Feb 2026 – Exploring Guatemala
- Trevor
- Mar 17
- 27 min read
Guatemala? Why Guatemala? Admittedly, it wasn’t on our radar at all… until we visited Antigua on our cruise last fall. We spent more time in a bus than we did in the town, but it had a lot of small-town charm, reminiscent of Mexico, and surrounded by some beautiful, rugged highlands and volcanos. As we built our Central American travel plan, we knew that we would visit the Mayan ruins of Tikal in northern Guatemala. We debated a short over-and-back visit from Belize, but ultimately decided that Antigua was worth another trip. Once we had two stops in mind, Sandy quickly found a third, and a month-long trip to Guatemala would follow.
Guatemala General – First, the all-Guatemala items:
No more English, at least not officially. We’re back to a mostly-Spanish country, though English is widely-spoken in the tourist areas.
Bookings – Like Belize, all of our hotels, transportation, and most excursions were booked online. All were charged in U.S. dollars with no conversion from Guatemalan quetzales.
The exchange rate during our trip was about 7.65 Guatemalan quetzales (GTQ) to 1 U.S. dollar. The math was often hard to do in my head, but I got used to considering 150 GTQ as approximately $20 USD. Almost everything we bought in Guatemala was less-expensive than we’d find back home.
Travel/Visa –You get a 90-day visa on-arrival at no cost. It's actually 90 days total for Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. There is no exit tax when leaving Guatemala.
Credit cards were widely accepted, though a few smaller restaurants were cash-only. I was surprised to find some of the small market stalls or street food vendors took credit cards.
Tipping - One difference in Guatemala is that a 10% tip is almost-always added to a restaurant bill. It’s important to check for this, otherwise you might tip twice! As in Belize and Mexico, the waitstaff prefer cash, so I would often ask them to charge our card for the base amount of our meal, then tip in cash.
Getting cash was relatively easy. There are plenty of ATMs, but many are operated by 5-B, which has inconsistent online reviews. We tried to use ATMs from bigger banks like BI/Banco Industrial. Similar to Belize, I would often exchange large bills for smaller in a bank. In Guatemala, this often meant waiting in line for 20-30 minutes.
Cell phones and sim cards – To reduce the international data roaming on our phones, we decided to get local esims. We both used Maya Mobile, and the esim will work in both Guatemala and Honduras (actually all of Central and South America). The cards were pretty cheap, with 5GB of data for 30 days for about $21 USD each.
Belize may have eliminated foreign food and shopping franchises, but Guatemala has embraced them. As we approached our first city, we were greeted by a line of familiar spots like Starbucks, McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, and Taco Bell. As we traveled by shuttle through the country, McDonald’s seemed to be the drivers’ favorite rest stop.
First stop - Flores
To visit Tikal, we thought about staying near the ruins, but there are only a few hotels, a campground, a handful of restaurants, and limited cell coverage/wifi – essentially, we’d be there to see the ruins, and captive to the limited options. Instead, we chose to stay in Flores, about 1 ½ hours from the ruins, but with plenty of lodging and food options, and a scenic lake. The town is actually a small island in the lake, connected to the city of Santa Elena by a causeway. Most shuttles and tours depart from the island, so staying there made a lot of sense.
Travel - Relocating from San Ignacio, Belize to Flores, Guatemala was actually quite easy, even with the border crossing. We booked a shared shuttle through GetYourGuide, operated by our favorite San Ignacio provider – Belize Caving Expeditions. The shuttle left Belize City mid-day, then picked us up in San Ignacio at 2:30pm. Like our first shuttle, we loaded luggage into a cargo trailer and boarded a mid-sized shuttle bus. We drove for about 20 minutes to the Belize-Guatemala border, where we all got off the bus, grabbed our luggage, and headed toward the immigration building. As we walked, we were able to change some Belize dollars to Guatemalan quetzales at a near-market rate (informally, through a man with a wad of cash and a calculator). We walked a bit further to a kiosk, where we paid a 40 Belizean dollar ($20 USD) exit tax per person. We brough cash, as that’s what we read online, but this border crossing also appeared to take credit cards. We walked to another kiosk and were stamped out of Belize, then walked about 50 yards to another building where we found a kiosk and were stamped into Guatemala with no fees, no issues, and permission for the 90-day max stay. The whole process was easy, except there were no signs, so it’s just a matter of walking where it looks like you’re expected to go. Once in Guatemala, it took a few minutes to find our ongoing shuttle (the companies can’t cross the border, so it’s a new company, new bus, new driver). We settled in, waited about 45 minutes for all the other passengers, then rode for 2 more hours to Flores. Once off the shuttle, we quickly sourced 2 tuktuks (3-wheeled moto-taxis) to take us + our 2 large suitcases to our nearby hotel. The fee was 15 Guatemalan quetzales (GTQ), or about $2 USD per tuktuk, made easy since I had traded cash at the border. Total relocation: $20 USD each for our bus tickets, $20 USD each to exit Belize, $4 USD for the tuktuks, for a total of $84 USD and 4.5 hours for the trip.
Lodging – The only Airbnb options meeting our criteria were on the mainland, so we used Expedia and Booking to search hotels on Flores. We ended up picking Casa Amelia for our 6-night stay, with decent wifi, AC, and a queen-sized bed. The base rate was 659 GTQ ($86 USD) per night and we were able to add breakfast when we booked for 122 GTQ ($16 USD) for the 2 of us. Once on site, we discovered that the hotel had a nice rooftop view for sunset, and the ground-floor restaurant had a nice terrace and view of the lake.
Flores is a very small island, with not many streets. There’s a ring road/malecon around the outer edge, but the water level of the lake has been rising and the malecon is flooded and unusable. The interior roads are noisy with tuktuk traffic, and at night, we heard a lot of motorcycles cruising and a few nightclubs nearby. First the first few nights of our stay, the music and motos went late into the night, followed by door-slamming and eager voices of tourists between 3 and 5am. Later in our stay, both the late-night and early-morning activity dropped off for whatever reason.
The island town is packed with hotels, restaurants, shops, and tour agencies intermixed with homes. The center of town is a hilltop in the middle of the island. There’s a small plaza, a park, a non-descript church, and a few small restaurants up top. The island seemed to only have locally-owned businesses, and all of the larger chain-style options were located on the mainland. In addition to familiar fast-food restaurants, we spotted a decent-sized mall, a movie theater, and even a regional airport. That said, we didn’t bother to walk over to the mainland, and only saw all of this from our bus windows.
Entertainment – The reason we visited was to see Tikal. Based on online reviews, we booked a tour with Tikal Go about a week ahead, picking a day with a nice weather forecast. Our tour met at 7:30am, then departed at 8:00 for a 1 ½ hour drive to the Tikal National Park. We stopped at a shop close to the park where we learned about the local “chicle” (chewing gum) industry. We bought a small pack of the natural gum, which tastes like wood but chews like chiclets. Our fully-guided tour included our admission to Tikal, where we explored for 3-4 hours, learning about multiple nicely-restored temples, as well as some of the common plants and animals in the Guatemalan rain forest. Our tour ended with a late lunch before we drove back to the island, arriving just before sunset. The tour cost $104 USD each, which included the bus, admission, guided tour, and lunch, plus we added a 100 GTQ ($13 USD) tip.
Tikal - Temple 1 - Temple of the Jaguar
We enjoyed Tikal so much that we wanted to make a second visit and had talked with a few others who were booking sunrise or sunset tours. A sunrise tour requires waking up at 3am for a 3:30 departure, so we passed on that. Instead, we booked a sunset tour that started at noon. This particular tour, booked through GetYourGuide, only provided transportation and a guide for $25 USD per person. We then paid another $44 USD for 2 tickets and another $22 USD for 2 late-access sunset passes. The tour ended up being a larger group, though we enjoyed this guide’s information a bit more. On this visit, we were able to hear multiple howler monkeys and spot some nice toucans. The sunset ended up being a bit lackluster, which we were prepared for as there were no clouds in the sky. Our grand total for the second tour was $116 USD, and we again tipped 100 GTQ ($13 USD).
Comparing the two tours is difficult. We liked the convenience of the first tour, where we didn’t have to stop and wait for people to buy their tickets. However, our guide wasn’t as good, and the meal wasn’t really necessary. For the second tour, staying until sunset didn’t add much, and we could have done without. The real challenge with visiting Tikal is transportation – there are local buses that run back and forth, but it's difficult to find route information. Basically, tourists have limited options, and everyone takes some form of pre-arranged tour. To have full flexibility at Tikal, you really need to just stay on site.
From Flores Island, we knew that we could take a small boat to the town of San Miguel on the north shore. It has a handful hotels and restaurants, as well as a regional Mayan museum and the basically-unknown Mayan ruin site of Tayasal. We paid 10 GTQ ($1.30 USD) each to cross the lake, then another 10 GTQ each for a tuktuk to take us to the museum. We were pleasantly surprised to find a huge, free museum with a lot of regional artifacts. The building was poorly constructed, the walls are cracking, the floor tiles are coming up, but the museum contents are quite good. After exploring the museum, we found some nice wooden pathways out back. These ran for miles, connecting ruin sites in various states of excavation and restoration. The staff let us walk right up to the ruins to see the before-during-after of their work. As a work-in-progress, there were no signs to help us understand what we were seeing. We also found a mirador with a nice view of the Flores Island and heard some howler monkeys along the path. At the western end of the path, we found a dirt road to take us to town rather than head back to the museum. Again, no signs, but using Google Maps, we navigated back to the lakeshore, then a boat back to the island. Total for our full-day boat/museum/ruin adventure was 60 GTQ / $7.80 USD.
Tayasal - excavation and restoration in progress Ceramic pot in the Tayasal museum
One Saturday morning, we had the unique opportunity of watching people swimming in the lake. This was not an ordinary swim, but some sort of long-distance swimming race. While we ate breakfast, we watched dozens of teenagers swim a huge loop while parents and coaches cheered from shore. Other than that swim race, a local basketball game, and the central plaza/park, we didn’t find much else to see or do on the island.
We had nice weather throughout our stay - sunny and no rain, but it was quite hot. Temps were usually between 85 and 90 degrees, and this is the cool part of the year!
Food – Since this was our first stop in Guatemala, we focused on finding local food. We enjoyed pepián at Maracuyá, though not as much when we tried it a second time at Achiote. We did like the steak sandwich, chicken chiltepin, and tostone appetizer (flattened plantains) at Achiote though. At Nativo, we thought their modern-Mayan take on “Koo’l” – a grilled chicken and polenta-like tamale – was just ok, but the “Choc-kan” - stewed chicken and pork in a red chile sauce was very good. Our dinner costs ranged from $40-50 USD plus tip. We did find a bargain taco stand in the middle of town where we had a combo plate with a torta (sandwich), burrito, two tacos, and a bottle of watermelon juice for only 35 GTQ ($4.50 USD).
We added breakfast to our hotel booking and ate there each morning. They had a good selection of eggs, fruit plates, pancakes, or oatmeal. Often, we got the "traditional Guatemalan breakfast" of eggs, plantains, beans, and tortillas. On a few mornings, the waiter also brought us “mosh” – a thin oatmeal made with milk, plus some sugar and cinnamon, sipped from a mug rather than eaten with a spoon.
Expats and International Travelers – We didn’t get the feeling that many expats lived in/around Flores - everyone seemed to be passing through. Visitors were a mix of local and international travelers. While the locals were all-ages, including kids, the international travelers had a visible split between younger backpackers (<30) and older tourists (>50). We heard or met people from Canada and the UK, and had 4 young guys from Trinidad on our tour to Tikal.
Living Costs – Our $86 USD/night hotel costs seemed reasonable, given that we were on the touristy island of Flores. Our hotel breakfast was $16/day plus tip, and our other meals averaged $45/day plus tip. With a hotel stay, we didn’t buy any groceries, just a few waters, sodas, and snacks.
We didn’t need much cash, but it was good to have small bills for tuktuks, waiters, and tour guides. For our 6-night stay, we spent just under 750 GTQ / $100 USD in cash.
Summary – Flores is a nice island to walk around and visit, but we didn't really enjoy our stay there. It was too noisy, day and night, and we weren’t able to sleep well. Overall, we accomplished what we wanted to in this area, and don’t have plans to return. If we did decide to visit Tikal again, we might stay at the park. If we wanted to see other sights in the area, or see what progress is made at Tayasal, maybe we'll look at lodging on the mainland.
Stop 2 - Lanquin
This was a first for us – Sandy went down some rabbit holes on Facebook Reels and discovered a place named Semuc Champey. It’s a deep river valley where a series of pools was formed when a river split, not left-and-right, but up-and-down! Much of the river flows into a sinkhole and underground, with a bit of remaining water flowing slowly through a series of large pools. It’s a beautiful spot, surrounded by untouched Guatemalan jungle. The town of Lanquin is pretty small, so we decided to only spend 3 nights / 2 full days there. Luckily, the area is fairly popular, especially with backpackers, so travel to this tiny town is actually quite easy.
Travel – We found shuttles and mini-buses to be very popular in Belize and Guatemala, with many options available using the “Bookaway” app or website. We were able to find a shuttle running direct from Flores to Lanquin, an 8-hour journey, once each day. We ate a quick breakfast, then took a pair of tuktuks (two tuktuks because of our large suitcases) back to our original Flores drop-off spot. There, we found a series of unlabeled buses, so we walked past each one to ask where they were going. Of course, Lanquin was the last one.
We were about 30 minutes early, maybe too early, but we had our choice of seats. The bus filled up, with late-arrivers having to sit in folding jump-seats, before we headed out a bit after 8am. We didn’t get much info pre-trip, but discovered we would stop for a break after 3 hours, then another 3 hours. Our first stop was at a small rural restaurant, where many travelers got a burrito or similar for breakfast. Our second stop was at a McDonald’s in the bustling city of Copán. Two hours more, and we arrived at a makeshift roadside terminal in Lanquin. Shuttle buses lined a gravel lot, and pickup trucks cycled in and out, taking travelers to their final destinations. We were very surprised at how many people arrived at the same time as us – at least 50. We were further surprised to find a similar number of travelers when we departed a few days later.
The final leg of tuktuk travel was somehow prepaid in our shuttle ticket, and we squeezed into a single tuktuk for a 5-minute ride to our hotel. Total for our travel to Lanquin: $4 USD for the morning tuktuks, $36 USD each for our bus tickets, and a final $1 USD tip to our tuktuk driver in Lanquin, for a total of $77 USD and 9 hours for our relocation.
Lodging – Pre-travel, we scoured the internet for lodging recommendations in Lanquin. Bloggers and backpackers preferred rural hostels outside of town. Most of those reviews, as well as reviews for a hotel right next to the bus depot, were hit-and-miss. We ended up finding the Guayaha Hotel through Booking.com, though I ended up making our reservation directly through the hotel. I’ll admit that I had some initial concerns, as some early emails went unanswered, so I ended up sending a message through WhatsApp, first answered, then abandoned, before calling (again through WhatsApp) to confirm our reservation, at which time I also booked a tour to Semuc Champey for our first day in town.
The hotel was very nice, like an oasis in the Guatemalan jungle, and all of my pre-trip worries were for naught. The hotel was a 5-minute drive / 10-15-minute walk from town, with no other businesses in the immediate area. We had an oversized room with a terrace and AC, though wifi was only available in the public areas (lobby, pool, and restaurant/bar). The hotel had 3 different pools, a game room with a pool table and ping-pong table, multiple seating areas, and a fire pit. Towards the rear of the property, travelers could choose to go “glamping” in canvas tents rather than stay in the standard rooms. The hotel had a nice restaurant and a decent selection of Guatemalan craft beers at the bar.
Entertainment – We booked our full-day Semuc Champey tour in advance, for 400 GTQ ($52 USD) each. Our morning started with a drive up and over a steep ridge, then into the valley where all the fun would happen. We should have read the online description a bit closer, as our first tour stop was a cave tour. We did not have headlamps, so we carried candles as we waded and swam through pools, climbed ladders, and avoided hitting our heads on rock formations. It was a 45-minute out-and-back adventure, a bit more physically demanding than we expected, but not too bad overall. After the cave, we walked upstream to some nice waterfalls, where we could swim in some natural pools. This was followed by a short float-trip down the river, some walking, then lunch that had been provided for our tour. We finally arrived to Semuc Champey around 1pm, where we hiked up (and up, and up) to a beautiful overlook, where we could see the steep canyon walls and multiple blue-green pools below. Unfortunately, the air was a bit smoky during our visit, which our guide said was from people heating their homes and cooking with wood fires. We headed to the river-bottom, where we waded and relaxed in the pools for a while before heading back to our hotel around 4pm.
Waterfalls below Semuc Champey Lookout view of the Semuc Champey canyon The Semuc Champey pools
On our second day, we took a short walk to town. There’s not a lot to speak of – mostly local shops and restaurants along the main road. We took a tuktuk up a steep hill to the center of town and found a decent-sized market with fruits, vegetables, clothes, and household supplies. We peeked into the local church and exchanged some bills at the local bank before walking back down to a restaurant for dinner.
The weather was nice during our stay, basically the upper 70's, maybe a little cool for playing in the water. The only negative was the smoky, hazy air.
Food – We ate almost every meal at the Guayaha Hotel. The breakfast had a decent selection, with a traditional Guatemalan breakfast (eggs, beans, plantains, and tortillas), plus other options like fruit, yogurt, pancakes, or oatmeal. All options were ordered off-menu, generally around 150 GTQ ($20 USD) for the two of us, including tip. Two of our dinners were at the hotel, both ok, but nothing special. We did have one meal out, at the highly-rated and recommended Aragoncitos. Sandy had a steak platter and I had a longaniza sausage platter, both with vegetables and potatoes. We both had smoothies to drink, and our grand total was 231 GTQ ($30 USD) including tip.
Expats and International Travelers – There were so many Instagrammers here! We felt a bit out of place, as most travelers appeared to be under 25 years old, and surprisingly about 70% female. A handful of visitors were 50+, and we’re not sure that we saw anyone between 30 and 50. A few foreigners must have put down roots here as hostel-owners, but everyone seemed to be spending just a few nights here before heading on.
Living Costs – The Guayaha Hotel was expensive for what we got, at $101 USD per night. It was a very nice, well-maintained, sprawling property, but lacked wifi in our room, didn’t include breakfast, and was a bit far from anything else. We spent $20 USD per day for breakfast, and our dinners were quite reasonable at $39 per day, including tip. I should note that we had craft beers at the hotel each night, for about $9. Without that splurge, our food costs were closer to $30 USD per night, giving a total daily food cost of around $50 USD for the two of us.
Compared to Flores, it helped to have cash in Lanquin. Our hotel took credit cards, but we paid cash for our one meal out. In addition to that 231 GTQ / $30 USD dinner, we used about 345 GTQ / $45 USD for our few days of tuktuks and tips (food and tour). There appeared to be a functional ATM in town, but it would be best to bring extra cash when visiting Lanquin.
Summary – We enjoyed our quick visit to Lanquin. Semuc Champey is a beautiful spot and it’s too bad that we didn’t have clearer skies during our visit. We don’t see any reason to return, but if we did, I’m sure we would have another nice, relaxing time.
Last stop - Antigua
If you keep up with our travels, you might recall that we visited Antigua in November as one of our cruise excursions. On that trip, we spent more time on the shuttle bus than we did in town, and we left feeling that there was more to see and do in the area. We thought about splitting our time, perhaps a couple of days in Guatemala City, or a week further west near Lake Atitlán or Quetzaltenango. Ultimately, we thought that we’d be a bit worn out from bouncing through small towns, and settled on a two-week stay in Antigua, knowing that we could make day-trips to nearby sights instead.
Travel – Travel was nearly identical to our previous leg. We used the same “Bookaway” app to arrange another 8-hour shuttle from Lanquin to Antigua. We had an 8am departure, and wanted to be ready to board at 7:30 – learning from our previous trip, with no assigned seats, we wanted to be early to get good seats. We skipped breakfast and arranged a tuktuk to the bus lot, finding no buses ready to board. Drivers and passengers slowly trickled in, and we were again shocked to see two shuttles load at least 50 travelers.
Our first stop was in Copán, at the same McDonald’s, and we were able to get a light breakfast and coffee before heading on. Three hours later, a second McDonalds. All of our shuttle stops were announced as “15-minutes” but it was 30, if not 45 minutes, before we headed out. The road to Antigua was quite windy throughout the trip, but very scenic as we passed through the steep, dramatic, mountains.
We made a final short stop in Guatemala City to drop off a few passengers and get gas before our final 1-hour drive in stop-and-go traffic to Antigua. Drop-off was on a random side street near the central plaza. The driver unloaded our bags from the roof, then I used Uber for the final ¼ mile to our apartment. Total for the day: $32 each for the shuttle, $3.50 for the Uber, for a total of $68 USD and 9 hours for our trip.
Lodging – We found our apartment on Airbnb, about 6 weeks ahead of our trip. When searching, we noticed that most rentals had a living/sitting space, but no TV there. Instead, they usually had a single TV in the bedroom. Our space was set up that way, and also had a nice kitchen area and a small outdoor patio space. The apartment felt very secure, as we had to pass a manned security door into a large parking area, then go through one locked door to access our patio space, then a second locked door into our apartment.
Antigua has moderate weather year-round. During our stay, high temps were around 75, with overnight lows around 60. The apartment didn't have (or need) AC or heat. We had great wifi, a washer, and a dryer – the dryer was nice, as we’ve been air-drying our clothes since November. We also had an “ecofilter” for drinking water. This large ceramic filter was invented in Guatemala, and is very popular for filtering tap water at home. I did a bit of online research and found they’re very effective for bacteria and microorganisms, though they do have challenges filtering heavy metals. We shouldn’t have to worry with our short stay, but if we visited for multiple months, we’d probably want to have our water tested to understand any risks. Our apartment cost $101 USD per night, which we thought was reasonable given the size of our space, the secured gate in front, and the upscale décor and furnishings. The place was rated for 6 guests, so unlike our recent hotel stays, we were really able to spread out during our visit.
One negative was that our unit was on the front corner of the complex, with one outside wall facing the street. We got a fair amount of noise from traffic throughout the day, though it wasn’t too bad overnight. We also noticed that the air was fairly dirty in Antigua. I had a bit of a scratchy throat for the first few days, though we’re not sure if it was the air or something else. As our visit went on, my throat got better, but we started seeing small bits of volcanic ash accumulating on the patio of our apartment.
Our neighborhood and surrounding area were nice, and mostly residential. We had a 4-block walk to the middle of town, and it took about 30 minutes to walk to the opposite end of town. There were not many shops or restaurants right by our apartment, but the closest were only 2-3 blocks away. The center of town has a nice central plaza with a large fountain, and is a popular spot with locals in the evenings and on weekends. The town was very clean, and we saw city employees picking up trash on a few occasions. The entire town feels safe and secure, and we learned that the local government invested heavily in fighting crime over the past 25 years, and there are now cameras mounted on almost every street corner.
Sunday afternoon - Antigua's Central Park
Entertainment – One of our first activities in Antigua was a “meet-up”. I’m a member of the GoWithLess Facebook group, which gives nomads and travelers a place to share information and arrange in-person meetups. We’ve only tried a meet-up once before, many years ago in Puerto Vallarta, but it was geared towards residents, not travelers. This one, with everyone on the road and heading every-which-way, was a better fit. We came away with some good travel info and also some new friends.
A lot of Antigua’s charm comes from its architecture. There was a huge earthquake in the 1700’s and the city was basically destroyed and abandoned, with everyone moving to the next valley and establishing what is now Guatemala City. People slowly returned to the area, but as they restored Antigua, they preserved the look and feel of the old, broken buildings within the historic city center. Walls are built of brick, then covered with stucco and paint, but with intentional gaps leaving exposed brick, so even the newest construction feels old. Buildings are limited by height, and any remodels must keep the original arrangement of doors, windows, and even the decorative metal bars outside the windows. Inside is another matter, as some developers buy multiple units, so they can overhaul the interior to create modern spaces inside. One example is the local Starbucks, which has a unique park-like feel, lots of plants, and some nice murals inside. We rarely visit Starbucks in the U.S., but did visit this one based on other people’s suggestions.
Antigua street and the Agua Volcano This is Starbucks....
Adding to Antigua’s charm is its vibrant colors. Building exteriors are red, yellow, or white, and most are decorated with flowering plants for splashes of color. Additionally, most of the women in the city still wear traditional clothing, with hand-woven patterned skirts and multi-colored tops.
Typical new-but-old Antigua residence Traditional Antigua dress
One tip from our meet-up was to book a “free walking tour” thru GuruWalk to explore Antigua. During our 2-hour tour, we saw many of Antigua’s best buildings and got some suggestions for local restaurants and museums. Since the tour was free, we tipped our guide 300 GTQ ($39 USD), less than it would cost to book a similar full-priced tour, but an amount that “felt right” for the time spent.
We spent a few of our days wandering around Antigua on our own to see more of the renovated and restored buildings, churches, and cathedrals. In many instances, the modern restorations have no roofs, and large fallen blocks have been left on the ground, with pathways winding around them. You get a unique sense that you’re walking through the rubble of the earthquake. Our favorites included the Antigua Cathedral, the San Agustín convent, and the collection of museums called the Paseo de los Museos, which is actually part of the Casa Santo Domingo hotel. Inside the Paseo, you progress past individual museums for pharmacy, pottery, and archeology, a collection of silver antiquities, and a very unique tent-covered restoration of a chapel. You could easily stay here for multiple hours, with a suggestion from our GuruWalk guide to enter at the western Paseo entrance, for 40 GTQ ($5.20 USD) per person, rather than through the hotel, which charges 60 GTQ ($7.80 USD). We found that most of the historic sites that we visited in town charged 40 GTQ ($5.20 USD) per person, often cash-only, with the exception of the National Art Museum near the city center, which was free.
Ruins of the Antigua Cathedral Ruins of the Convent of San Agustín
Antigua sits in a basin surrounded by volcanos, with some still active, including Pacaya and Fuego. Many people visit the city with a plan to hike/climb one. This wasn’t on our original bucket list, but after a bit of research, we talked each other into it. There are two general options– a day-trip or overnight. We chose overnight at Fuego, because you can really see the heat of the volcano burning red, which is not possible to see in daylight.
The tour starts with a full-day hike up the adjacent Acatenango volcano, though we upgraded to a 2-hour ride in a 4x4 vehicle. We knew we would be punishing ourselves with the overnight camping conditions, no reason to add to it with a strenuous hike! Most of the camps on Acatenango are similar – flat spaces carved into the hillside, with A-frame bunkhouses for 10-20 people each. The bunkhouses already had sleeping bags, but no pillows, and the outfitter issued us a coat, knit cap, and gloves, plus provided small meals on the trip. We just had to bring layers of clothes and a lot of water.
Once in camp, most outfitters offer a hike down from Acatenango, then back up the side of Fuego, getting an up-close view of any eruptions, before hiking back in the dark. This option has an extra cost, and we passed, instead taking a short walk to watch the sunset and volcano from a lookout point near camp. Another offering is a hike to the top of Acatenango to see the sunrise. Sandy skipped this hike, but I woke up at 3:30 am to join a few others. It took about 2 hours to reach the top, where we huddled behind rocks to avoid the 60mph wind, but had a great view of the sunrise, the Agua volcano, and the cities of Antigua and Guatemala City in the distance.
By far, the highlight of the trip was watching Fuego erupt in the darkness. Our best viewing was from 8-10pm, after it got fully dark, and until we went to bed. Sleeping in the bunks was horrible – lousy mattress, noisy bunkmates, basically everything you could imagine. I won’t talk about the latrine situation, other than to say that there is one, and I’m not going to talk about it.
Fuego Volcano after dark
Overall – we really enjoyed the volcano, would do it again, with this strategy – take the 4x4 ride in, skip both of the additional hikes, and sit up all night watching Fuego erupt from camp (poor sleeping anyways, might as well watch what you came here for!). We paid $125 each for the overnight trip, plus $100 for the round-trip 4x4 ride. We tipped a total of 390 GTQ ($50 USD), spread between multiple guides and our 4x4 driver. We booked this tour with “Brothers” and thought they were just ok. If we did this again, we would probably look for a different outfitter. Some general tips from our trip:
Most outfitters included coats, caps, and gloves at no charge, but confirm
Hiking sticks and headlamps may be provided or available for an extra charge. We paid a total of 200 GTQ ($26 USD) to rent sticks and headlamps for the trip.
Water – some outfitters carry large jugs of water for their guests, but not ours. We were told to bring 3 liters, plus 1 additional liter for group meals. Riding up in the 4x4, 3 liters was much more than we needed.
One of my favorite activities in Antigua was a visit to the Finca Azotea coffee plantation just north of town. I called last-minute to see if we needed a reservation, and they suggested it, not because it’s super-crowded, but to ensure that they can put together a group and guide that all speak the same language. We confirmed a tour in English, then used Uber to get there. We drink coffee every day, are a bit picky about what coffee we like, but I have to admit we knew very little about it. During our tour, we learned about the plants, the harvesting, and types of roasts, plus it’s coffee season in Guatemala, so the staff was actively drying, roasting, and packaging on site. We finished with a nice coffee tasting, and the whole tour was very economical – 40 GTQ ($5 USD) to access the farm, 100 GTQ ($13 USD) for the tour, plus a small tip for our guide, totaling around $20 USD for the two of us.
Drying coffee beans
Our final tour worth mentioning was a long, full-day, group trip to multiple towns around Lake Atitlán. We picked our tour through Viator because it was popular, had good reviews, and advertised stops in 4 towns, rather than just 2 or 3. In hindsight, the tour was too ambitious. We had quick stops in two of the towns (Panajachel and San Pedro), and other than breakfast and a cacao demo, we really didn’t see much of either town. We enjoyed San Juan, with very colorful street decorations and two nice demos at a textile cooperative and a honey factory. It was interesting and entertaining enough that we would revisit San Juan if we came back to the area. Our final stop in Santiago showcased the town’s Mayan roots. We had a Mayan-style lunch, then took a tour that highlighted the local blend of Catholicism and traditional Mayan beliefs - a visit to their demi-god Maximón, and a stop at the local church with both Christian and Mayan iconography. Overall interesting, and we “saw it all” in Santiago, so we’re unlikely to return. The full-day tour started with a 2.5-hour shuttle ride and ended with 3.5-hour shuttle ride (traffic, plus the driver stopped for food??) so our tour was quite long – 5:30am to 8pm. The cost was $184 USD for the two tickets, plus breakfast (75 GTQ / $10 USD), lunch (255 GTQ / $33 USD), a tuktuk ride (100 GTQ / $13 USD), and tip (150 GTQ / $20 USD), for a total of about $250 USD for the day. Lots of tourists stay at towns or hotels on the shores of Lake Atitlán. This tour showed us that there’s plenty to see and do around the lake, so maybe we’ll make it back here someday.
Umbrella Street in San Juan
Food – We continued to try Guatemalan food, such as pepián and pulique, but I will say that we never developed a taste for it. Some seems under-seasoned, and some has a blend of herbal flavors, but isn’t really to our liking. Our favorites in Antigua actually trended towards international options, though we managed to stay out of all the mass-produced fast-food chains. We saw multiple Italian restaurants, a handful of Mexican restaurants, and even a British pub. One of our favorite places to eat was Pappy’s BBQ – a Texas-style spot that we visited twice, where entrees cost about $20 USD per person. La Familia was another good spot, where we had wood-fired pizza one night, and picked up some sandwiches on another. We did stop into the Londoner British pub, where we shared an order of crispy fish and chips with two beers for $21 USD including tip.
We also enjoyed Antigua’s surprisingly good selection of craft breweries. We visited the tiny Cerveceria 14 taproom in town, but preferred their huge park-like space about 20 minutes away, accessible by a shuttle they provide every couple of hours. The food and beer are good, and they have a very nice view of the Fuego volcano. In town, we really liked Antigua Cerveza. They made the best beers overall (as judged by Trevor’s sampler flights) and they also have good food in their own huge park-like space. There is a third brewery in town – the similarly named Antigua Brewing – with a nice rooftop patio space. However, we thought their beer and food were average, and on the evening we visited, the service was slow and uncoordinated. Finally, as a catch-all, we found Las Tres Amigas, with outstanding burgers and a “wall of beer” - 35+ taps, accessible by a tap-card handed to you when you enter. The beer is self-serve, for about 3.65 GTQ ($0.48 USD) per ounce. We sampled our way through about half of the options, focusing on dark beers and IPAs, and skipping all the light lagers, sours, and seltzers. Overall, a great selection and a great business model. The location is a bit out-of-the-way, and they were never very busy during our two visits, so we wish them luck and hope they succeed! The only downside to all these craft breweries – cost! We typically had more than one beer each, and the price point is a bit higher than other restaurants. On average, we spent around $66 USD for food and drink at the breweries and beer halls.
Expats and International Travelers – Lots of travelers pass through Antigua. We saw a good mix of international travelers wandering the town every day, and the city seemed to swell with Guatemalan travelers on the weekend. Our city-walk tour was a mix of people from the U.S., Canada, and Germany. At the coffee plantation, we met two young backpackers from the U.S., traveling separately (and alone!), one heading north and the other heading south. Our group tour to Atitlán also skewed towards younger (<30-year-old) travelers, many of whom also seemed to be traveling solo.
I already mentioned our GoWithLife meet-up. It will be interesting to see how our circle of nomad-friends grows as we attend those sorts of events in future cities.
Living Costs – Our apartment cost $101 USD per night. We were able to eat breakfast at home almost every day, and spent about $5 USD per day on groceries. Most of our dinners were reasonably-priced, averaging $47 USD per day including tip (and including the higher-priced breweries).
We didn’t plan to use a lot of cash in Antigua – almost all restaurants accepted credit cards, and with Uber available, we had expected to use cash mainly for tips. We were surprised to find that most of the museums and sights in town only accepted cash for admission, for a total of about 300 GTQ / $40 USD for the two of us. In total, we averaged about 170 GTQ / $22 USD cash per day, but for just basic living expenses (no tours, just tips and a little cash spend), we could get by on about 50-75 GTQ / $7-10 USD per day in Antigua.
Summary / Return – We had a great time in Antigua and would definitely consider returning. Regarding our original thoughts on staying for two weeks to let ourselves rest and catch up - we think two weeks was enough, but we easily could have stayed longer. We found the town to be very walkable, we liked the new-but-old feel of the city, and it reminded us of some of our previous Mexico long-stays. The small city is clean, relaxing, and quiet, and is somewhere where we could easily return and settle-in for a longer stay.
Full summary
Guatemala was a great adventure for us – Mayan ruins near Flores, relaxing river pools near Lanquin, and volcanos around Antigua. We feel that we saw enough in Flores and Lanquin that we’re unlikely to return to either. Antigua is another story. We feel we could easily spend more time there, or visit more of Guatemala to the west – the area around Lake Atitlán, or the city of Quetzaltenango.
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