongings in a car, the driver or guide stayed with the vehicle. Every hotel had security staff with shotguns, with cameras everywhere and adequate fencing, gates and concertina wire. Sometimes it felt like overkill (had to say it), but we appreciated all of it.

SITA contracts with local companies, and each of them was dedicated to delivering great service to SITA clients.

In each country, our private guide/driver would discuss the plans for the day. We could decide to follow the itinerary exactly or make some substitutions. This was fairly unusual, but not being in a group allowed us a lot of flexibility. Patti and I skipped a few volcanoes and zip-lines in favor of touring small towns and having great meals in the squares. 

We had treated all of our outerwear with Permethrin, and we wore long sleeves and pants and carried our DEET. We don’t know how well that worked because we saw only one mosquito during the entire 14 days. It was on a mirror in a park bathroom and was manually eliminated.

Our only downside was the border crossing from Costa Rica to Nicaragua. We were let off on the Costa Rica side and directed to a small house to pay the exit fee (about $7). Then, hauling our luggage, we proceeded across about 100 yards of no-man’s-land, with rocky ground and flying dust and a few huts where we needed to get more stamps.

Upon continuing to the Nicaragua side, we were met by perhaps 60 armed soldiers with battle shields. The Cuban refugee situation has the country on high alert, with sniffing dogs and mile-long lines of trucks and buses unloading passengers for inspections and entry stamps.

It would have been nice had our Nicaraguan driver been able to meet us and assist with this. We were spoiled. 

Having said this, we will be using SITA for an upcoming Paraguay trip.

TONY LEISNER

Tarpon Springs, FL