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£222 Find cheap flights to Central America

This is the cheapest one-way flight price found by a KAYAK user in the last 72 hours by searching for a flight from the United Kingdom to Central America departing on 10/9. Fares are subject to change and may not be available on all flights or dates of travel. Click the price to replicate the search for this deal.
1 adult
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Sun 1/9

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Best Central America Flight Deals

Cheapest return prices found by our users on KAYAK in the last 72 hours

San José
San José1 stop£505
Panama City
Panama City3 stops£541
Guatemala City
Guatemala City1 stop£467
Managua
Managua1 stop£519
Liberia
Liberia1 stop£540
San Pedro Sula
San Pedro Sula2 stops£572
Coxen Hole
Coxen Hole2 stops£946

Good to know - Cheap tickets to Central America

Low season

September

High season

January

Cheapest flight

£222
Best time to beat the crowds (8% less expensive on average)
Most popular time to fly and prices are also 11% lower on average.
Flight from London Gatwick Airport to Guatemala City

FAQs - booking Central America flights

  • What visa do British citizens need to fly to Central America?

    UK citizens don't need a visa to visit any of the countries in Central America, providing they are only going as tourists. You will be given a visa for tourism upon arrival, which generally lasts between 30 and 90 days. If you need to stay longer, then you will need to apply for a visa through the embassy of the country that you are visiting. You need to make sure that you have at least six months on your passport when you enter the country.

  • What are some important rules of the road when leaving the airport in a hire car?

    It’s vital that you are aware of the road laws when you leave the airport in a hire car. You need to check each country’s laws specifically to make sure you are familiar with them. For example, if you are hiring a car in Panama, then you must make sure everyone is wearing a seat belt at all times, and children under five years of age need to be in a child seat. Most car hire agencies have child seats available as extras, but be sure to check beforehand.

  • How can I fly directly to Central America from the UK?

    You can get direct flights to Central America from Heathrow Airport (LHR) and Gatwick Airport. For example, from Heathrow, you can fly directly to Mexico City with British Airways or Aeromexico. From London Gatwick, you can fly to Cancun and San Jose with British Airways.

  • Which airline offers direct flights and is known for its good service?

    British Airways offers direct flights to Central America and is renowned for its good service. It is considered to have great ground and cabin staff, who go the extra mile to help customers. The quality of the onboard facilities is also considered to be high, with tasty meals, great entertainment and comfy seating.

  • How long is the flight to Central America?

    An average direct flight from the United Kingdom to Central America takes 21h 47m, covering a distance of 5328 miles. The most popular route is London - San José with an average flight time of 14h 55m.

  • What is the cheapest flight to Central America?

    The cheapest ticket to Central America from the United Kingdom found in the last 72 hours was £532 one-way, and £446 round-trip. The most popular route is London Heathrow to San José Juan Santamaria Intl and the cheapest round-trip airline ticket found on this route in the last 72 hours was £506.

  • What are the most popular destinations in Central America?

    Based on KAYAK flight searches, the most popular destination is San José (52% of total searches to Central America). The next most popular destinations are Guatemala City (19%) and Panama City (13%). Searches for flights to San Salvador (7%), to Managua (4%) and to Liberia (4%) are also popular.

  • How does KAYAK’s flight Price Forecast tool help me choose the right time to buy?

    KAYAK’s flight Price Forecast tool uses historical data to determine whether the price for a given destination and date is likely to change within 7 days, so travellers know whether to wait or book now.

See more FAQs

Top tips for finding cheap flights to Central America

  • Enter your preferred departure airport and travel dates into the search form above to unlock the latest Central America flight deals.
  • Central America is a large continent that has lots of countries and airports. When you’re travelling to a country in the north, such as Mexico, you can take frequent and well-priced flights from Manchester and London to airports like Cancun Airport (CUN) and Mexico City Airport (MEX).
  • Flights from most large cities in the UK are more convenient than if you go from smaller airports. This is because they tend to be quicker and cheaper. For example, a flight from Newcastle to Cancun usually requires at least one change, whereas flights from London Gatwick Airport (LGW) can be direct. It’s also slightly cheaper to depart from London than it is from Newcastle.
  • If you want to visit countries in Central America, then you can take a quick flight with TUI Airways to Cancun. If you want to find a competitive fare to San Salvador, El Salvador, you can take a flight with United Airlines.
  • Mexico City Airport is one of the more busy terminals in the continent and is considered a gateway to Central America. Before you book your trip, it’s a good idea to browse KAYAK for alternative flight deals to Guatemala City Airport (GUA) or San Jose Airport (SJC).
  • You should avoid visiting Costa Rica around the Easter celebrations if this is not your purpose for visiting, as the prices of flights are likely to be higher during this period. In Costa Rica, Easter is a major event and there is a week-long celebration, with parades and lots of colours. So, if you are not visiting for Easter, try and book before or after these celebrations.
See more tips

Top 5 airlines flying to Central America

Need help choosing which airline to fly with from the United Kingdom to Central America? KAYAK airline reviews give an overall score for each airline based on loads of factors, including comfort, boarding, in-flight entertainment and more, to make your decision easier. See airline scores according to verified KAYAK customer reviews.
7.8
KLMOverall score based on 1417 reviews
7.9Boarding
8.4Crew
7.3Food
7.7Comfort
7.2Entertainment
Airline reviews

Delay, luggage didn’t arrive. Had to go the next day to collect it

2.0 MediocreEmrah, Jul 2024AMS - MUC
Read more about KLM reviews

Delay, luggage didn’t arrive. Had to go the next day to collect it

KLM is my favourite airline. Never ever let us down.Staff are first class.

The plane. Airbus A330-200. Comfortable for a 7-hour flight. Seats seemed to have more legroom. I was in row 17. Flight was operated by Delta but was better than expected.

Pretty bad. Food was awful. drinks were scarce, as if drinking an extra drink would ruin the airline. attendants were not very helpful. likely Dutch "directedness" (I cannot be bothered). Crammed flight. Entertainment in very minimal dosage. Almost all old movies and series with 1-3 episodes only. Very limited number of options available. Jesus!! it seems you need to bring your own entertainment these days even of flights that are 13 hrs long!! I would and I will avoid in the future!

We left one hour late because of technical difficulties. The economy comfort seats are great for the price. The crew was mediocre, they do not provide a pleasant experience, they just deliver food and drinks and give orders, not very amicable, no service and hospitality focus.

Seats are fair enough for medium tall people. Good food all the trip. Fight attendances are warm

no issues at all... Kudos to the food. This time was really really good

The food was ok. The crew seemed like they were cranky. I had one guy get mad at me for passing in between the storage area to get to the other toilet. I can understand if it's not allowed but reprimanding me like I'm a student saying "This is the last time!" was not appropriate. During my meal time, there was a French family around me. No problems there but when we usually have meals, they are supposed to put their chair in the upright position. These people did not do it and the steward did not tell them to raise their seat in the upright position. However, I was told to do so! So, me and another person next to me had to eat with the monitor almost touching our faces. Furthermore, a lady in front of me was putting her feet up and preventing another elder passenger from putting her seat back. To make it worse, she was continuously hitting her back into her seat, shaking my monitor while I was watching a movie. A crew member did speak to her about it but then she accused me of pushing her seat forward! The crew member gave me a death stare and told me to stop pushing the seat forward. I did not even touch her seat at all, if I did, she would know it. Her boyfriend also stood up and tried to push her seat even further past the maximum decline to no avail. None of these people were reprimanded but the steward, some bald guy, was extremely friendly with them and did not even try to instruct them to do anything until it was time to land. I resisted the urge to really argue with them because I would have obviously been seen as the aggressor (I have no idea why). I hardly said anything on this flight except "more wine please" and "sorry" if I bumped into someone accidentally. Overall, it was an annoying flight and I had to resist the urge to yell at the steward and the people he was overly friendly with. The happiest moment of this flight was leaving it.

One of the vstewardeses wanted to bump me of the plane for absolutely nothing. There is CCTV in the plane ans everything can be verified. Very disappointing , you all will see, o other 5 years and the passangers who does not smile to flight attendent will be bumped off...

The worst airline. Cancelled flight 30 min before boarding and rebooked on flight after 3 days.

Extremely poor. First - and oddly enough, Air France denied access to the Business Class lounge at CDG to all of us - although we were all flying Business Class. It is amazing that an airline denies lounge access to its passengers flying on business and paying several thousand dollars each ticket. Second, the food on Business Class on absolutely horrible. Air France must have made an effort to prepare bad tasting dishes (not even the ice cream was good). Third, the cabin temperature was too hot and although we complained many times, it never got cooler.

A disaster. Air France is a real joke. They overcharge us customers for absolutely nothing. Service was very poor, food was mediocre, entertainment non existent, etc. We paid thousands of dollars for our business class tickets and then we were told in Paris we could not access its lounge. Really Air France ? Congratulations on irritating your customers to the sky high level and ensuring we will do everything in our power to discourage others to travel with you.

The first half from DC to Paris was very good and the staff were very helpful and humble BUT flight from Paris to Mumbai was sad. 1) it was packed. 2) no space on head compartment 3) crews were unresponsive to the calls 4) one crew member literally banged the bottle of water after giving me glass of water. A little water splashed on me and she was unapologetic 5) with so many hours of flight, little leg space should be taken care else don’t fill your airline till brim which affects your crew and they remove anger on us. 6) huge line for washrooms. 7) 2nd half journey was pathetic

At check-in at Guarulhos Airport, I was coerced to pay EUROS 100 for each of my two teenage kids travelling on economy premium on the same flight (total charge of EUROS 200) to AIR FRANCE on the rational that they were on a different class and therefore they would require additional care from the flight crew. My wife and I would be (and actually flew) only a few meters from our kids on business class in the same flight. Air France took EUROS 200 from me in exchange for absolutely nothing. My kids are seasoned travelers and independent, and in any event, they were not given any special or any other assistance or attention by Air France flight crew as result or in connection with the fee charged from me at any given time during the flight to Paris - so ABSOLUTELY NO SERVICE WAS PERFORMED AND THE FEE WAS SIMPLY ANOTHER WAY OF “MILKING “ EXTRA EUROS 200 FROM ME. Worse, Air France made us wait for everyone to deplane in Paris to let us deplane - after an Air France Paris representative ridiculously confirmed that our kids were our kids, with our kids at that time already by our side seating in business class. We almost lost our connection to Malta as a result. Such a scheme from Air France is outrageous – especially because it penalizes its customers flying in business class or in first class. I would have imagined that Air France would have wanted to attract clients to fly its premium classes – not to charge cheap EURO 100 fees and to keep them waiting to deplane with their families after 12 hours flights at their destination. You won’t see us any time soon Air France and best of luck with your strategy !

Flight was late over a hour just like the first one. WiFi was down.

I paid 3 this and dollars for two tickets. No food, minimum drink, confused service and very uncomfortable sear. There was zero difference between busy ness and tourist class. I received a pathetic apology

The check in was horrible. I stood in line for 1 hour to check in with an Air France ticket. Then I was told I had to go to Delta counter onstead to check in instead. It made no sense.

Old cabine without flat bed in business for a 12 hour flight is not acceptable

They wanted to close counter although they did not provide the wheelchair requested which ended by going alone to transit security and lost long time and they did not want to wait .

Did not find the wheelchair that supposed to assist and went to a long queue for transit security chk which was very slow and boarding desk wanted to close counter although that they knew that I am minutes away because of their mistake of not providing the wheelchair.

Your food is AWEFUL! For Premium Economy this was the WORST FOOD EVER - salad and tomatoes were all spoiled, "chicken" was awful and burnt. This is the WORST FOOD of ANY AIRLINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! horrible

My flight was canceled and we had to beg for united to find us another way home - we were rerouted to Toronto but they never booked us on the final leg back to DC. We had to stay overnight in Toronto, we're now waiting for our flight home and just found out we're on standby and not guaranteed a seat. So yeah, not a great experience with united

Everyone on board was great. It was just super late and we missed our connection in Frankfurt, and had to power through jet lag while we waited 4 hours in the terminal. My family missed a big welcome dinner in Berlin.

United is my favorite and I always try to fly United. I feel like this crew didn’t mesh well together.

Flight was delayed in the gate by 5 hours and ultimately cancelled- rebooking service by United agents was terrible

This was a Lufthansa flight, not United. The CSA at the counter, Ashley, was not only incompetent, but quite rude. Me and two other PAX waited over 7 minutes standing in front of her and another CSA and they ignored us. We joked that we must have accidently taken invisibility pills. She could have at least said "I'll be with you in a moment, I'm currently....". I could go on about how rude she and the other CSAs were (whispering, not communicating with me, blaming the situation on others, etc.). She would not work for me. Then, she gave me literally the worst seat on the plane. the worst. My seat kept getting bumped (rammed twice by the crew with their carts and about every 5 minutes by someone using the bathroom), listening to the bathroom all night, crowded seat, etc.

The food that was offered based on class level of your ticket was absolutely ridiculous and disgusting. They didn't even hot tea to serve, the food was horrible. On our departure flight I was seated in premium plus economy and considering the cost of the flight the food was literally some of the worst I've ever eaten. On the return flight I sat in economy with extra leg room and was given a thin little throw "blanket" and a flimsy little pillow. The air condition was on artic and the seating arrangement wasn't really worth the money. The seat didn't recline good enough and the foot rest was laughable. Total waste.

Generally good but there wasn’t any staff available when my luggage didn’t appear at baggage claim in Fresno. It took about half an hour to locate a staff member to open up the room where it was being kept.

Terrible. 2 hour delay. Sat on the tarmac. Missed my connecting flight. Had to ARGUE with Customer service to get a hotel and food. Terrible experience with my loyal carrier

The plane was delayed 2 hours. The wifi did not work. The seat in first class was not comfortable because the bottom felt like it lost all of its padding. And I did not like when the flight attendant made me wait at my seat to use the bathroom and didn't tell me why. If there were too many people using the 1st Class bathroom, she should have told me to go in the back, coach bathrooms. I guess I have to feel fortunate that they found 2 local pilots to still fly the plane tonight after the original pilots ended up at an airport 60 miles away due to high winds.

No internet, very narrow seats insufficient room for three passengers with encroachment.

The flight left 2 hours late from Munich therefore we missed our connecting flight to Charlotte.

Poor communication from airline, didn't start boarding until 15 minutes after we were supposed to be in the air and there was no communication from anyone about a delay except the screens showing we were "on-time" and already "boarding" which finally updated 5 minutes after we were supposed to be in the air to "delayed".

Other than problems with checking in and uploading passport info everything was great. It would be nice to be able to manually input passport info. Often while traveling the bandwidth has problems uploading pictures

Give at least coffee or juice as it is an international flight.

Tiny, cramped seats with minimum leg room and hard armrests. Basic needs like a seat and luggage came with an additional charge. Budget airline amenities with premium airlune cost. I won't use this airline again.

Boarding process non existent. No WiFi. No entertainment. Cramped old plane. Worst Kosher meal ever presented on a flight.

Boarding was a zoo. London ground crew was useless. Poor communication regarding where to line up. We were group 2, and everyone was jammed in together. Ground crew didn’t seem to care.

Horrible flight attendant in back of economy that screamed at me, have already reported to United. Horrible food - for Gluten free, why would you assume the person is vegetarian? I was served some kind of horrible curry bean paste and multiple cold rolls and soggy vegetables with no seasoning... um no!

I was at the airport on time , I checked in my luggage . The plane was delayed and the gate was change. The flight board did not give information . I did not get chance to fly. I am going to make a claim for it

We were never contacted that our flight from Glasgow to London was delayed. Got to airport six hours early to find that we were going to miss our connecting flight to BWI. Our flight is scheduled for two days later and they only gave us a voucher for one night hotel. E we’re delayed on the front end too and had to fly to Edinburgh instead of Glasgow arriving six hours and taking a $200 cab!

Usual friendly BA crew who were helpful and so kind to the kids. New business class cabin combined with 787 makes for a really enjoyable experience.

Overall flight experience was good. Unfortunately our process getting to our flight was a hit or miss. Our flight was delayed perhaps for the best as getting from terminal to terminal is very long and security had problems with the machines that delayed us getting to our flight. Heathrow security could care-less that you have a flight you are about to miss!

Horrible. Crew is not helpful. Lounge is sub standard and overcrowded. Getting to your plane is underwhelming “via a bus”. Worst experience I have had.

I liked nothing, my connection was missed after a 6hr delay, 3 of those hours were spent trapped on the tarmac going nowhere. They rebooked me with a different airline for the next day but never confirmed my seat, so I had to wait another entire day… after walking around an airport for the whole first day waiting for the front desk to open to get my ticket. A 19hr trip turned into an 80+hr trip. Of course, British airways has no actual customer complaint phone line, so I have heard nothing at all from the airline. Oh, and they lost my bag. This trip cost an additional $3000, several days of missed free time, and some agonizing discomfort from so much wandering around airports and venice trying to find replacement clothing. This sucked.

The online flight scheduler only assigned 3 hours to get from Gatwick to heathrow. This is not enough time for a normal transit between the two airports. I had to run and hire a taxi because the bus and train would take too long. After paying a 150 Taxi I arrived at the gate just before it closed.

Our flight BA638 was cancelled with very short notice. It was supposed to depart at 7:25am. We had left Chichester at 3:30am in order to make the flight, and we were notified of the cancellation while en route to LHR. We were told the cancellation was necessary because a plane had not been scheduled to be at LHR for this flight! We were rescheduled to BA636. This flight was supposed to depart at 11:00am but didn't actually take off until ~12:30pm. Consequently we arrived in Athens several hours late, missing out on half a day of our sightseeing time. We had booked transport with MyTransfers to pick us up at the Athens airport and drive us to our Hotel Adonis. I was unable to get a refund for this service because our flight was so delayed. They required 24 hour notice of pick up time changes. I instead had to pay for a taxi at the airport. I have tried to fill out a request for compensation online but have been unsuccessful. How can I get help for filing a claim?

I had to wait for 10 hours at the airport and no hotel accommodation was provided. That sucks big time.

They can't seem to deliver a delayed bag in less than a week. Is this the 19th century?

There was no entertainment offered or expected, so please disregard my readings of that component. The flight was fantastic. Efficient boarding, takeoff, and even early arrival!

Book Cheap Central America Plane Tickets

Recent return flight deals

1/9Sun
1 stop
24h 18mLGW-GUA
14/9Sat
2 stops
25h 30mGUA-LGW
£467
16/9Mon
1 stop
24h 18mLGW-GUA
21/9Sat
2 stops
25h 30mGUA-LGW
£471
1/11Fri
1 stopKLM
27h 23mLHR-SJO
15/11Fri
2 stopsKLM
16h 05mSJO-LHR
£533
31/10Thu
1 stopKLM
25h 43mLHR-SJO
14/11Thu
1 stopKLM
15h 22mSJO-LHR
£539
29/8Thu
2 stopsLufthansa
19h 30mLHR-GUA
13/9Fri
1 stopLufthansa
21h 55mGUA-LHR
£572
29/8Thu
2 stopsLufthansa
19h 30mLHR-GUA
7/9Sat
2 stopsLufthansa
21h 25mGUA-LHR
£574
26/9Thu
2 stopsUnited Airlines
21h 54mLHR-GUA
31/10Thu
2 stopsUnited Airlines
23h 15mGUA-LHR
£582
29/8Thu
2 stopsUnited Airlines
20h 30mLHR-GUA
14/9Sat
2 stopsUnited Airlines
21h 55mGUA-LHR
£582
29/10Tue
directBritish Airways
11h 40mLGW-SJO
12/11Tue
directBritish Airways
10h 20mSJO-LGW
£615
19/11Tue
directBritish Airways
11h 40mLGW-SJO
14/1Tue
directBritish Airways
10h 20mSJO-LGW
£634

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Recent one-way flight deals

10/9Tue
2 stops
40h 23mLGW-GUA
£222
11/9Wed
2 stops
27h 13mLGW-GUA
£225
9/9Mon
1 stop
24h 18mLGW-GUA
£227
21/10Mon
1 stopKLM
30h 20mLHR-GUA
£491
1/9Sun
1 stopKLM
26h 48mLHR-SJO
£492
4/1Sat
directBritish Airways
11h 40mLGW-SJO
£561
7/11Thu
directBritish Airways
11h 40mLGW-SJO
£688
27/8Tue
1 stopLufthansa
16h 45mLCY-SJO
£702
10/10Thu
1 stopLufthansa
15h 20mLCY-SJO
£742
31/7Wed
1 stopUnited Airlines
15h 19mLHR-SJO
£1,158

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Last minute flights to Central America

Last minute flight, train and bus deals

27/7Sat
multi-stopUnited Airlines
25h 03mLHR-SJO
3/8Sat
multi-stopUnited Airlines
17h 35mSJO-LHR
£662
27/7Sat
multi-stopUnited Airlines
25h 03mLHR-SJO
10/8Sat
multi-stopUnited Airlines
17h 30mSJO-LHR
£670
26/7Fri
multi-stopUnited Airlines
27h 11mLHR-SJO
15/8Thu
multi-stopUnited Airlines
23h 15mSJO-LHR
£672
26/7Fri
multi-stopLufthansa
39h 35mLHR-GUA
8/8Thu
multi-stopLufthansa
23h 10mGUA-LHR
£720
30/7Tue
multi-stopLufthansa
44h 14mLHR-GUA
12/8Mon
multi-stopLufthansa
21h 55mGUA-LHR
£725
29/7Mon
multi-stopAir France
32h 35mLHR-SJO
5/8Mon
multi-stopAir France
19h 25mSJO-LHR
£984
30/7Tue
multi-stopKLM
16h 10mLCY-SJO
6/8Tue
multi-stopKLM
16h 35mSJO-LCY
£1,035
29/7Mon
multi-stopKLM
27h 10mLCY-SJO
5/8Mon
multi-stopKLM
17h 40mSJO-LCY
£1,150
29/7Mon
multi-stopAir France
17h 40mLHR-SJO
7/8Wed
multi-stopAir France
14h 35mSJO-LHR
£1,474
28/7Sun
multi-stopBritish Airways
37h 40mLGW-SJO
11/8Sun
multi-stopBritish Airways
21h 05mSJO-LGW
£3,336

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