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From Guatemala's Tikal ruins rising above jungle canopy to Belize's Great Blue Hole and a Costa Rican cloud forest teeming with sloths
Vincent Branciforti / Unsplash
Central America packs volcano hikes, ancient ruins and coral reef snorkeling into a single trip, with seven countries offering some of the world’s most sought-after destinations within a relatively compact stretch of land. History lovers can choose between Maya ruins and colonial cities; nature lovers can track monkeys and sloths through dense jungle; and surfers and beach lovers find no shortage of dreamy coastline scattered across the region, from the Caribbean to the Pacific.
Short regional flights and an extensive bus network make it remarkably easy to combine several countries within a single trip, so travelers rarely need to pick just one destination and call it done. Whatever specific mix of activities and landscapes a traveler chooses, the region’s considerable range across just seven nations makes it hard to visit without immediately starting to plan the next trip back to another corner of the isthmus.
