Guatemala Intercity Bus Fares

Route Highlights

Cheapest fare, longest journey, most frequent service.

Operators

Each operator covers a different region of the country.

All Routes & Fares

Click columns to sort. Filter by operator to narrow the list.

From our team: We’re Guatemala Life, a Guatemalan-owned site based here. Our scrapers pull fares daily from the operators that publish them; the operators that publish nothing are flagged as unverified below rather than filled in. The live rows are rebuilt weekly.

Planning Bus Travel in Guatemala

Guatemala’s intercity bus network is the backbone of domestic travel — there’s no passenger rail, and domestic flights only cover Petén. Intercity buses are run by a handful of commercial operators, each covering its own routes.

Price Ranges by Service Tier

Bus fares in Guatemala split into three clear tiers:

• Regular intercity: the only regular-class fare on this page that comes from an operator’s own system is Fuente del Norte’s Q78.75 for Guatemala City to Xela, quoted 12 September 2026. Air conditioning, assigned seats, one stop halfway. We publish no Pacific-coast fare at all, because neither Fortaleza del Sur nor Línea Dorada publishes one we could fetch.
• First class (Q120-200): Litegua’s Primera Plus and Primera Clase on Atlantic routes, with reclining seats and on-board bathroom. That band is our own scrape of Litegua’s reservation system on 24 September 2026 across the capital routes we re-read - not an estimate. Primera Plus now starts at Q120, up from Q100 on 12 September.
• Luxury overnight (Q262.50-Q420): the Peten night market. Fuente del Norte quoted Q315 Clase B for its 9:00 p.m. Guatemala City to Santa Elena departure on 12 September 2026, and Q420 on the 9:00 p.m. return. Pullmantur publishes Primera Clase at USD $62.00 one way to San Salvador. No Linea Dorada fare or schedule could be verified from a published source in 2026 — lineadorada.com.gt now returns an online-casino page, and Prensa Libre reported (29 Nov 2019) that Cristobal Colon bought its Zona 1 station.

International routes price in USD. Pullmantur’s own price page (read 12 September 2026) publishes Turista $36.00 one way / $72.00 round trip, Ejecutiva $39.00 / $78.00 and Primera Clase $62.00 / $124.00 for Guatemala → San Salvador, with on-board meals and drinks included and taxes in the fare. Tica Bus publishes $20.00 standard and $35.00 Servicio Diamante on the same corridor.

When to Use Buses vs Flights

For Petén (Flores/Tikal), compare closely. TAG and Avianca fly Guatemala City ↔ Flores in about an hour, 7-8 departures a day between 05:45 and 21:30, but no published airfare could be verified on 12 September 2026 — check the airline. Fuente del Norte’s 9:00 p.m. overnight was quoted at Q262.50 Clase A / Q315 Clase B that day and takes about 9 hours. If you have flexible time, the overnight bus saves a hotel night. For tight schedules, the flight wins.

For the Atlantic coast (Puerto Barrios, Rio Dulce), the bus is your only good option — Litegua runs 10+ daily departures in each direction with tiered pricing.

For the Pacific coast (Retalhuleu, Mazatenango, Champerico), Fortaleza del Sur is the name you will hear at the Trebol terminal - but it publishes no website, fare table or timetable we can reach, so this page carries no Pacific-coast fare. The figures it used to show for that route were never sourced and were removed on 12 September 2026. Ask at the kiosk. Public chicken buses are cheaper but not recommended for tourists with bags.

Payment and Booking

Litegua and Pullmantur both accept online credit-card bookings through their reservation systems. For other operators, pay in cash at the terminal kiosk or the operator’s downtown office. Save your ticket stub — conductors check it onboard.

Terminal Locations in Guatemala City

There’s no central bus station. Each operator has its own terminal:

• Litegua: four capital agencies, and its booking system does not say which bus leaves from which: 15 Calle 10-40, zona 1 (2326-9400); Km 9.5 Ruta al Atlántico, zona 17 (2326-9500); Centra Norte, Km 8.5 Carretera al Atlántico, zona 17 (4007-0631); 7a Avenida 7-24, zona 9, inside the IRTRA head offices (4024-4566). Read 24 September 2026.
• Pullmantur: Hotel Holiday Inn, 1a Avenida 13-22, Zona 10 (the only Guatemala address on the operator’s own branches page; tel (502) 2495-7000)
• Fortaleza del Sur: no operator-published address, phone or timetable could be verified on 12 September 2026 - the company has no reachable website. Pacific-coast services are associated with Terminal del Trébol, Zone 11.
• Cristóbal Colón (Mobility ADO, at the address long associated with Transportes Galgos): 7ma. Avenida 19-44, Zona 1, tel +502 2415 8989
• Línea Dorada: no 2026 terminal address verified — No Linea Dorada fare or schedule could be verified from a published source in 2026 — lineadorada.com.gt now returns an online-casino page, and Prensa Libre reported (29 Nov 2019) that Cristobal Colon bought its Zona 1 station.

Safety Considerations

Stick to recognized brands. First-class and luxury services on Litegua, Pullmantur and Cristóbal Colón publish assigned seating, air conditioning, security cameras and certified drivers — Cristóbal Colón lists GPS tracking, speed control, onboard cameras and passenger insurance on both its “Primera” and “Lujo” classes. Overnight routes to Petén have improved dramatically since the mid-2010s; incidents are rare on premium services but still occasionally happen on secondary operators — stick to the named brands.

If you’re moving a lot of luggage or electronics, skip the chicken bus. The fare difference between a chicken bus and a first-class seat is small compared to the peace of mind.

How we verified this

Fares for Litegua and Pullmantur are scraped daily from their live reservation systems — when you see a price on this page for those operators, it was on the operator’s own site within the last 24 hours.

Three operators — Línea Dorada, Transportes Galgos and Fortaleza del Sur — have no working website we can reach. On 12 September 2026 we re-checked them directly: every candidate Galgos domain fails DNS and its Facebook page is behind a login wall; lineadorada.com.gt now serves an online-casino page rather than a bus site; Fortaleza del Sur publishes no site, fare table or timetable either; and no fare, schedule or phone number for any of the three is published anywhere we could fetch. The fare table above therefore carries no Línea Dorada, no Transportes Galgos and no Fortaleza del Sur row at all — every invented row was removed from the feed on 12 September 2026. What is left is Litegua and Pullmantur, both scraped from the operators’ own booking systems, and nothing else. What we did verify that day, from the operators’ own sites: Autobuses Cristóbal Colón (+502 2415 8989) publishes the 7a Avenida 19-44 Zona 1 terminal and sells Quetzaltenango, Huehuetenango, La Mesilla, Santa Elena, Poptún, El Chal, El Rancho, Río Dulce and Antigua online; Fuente del Norte publishes its stations and returns live per-departure quotes from its own booking engine (Guatemala City → Santa Elena Q262.50 Clase A on 12 September 2026); Pullmantur publishes Turista $36.00 / Ejecutiva $39.00 / Primera Clase $62.00 to San Salvador; Tica Bus publishes $20.00 and $35.00 on the same corridor; Monja Blanca publishes its full Cobán timetable. We re-verify this page when a research pass runs — we are not promising a fixed cadence, and the previous “every 30 days” line was not true.

If the exact fare matters, confirm it at the terminal kiosk before you travel.

Corrections & updates

Bus fares change with fuel prices and seasonality. If something on this page doesn’t match what you paid at the kiosk, email us a photo of the ticket — we’ll update within 48 hours and credit the reader.

See our gas prices page if you’re considering renting a car instead, or our flights page for domestic and international air options. For overall trip budgeting, check our cost of living guide.

Frequently Asked Questions